WITH the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky only seven months away, national federations in several countries are feeling stress over trying to fund the riders qualified to attend.
Britain has fielded full teams since the games were first held in 1990, but it looks like a casualty this time will be its carriage-driving team.
The estimate for sending 15 horses and six carriages from Britain to Kentucky is $456,000.
Possibly, one or two individuals will be able to finance their trip, but British Horse Driving Trials Association chairman Tony Bache said: "It's an obscene amount of money and people just can't justify spending it."
Although full teams look like being sent for all other sports - dressage, endurance, eventing, para-equestrian, reining, showjumping and vaulting - fundraising has been disappointing and many competitors will have to self-fund.
The British Equestrian Federation made a massive fund raising effort, but there is a considerable short fall.
It would take $2.3-2.7 million to send all eight teams.
In Britain, Olympic and Paralympic disciplines are lottery-funded by UK Sport, but endurance, reining, vaulting and carriage driving receive none of these funds.
The high costs of transporting horses, riders and equipment to Kentucky, plus inflated accommodation prices and the tough economy, are blamed for the shortfall.
In Australia, according to Equestrian Australia chief executive Franz Vernhaus, many prospective competitors are trying to determine when and where it is best to base themselves in the lead-up to the World Equestrian Games.
"Finance is always going to be the greatest issue, and the same applies to Equestrian Australia. We will do our best to support what is likely to be the biggest Australian team yet to go to a WEG," Mr Vernhaus said in the January edition of EA News.
"While EA will be able to provide high-performance funding to the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines and outfit the whole team in uniforms - the 'casual' range of this is sponsored by Horseland - the non-Olympic disciplines will be left largely to their own resources."
Even the Paralympic and Olympic team members are not fully funded.
"All this means fundraising, and this will need to be done mainly at the local level, to support particular riders or teams or to contribute to the overall effort," Mr Vernhaus said.
"We are presently setting up a 'WEG project' with the Australian Sports Foundation, which will give members and generous supporters outside the opportunity to make tax-deductible donations to the WEG effort.
"There are a number of conditions under which such a project will operate, in particular some restraints on 'recognition' of donations and donors.
"These have, however, become more flexible in recent times.
"The response of the Australian Government to the Crawford Report will also influence the overall finances of the federation.
"We hope that whatever line is taken by the Australian Government, our high performance program will be able to continue and go to new heights.
"It has been a long, long time, however, since we last faced such uncertainty two years before an Olympic Games."
