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The Olympic sport of Eventing is the most complete combined competition discipline recognised by the FEI. Sometimes described as an equestrian triathlon, Eventing demands considerable experience in all branches of equitation.
Eventing originated as a military competition which tested officers and horses in challenges that could occur on or off duty. It also provided a basis to compare training standards between the cavalries of different countries. The modern competition comprises dressage, cross-country and jumping on consecutive days. The competitor rides the same horse throughout the three phases.
Cross-country is the highlight, testing the speed, stamina and jumping ability of the horse, as well as the rider’s knowledge of pace and the use of his horse. The course will have between 25 and 45 specially constructed jumps over solid obstacles such as logs, woodpiles and stone walls, with water and ditches increasing the technical difficulty.
Eventing has a huge following with crowds of up to 250,000 recorded at the British spring feature at Badminton. In 1976 the Princess Royal was a member of the British Olympic team, and her daughter, Zara Phillips, is also an accomplished Event rider. Meanwhile New Zealand’s Mark Todd wrote a 112-page biography of his horse Charisma, with whom he twice won the Olympic Eventing title.
A demonstration of Olympic spirit and determination at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, where the first three Australians were well ahead of the field when one of their horses went lame, saw their fourth rider, 45-year-old Bill Roycroft, who had broken his collarbone in the cross-country, leave his hospital bed, to go clear in the Jumping and secure team gold for Australia.
Eventing demands of the competitor considerable experience in all branches of equitation and a precise knowledge of the horse’s ability and of the horse a degree of competence resulting from intelligent and rational training. It covers all round riding ability and horsemanship: the harmony between horse and rider that characterise Dressage; the contact with nature, precise knowledge of the horses ability and extensive experience essential for the Cross Country; the precision, agility and technique involved in Jumping.
Eventing is one of the three disciplines in competition at the Olympic Games, the other two being Jumping and Dressage.
Modern competitions consist of three distinct tests: Dressage, Cross-Country and Jumping. They take place on separate consecutive days during which a competitor rides the same horse throughout.
1. Dressage Test After an opening Horse Inspection, a Dressage test is performed, the object of which is the harmonious development of the physique and ability of the horse. The test consists of a series of compulsory movements at walk, trot and canter gaits, within a rectangular arena 60 m. long and 20 m. wide. To perform a good Dressage test, the horse needs to be flexible and fluid. To keep the strong Eventing horses under the firm control required by the exacting Dressage movements involves great knowledge and understanding. A good Dressage test lays the foundation for the rest of the competition and horses that are found wanting in this phase face an uphill struggle to get up amongst the prize-winners.
2. Cross-Country Test The focus of the entire event is on the Cross-Country test, the objective of which is to test the ability of athletes and horses to adpat to different and variable conditions (weather, terrain, obstacles, footing etc...) and jumping ability of the horse, while at the same time demonstrating the rider’s knowledge of pace and the use of his horse. Exceeding the time allowed and refusals result in penalties. All penalties are added together and recorded for inclusion in the final classification. Fall of a horse and/or of a rider entails immediate elimination.
3. Jumping Test The Jumping test takes place on the last day after a second Horse Inspection. Riders may voluntarily retire their horses if they seem unfit to continue. This test is run in reverse order of merit and its main objective is to prove that the horses have retained their suppleness, energy and obedience in order to jump a course of 11 to 15 obstacles.
The winning individual is the competitor with the lowest total of penalty points. The winning team is the one with the lowest total of penalty points, after adding together the final scores of the three highest placed competitors in the team.
The Premier Eventing Competitions are...
The use of 8mm pre-fabricated Dyneema ropes has been approved for use with the British Eventing Reverse Frangible Pin for rails up to 90 kg.
The updated instruction manual has been published on the frangible devices page of the FEI website
Online consultations on the FEI Regulations for Equestrian Events at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 were conducted on 21 and 22 March.
Participants had the opportunity to discuss the Jumping, Dressage and Para Dressage Regulations in individual sessions as part of the wide-ranging Paris 2024 consultation process. The discussion on the Eventing Regulations will take place on 28 March.
The consultations are an opportunity for stakeholders to review and comment on the feedback that was received on the pre-competition and competition Regulations for each discipline.
This feedback was collected through an online questionnaire circulated to stakeholders on 7 December 2021, and the information was reviewed by Consultative Groups set up for each Olympic and Paralympic discipline.
The questionnaire was sent to athletes, officials and other Tokyo 2020 stakeholders, in addition to representatives of the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC), the International Jumping Officials Club (IJOC), the Jumping Owner’s Club (JOC), the International Dressage Riders Club (IDRC), the International Dressage Trainers Club (IDTC), the International Dressage Officials Club (IDOC), the International Eventing Officials Club (IEOC), FEI Regional Group Chairs, and the relevant FEI Technical Committees.
The information from the consultation sessions will now be consolidated and discussed by the relevant FEI Technical Committees before being put forward to the FEI Sports Forum for discussion on 25 April. The documents for discussion at the FEI Sports Forum, which will include the proposals of the Technical Committees, will be published in advance on the FEI Sports Forum Hub.
Key dates in the consultation process are as follows:
7 December 2021
Online questionnaire circulated to 302 Athletes; 51 National Federations; 35 Officials; 7 MOUs Stakeholders and 3 Discipline Managers. All of these stakeholders participated directly at Tokyo 2020 Olympic or Paralympic Games. The deadline for returning the questionnaire was 15 February 2022.
21 March 2022
Online Session - Paris 2024 Olympic Dressage Regulations
Online Session - Paris 2024 Paralympic Regulations
22 March 2022
Online Session - Paris 2024 Olympic Jumping Regulations
28 March
Online Session - Paris 2024 Olympic Eventing Regulations
25 April
FEI Sports Forum – Sessions dedicated to all the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Regulations.
July 2022
Revised Regulations to be sent to National Federations for further feedback.
October 2022
Proposed Olympic and Paralympic Regulations for Paris 2024 will be published, four weeks prior to the FEI General Assembly.
November 2022
NFs and other stakeholders will have one last opportunity to comment on the Regulations during the Rules Session, which will take place the day before the General Assembly.
The regulations will be put to a vote at the FEI General Assembly and the documents will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 2023 for approval.
The FEI Eventing Risk Management and NSO Seminar which took place on 22 January 2022 is available to watch on replay on the dedicated FEI Eventing Risk Management webpage. You will also find all the presentations, annexes and statistics as well as a report highlighting the key discussions.
The British Eventing Reverse Frangible Pin for rails up to 90 kg has been approved.
It has been added to the register or products having met the Updated Standard for frangible/deformable Cross Country fences Version 2.(5) with the following FEI Registration numbers:
FEI18GBR - BE Reverse pin – Short (for rails up to 90 kg)
FEI19GBR - BE Reverse pin – Long (for rails up to 90 kg)
In addition, 3 videos for the MIM Corner kit (45, 60, 90 degree angle videos) have been published.
All information relating to frangible devices is available on the FEI website
The HFI is now available to National Federations, Athletes and Owners in the FEI database and for National Federations and Officials (appointed at an event), through the FEI entry system.
All information is available on the FEI website Eventing / Risk Management / HFI. For any questions, please contact eventing@fei.org
The Eventing Statistics Report 2010 – 2021 has been finalised.
It is published on the FEI website under Eventing / Risk Management
The Eventing Categorisation of Athletes has been updated on 01 January 2022 and takes into account MERs obtained between 1 July 2013 and 31 December 2021.
The lists of categorised Athletes are available on the following webpage.
Final FEI World Eventing Athlete Rankings 2021 - Final Rankings
The Eventing Zone Rankings have been updated and are available on the following webpage, click here.
2021 Leaders of the Eventing Zone Rankings:
North Western Europe: Oliver Townend (GBR)
South Western Europe: Maxime Livio (FRA)
Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia: Aleksandr Markov (RUS)
North America: Boyd Martin (USA)
Central and South America: Carlos Lobos Muñoz (CHI)
Africa and Middle East: Usman Khan (PAK)
South East Asia and Oceania: Tim Price (NZL)
Note: Eventing Zone Rankings are processed once a year and take into account results obtained between 1 January and 31 December 2021
The FEI has created a stakeholders survey to ensure the maintenance and continued improvement, of an already existing high standard, at FEI Events. This survey will help the FEI better understand the expectations of its key stakeholders, and the information collected will help guide the future approach of the FEI to ensuring that these are met.
The survey launches today and will be open until Monday 14 February 2022. We encourage everyone to take part in this survey, which should take no more than 10 minutes, and thank you in advance for your time.
Take the FEI Events Standards Stakeholder Survey - https://inside.fei.org/hub/fei-events-standards-stakeholders-survey
The Online Risk Management and NSO Seminar will be held on Saturday 22 January 2022.
The agenda is published on the FEI website.
The Seminar will be recorded and available to watch in replay from the FEI website.
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