Premier Equestrian Named FEI Championship Footing Advisor 

Premier Equestrian is honored to announce their recent designation as Footing Advisor for the ECCO FEI World Championships taking place in Herning, Denmark August 6–14, 2022. Premier Equestrian President Heidi Zorn will represent the company at the championships and was awarded the task of advising on all riding surfaces for the events.  

“Heidi is uniquely qualified to serve as footing advisor for the FEI,” said Mark Neihart, CEO of Premier Equestrian. “She has studied equine biomechanics with some of the leading scholars of the topic. Our company works on well over 200 arenas per year, giving Heidi an extremely broad spectrum of surfaces to learn from. It is a great honor to be offered the opportunity to advise on the footing surfaces at the FEI World Championships.” 

Work is currently underway in building the necessary warm-up arenas and competition arenas for all FEI championship events, including FEI Jumping, FEI Dressage, FEI Vaulting, and FEI Para Dressage. Zorn recently visited Denmark to review the facilities and help test the riding surfaces.  

“I’m very excited,” said Zorn. “It is a fabulous facility for the championships. It will be able to handle a lot of people and it should be an enormous success. Denmark is a beautiful country and all the people I met were so welcoming and great to work with. I look forward to returning this August.”  

Zorn was accompanied by the footing team for Herning 2022 and footing specialist Professor Lars Roepstorff, the world’s foremost expert on footing evaluations. Over the last ten years, Roepstorff and several of the world´s top scientists have developed the OBST methodology to test functional arena properties as they apply to footing. 

For the last decade, Premier Equestrian has been studying how equestrian arena surfaces interact with horse biomechanics. All Premier Equestrian arena footing products are formulated with biomechanics and injury prevention in mind.  

Premier Equestrian is North America’s leading supplier of high-quality footing products, arena drags, OTTO Sport base mat systems, arena hydration products, and arena consultation. Premier Equestrian is a recognized expert in horse arena footing as it relates to equine biomechanics. This knowledge is used daily to help horse owners across North America improve arenas and footing for the safety and performance of their horses.