Dressage Resolutions & Decisions

Taking into account the number of legs of the FEI Dressage World Cup™ 2021/2022 cancelled due to Covid-19, the Board accepts the proposed modifications to the qualification requirements to participate in the Final of the FEI Dressage World Cup™ 2022 and approves the proposed amendments to the Rules 2021/2022 as suggested by the Dressage Technical Committee.

FEI Policy for Enhanced Competition Safety during the Covid-19 pandemic (suspended until further notice by Board Resolution on 4 October 2022)

Following text to be included in all Draft Schedules: “Given the current covid-19 situation, please note that the FEI’s approval of a Schedule should not be taken as an absolute guarantee that the Event will definitely go ahead. The decision whether the Event can take place in consideration of the Covid-19 situation must be made by the OC and NF in close consultation with the applicable domestic government and public health authorities. It is the responsibility of each Participant to check the status of the Event and Covid-19 related measures, if any, prior to planning their travel to the Event. It is the responsibility of the OC/NF to elaborate, communicate and enforce a Covid-19 mitigation plan if requested by the locally applicable laws and policies.”

At its videoconference on 15 April 2020, the FEI Board had mandated the FEI Medical Committee to work on a protocol for National Federations and Organising Committees to provide measures for the safe resumption of international equestrian events when approved by the World Health Organization and national governments.

Dr Mark Hart, Chair of the Medical Committee, presented a draft of the FEI Policy for Enhanced Competition Safety during the Covid-19 pandemic to the Board during its virtual meeting on 5 May 2020. The Medical Committee and FEI Headquarters have now been further mandated to finalise the Policy, which will include an obligation for Organisers to carry out a Risk Assessment to host safe competitions as well as a set of recommended discipline-specific guidelines. Once completed, the Board will give final sign-off for the Policy, including a Risk Assessment tool, in advance of distribution to National Federations and Organisers.

The Policy & Risk Assessment tools are available in the Return To Play section.

The Board agrees to uphold this Resolution until further notice.

Extension of FEI Competency-Based Evaluation System (CES) timelines for Officials

As per its Resolution of 24 June 2020, the Board approves an extension of timelines for Officials to fulfil their officiating requirements through the CES. The deadline, which was previously until 15 December 2020, is now extended to 15 December 2024.

Organisers Covid-19 Fees

As per its Resolution of 20 October 2020, the Board agrees until further notice not to allow any additional Covid-19 Fees to be included by the Organisers in the Draft Schedules.

Calendar Task Forces

Based on the Resolution of the Board of 24 March 2020, the Board confirms that the Calendar Task Forces would remain in place until further decision from the Board.

Deadlines and date clash rules for Calendar Applications/Draft Schedules

The Board agrees to go back to the “ORIGINAL” COVID-19 EVENT DEADLINES (not the EHV-1 deadlines which were for some disciplines much shorter) until further notice. Please refer to Annex 1. 

No NFs signified disapproval by the deadline of 16 January 2022. This FEI Board Resolution is therefore final. 

Based on the Annex and taking into account the travel restriction still in place, mainly in Australia and New Zealand, the Board approves the possibility for the Dressage Committee and Vaulting Committee to grant exemptions on a case by case basis to review the requirements related to the appointment of Officials for competitions qualifying for the Dressage and Vaulting World Championships 2022 and allow on-line supervision of competitions when and as appropriate.

The FEI Board approved the change of venue and qualification criteria for the FEI Dressage European Championships 2021 - Children, Juniors and Young Riders from 5 – 11 July 2021 to alleviate challenges raised by the EHV-1 outbreak and the repercussions of Covid-19 restrictions:

• Change of Venue

Following the recommendation of the FEI Dressage Committee and the European Equestrian Federation, and following consultation with the ESP National Federation and the Championship Organising Committee “in2strides”, the Board approved the change of venue from Valencia (ESP) to Oliva Nova (ESP). The Championships are therefore scheduled to go ahead on the same dates, and with the same Organising Committee, but in Oliva Nova rather than Valencia.

• Qualification Criteria

The Board also approved a Covid-19 related resolution to waive the qualification criteria for the Championships due to the limited opportunities for youth Athletes to achieve MERs as a result of the restrictions on travel and cancellations of international events. The same process will apply as for 2020, when the qualification criteria for the Youth Championships were also waived and NFs were responsible for selecting their best Athletes.

For more information on the FEI Dressage European Championships 2021 - Children, Juniors and Young Riders, click here.

Application of Date Clash Rules until Tokyo 2020

The FEI Board approved that all Dressage Event Organisers may, until the end of the Tokyo 2020 Games (Sunday 8 August 2021), organise their Events (subject to the Calendar applications deadline mentioned below) on their selected dates and no Dates Clash Rules shall apply during that time.

No NFs signified disapproval by the deadline of 22 April 2021. This FEI Board Resolution is therefore final.

In order to give National Federations and Organisers more flexibility when applying for their Events in the FEI Calendar (and consequently providing more options for the Athletes to compete), the FEI Board approved the reduction of deadlines for Calendar applications as follows:

• CDI5*/CDI4*/CDI3*/CDI-W CDIO5*/CDIO4*/CDIO3*: from 8 week to 4 weeks
• All other Dressage Events: same 4 weeks deadline as approved before remains

​The relevant table can be found here.

No NFs signified disapproval by the deadline of 22 April 2021. This FEI Board Resolution is therefore final.

The Board approved an exception to the FEI Dressage Rules regarding qualification for CDI5* for the 2021 Calendar season whereby an “Athlete/Horse combination must have achieved a minimum of sixty four percent (64%) in Grand Prix at two (2) different CDI3*/CDI4*/CDI-W or CDIO3* /CDIO4* (Consolation Competitions do not count) after 01 January the previous year 2019.”

No NFs signified disapproval by the deadline of 18 March 2021. This FEI Board Resolution is therefore final.

Based on the Resolution of the Board of 24 March 2020, the Board confirmed that the Calendar Task Forces would remain in place in 2021 until further decision from the Board.

Further to the cancellation of the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses 2020 in Verden (GER) and following consultation with all parties involved, the Board agreed to reallocate the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses 2021 to Verden (GER). The Championship had originally been allocated to Ermelo (NED) for the three years, 2021-2023, and the Board has now agreed to allocate the 2024 Championship to Ermelo, meaning that the Dutch venue will host the Championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The Board approved temporary amendments to the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Rules 2020-2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These updates can be viewed here with both mark-up and clean versions available.

The Board approved additional updates to the Resolution on deadlines for late date applications and Date Clash Rules initially approved on 10 September, including increased “leniency” on some deadlines until further notice. The relevant table can be found here. This table includes the deadlines by which the Calendar late date application/modification forms, draft schedules and Covid-19 risk assessment and mitigation plans must be received for Events to be considered for inclusion in the Calendar.

No NFs signified disapproval by the deadline of 17 January 2021. The FEI Board Resolution is therefore final. 

Similar to the decision taken regarding Article 200.8 of the FEI Jumping Rules, the Board agreed to a temporary derogation from Article 420.9 of the FEI Dressage Rules to allow FEI World Cup™ Dressage Competitions, CDI/CDIO5* or CDI/CDIO4* Events already in the FEI Calendar to be held in the two weeks prior to the FEI European Championships in Hagen (GER) on 7-12 September 2021.

No NFs signified disapproval by the deadline of 19 December 2020. This FEI Board Resolution is therefore final.

The Board agreed to continue prioritising, until further notice, all CDIOs when date clashes are being considered, regardless of whether they are standalone Events or part of a Series, to allow for team preparation in the build-up to the Olympic Games in 2021.  

The FEI Board:

• Confirmed the allocation of the FEI Dressage European Championship 2021 on week 36 (from 7 to 12 September) upon receipt of a firm confirmation from the Organiser of Hagen (GER) that it is prepared to go ahead with the Championships (such confirmation to be reflected by the Organiser by signing the Host Agreement) by 31 January 2021 at the latest The Host Agreement will specify that all team transport costs from the country of origin to the venue and quarantine costs (if any) will be borne by the NFs rather than the Organiser.
• Agreed, with the full support of the European Equestrian Federation, that, if Hagen (GER) did not confirm the allocation by 31 January 2021 (by signing the Host Agreement) and on the understanding that the Olympic Games did go ahead in 2021, it would not re-open the bid process for the FEI Dressage European Championship 2021. The EEF agrees not to re-open the bid process if Hagen (GER) does not sign the Host Agreement by the deadline and the Olympic Games are taking place in 2021; and confirmed that the Organiser could share this Board Resolution with potential sponsors, host broadcasters and other partners.

FEI European Championships Jumping, Dressage, Para Dressage and Eventing 2021 for Seniors

The Board agreed to:

• Postpone the decision on the organisation of the FEI European Championships 2021 to its Teleconference on 20 October 2020 due to the ongoing discussions.
• Allow the FEI Jumping and Eventing Calendar Task Forces to discuss the possibility of organising the Jumping or Eventing European Championships 2021 during the dates of the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, if no better date could be found.

FEI Named Series 2021/22 – Allocation of Qualifiers

The Board agreed that all Organisers who were originally allocated a Qualifier by the Board would automatically be allocated a Qualifier for the 2021/22 season (subject to signature of the Host Agreement) without any application or bid process (unless the Organiser informs the FEI that they do not want to host a Qualifier for the 2021/22 season):

• FEI Dressage World Cup™ – Western European League 2021/22
• FEI Driving World Cup™ 2021/22
• FEI Jumping Ponies’ Trophy 2021
• FEI Eventing Nations Cup™ 2021

In cases where the National Federations “rotate” the qualifier each year between different Organisers in their country, it would be left up to the relevant National Federation to inform the FEI which Organiser would hold the Qualifier in 2021/22.

This Resolution would not apply to Organisers who were allocated Qualifiers to replace 2020/21 Qualifiers that were cancelled.

If applications are received from new Organisers to host 2021/2022 Qualifiers (i.e. from Organisers who were not originally part of the 2020/21 season) such applications would be reviewed on a case by case basis, by the relevant Technical Committee, with regards to the quality of the Event and compatibility with the Series calendar, before being proposed to the Board for allocation.

As the Qualifiers for the FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Youth 2021 have also already been allocated (at a previous Board Teleconference) but the 2021 Final has not, the FEI would open a “light” bidding process for applications to host the Final.

The Board approved modifications to the FEI Dressage World Cup™ North American League Rules 2020-2021. The updated Rules can be found here.

The FEI Board decided to provide the Bids/Expressions of Interest received through the EEF for these Championships to the relevant Technical Committees and Calendar Task Forces to understand if they want the FEI Board to reconsider its previous decision to cancel these Championships.

FEI World Cup™ hosting fee

The Executive Board agreed that the FEI Headquarters could waive the hosting fee for FEI World Cup™ Qualifiers on a case by case basis and based on a valid reason from the Organiser.

The Board approved the request for a change of venue of the Danish leg of the FEI Dressage World Cup™ 2020/21 from Herning to the National Equestrian Centre Vilhelmsborg (near Aarhus) due to safety requirements of the Danish authorities.

All FEI Dressage European Championships for Youth (U25, Young Riders, Juniors, Children and Ponies) in 2020 were consolidated and will take place in Budapest Region - Pilisjaszfalu (HUN) from 11 to 27 August. Originally, the Hungarian venue was set to host the FEI Dressage European Championships for Children and U25, however, due to Covid-19 and the cancellation of the FEI Dressage European Championships for Juniors and Young Riders in Hartpury (GBR) and the FEI Dressage European Championships for Ponies in Strzegom (POL), the Hungarian Organisers and National Federation contacted the FEI offering to host the additional categories.

The proposal to combine the Youth Championships was supported by the European Equestrian Federation, the Dressage Calendar Task Force and the Dressage Technical Committee.

As a result of the pandemic and the lack of competition opportunities, the Dressage Committee has waived Minimum Eligibility Requirements for all Youth Championships this year.

The timetable for the Event, which now takes place over two and half weeks as opposed to the initial six days, will be as follows: 

Children & Juniors: Sunday 9 August – Friday 14 August 2020

Young Riders & U25: Monday 17 August – Saturday 22 August 2020

Ponies: Tuesday 25 August – Sunday 30 August 2020

• Recapitulative table for each discipline (pdf) - (updated 10 November 2020)

In view of Tokyo 2020 taking place in the summer of 2021 from 23 July to 8 August and based on:

• The confirmation from the Organiser of the FEI European Championships 2021 in Jumping, Dressage and Para Dressage, Budapest (HUN), that they will not be in a position to host the Championships on a different date; and
• The preference of the Organiser of the FEI Eventing European Championships 2021, Haras du Pin (FRA), to organise it in 2023 rather than on a different date in 2021;

The Board agreed not to re-open the bids for 2021, hence not to organise the FEI European Championships for Seniors in the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines in 2021.