January 17, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
Showjumping Prize Money
I enjoyed watching one of the Showjumping World Cup qualifying events which was held recently in New York. Michael Whitaker was the one of the few British showjumping competitors and I was not surprised when he won as he has been an extremely successful rider on many different horses over the years.
I was surprised though, when I found out that the first prize was a mere $22500. When you consider the prize money available in the major sports these days and you appreciate the cost of buying, keeping, travelling and competing horses at this level, you realise how much of a poor relation this professional sport is.
I know how difficult it was when I was competing regularly as an amateur showjumper with couple of horses. Even within a 50-100 mile radius, it was difficult to cover the cost of travel and entry even if you were relatively successful, and this was when fuel was a fraction of its current cost.
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2 Responses to “Showjumping Prize Money”
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January 24th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Yes, it’s pretty clear that all equestrian sports are the bastard child of the sports industry. But I think that will change as the amount of coverage of horse events on the major networks increases.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I hope that increased network coverage will help to increase prize money in equestrian sports to reasonable levels compared to other professional sports. Unfortunately I think it will always be a poor relation. However I think the amount of money in most major professional sports - football, baseball, golf etc - is crazy.