No action took place at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon today as Hurricane Florence caused persistent torrential rain ©Tryon 2018/Twitter

The remnants of Hurricane Florence have continued to wreak havoc at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon in North Carolina, with all the events that were originally scheduled for today not taking place.

Initially on the programme for Sunday was the individual freestyle dressage competition and the final jumping stage of the eventing.

However, with torrential rain forecast throughout the day, the Tryon 2018 Organising Committee took the decision to postpone the eventing until tomorrow and cancel the dressage altogether. 

A statement released yesterday said that "despite the best efforts of the whole Tryon 2018 team" they felt forced to cancel the dressage.

"This was not an easy decision, but we have explored every option, including trying to reschedule the horse departures, and even looking at moving the competition indoors with a change of footing, but the logistics of making all this happen are just not possible," Tryon 2018 Organising Committee President Michael Stone said.

With the welfare of the horses in mind, the individual freestyle dressage was cancelled ©Tryon 2018/Twitter
With the welfare of the horses in mind, the individual freestyle dressage was cancelled ©Tryon 2018/Twitter

"We know this is desperately disappointing for the 15 athletes who had qualified their horses for the Freestyle, and of course for all the spectators who had bought tickets, but the weather has simply left us with no choice. 

"Horse welfare has to be the top priority and flying the horses out on the same day as competition doesn’t work, so sadly the decision to cancel the Freestyle had to be taken."

The decision does not affect the Olympic qualification process though, with that already completed on Thursday (September 13).

Unlike the dressage, the eventing has merely been postponed and will go ahead at 10am local time tomorrow at the US Trust Arena.