What is Tryon International Equestrian Center like without spectators?
Welp. Lemme tell you!
Back in July 2020, months after the Covid shutdown began, I was able to get into TIEC (Tryon International Equestrian Center) with Tallulah (my daughter) because she was competing in lead line class.
Photo by Liz Crawley Photography
At the end of April <2021> I was able to get in again, this time with media credentials (to write this blog).
There were 9 months between these visits, and what I can tell you is Tryon is keeping their word and doing temp checks and giving out wrist bands. They’re doing their absolute best to enforce what’s been required of them in order to continue with hosting these competitions.
When I was there last summer, it was a hunter/jumper series taking place at the time. There was a decent amount of people there, certainly seemed like good class sizes, but you could definitely feel there were less people there in general.
Photo by Liz Crawley Photography
When I was there just last month, it was during a dressage series. I went on a Friday to watch the top riders in the main stadium. The weather was clear and while cooler, certainly not cold by any means. It was a pretty perfect day by those standards. That being said, there were far less people there (it felt) than the hunter/jumper show the previous year. It could have just been the day and time I chose to go, but either way it was nice to see that Tryon had been consistent in enforcing no spectators.
Recently you may have seen that on May 3 they have lifted the no spectators rule and are allowing spectators in, but only a limited amount. Temperatures will still be checked and it looks like pre-registration is required, though dining and shopping are available to the public without pre-registration.
This is great news if you ask me; I’ve been eagerly awaiting being able to attend compeitions somewhat normally for far too long. With LRK3DE (Land Rover Kentucky 3 Day Event) being cancelled last year and run with no spectators this year, I’m so looking forward to attending that event in 2022 along with all of the events TIEC has to offer, such as The Fork.
Cheers to things getting back to a new normal, even if it is at a slower pace than we’d like.
