Lexington, KY - John Nicholson is executive director of the Kentucky Horse Park, host site of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games to be held next year from September 25 to October 10. The event is one of the most highly anticipated in recent memory in central Kentucky, with a projected economic impact of $150 million for the region. It didn't materialize overnight. Persuading FEI officials to hold the Games outside Europe for the first time in its history involved overcoming a host of challenges, including hurt feelings and fears of a tick-borne disease.
Business Lexington's Tom Martin sat down with Nicholson to get the back story. Click the podcast below to hear the entire interview.
TM: I'm not sure there is wide appreciation of how we got this event to begin with, and I wonder if you could fill us in on that.
JN: This didn't happen just over the last couple of years. It really has been a decade or longer.
I was the director of operations for the Kentucky Horse Park in the early 1990s, and I left to work for a company that was organizing something called Equitana USA, which was to be produced in Louisville and that we wanted to replicate other places around the world. Equitana is a big giant horse festival that is held in Essen, Germany, every two years. So I was in Essen, Germany, at Equitana in 1995 and I met a gentleman named Michael Stone.
Michael Stone then was the president of the Irish Equestrian Federation and he was celebrating the fact that Dublin had been awarded the 1998 Games.
Two interesting points: one, Dublin ended up losing the '98 Games because of a change in Irish government. And two, ironically Michael Stone eventually became the secretary general of the FEI.
That's where I first learned about the World Equestrian Games.
And even though I wasn't an employee of the Kentucky Horse Park and at that point was living in Florida, I always had it in the back of my mind - why shouldn't these Games come to some place like the Kentucky Horse Park, and how could they be called the World Equestrian Games when they always seemed to be in Europe?
There was a co-worker of mine at the Horse Park named Rob Hinkle who also ended up living in Orlando, Florida. He was working for Disney. He and I spent the day at Epcot in the fall of 1996 and we ended up talking about the World Equestrian Games, the Kentucky Horse Park, how they could come together and how the Kentucky Horse Park had so much unrealized potential. And I think secretly - or perhaps not so secretly - we thought about the fact that we could both go back to the Horse Park. And within a couple of years that happened; I came back as executive director and Rob followed shortly to be the deputy director.
...We began to think about a strategy to put the Horse Park more upon the international stage. We had some great assets. One was the Horse Park itself and how it had developed. It had certainly left its white elephant stage, and so we wanted to take it to another level, and initially, that was to bid for the 2002 World Equestrian Games and put that on everybody's radar.
But the Games were awarded in 1998 to Jerez, Spain, which was the hometown of the royal family of Spain. The sister to the King of Spain was the president of FEI. And after the problem with the '98 Games, where Dublin lost the Games and Rome had to quickly produce them, there was some discussion that there might not be a World Equestrian Games concept anymore. I think the fact that Kentucky signaled some interest, as did Aiken, Germany, and some other places, that the Games had perhaps a bigger chance of survival.
The Jerez Games were a success, so the World Equestrian Games concept was back on track.
Knowing that we would not have a chance to bid for Games until 2006, we turned our attention to some other international endeavors, like the Imperial China Exhibit. And then the British Exhibit followed in 2003. But after the success of the Imperial China Exhibit, I think we gained confidence that we could do big things on a global stage and do them with credibility.
And it was really in the fall of 2000 that we began to earnestly work on putting together a bid for the 2006 Games, and it was the first time that Rob Hinkle and I sat down and said, 'How would a World Equestrian Game look in Lexington and in the Horse Park? What are the impediments to persuading the FEI and the international equestrian community that the Games could occur in a continent different than Europe?'
TM: What obstacles had to be overcome?
JN: The biggest obstacle was the ability to import horses that were positive for the condition of equine piroplasmosis.
In the 1996 Olympic Games, several horses were prohibited by the Georgia State Veterinarian, with the support of the USDA, (as well as) the Kentucky horse industry. And these horses were not allowed to come, and when they did come, those that were admitted suffered what the Europeans felt was a humiliating protocol of baths and isolation and segregation.
Many in Europe swore an oath that there would never be another international equestrian competition in the United States. That was a difficult attitude for us to overcome, and here's where the advantage of being in Kentucky was brought to bear.
We went to Dr. Peter Timoney at the Gluck Center and said, 'Educate us on equine piroplasmosis.' We learned that the risk of this condition was very, very small. But we wanted to be sure that any ruling by the United States Department of Agriculture and by the state veterinarian's office was based upon science and not upon emotion, tradition or politics.
And so Dr. Timoney, with the assistance of Rusty Ford and the state veterinarian, put together a team that collected the latest research, and in addition to that, the Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky did a thorough tick survey of ticks at the Kentucky Horse Park.
TM: And this is a tick borne disease?
JN: Yes, ticks are - the American dog tick is - the affecter for this condition. And through that process, we learned a great deal.
The risk of this condition being passed on was minimal, and even with it being minimal, the American dog tick becomes dormant in the month of September. By collecting all this information, by calling together the veterinary community within Kentucky, the leaderships of the horse industry within Kentucky, and having the active participation and advocacy of the state veterinarian office, we were able to first persuade the Kentucky horse industry that this is not something that should be of serious concern with the correct protocol and with certain conditions. With that done, we were able to persuade the American Horse Council Health and Welfare Committee, with the support of the Kentucky horse industry and of the American Association of Equine Practitioners.
The USDA relented and said we can create a reasonable protocol for the admission of these horses. And so, again, if we didn't have the Gluck Center and we didn't have people of tremendous reputation like Dr. Peter Timoney and the leadership of our horse industry in Kentucky that carries such weight nationally, and a very respected state veterinarian office, and in particular, Rusty Ford, who is in charge of the enforcement of these regulations, this wouldn't have happened, and we would never be able to have this conversation about the World Equestrian Games.
TM: What happened to change that entrenchment in Europe after the offense was taken over the strict protocol?
JN: Well, that was a difficult period. We had to go to every FEI meeting that we could. We had to be present, and we had to present this evidence. And frankly, there was still a lot skepticism.
There were still a lot of deeply hurt emotions from 1996, and jumping ahead a bit, I think that while we were confident that we were going to win the 2006 bid, (lingering) skepticism about equine piroplasmosis may have tilted things in favor Aiken, Germany, winning the bid. That was an enormous issue that we had to overcome, and it really signaled how fortunate we are to have the equine industry and be the 'Horse Capital of the World,' because it wouldn't have happened otherwise.
TM: When we talked a couple of years ago, one of the benefits that you cited was that this was going to make it possible to bring to the Horse Park the amenities and the facilities that you need to attract those national events and organizations that had not really taken an interest in the Horse Park until now. Is that being accomplished?
JN: It always was about legacy. And it always was about bringing the Kentucky Horse Park to fruition. But the legacy has been even greater than I think we imagined then.
The legacy is certainly tangible for the Kentucky Horse Park, and the promise that the best part of the World Equestrian Games would occur after the Games, that is becoming a reality. We already have this arena booked for 27 weeks outside of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, and the momentum is increasing.
But the legacy is taking, I think, many forms. There is certainly a legacy of confidence in our ability to do big things. The Games have already worked in the sense that so many things that needed to be done for this community and for this region have been done because the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games has created a sense of urgency. So in that respect, the Games have already worked.