Department updates in Main Vaulting

The FEI Board held a teleconference on 17 December. The main resolutions taken on this occasion are listed below.

Governance
Elections and appointments 2025
The Board approved the timeline for the 2025 elections and appointments, as follows:

• 1 February: Publication of open positions (as well as Rules of Conduct, Job Specifications and other working documents);
• 1 May: Deadline for applications to be submitted to the FEI;
• May – June (exact date TBC): Nominations Committee in-person meeting;
• August – September (exact date TBC): If contested, online elections for Group V Chair position;
• 4 November: Appointments by the FEI Board at in-person Board meeting in Hong Kong;
• 7 November: Election by FEI General Assembly 2025.

Legal
Appointment of a new Chair of the Atypical Findings (ATF) Panel
The Board approved the appointment of Clíodhna Guy (IRL) from the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board as Independent Chair of the Atypical Findings (ATF) Panel for one year.

Allocation of FEI Championships and Finals
The Board approved the re-allocation of the FEI Jumping European Championships for Children, Juniors and Young Riders 2025 to Riesenbeck (GER) on 7-13 July.

Jumping
The Board approved the proposed modifications to the following rules:

• Longines EEF Series Rules 2025. The updated document will be published here.
• FEI Jumping World Cup Rules 2025/2026 (Annex D Arab League; Annex F North American League; Annex G China  League; and Annex J Eurasian League);
• FEI Jumping Nations Cup Youth Rules 2025.

The updated versions of the latter two documents will be published here.

The Board approved the removal of the Šamorín (SVK) leg from the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Youth Series 2025 season without replacement.

Vaulting
The Board approved the FEI Vaulting Guidelines 2025.
The updated document has been published here.

Grooms Consultative Group (GCG)
The Board appointed Daniela Garcia Nigaglioni (MEX), High-Performance Director of the Mexican Equestrian Federation and Secretary General of the Pan American Equestrian Confederation (PAEC), as the representative of the National Federations and Tomas Torgersen (SWE), the Equestrian Organisers Board Member, as the stakeholder’s representative on the Grooms Consultative Group.

Driving
FEI Driving Rules 2025 – Postponement Application Annexes 11 and 12*
Emergency Board Resolution
The Board approves the suspension of the implementation of Annex 11 and Annex 12 of the FEI Driving Rules 2025 pending the full revision of the FEI Driving Rules that will take place in 2025.

Given that this is an Emergency Board Resolution, National Federations have until 19 January 2025 to signify their disapproval by sending an email to Francisco P. Lima, Director Governance & Institutional Affairs.

The FEI Vaulting Department would like to reopen applications to host the FEI Vaulting Seminar 2025. The FEI Vaulting Seminar is an educational and informative Seminar that is held over two and a half days and is open to all FEI Vaulting Judges, Stewards and NF Representatives (maximum 50-60 participants). For NFs interested in hosting the FEI Vaulting Seminar 2025, the applicant NF should meet the following requirements:

• Be able to accommodate the Seminar on 17-19 October 2025.
• Secure a venue close to an international airport (max 1h30 form an airport) which is easily accessible.
• The venue should include a seminar room (which can accommodate 50-60 people) equipped with the necessary conference material (video projector, sound system, etc). Ideally, 1-2 other smaller meeting rooms should also be available for workshops/Maintenance Courses.
• Hotel options should be offered at the venue or near the venue in order to accommodate all participants.
• Venues that can offer live/practice sessions with horses are highly appreciated.

For more information on the application process and eligible criteria, we invite you to consult the Guidelines and application form published on the Vaulting – How to organise a Course page. Applications close on 31 January 2025.

Thank you for considering the above and if you have any questions or require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact the FEI Vaulting Department.

We are pleased to inform you that the FEI Secretary General has approved the FEI Calendar for 2025 for all disciplines. It can be consulted online in the FEI Database.  

Should you have any questions related to the FEI Calendar, please do not hesitate to contact calendar@fei.org.

As part of our new strategic development for Vaulting, we would like to assess how the discipline is recognised within National Federations. Therefore, we kindly ask you to please forward this short survey to the person responsible for the discipline of Vaulting within your Federation, for them to complete and submit by 8 November 2024 at the latest.

Please click here to access the survey. We thank you in advance for contributing to the ongoing progress of our sport.

In addition, we are pleased to inform you that the next FEI Vaulting Forum will be held online on 7 February 2025 (15:00 – 18:00 CET). The Forum is open to the entire Vaulting Community (Officials, Athletes, Trainers, NF Representatives, parents, etc) and registrations should be made directly in the FEI Course Calendar. Please note that the application deadline is on 24 January 2025.

The Forum will focus on the FEI Vaulting Rules and Guidelines changes for 2025, the CoH (Consideration of the Horse) score as well as the future of the discipline.

We invite you to share this information with the Vaulting Community in your country and thank you for your support. 

We would like to inform you that the mark-up version of the FEI Vaulting Guidelines 2025 has been published on the FEI Vaulting Rules page.

Please share this information with the Vaulting Community in your country. 

We kindly also ask you to please share any comments you may have with the FEI Vaulting Department at the latest by Wednesday 9 October 2024.

We wish to remind you that in accordance with Art. 112 of the FEI General Regulations, the dates for all 2025 International Events must be entered into the FEI online Calendar through FEI Database before Tuesday 01 October 2024 midnight CEST, with the exception of CSI5* and CSIO5* Events for 2025 which had to be entered before 1 May 2024 and have already been approved as previously indicated in our newsletter dated 22 August 2024.

At 23:59 CEST on 01 October 2024, the 2025 online Calendar will be blocked. Any modification requested after the deadline will need to be addressed to the FEI by email (calendar@fei.org) using the Calendar Form available on FEI Documents.

The full Memo can be accessed via the FEI Calendar page (click here).

We would like to inform you that the detailed agenda of the FEI Vaulting Seminar, taking place in Saumur on 18-20 October 2024, is now available on the Vaulting Seminar Hub. Please note that the deadline to register has been extended to 16 September 2024. As a reminder, the Seminar is open to all FEI Vaulting Judges, Stewards and NF Representatives (ideally max. 2 per nation).
 

To register, participants have to be enrolled by their NF directly in the FEI Course Calendar.
 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the FEI Vaulting Department.
 

We invite you to share this information with the Vaulting Community in your country. 

We would like to remind you that the next FEI Vaulting Seminar will be organised in Saumur (FRA) from 18-20 October 2024. The Seminar is open to all FEI Vaulting Judges, Stewards and NF Representatives (max. 2 per nation). The agenda will be available shortly on the Vaulting Forums/Seminars hub.

For registration, participants have to be enrolled by their NF directly in the FEI Course Calendar. Please note that the application deadline is 31 August 2024.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the FEI Vaulting Department.

We invite you to share this information with the Vaulting Community in your country.

The FEI will launch the "Be a Guardian" initiative today, calling on community members to embrace their roles as guardians of FEI horses. A full press release will be issued shortly and can be found here.

The ‘Be a Guardian’ initiative represents a significant shift in the FEI's approach to equine care, emphasising the importance of horse welfare.

Based on the concept of guardianship, the Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission created a comprehensive document highlighting six priority areas and 30 recommendations to improve the welfare of sport horses.

The FEI has since developed an Equine Welfare Strategy Action Plan to address the priorities identified by the Commission.

Supported by a CHF 1 million allocation approved by the FEI Board in June 2024, this plan aims to enhance the wellbeing of FEI horses through robust rules, guidelines, educational programmes, and various initiatives.

The goal is to respect the natural needs of horses in international equestrian sports, fostering a global commitment to equine welfare and ensuring that horses receive the care and respect they deserve.

We urge our National Federations to embrace this call to action, actively promote this shift in perspective, and recognise the responsibility we all share in being the guardians of our beloved horses. 

As you are aware, the FEI is committed to raising awareness among NFs and Stakeholders on the importance of Safeguarding and to provide key tools to NFs that have yet to take action on this delicate but crucial topic.

Below, please find several useful tools and sources of information in relation to Safeguarding:

FEI Safeguarding webinar for NFs, 23 May 2024 – Recordings available
The recordings of the FEI Safeguarding webinar for NFs are now available and can be accessed in the Harassment and Abuse section on Inside.FEI.org.

The webinar provided practical guidance to NFs on the following topics: 

• Appointment of a Safeguarding Lead/Safeguarding Officer
• Policy development, including use of the FEI templates (please see attached the templates)
• Policy implementation

The webinar followed on from the FEI Sports Forum 2024 Safeguarding presentation, of which you can watch the replay here.

Please send any questions, feedback, and suggestions for future webinar topics you may have to safeguarding@fei.org. We welcome your input.

 

Safeguarding Policy and Report Form templates for NFs

The templates referred to in the FEI Safeguarding webinar are currently available in English and Spanish can be accessed in the Harassment and Abuse section on Inside.FEI.org.

 

FEI Safeguarding initiative at the FEI Vaulting Championships, Bern (SUI)

The FEI will be running a Safeguarding initiative on Tuesday 16 July 2024, at the FEI World Vaulting Championships in Bern to raise awareness among the equestrian community on the importance of Safeguarding.  The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness and provide guidance as to what each one of us can do to ensure a safe environment for everyone involved in equestrian sport.

 

The initiative will be comprised of two activities:

• An interactive presentation/workshop for Chefs d’Equipe, Coaches, Trainers, Lungers, Support Personnel and all FEI Officials from10h30-11h30 in the Media Room.
• A Safeguarding booth for athletes, grooms and support personnel from 12h – 15h by the canteen.

 

Please inform and encourage everyone attending the FEI World Vaulting Championships from your NF to participate in this important initiative.

If you have any questions, please contact safeguarding@fei.org.

We thank you in advance for your collaboration.