Tryon International Equestrian Center Gearing Up To Host 2018 World Equestrian Games Make plans to join the world in western North Carolina for the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 from Sept. 11 through Sept. 23. Showcasing eight FEI equestrian disciplines — reining, vaulting, dressage, para-dressage, driving, eventing, jumping and endurance — the games will be held at the Tryon International Equestrian Center at the Tryon Resort in Mill Spring, N.C. The inaugural FEI World Equestrian Games were hosted in Stockholm, Sweden in 1990. Since then, the games have been staged in The Hague in the Netherlands in 1994; Rome, Italy in 1998; Jerez, Spain
in 2002; and Aachen, Germany in 2006. The first games to be organized outside Europe were held in Lexington, Ky., in 2010, where 57 countries were represented by 800 human athletes and their horses. The games returned to Eu-
rope for the 2014 edition in Normandy, France. The 2018 World Equestrian Games has the potential to be the largest sporting event in North Carolina history with 500,000 attendees expected over the 13day event next September. The Tryon International Equestrian Center is busy preparing for a daily attendance of 40,000 to 50,000 people. The 2014 games in Normandy delivered more than $400 million in economic impact, and attracted 984 athletes, 1,234 horses, 74 nations, 1,900 accredited me-
PHOTO BY ERIK OLSEN
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april 2018 | wellington the magazine