Weekly Update | May 29, 2020

Dear Friends,

Still no word on our protocol proposal to the City of San Juan Capistrano, but the good news today from Governor Newsom is that here in California we’re now solidly into Phase 3. He also made it abundantly clear that local municipalities have wide latitude with regard to their implementation plans, as long as the county health numbers don’t force the “dimmer switch” to be turned back on. Luckily in that regard, the numbers across the state have been holding steady. So based on today’s more optimistic projections, I feel confident enough to state that our July shows now look “probable”, while still not giving up hope for a June 24th re-start at the Blenheim Red, White & Blue Classic.

On a lighter note, the grass arenas at the Riding Park look amazing and can’t wait for the first horses to start jumping on them again! What doesn’t look so good are the three thousand sandbags that are still in place as a result of the late spring rains. Normally our facility crew would have put them back in storage by now, but because we are down to a skeleton crew, all efforts have been focused on maintaining the grass. What that means is that tomorrow, we’ve hired a couple temps who will be doing the heavy lifting…and those guys are our son Peyton and myself! Here’s hoping that I won’t be heading off to a chiropractor by the end of the day!

Until next week…

Robert Ridland
President, Blenheim EquiSports

Blenheim EquiSports, an equestrian event management company based in San Juan Capistrano, CA, produces events in three locations: San Juan Capistrano, Del Mar and Las Vegas, NV. The events include 19 USEF “Premier” rated hunter-jumper shows featuring five FEI CSI events, including a Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ North American League event; the Markel Insurance 1.40m – 1.45m Jumper Series & Final, Developing Jumper Qualifiers & Championships, USHJA International & National Hunter Derbies, Pony Derby Finals, the Whitethorne Equitation Challenge, Medal Finals and more. New for 2020 – an additional four County Horse Shows sanctioned by the Orange County Horse Show Association and the Greater San Diego Hunter-Jumper Association.