Approvals process for Calendar Task Force proposals & Online Competitions

Approvals process for Calendar Task Force proposals

The Jumping Calendar Task Force held its second online meeting today, 22 April 2020, specifically to review date applications. In order to provide an expedited approvals process, an extraordinary FEI Board meeting has been convened for Monday 27 April so that proposals regarding date applications for Jumping, plus proposals from last week’s Dressage Task Force (16 April), this week’s triple-discipline Task Force meeting for Driving, Vaulting and Reining (20 April) and also from the Eventing Calendar Task Force (24 April) can be reviewed. This will allow a clear roadmap to be established so that the FEI Secretary General, who has overall responsibility for the FEI Calendar, can move forward.

The first Endurance Calendar Task Force meeting will be held via videoconference on 29 April, followed by Para Dressage on 30 April.

Clarification regarding Online Competitions

The FEI Board stated in June 2018 that online competitions do not meet the criteria for FEI “Competitions” or “Events” at this stage, as the welfare of competing horses at online competitions cannot be assured without anti-doping tests, stewarding or fitness to compete checks and a level playing field cannot be guaranteed with respect to rules compliance.

This position was reconfirmed by the FEI Board during its videoconference last week, however, we are happy that people are coming up with private fundraising initiatives during the terrible pandemic and we can confirm that, if there is no classification based on the performance of a horse and athlete, it is not a competition under the terms of the FEI General Regulations and/or the specific Discipline Rules and that these initiatives would therefore not come under the jurisdiction of the FEI.

Of course there needs to be flexibility, particularly in the current challenging times, but there can be no flexibility on horse welfare or the provision of a level playing field for FEI competitions. So if an event organiser wants to run an online competition under FEI Rules and they can provide the FEI with a proposal that addresses anti-doping tests, stewarding, fitness to compete checks and a level playing field the FEI Board would review each application on a case-by-case basis.