Emile Hendrix has a dream: To bring the World Equestrian Games to his native Kronenberg in the Netherlands.
The former Nations Cup rider and co-founder of the exclusive Equestrian Centre de Peelbergen gave an interview to spring-reiter.de about dreams, risks and a slowly developing idea.
“A delegation consisting of my brother Paul and me as well as other business collegues from Limburg, will travel to Tryon to see first hand what is involved to stage such an enormos event and what organisation and accommodation are necessary.” The former European Team Champion 1991 in La Baule, runs with his brother an internationally recognized Sports- and Sales stable in the Netherlands. The former Nations Cup rider is not naive nor can one stop his enthusiasm:
” It really is too early to talk about this idea. To host the World Equestrian Games is an ambitious goal, especially since the last W.E. Games were all financial disasters.” Hendrix travels to Tryon foremost as member of the FEI committee (International Federation of Equestrian Sports).
The 62-year old Hendrix continues, “Today the horse industry is very strong in our region, so the entrpreneurs have big ambitions”.
This is shown by the good capacity utilization of the Equestrian Centres de Peelbergen which hosts international championships with riders from all over the world. ” It will still be a risk and whether in the end we shall apply is still completely open”says Hendrix who as sports director was part of CHI0 Rotterdam for a long time.
Originally, only Samorin in Slovakia showed an interest in the 2022 games but withdrew end of 2017.
The FEI must and will make a decision in November.
Hendrix can still dream though he knows that dreams seldom come true.