Eventing Committe Meeting

The Eventing Committee met in Lausanne at the end of February in the FEI Secretariat in order to meet the FEI Directors/Heads of Department and take the occasion to discuss matters directly relating to other departments at the FEI.

1. The main focus of this meeting was to start the thinking process of an Eventing strategic plan which would be presented to NFs and interested parties at the end of this year, where the following topics were discussed:

- Proposal of a mission statement and a long term vision and goals for the sport for the next ten years
- Consideration for a Change of name of the sport, e.g. Equestrian Triathlon was suggested. The FEI will be commissioning an independent study to look at this matter
- Review of the scoring system for better public understanding, a proposal will be sent out to NFs in the next months for consideration
- Consolidation of the current rules and direct reference to the Rules for Dressage and Jumping as of 2006.
- Importance of the development program was underlined to be enhanced in the next years
- review of existing major events including Eventing World Cup and current Four star events

2. Eventing Safety Program Annual report: Statistics in relation to Events, Cross country fence and falls have now been produced by the FEI. Some data still needed top be verified before published. In addition a course designers working group had been created in order to provide interpretation and explain some of the trends that emanates from figures. All statistics be compared from the 2 previous years.

The tremendous input of the Technical Delegates and Course Designers and other officials involved at all International events is recognised. Thanks to the great work of these officials, the FEI had been able to process 96% of the results from report of events held in 2004 compared to 56% in 2002.,

All FEI Eventing Officials are here officially thanked for their assistance in developing this important information for the sport.

3. Eventing Officials:
A proposal of payment of TDs for 3 star events and above and all championships through the FEI will be made to the FEI General Assembly and interested parties. The reason is to professionalizes TDs and provide a minimal compensation for this function which in the last years has increased to a tremendous responsibility.

As of 2006 the requirement of course attendance will be every 3 years for all officials. Promotion and revision of Officials lists will be made on a yearly basis in November for publication in beginning of each year.

4. Revision of Rules for Eventing:
According to 2004 Statutes Art 018-019, the four year cycle has been changed for the revision of the Olympic Technical Rules. The revision has been brought forward to the year after the Olympic Games to be presented to GA 2006 and to come into effect 1 Jan 2006.

Timeframe: The FEI Secretariat has requested the NFs proposal for the new rules by 31 March 2005 (see Bulletin 6/2004 page 24). The Eventing Committee will finalize all proposals of revision in July. The Rules will be sent out to NFs by 1 September with the other disciplines for comments by 15 October 2005. The Eventing Committee will review the comments and prepare the final document for the Bureau by November 2005.

5. Dressage Test for Eventing Championships according to Art 525 of the Rules of the Eventing -: the Committee decided Dressage Tests Championships

- B Dressage tests would apply for all championships of all star levels in even years
- A Dressage tests would apply for all championships all levels in uneven years
Note: as it was initially decided that the B tests would apply in 2005 it was agreed that the B tests would be used in both 2005 and 2006 to get in to the cycle.

6. Clarification of Art 506. 1.7 – Maintain Qualification - Rules of Eventing
As the clarified wording of Art 506.1.7 in the 2005 amendments now provides an unintentionally different interpretation as initially agreed to by the Committee. The rule therefore needs to be interpreted as follows:

The rule in regard to maintaining the qualification of a specific level with only CIC of same level applies only to riders and horses once they are confirmed (Qualification result) at that specific level. The rule does not apply for riders or horses to maintain the results of the lower level to enable them to participate in the higher level.

The rule will be rewritten for the 2006 rules revision.

7. Clarification 2005 rules: requirement International Jumping judge for 3* and above
A specialist Judge in Jumping is compulsory for all 3 star events and above and all championships. The Judge could either be of International or national status.

8. Clarification 2005 FEI Eventing World Cup – distances for Cross Country: This should read: “The Cross Country distance will be of 3600m min to 4000m max.