The FEI Tribunal has issued its Final Decisions in the following cases involving Prohibited Substances.

The Guatemalan veterinarian Dr Mariajose Camas (FEI ID 10093995) treated the Horse Dolly Palo Blanco (FEI ID 104PR65/GUA during the Central American & Caribbean Games in Bogotá (COL), 25-29 July 2018 with a Banned Substance.

As Support Personnel under the FEI Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations, and in accordance with Article 2.2 of the FEI Equine Anti-Doping Rules, it was the personal duty of Dr Camas and the Person Responsible (the Athlete) to ensure that no Banned Substance entered the horse’s body. Dr Camas directly admitted the anti-doping rule violation.

In its Final Decision, the FEI Tribunal approved the agreement reached between Dr Camas and the FEI, ruling that she bears no significant fault or negligence for the anti-doping rule violation. A 17-month period of ineligibility was imposed on Dr Camas, backdated to Dr Camas’ last appointment as an FEI Veterinarian (20 January 2020). She was also fined CHF 1,500.

The full Decision is available here.

In the second case, the horse Snowrunner (FEI ID 105JX73/THA), ridden by Preecha Khunjan (FEI ID 10089939/THA), tested positive for the Banned Substance Desoximethasone and the Controlled Medication Substance Isoflupredone following samples taken during the Asian Games in Pattaya (THA), 2-5 December 2019.

The athlete believed the Desoximethasone may have come from using a Leovet Cold Pack on the horse on 30 November 2019, but he could not explain the origin of the Isoflupredone in the horse’s system.

In its Final Decision, the FEI Tribunal disqualified the horse and athlete from the event, and imposed a two-year suspension on the athlete. The period of the provisional suspension of the athlete, which came into effect on 22 January 2020 is credited against the period of ineligibility imposed in the decision, meaning the athlete will be ineligible until 21 January 2022. He was also fined CHF 7,500 and asked to pay costs of CHF 2,000.

The parties can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) within 21 days of receipt of the decision.

The full Decision is available here.  

Notes to Editors:

FEI Equine Prohibited Substances

The FEI Prohibited Substances List is divided into two sections: Controlled Medication and *Banned Substances. Controlled Medication substances are those that are regularly used to treat horses, but which must have been cleared from the horse’s system by the time of competition. Banned (doping) Substances should never be found in the body of the horse and are prohibited at all times.

In the case of an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for a Banned Substance, the Person Responsible (PR) is automatically provisionally suspended from the date of notification (with the exception of certain cases involving a Prohibited Substance which is also a Specified Substance). The horse is provisionally suspended for two months.

Specified Substances

The FEI introduced the concept of Specified Substances in 2016. Specified Substances should not in any way be considered less important or less dangerous than other Prohibited Substances (i.e. whether Banned or Controlled). Rather, they are simply substances which are more likely to have been ingested by horses for a purpose other than the enhancement of sport performance, for example, through a contaminated food substance. Positive cases involving Specified Substances can be handled with a greater degree of flexibility within the structure of the FEI Regulations.

Information on all substances is available on the searchable FEI Equine Prohibited Substances Database.

Host cities for the FEI Youth Jumping Competition* 2022 and this year’s FEI Dressage European Championship U25 have been finalised, with allocations agreed by the FEI Board at its videoconference meeting yesterday.

These important Youth Championships will both be hosted in Germany, with the FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 allocated to Aachen, and the FEI Dressage European Championship U25 to Hagen, two venues with enviable track records for organising top level events.

Following the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision to postpone the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2022 in Dakar (SEN) until 2026, the FEI sought IOC agreement for a replacement competition. The new FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 will mean that young Jumping athletes aged 14-18 will still have the opportunity to participate in a global competition based on the unique YOG format.

“We were delighted the IOC supported the FEI initiative for a replacement equestrian competition for the Youth Olympic Games in 2022 and that it will be hosted at the world-famous showgrounds in Aachen”, FEI President Ingmar De Vos said. “The Youth are our future and we need to safeguard the development of youth engagement in equestrian sport and continue inspiring this new generation of athletes.

“Participation at the YOG is a significant motivating factor for athletes to stay in elite-level sport. Now we can offer the FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 as an alternative to the next YOG generation, which they would otherwise have lost with the postponement of Dakar 2022. And it allows us to promote the Olympic values with these young athletes in a truly global environment.”

The FEI Youth Jumping Competition (28 June to 3 July 2022) will follow the same format as the Equestrian Competition at the Youth Olympic Games, with 30 athletes from 30 nations across six continents participating in a continental team competition and an individual competition. As with YOG, all Athletes will compete on borrowed horses provided by the Organiser.

The FEI Dressage European Championship U25 in 2021, originally scheduled to run in Donaueschingen (GER), has been reallocated to Hagen (GER). Host of multiple championship-level events, Hagen was the venue used for the test event for the new Olympic formats in Jumping and Dressage in 2019.

The U25 Championship will run concurrently with the Senior FEI Dressage European Championships from 8–12 September 2021.

Notes to Editors:

*The final naming of the FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 is still to be confirmed.

The FEI Tribunal has issued its Final Decision in a case involving Prohibited Substances.

The horse Gucci (FEI ID 106GE04/MEX), ridden by Jefferson Martins Maquieira (FEI ID 10027611/MEX), tested positive for the Banned Substances Boldenone and the related compound Boldienone following samples taken at the CSI2* in San Miguel de Allende (MEX), 3-6 October 2019.

The athlete, who had a strict anti-doping protocol in place, stated that Boldenone was contained in the product Equigan, which was given to the horse against the Athlete’s specific instructions on at least two occasions by the horse’s owners and their employee (at the owners’ request), as it was thought that this product would improve the semen quality of the stallion.

In its Final Decision, the FEI Tribunal approved the agreement reached between the athlete and the FEI, stating the athlete bears no significant fault or negligence for the Rule violation.

The horse and athlete have been disqualified from the event, and a one-year ineligibility period has been imposed on the athlete starting from the date of the Final Decision (25 January 2021). The Provisional Suspension of the athlete, which came into effect on 22 January 2020, is credited against the period of ineligibility imposed in the decision, meaning the athlete is now eligible to compete. The Athlete was also fined CHF 1,500.

The full Decision is available here.

Separately, the FEI has announced a new adverse analytical finding (AAF) involving equine Prohibited Substances. The case involves a *Banned Substance under the FEI’s Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations (EADCMRs).

In the following Jumping case, the athlete has been provisionally suspended until the FEI Tribunal renders its decision. The horse has been provisionally suspended for two months from the date of notification.

Case 2021/BS01

Horse: GISELE III PARISOL (106PY18/POR)

Person Responsible: Rafael Dinis (FEI ID 10046681/POR)

Event: CSIO3* - Vilamoura (POR), 16-19.11.2020

Prohibited Substance(s): Nandrolone

Date of notification: 12 January 2021

Details on this case can be found here.

Notes to Editors:

FEI Equine Prohibited Substances

The FEI Prohibited Substances List is divided into two sections: Controlled Medication and *Banned Substances. Controlled Medication substances are those that are regularly used to treat horses, but which must have been cleared from the horse’s system by the time of competition. Banned (doping) Substances should never be found in the body of the horse and are prohibited at all times.

In the case of an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for a Banned Substance, the Person Responsible (PR) is automatically provisionally suspended from the date of notification (with the exception of certain cases involving a Prohibited Substance which is also a Specified Substance). The horse is provisionally suspended for two months.

Specified Substances

The FEI introduced the concept of Specified Substances in 2016. Specified Substances should not in any way be considered less important or less dangerous than other Prohibited Substances (i.e. whether Banned or Controlled). Rather, they are simply substances which are more likely to have been ingested by horses for a purpose other than the enhancement of sport performance, for example, through a contaminated food substance. Positive cases involving Specified Substances can be handled with a greater degree of flexibility within the structure of the FEI Regulations.

Information on all substances is available on the searchable FEI Equine Prohibited Substances Database.

Dr Brian Sheahan (AUS), former Chair of the FEI Endurance Committee, passed away peacefully on 25 January in his hometown of Samford, Queensland in northeastern Australia. The FEI Honorary Board Member, who was a highly respected veterinarian and a well-loved figure in the international Endurance community, was 69.

He joined the FEI Endurance Committee as a member in 2008, taking over the Chair in 2012 until 2018, during which time he was a member of the FEI Board. He was highly respected for his work with the Endurance Strategic Planning Group and the Endurance Task Force. He was instrumental in creating the FEI Endurance Forum and Conferences, which provided a platform for stakeholders to exchange ideas and voice their opinions.

“The FEI family and the international veterinary community have lost, not just a passionate advocate for Endurance, but also a unique man and a real friend,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.

“Brian often described himself as a ‘humble country vet’, but he was so much more than that and his passing is being felt everywhere he left his mark. As well as his brilliant ability to work with people, and with horses, he will be remembered fondly for his legendary wit and infectious good humour. His family, and huge circle of friends and colleagues will have no shortage of entertaining anecdotes to keep his memory alive. The equestrian community is certainly better off for having known him.”

As Chef d’Equipe for the Australian Endurance squad, Dr Sheahan led the bronze medal-winning team at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Jerez (ESP) 2002.

He began officiating as a veterinarian at Endurance events in 1975 and was six times Head Veterinarian for the Tom Quilty Gold Cup 160km Championship in Australia. He was an FEI Treating Veterinarian for Endurance, Jumping, Eventing and Dressage, and was a Course Director, both for the FEI and the Australian Endurance Riders Association.

Dr Sheahan and his wife Christeen started the Samford Valley Veterinary Hospital in their hometown in 1976. What began as one-man practice has grown into a renowned Veterinary Hospital, which he led through to his retirement in 2015, after 41 years in practice.

“Brian was a fearless and talented veterinarian, developing his skills at a time when the only teacher was himself,” said his wife in a touching tribute. “Brian’s drive, skills, leadership and ethics are carried forward by today’s talented and dedicated veterinary team.”

The FEI extends its sincere condolences to Dr Sheahan’s wife Christeen, children and grandchildren, to the Australian Equestrian Federation and the global equestrian community.

The Equestrian Australia tribute to Dr Brian Sheahan can be found here.

(© FEI/Richard Juilliart)

Defending champions Werth and Weihegold have to settle for second as Germans scoop top four placings

It has been a long wait since the first leg was staged last October, but the resumption of the 2020/2021 FEI Dressage World Cup™ Western European League didn’t disappoint when Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB swept to victory in Salzburg, Austria today.

In a cracker of a competition, the pair who helped claimed team gold at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games™ threw down a superb performance when second-last to go in the field of 13. And their score of 87.960 ousted the partnership that have claimed the coveted FEI Dressage World Cup™ title on the last three occasions, Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD who had to settle for runner-up spot on their mark of 84.720. 

Reminding the world that German dressage is in great shape, Helen Langehanenberg slotted into third with Annabelle when putting 81.340 on the board while Dorothee Schneider filled fourth place with Faustus when posting 80.650. Only one other horse-and-rider combination managed to break the 80 percent barrier, Swedish star Patrick Kittel steering Delaunay OLD into fifth on a mark of 80.125.

Halfway stage

It was another Swedish pair who held the lead at the halfway stage, Antonia Ramel and Brother de Jeu who were on the bronze medal winning side along with Kittel and Well Done de la Roche at the 2019 FEI European Championships in Rotterdam (NED). 

Ramel produced a lovely test from the 15-year-old gelding to score 77.460 today but, third to go after the break, Werth moved things on to a completely different level when scoring more than seven percent higher. And when both compatriot Langehanenberg and then Kittel couldn’t get close to bettering that, it seemed the writing was already on the wall. 

But von Bredow-Werndl had other ideas.

“I was really ready for it today because Dalera already felt amazing yesterday”, she pointed out. In Saturday’s Grand Prix she finished second to Werth, but that didn’t blunt her ambitions. 

“I came in today with the hope to win! We had a very stupid mistake yesterday when she fell into trot before the one-tempis because she thought it was already the last line for the extended trot, and that was more than expensive because the one-tempis count double. Today I knew if we got things right then we had a really good chance!”

And they got it absolutely right, the 34-year-old rider and her 14-year-old mare nailing it with a superb test that secured pole position by more than three percentage points over Werth who may not have been all that surprised, as she clearly wasn’t happy with her own performance, shaking her head as she left the arena. 

Today’s winning partnership had already beaten Werth and Weihegold twice before - at the FEI Dressage World Cup™ qualifier in Stuttgart (GER) in 2019 and at last year’s German Championships. Werth knew perfectly well that she needed a mistake-free test to keep the pressure on her fellow-countrywoman who is always a strong challenger, so when she didn’t get that she was always going to be vulnerable.

Season

Instead of a full season of qualifiers, the Western European League has been severely curtailed by the effects of the pandemic, and today’s leg at Salzburg was only the second in the lead-up to the 2021 Final which is scheduled for Gothenburg (SWE) from 31 March to 4 April. In this virus-ridden era it is difficult to predict anything anymore, but another qualifier is planned for ’s-Hertogenbosch (NED) in March and under the revised qualifying criteria the best two results from the Western European and Central European Leagues will count towards qualification.

Today’s result leaves von Bredow-Werndl at the top of the qualification table with Langehanenberg in second, Kittel in third, Morgan Barbancon from France in fourth and The Netherlands’ Thamar Zweistra and Ireland’s Anna Merveldt sharing fifth place.  Austria’s Christian Schumach lies seventh while Denmark’s Carina Cassoe Kruth, who collected eight points when finishing tenth today with Heiline’s Danciera, is in eighth place. A total of nine athletes will make the cut to the Final and Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour, who won the opening on home ground at Aarhus last October, at this stage shares that ninth spot with Germany’s Benjamin Werndl.

Environment

As von Bredow-Werndl pointed out today it’s not an easy environment for either horses or riders these days.

“Dalera was a bit nervous yesterday but I have to admit I was too! I realise now that it is too long for me to have a competition break for over three months - I really need to compete and so do the horses. Riding the test at home and going to a competition are two completely different things. You need to measure yourself against the other competitors, and it’s a more honest way to look in the mirror if you do it at a competition”, she said.

She complimented Show Director Josef Goellner and his team for staging the Austrian event in such a difficult times. The show is taking place without spectators and with rigorous restrictions. “I’m so grateful that the organisers managed to do such a great job and that it was perfectly organised. Everyone feels safe here, everyone is wearing a mask and there is hand sanitiser everywhere - it’s strange, but I’m so glad to be here!”, she said.

She would like to compete in ’s-Hertogenbosch, but brotherly love may get in the way of that. “I want my brother (Benjamin Werndl) to have a chance to go there because he already won one qualifier (at Zakrzow, Poland in October) and he needs to go to another one, and there are usually only four Germans allowed to ride”, she explained. 

When it comes to the Final in Gothenburg however, nothing will hold her back. “Oh yes, I’ll be going there for sure - and with all guns blazing!”, she said.

Result here 

Standings here 

German big guns out in force

Reigning five-time series champion and World No. 1, Germany’s Isabell Werth, heads the sparkling start-list for the FEI Dressage World Cup™ qualifier in Salzburg, Austria this weekend.

She will partner Weihegold OLD, the 16-year-old mare with which she claimed the prestigious title at the last three Finals, in Omaha (USA) in 2017, Paris (FRA) in 2017 and Gothenburg (SWE) in 2019. 

And the German challenge will be mighty one, as Werth is joined by compatriots Jessica von Bredow-Werndl who holds the World No. 3 spot and Olympians Dorothee Schneider and Helen Langehanenberg. 

Only one other leg of the 2020/2021 Western European League qualifying series has taken place so far, at Aarhus in Denmark in October where the host nation’s Cathrine Dufour and Bohemian came out on top. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has played havoc with the sporting calendar worldwide for almost a year now, but there is great excitement about the resumption of the prestigious FEI Dressage World Cup™ series that is now in its 36th season - the 35th cut short by effect of the virus.

10 nations

A total of 14 athletes from 10 nations will compete this weekend including Swedish showman Patrick Kittel with Delaunay OLD, the 15-year-old gelding with which he finished sixth at the 2018/2019 Final on home ground in Gothenburg. And also flying the Swedish flag will be Antonia Ramel and Brother de Jeu who, alongside Kittel and Well Done de la Roche, helped claimed team bronze at the 2019 FEI European Dressage Championships in Rotterdam (NED). 

Anna Merveldt and her 12-year-old Lusitano gelding Esporim went into the history books when helping Ireland to Olympic qualification in Dressage for the very first time at those Rotterdam Championships, and they come to Salzburg with some strong results. They were runners-up behind the French duo of Morgan Barbançon and the 15-year-old stallion Sir Donnerhall ll OLD in the Freestyle at Budapest-Fót (HUN) in October where the French pair, who will be back in the ring this weekend, also dominated the Grand Prix.

Germany’s von Bredow-Werndl brings the horse with which she holds the No. 3 spot in the World Rankings, the 14-year-old Trakehner mare TSF Dalera BB. Schneider will partner the 13-year-old gelding Faustus who won the CDI4* Grand Prix Special at Oldenburg (GER) in November and Langehanenberg will ride the 13-year-old mare Annabelle which won the CDI3* Grand Prix Special at Aarhus last October.   

Represented

The Netherlands will be represented by Thamar Zweistra and the 13-year-old stallion Hexagon’s Double Dutch who finished third in the Grand Prix and Freestyle at the CDI-W fixtures in both Mariakalnok (HUN) last June and at Pilisjászfalu (HUN) in August 2020. 

Italy’s Francesco Zaza (Wispering Romance), Denmark’s Carina Cassoe Kruth (Heiline’s Danciera), Belgium’s Simon Missiaen (Charlie), Australia’s Simone Pearce (Destano) and Austria’s Franziska Fries (Atomic) are also in the mix. So it is going to be a truly international cast that takes centre-stage at the Messezentrum Arena in the city so closely associated with both revered composer, Mozart, and the much-loved 1965 film “The Sound of Music”.

The FEI World Cup™ Dressage Grand Prix is scheduled for 08.00 local time on Saturday 23 January, while the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Freestyle will take place on Sunday 24 January starting at 11.00. 

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today dismissed appeals lodged by Canadian Jumping athlete Nicole Walker and Equestrian Canada against the disqualification of the athlete following an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) at the Pan-American Games 2019 in Lima (PER).

A sample taken from Nicole Walker, who was a member of the fourth-placed Canadian team and also finished fourth with Falco Van Spieveld in the individual final, tested positive for Benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, which is a prohibited substance under the WADA Prohibited Substance List. The sample was taken on 7 August, the day of the team final in Lima.

In its decision of 11 December 2019, the Panam Sports Disciplinary Commission disqualified the individual results obtained by Nicole Walker on 7 and 9 August 2019, and her results from 6 and 7 August 2019 were replaced with those of the fourth Canadian team member for the team final, meaning that Argentina earned a team quota place for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The appeal to CAS was heard via videoconference on 21 and 23 December 2020, with the FEI as one of a number of third parties. Both Ms Walker and Equestrian Canada requested that the Panam Sports Disciplinary Commission decision be set aside and that the results she obtained in Lima be reinstated. A successful appeal would have meant Canada’s reinstatement to fourth place in the team competition and a qualification for the Canadian Jumping Team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Today’s CAS ruling means that the results for Team Canada in the jumping competition at the Pan American Games 2019 are disqualified. As a result, Argentina’s Jumping team quota place for the Tokyo Olympic Games is now confirmed.

The FEI had provisionally suspended Nicole Walker from 8 November 2019 to 26 September 2020, when the provisional suspension was lifted in a preliminary decision by the FEI Tribunal following a request by the athlete. While the CAS decision on disqualification of the Canadian team results is final, the full merits of the case still need to be heard by the FEI Tribunal, which will decide on any further sanctions to be imposed on the athlete.

The CAS media release is available here.

Notes to Editors:

Tokyo 2020 Olympic quota places were available to the three best-ranked teams from Groups D (North America) and/or E (Central & South America) at the Pan-American Games 2019, excluding the teams already qualified. The three teams that earned qualification in Lima were Brazil, Mexico and Canada.

Under Article 11.4 of the Panam Sports Anti-Doping Rules, an anti-doping violation by a member of a team (outside team sports) also leads to disqualification of the result obtained by the team in that competition.

Under the terms of Article 10.2.2 of the Panam Sports Anti-Doping Rules, responsibility for results management in terms of sanctions beyond the event itself shall be referred to the applicable International Federation. This means that any period of ineligibility would be imposed by the FEI.

The FEI Tribunal has issued its Final Decision in a human anti-doping case involving an adverse analytical finding for the prohibited substances Prednisone and Prednisolone, glucocorticoids listed in Class S9 Glucocorticoids under the 2019 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.

A sample taken from the Japanese para athlete Tsutomu Inoue (FEI ID 10059837/JPN) on 17 October 2019 at the CPEDI3* Gotemba (JPN) returned positive for Prednisone and Prednisolone. The athlete was notified of the violation of the FEI’s Anti-Doping Rules for Human Athletes (ADRHA) on 4 March 2020 and was not provisionally suspended, since the substances found in his sample are classified as Specified Substances.

In its Final Decision, the FEI Tribunal approved the agreement reached between the Athlete and the FEI in which it was stated that the athlete bears no significant fault or negligence for the rule violation. The athlete was prescribed with a medication Prednisolone to treat his medical condition, however, due to a lack of anti-doping education, he did not know it was necessary for him to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for Prednisolone before competing internationally.

The athlete is suspended for a period of two months, starting from the date of the FEI Tribunal Final Decision (4 January 2021).

Additionally, the athlete has been disqualified from all results obtained at the event and fined CHF 1,000.

In accordance with Article 13.2 of the ADRHA Rules, the athlete can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) within 21 days of receipt of the decision.

The full text of the FEI Tribunal’s Final Decision is available here.

Notes to Editors:
FEI Clean Sport - human athletes
The FEI is part of the collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport led by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The aim of this movement is to protect fair competition as well as athlete health and welfare.

WADA’s Prohibited List identifies the substances and methods prohibited in- and out-of-competition, and in particular sports. The substances and methods on the List are classified by different categories (e.g., steroids, stimulants, gene doping).

As a WADA Code Signatory, the FEI runs a testing programme for human athletes based on WADA’s List of Prohibited List of Substances and Methods and on the Code-compliant FEI Anti-Doping Rules for Human Athletes (ADRHA).

For further information, please consult the Clean Sport section of the FEI website here.

He’s a horseman, a sports fan, a legal expert and successful businessman, and as 2021 dawns Israel’s Ken Lalo is filled with anticipation. Because, for the very first time, his country will be represented by a Jumping team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, and his role in making that happen has been a major one.

“It was a dream of mine for many years”, says the man who has served as President of his National Federation for six terms. “It started partially as my own project because the Board didn’t support me at the time. They felt we should concentrate on establishing more events in Israel and on developing a bigger pool of riders. But I was of the belief that we had to do both”, he points out.

Appointment

I’m interviewing him in late December 2020, after his appointment as Chair of the FEI Atypical Findings Panel which was created prior to implementation of the new FEI Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations on 1 January 2021.

Ken Lalo’s involvement with the FEI and its legal work dates back to the 1990s. He was Deputy Chair of the FEI Judicial Committee from 1996 to 1999, Chair from 1999, and when that morphed into the FEI Tribunal he continued in the Chair until 2011 when he was appointed as an Arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a role he continues to fill.

The two words that arise most often in conversation with him are “reasonable” and “fair”, and they possibly explain the status of the reputation he has established. Ken has been at the sharp end of many major legal wrangles down the years, so one might expect to be confronted by a tough, opinionated and uncompromising individual. In stark contrast however he is soft-spoken, thoughtful and sympathetic. It is patently obvious that he has the best interests of both athletes and sport at heart.

An Atypical Findings Policy means that it will be possible for the FEI to determine that the presence of some substances will no longer lead to automatic penalties. “Certain substances which can appear in a human athlete as a result of contamination shouldn’t automatically lead in all instances to a legal case, and the FEI expanded this to medications or substances used in horses which I think makes a lot of sense”, he explains. 

Contaminated horse feed

He refers to an incident some years ago when the FEI Tribunal was faced with five positive cases from a single event which were eventually all traced to contaminated horse feed. “It was a mistake on the part of a well-known manufacturer, but we still had to find against the riders and I’m not sure that this was a fair result”, he says.

“Sometimes you create a system and then, as a reaction to outside events, you go too much in one direction or another. When I first joined the Tribunal under Lord Lowry we didn’t treat medication or prohibited substance cases with horses the same as for humans….but then we matched the rules with strict liability and harsher sanctions. In a strict liability system a person is found liable regardless of whether they meant it or not. With laboratories now able to find minuscule amounts of substances it sometimes can go to the extreme and be too harsh”, he says.

In his role with WADA, the decongestant and bronchodilator Clenbuterol has been a major cause for concern. It is widely used by asthma sufferers but, as Ken points out “in some countries like Mexico and China you find it in meat…and it is unfair to penalise an athlete if they test positive for something they couldn’t control under any reasonable circumstances even after applying the strictest measures”.

Lifelong passion

He’s had a lifelong passion for horses even though, as he says, “Israel is a country with no horse tradition to speak of. We had Arabian horses and pleasure riding but not much more. During the British mandate from 1920 to 1948 there were some Jumping events for British solders but at a very low level. 

“But for some reason I loved horses from an early age and I used to go to the stables every day instead of school, so when I was 15 my father suggested I go and ride in England and leave High School even though he was a graduate of Harvard”. It was a wise decision, because Ken would eventually take a similar route without being denied his opportunity to enjoy equestrian sport. And that has led him to where he is today.

From the age of 15 to 18 he trained with British Olympic Dressage coach, Robert Hall, at the famous Fulmer School of Equitation in England and became a British Horse Society Instructor. And after his mandatory national army service he joined Robert at his American base in Massachusetts and rode on the US East Coast Dressage circuit, competing up to international level. By the time he was 20 he had completed his A levels and had law school in his sights, eventually emerging with a Masters and MBA.

But he never stopped riding, jumping up to 1.35m level in Israel. He met his wife, Allison, when he gave her a riding lesson, and his children - two boys and a girl - all rode. “The boys were Israeli champions many times in showjumping”, he says proudly. “Dean now lives and works as an architect in New York, Leiel is in his last year of medical studies in Hungary and Romy studies communications at an Israeli University - and we still have horses and I still ride on occasion”. 

In his “proper job” he has worked for a very large Israeli high-tech conglomerate and, more recently, manages a company in the automotive business in Europe. “We operate in 10 countries with sales that came from zero to half a billion Euros. I hope to grow it to one billion in a year or two”, he says casually. Somehow he has managed to fit the commitment to the FEI and CAS into all that.

Involved

He first became involved with the FEI in 1992. “Israeli equestrian at the time was isolated because we are in the Middle East and most of our other sports were connected with Europe. So I had to persuade the FEI to allow us to become part of Europe” he points out. Of course he succeeded and in 1996 he became a member of the Judicial Committee, Deputy Chairman and eventually Chairman, and then headed the Tribunal when it was formed. “As the FEI became more professional with a legal team in-house then there was separation which I was very much in favour of - it made sense to become a Tribunal with proper processes to decide cases and to allow the FEI legal staff to draft the regulations and prosecute legal cases”, he says.

In his role with CAS he doesn’t deal with equestrian sport “because I’m considered to be too close to the equestrian world”. Instead he is mainly involved with cases in athletics, hockey and football, and mostly around doping-related issues.

“A year ago CAS created an Anti-Doping Division specifically for doping cases, and that was always my strength and preference so I’m part of that”, he points out. In that capacity he was a member of the CAS Anti-Doping Commission at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Seriously

He takes his work very seriously. “It’s very challenging but in the end I try to apply the rules correctly to the facts and ignore outside noise so to speak, anything not relevant, and take a decision. You have to also understand that a decision must be fair to the entire sport system. Not that you decide just one case, there are other athletes that competed at that event, or other events, and what you decide can affect them too. 

“So in a sense you defend the entire reason that people compete, and that fans go to see sport. They expect the event to be operated under a proper legal system and that the rules are observed, otherwise they will know there’s monkey business going on in their sport and eventually they won’t be interested in it anymore, so the sport loses all its value”. 

Legal cases can be notoriously difficult to untangle, but Ken says he’s always in favour of trying to simplify things, and that speed is of the essence.

“It is of key importance to try to stay in an acceptable timeline. For a legal system to be proper you have to make quick decisions. That’s not always the case I know, which is unfortunate, but it should be the idea. When I was at the Tribunal one of the key ideas I introduced was a specific set of recommended timelines for cases, and I also announced at every General Assembly how many cases were decided within those timelines and how many were outside. So that was a way to judge myself as well. I think this is really important”.

Plain sailing

His role as President of the Israeli Equestrian Federation hasn’t been all plain sailing. Initially he met with significant opposition, “because many of the people who control the sport here are horse dealing and trading and sometimes they have a very narrow perception, even fearing that high-level athletes may take away some of their customers”. So that leads to friction.

“I’ve only one interest - to see the Israeli team being successful internationally. I think every sports organisation should try to get to the top, and for me that’s the Olympic Games!”.

‘At the same time you don’t forget that you need a broad base of the sport in the country to develop future generations of riders, and I’m doing that too. We have quite a strong number of riders at the moment and many of them are young and talented. In Jumping we have four in the top 200 of U25, and even Daniel Bluman is still young!” he adds.

And his top team are also supported by two legends, Hans Hoorn and Olympic, World and European champion Jeroen Dubbeldam who combine the jobs of Chef d’Equipe and trainer. “We looked for people with experience who would hopefully attract a big group of our international riders. I wanted to maximise the support of the riders and their personal trainers and to avoid conflict when it comes to team selection. I’ve learned from my professional career that to keep a good team you need stability, stamina and patience, and I try to apply those principles. So my real role is to keep the Federation stable and as silent as possible on the issue of team selection so we can have a better longterm view of what we are setting out to achieve”. 

Mission

“Our mission is three Olympics until 2028 - Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles. I know you need mileage to be successful and you can’t get that in a short period of time, but this is something we are trying to build.

“Tokyo will be our first Olympics and I hope we can also qualify for Paris and it becomes more of a tradition for us to be at the Games. On paper we are not amongst the top 10 teams, but on a good day I hope we can somehow have a successful day or a successful individual rider and then we take it as it goes. There is no pressure. I advise the sponsors and the riders that it’s important to build tradition and culture and mutual support as much as possible. It’s not easy when you have individual athletes, and that’s why I’d also like see Hans and Jeroen staying with us for the longterm”.

It hasn’t been easy for Ken Lalo to put a financial support system in place either, but that situation is improving. Before Olympic qualification was achieved in July 2019 the Israeli Equestrian Federation wouldn’t release funding, and everyone involved had to pay their own way. Now however that has changed, and at last there is a sense of moving forward together with big goals ahead, although his position as President is voluntary so he continues to self-finance - “and I think that’s the healthiest system”, he says. 

Travel

In his role as Federation President, he will travel to Tokyo with the team, and his wife Allison will be there too. She likes joining him at events but, unlike her husband, doesn’t ride anymore.

“But we still have a big interest across the whole family. It’s a must because if you have to get up at five in the morning to take the trailer to a horse show and you only get back at night or the next day, then unless the whole family is involved I don’t know how you can continue doing it for years. But that’s my biggest fun, it always keeps the right balance”.

The pandemic has taken its toll in Israel like everywhere else but with around 10% of the population already vaccinated it is hoped the country will be Covid-free by April and, thanks to determined negotiations with government, horse events continued to be staged. “We actually had greater participation at shows in 2020 than in 2019!”. 

His biggest disappointment of the year was the cancellation of the London International Horse Show last month. “Christmas without Olympia was very sad. We go there every year, and night after night we sit through the entire performance, including the dog agility, and love every minute of it - it’s an amazing show!”

But he’s really looking forward to what 2021 has to offer. “I’m generally optimistic and I love everything to do with horse sport and sport generally”, says this man of integrity who has long been a custodian of fair play in the field of sporting ambition…..

His work has taken him to hotspots of conflict all around the globe including Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Liberia, Iraq, Kosovo and the Persian Gulf as well as to the heart of Olympic and FEI sport. Award-winning photographer, Jim Hollander, has worked for UPI and Reuters, and was appointed Staff Photographer for EPA covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2003. He has seen a lot in his 71 years.

But one of the most treasured experiences of his exciting lifetime is a 1,000-kilometre ride across Spain that he undertook back in 1973. It took four weeks to cross from Pizarra to Pamplona, and it epitomises the adventurous spirit of an extraordinarily creative family.

Much of the magical story is driven by the character and energy of Jim’s father, Gino Hollander, a decorated WW2 veteran who worked alongside his second wife Barbi as a film-maker before deciding to become a painter. Yes, just like that…. 

Artist

“It was his way, he wanted to be an artist so he made himself one. His philosophy was that if you want to do something and you work at it you’ll get good at it, so you should always do what you want to do. He had a cavalier way of enjoying life to the fullest and he imparted that to the rest of us”, says the American-born photographer. Clearly Gino’s work ethic wasn’t lost on his children. “It wasn’t easy for me to become a photographer but I wanted to do it and I stuck with it and eventually got a break. There were plenty of hard knocks along the way, but I didn’t give up!”, Jim adds.

Gino became a leading light of the abstract expressionism movement of the 1960s and opened a gallery in Greenwich Village, New York. Then a year later he suddenly decided to uproot his entire family and move to Spain. “He packed up three young kids, a couple of dogs, a cat and his wife and took a boat to Europe. While the boat was docked in Gibraltar he visited Torremolinos where he met a real-estate developer who took him to a 25-room house that came with a gardener, a cook and a maid - all for $120 a month - and he decided to take it!”, Jim explains. Thus a Spanish love-affair began that lasted 30 years for his father and continues to this day for Jim himself.

He was just 12 years old when he visited the family in Spain for the first time in 1963. And it was 10 years later that Jim came up with the idea of the long-distance ride. Gino wasn’t keen on the idea to begin with however. “My father and the rest of the family had been on several horse trips from Malaga to Seville so locally we were known as a horse family. But it was just three years after my brother Marc died in an accident, and Dad said it wasn’t the right time for him”, Jim explains.

Marc, four years his senior, was a trainee photographer and the one who inspired Jim’s fascination with the camera lens.  

A friend

With no great enthusiasm coming from the rest of the family Jim invited a friend, Peter Whitehead, to join him instead. “He was a dairy farmer from Vermont who never sat on a horse before, but when he showed up we rode for a month and he picked it up quickly. We bought supplies and equipment and spent hours looking through maps and making our plans”, Jim explains. In the end the lure of the proposed adventure proved too much for Gino and the rest of the crew, and six riders set out on 16th May 1973 while Jim’s stepmother, Barbi, followed in a Volkswagen Camper “with pots and pans and sleeping bags and food for the horses”.

Gino’s horse was Marejada, Jim rode Flamenca and Peter was partnered with Alexi. Jim’s sisters, Lise who was 16 years old and Siri who was 14, rode Gaspacho and Yael while his younger brother Scott, aged just 11, rode an un-named mare. They set out in appalling weather conditions, torrential rain creating a sea of mud, but the trip was underway at last. And what an adventure it was. 

Armed with a diary, a Leica M5 camera and rolls of film, Jim kept a record of the extraordinary journey. He didn’t know it at the time, but it would mark the beginning of the documentary photography career that he would follow for the rest of his life. 

Inched across Spain

“We basically took off with a Firestone map of Spain in pouring rain and day by day inched across Spain, almost to the French border. We spent three weeks in the saddle with about a week of downtime drying ourselves out and resting the horses.” It was during the final years of the Franco era, and the country they passed through was very different to today. 

“We rode through the back country and saw places most tourists would never get to see. Some of the towns don’t exist anymore because so many rural farmers moved to the cities and now they are dead towns. We camped out almost every night, cooking food with the horses tied up close by, we lived like cowboys and in the mornings we would break camp and ride north, asking a farmer how to get to the next village. He’d tell us to follow that path, go as far as the big olive tree and then turn right. I don’t know if you could that today in Spain because there are so many more fences. The people are still really hospitable but there are less farmers and more private land with ‘no trespassing’ signs”, Jim explains.

After three weeks together some stresses began to develop amongst the group, “so Peter and I broke off and we did the last week with just the two of us, so we arrived in Pamplona before the rest. That last week was really exciting, we rode for hours, with nowhere to sleep and got caught in the rain again. But there was a great sense of achievement at the end”, he says.

And when they all got together again the stress was gone, and it was time to celebrate.

Jim continued riding until his father left Spain in 1991 and went back to America. Gino passed away four years ago at the age of 92, and was painting until the day he died. 

Returned

The rest of the family also eventually returned to the US while Jim lives in Jerusalem, Israel. 

“Siri is a great horsewoman and owns a few horses in New Mexico. She’s a very successful sculptress and specialises in horse sculptures. And Scott is an amazing rider as well. He’s 12 years younger than me and works as a grip in the movie business, makes commercials and is a rock climber and skier. The three of us are very creative”, Jim says. 

In recent years Jim’s connection with horses has been mostly from behind the lens, covering the equestrian events at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. He was commissioned by the FEI for the Final of the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ series in Barcelona on three occasions and the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final in Paris in 2018 and was looking forward to returning to Barcelona in 2020 until the pandemic got in the way. 

He says he has enjoyed capturing the great rivalry between Dressage riders Isabell Werth from Germany and America’s Laura Graves and that his Jumping hero is Great Britain’s Nick Skelton. He loves “shooting” horses - “when you are close with a long lens and you can see the horse’s muscles ripple and smell their sweat it all speaks about the essence of the sport”, he says.  

He believes he owes a lot of his success to the experience gained on what the family still describe to this day as “the Hollander horse trip”. Using his diary and photos, in 1993 Jim published “From Pizarra to Pamplona - Across Spain on Horseback” to recall it in all its glory. The book is as much a homage to his late father as the story of a shared experience, and it captures a moment in time when horses and people could still roam the Spanish countryside in a way that would be impossible today.

In the epilogue is an extract from Barbi’s own book “Tapestry” written in 2008 in which she writes….. “mile after mile, day after day, we traveled with the soft clop, clop of horses’ hooves beating out its mesmerizing rhythm; ever-changing cloudscapes, flights of birds, past orange grove and olive grove, fields of tender, pale, new green barley struggling up in threadbare fields, then mile upon mile of lovingly-tended grape vines. Off in the distance a sleepy village - always off in the distance…..No supermercados here. No McDonald’s. This forgotten land, smouldering under the luminous Iberian sun, a shabby remnant of a proud past still living in another century, still going on about its daily life, unchanged, these many years”.

No wonder Jim treasures the memories……