LONDON INTERNATIONAL HORSE SHOW
NEW ARENA TAKES SHAPE
Taking the reins
The London International Horse Show moved to ExCeL London, giving the revered equestrian event the opportunity to make major changes. H Power chats do you do when you find out W hat that the venue which has been your
home for the last 49 years brings its redevelopment schedule forward and tells you that you can no longer hold your event there? That was the exact scenario faced by the organisers of the London International Horse Show when COVID accelerated Olympia London’s new build schedule. The revised construction programme restricted the use of the venue, leaving Clarion, which own the show, and H Power, which manage the show, with no option but to find new digs. “We didn’t have many options,” explained Jo Peck, marketing and communications director at H Power. “It had to be in London, and it had to be big.” Clarion secured the space – ExCeL London – and H Power rallied the troops, a team of event delivery experts that could scramble new site designs together,
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including a new-look arena that would work with ExCeL’s low ceiling height. “It’s been a sea change for us,” continued Peck. “We have been at Olympia for 49 years. Most of us who have worked on the show have been on it for more than 20 years. A change like this makes you think; you consider the customers even more and you have this opportunity to change things.”
SHAKE THINGS UP
And things have changed considerably. “At Olympia, we used every square inch of space. ExCeL gives us so much more space [from N4 to N11 on the north side and N8 to N11 on the south]. Even the horses have more space. Before, they would enter the arena from one large combined warm up ring and collecting ring. At ExCeL, we have one warm up ring and one collecting ring, and we have given the public access to both rings, with a Champagne bar and garden on one side.”
MARTIN CLARK
