The organizing committee of Bromont Horse Trials announced Tuesday their withdrawal from the FEI Eventing Nations Cup series for 2023.

The minimum requirements to run an eventing Nations Cup stipulate the participation of three teams, and with just days left to the entry deadline, only Canada and the United States had confirmed their participation. While teams from Spain and Mexico had expressed interest, extensive logistical issues relating to global travel and import/quarantine were not able to be resolved within the timeline.

“We are obviously frustrated and incredibly disappointed after working so hard to provide the only North American leg of the series in 2022 and again this year,” said event organizer Sue Ockendon. “Our core focus at Bromont has always been to further the development of eventing in Canada and North America, in particular our teams and young riders. We are still 110% committed to delivering a world-class event in 10 days’ time and have already started the application and approvals process to host a Nations Cup again in 2024. We want to thank the FEI, Equestrian Canada, the [Equestrian Canada High Performance Advisory Group, Eventing] and those government officials who left no stone unturned in our attempts for this year. In the end we have simply run out of time.”

Emily Gilbert, chair of the EC High Performance Advisory Group, Eventing said: ”While we are disappointed at the unfortunate cancellation of the Bromont Nations Cup, consistent with our strategic plan, we will use this weekend to provide our Canadian riders with experience and exposure in a team setting. This decision reflects the importance of strengthening our competitiveness across the board in team competition. The named riders for the Bromont Nations Cup Team will continue to receive the bursaries we dedicated to them, and the riders will be led and supported by Chef d’Equipe and Technical Advisor Rebecca Howard with additional support from Equestrian Canada High Performance in place.”

Entries are strong and still coming in for the August event, which for some is being used as a prep run before heading overseas to compete at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials CCI5*-L (England).

Top horse and rider combinations currently entered include U.S. Olympian Boyd Martin with Tsetserleg TSF and On Cue; Canadian Olympians Jessica Phoenix with Freedom GS and Watson GS, and Colleen Loach with FE Golden Eye; Australian Ryan Wood with Cooley Flight; Great Britain’s Lucienne Bellissimo with Dari and Tremanton; Belgian Jan van Gysel with Eiffel de L’Abbaye and Spain’s Susana Tezanos-Moreno with French Kiss.

Although the Nations Cup team competition will not run, the event will still host CCI4*-S, CCI3*-S, CCIU253*-S, CCI2*-S, CCIU252*-S, EV110 and EV100 levels including a team challenge. With a venue among the best in the world and cross-country courses designed by Derek DiGrazia (USA) and Jay Hambly (CAN), the MARS Bromont CCI4*, ‘Little Bromont’ and August Bromont CCI4* offer a true test for horse and rider in the perfect ‘summer resort’ setting.