Somerford Park Farm will no longer host British Dressage (BD) premier league or high profile competitions owing to viability concerns – but will continue to host the LeMieux National Dressage Championships.
Somerford, which is one of seven venues on the 2025 high profile and premier league calendar and held its fixtures in May, announced this week, “with regret”, that it would not hold the shows in future. This leaves the nationals as the venue’s only competition.
“This difficult decision has been made in response to evolving competition trends and financial challenges affecting the viability of competitions in the horse world,” said a spokesperson for the Cheshire venue.
“We extend our deepest gratitude to all sponsors, especially Baileys Horse Feeds and Bliss of London Saddlemakers, competitors, supporters, judges, and volunteers for your dedication and support over the years. Your involvement has been vital to the success of the event.”
Organiser Millie Heffernan told H&H that entries at the May premier league and high profile fixtures were “the lowest they’ve ever been” and the shows ran at a “major loss”.
“Hence, it’s not sustainable. We run it as a business, we can’t run at a loss and things have to be reviewed and stopped if they’re not going to pay their way,” she said.
“Everyone’s expenses have risen, and sadly things have to come to an end when they don’t stack up.”
Millie believes that people are competing and travelling less on the whole.
“Given the financial situation of the whole country, people are more conscious of what they’re spending their money on. People who used to compete fortnightly are perhaps competing monthly,” she said.
“And sadly I think the BD calendar is quite overpopulated, there’s a lot of shows for people to go to so it’s spread a bit thin.”
Millie added that the situation around the viability of shows “is concerning” for the sport.
“I don’t think it’s specific to one discipline. The level of interest has maybe dropped in competitions; people can access so much online nowadays they don’t need to go and watch it in the flesh. We’re still busy as a training venue and people are still doing the fun side of it, but I think people have got different priorities and commitments,” she said.
“We see it from both sides; it needs to be the price it is as a venue but obviously as a competitor it feels expensive as well. It’s a real fine line, the support of good quality judges and the standard of everything that competitors expect from facilities, judges and surfaces, you have to charge a price for.
“And we want to invite sponsors in and we have good long-standing sponsors, but they need to feel like they’re getting something back and being supported by competitors, otherwise we’ll lose them.”
Millie confirmed that Somerford will continue to host the BD national championships – taking place this year from 11-14 September.
“There are no plans for that to change,” she said.
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