Department updates in Main Vaulting

We are pleased to inform you that the FEI Secretary General has approved the FEI Calendar for 2023 for all disciplines. It can be consulted online in the FEI Database.

In accordance with the FEI General Regulations, Article 112 Official Calendar, National Federations (NFs) had until 1 October 2022 at the latest to send in applications and modifications to CIs taking place in 2023 to the Secretary General. The Secretary General approves the official Calendar for the following year.

Approval of the 5* Jumping Calendar for 2024 is scheduled for late November/early December 2022 but could be postponed should the FEI General Assembly in Cape Town (RSA) approve FEI’s proposal to change the deadline for receipt of applications for 5* to 1 May (the year before the Event takes place).

In addition, the Secretary General has extended the measure taken on 28 February 2022 to remove all international equestrian events in Russia and Belarus from the FEI Calendar. As a consequence, no FEI events will be accepted/entered in either country in the FEI Calendar for 2023.

The other measures approved by the FEI Executive Board in February remain in place, as follows:

• Cancellation or relocation of Officials’ course scheduled to be held in Russia and Belarus (if any);
• Freezing all FEI Solidarity projects planned for/ongoing in Russia and Belarus; and
• Cancellation of any other FEI activities scheduled to take place in Russia and Belarus.

Detailed information on the decision taken by the FEI Executive Board on 28 February is available here.

The Secretary General has also confirmed that the FEI Board’s Emergency Board Resolution of 2 March 2022 prohibiting all Russian and Belarusian Athletes, Horses and Officials from participating in FEI Events remains in place until further notice.

Should you have any questions, please send an email to calendar@fei.org.

FEI Hybrid General Assembly 2022 - Agenda & Annexes
We are pleased to inform you that the Agenda & Annexes for the FEI Hybrid General Assembly taking place in Cape Town (RSA) from 10 to 13 November 2022, have been published in the GA hub on Inside.FEI.org.

You will also find the supporting documents for the FEI Sessions (Equine Ethics & Wellbeing Commission; General Regulations & Calendar related proposals; Rules Session; and, Paris 2024 Rules) to be held on 12 November also available in the Meeting Documents section of the GA hub.

For further information on the FEI Hybrid General Assembly 2022, visit the GA hub and don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.

Recruitment begins for new FEI Director Dressage, Para Dressage & Vaulting
The FEI is looking to recruit a new Director for the Dressage, Para Dressage & Vaulting Department to replace outgoing Director Bettina De Rham, who will be leaving at the end of the year to explore new horizons and to whom we wish all the very best and thank for her many years of service.

The detailed job description can be found here and the FEI encourages NFs and Associate Members to share this news with relevant professionals that meet the requirements of this important role.   

The deadline to apply is 25 November 2022.

The new and updated Draft Schedules 2023, to be used for all international events taking place next year, are now available on inside.FEI.org.
Below you will find the direct links to the schedules for each discipline as well as the relevant contact email should you require further information and/or assistance:
 
Click here for Jumping // Person in charge : jenni.saynajarvi@fei.org and/or kevin.Guttmann@fei.org
Click here for Dressage // Person in charge: philippe.maynier@fei.org
Click here for Para Dressage // Person in charge: laetitia.gillieron@fei.org
Click here for Eventing // Contact email: eventingschedules@fei.org
Click here for Vaulting // Person in charge: laetitia.gillieron@fei.org
Click here for Driving // Contact email:  driving@fei.org
Click here for Endurance // Contact email: endurance@fei.org

We would like to inform you that the deadline to register your Officials and NF Representatives for the FEI Vaulting Seminar, taking place in Rome (ITA) from 21 to 23 October, has been extended by two weeks to Monday 19 September 2022.
The registration for the FEI Vaulting Seminar is open to all FEI Vaulting Judges and NF Representatives. Please find here, the Official Invitation or visit the FEI Online Education Calendar (discipline - Vaulting - Search to view the list of Vaulting Courses available).
Interested participants should be registered by the National Federation directly in the Education Calendar.
For any questions please contact the Vaulting Department.

The FEI Vaulting Technical Committee is pleased to inform the Vaulting community that the FEI Vaulting Guidelines, effective from 1 January 2023, are available here.

The main changes are the following:

• Deductions in Horse score A2
• Specific deductions – compulsory/technical test
• Compulsory exercises – new description of the exercises
• Technical Test exercises - new description of the exercises
• New Technical Test exercise – Stand Backward replacing Kneeling forward to Stand

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the FEI Vaulting Department.

The Guidelines 2023 will be presented during the FEI Vaulting Seminar in Rome (ITA), in October 2022 and may lead to a few modifications being made, based on the outcome of the Seminar. The Vaulting community will be informed of any resulting changes.

Please make sure to send this communication to the concerned persons in your country.

On Tuesday 17 May, the final online meeting of the Free test concept Testing took place to evaluate the testing phase and the system.

The Chair went through her presentation that included all steps on how the testing phase had been structured and the different feedback received during this testing phase. She thanked the Judges for their dedication, their time and engagement to this project.

During this meeting, the Judges involved in the process, had the opportunity to share their point of view and their recommendations with the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee.

In summary, the Judges recommendation to the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee was not to implement the new concept. The main rational behind the recommendation were as follows:

• The proposed system is difficult to implement for Squads and Pas-de-Deux
• As proposed today, the system could work for Individuals in CVI3* only
• In general, the concern of the Judges was that in the proposed system, judging the Artistic score would become overly systematic with too many boxes to tick. Whilst the general idea is supported, all agreed that further review and testing was still needed.

The Chair thanked the Artistic working group for their time and efforts spent on the project. The testing group will look into a new/revised version of the concept in the near future.

The Chair closed the meeting by saying that all their feedback would be discussed with the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee.

The Overall Vaulting Qualification Criteria 2022 for Vaulting events has been slightly modified to reflect the correct qualification criteria for CVIY2*. These modifications can be found below and the full Vaulting Qualification Criteria is available on the FEI Vaulting Rules page.

On 19 March, the FEI successfully hosted its first ever FEI Vaulting Forum dedicated to the Reference Score and the Cartwheel. Eighty participants joined the Forum with a worldwide representation. 
FEI Chair of the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee, Pavla Krauspe, explained the main focus of the reference score and provided videos regarding the different systems. Isabelle Parker, member of the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee, presented the Cartwheel and explained how its description had slightly been reviewed by the Committee. 
Based on the comments raised during the FEI Vaulting Forum 2022, the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee has slightly amended the FEI Vaulting Guidelines with regards to the Reference Scores and the description of the Cartwheel exercise. These amendments can be found highlighted in blue in the updated Guidelines published on the FEI Vaulting Rules page.
Krauspe also expressed her gratitude to all participants and emphasised that organising a Forum once a year would be a good way forward in order to keep the Vaulting community informed and to gather feedback on specific topics. She also thanked the Athletes and all the Vaulting stakeholders who worked relentlessly over the past two years, facing the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, and allowing for a return to competition in 2021 with two major championships. 
The agenda, presentations and wrap up of the Forum can be found in the dedicated Vaulting Forums section online.  

The Board approved the proposed amendments to the qualification period for the FEI Vaulting World Cup™ Final 2023 to a full year, starting on 1 January of the year preceding the Final to the 31 December of that same year. (Article 2.1 of the FEI Vaulting World Cup™ Rules 2023) The Rules will be updated to reflect this change and published here shortly.

The FEI Vaulting Technical Committee would like to give an update to the Vaulting Community regarding the testing phase of the New scoring system.
Eleven Judges, of global representation, applied for the testing phase. The applicants will start judging the new artistic structure onsite at CVIs and through selected online videos until the end of April 2022. They have already had pre-meeting(s) to review the supporting documents and the procedure. The Chair informed the Judges that regular meetings would be scheduled after each judging session. As a reminder, the focus of the exercise will be only on artistic aspects. The testing will include all categories and all-star levels.
A final meeting will take place at the end of May with all testing Judges, the FEI Vaulting Technical Committee and FEI Headquarters to review the outcome of the testing phase and to come up with a conclusion which will then be proposed to National Federations in July for the 2023 Rules.
The FEI Vaulting Technical Committee would like to remind the Vaulting Athletes and Coaches that they are requested to complete the dedicated questionnaire in order to have their feedback on this important project.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the FEI Vaulting department.