FEI Eventing Committee Meeting in Malmö

The Eventing Committee met in Malmö during the FEI Eventing World Cup Final. The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Chairman Mr Michael Etherington Smith as the Chairman Mr Wayne Roycroft was not able to attend following serious injuries due to an accident.

The meeting was very fruitful as during the world Cup final many other meeting with the riders, World Cup organisers, officials could be organised.
The main topics discussed were

1. Revision of Rules for Eventing:
The final draft for the Rules of Eventing to come into force 1 January 2006 prepared by the Eventing Rules sub-committee was reviewed by the Committee.
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.

2. Eventing Strategic Plan
A first draft of the Eventing strategic 10 year plan was discussed by the Committee. The plan will be finalized with discussion with other parties in time for send out to NFs in view of the April 2006 General Assembly. The Plan will include:
- a mission statement for the discipline a long term vision and goals for the sport for the next ten years with an introduction on the philosophy of Eventing
- development technical aspects of the discipline and competition format evolvement for the future leaving enough flexibility to try and improve the sport without losing its integrity
- Consideration for a Change of name of the sport: an independent study had been commissioned by the FEI.
- Importance of the development program to be enhanced for the next years

3. Olympic Games - Eventing
The Qualification criteria was updated with minimal changes after the experience of the Athens qualifications and the additional new IOC requirements – these will be submitted for approval with the other disciplines to the Bureau and General Assembly for ratification. It was felt that in general the procedure worked well in Eventing.

4. Eventing Officials:
The payment of TDs for 3 star events and above and all championships through the FEI was approved by the FEI General Assembly and will come into force 1 January 2006. A memo on procedures will be issued on the FEI Web-site later this year. The reason for introducing this measure was assist in to professionalizing TDs by providing a minimal compensation for this function which in the last years has increased to a tremendous responsibility.

Education of Officials was discussed and updated concepts for courses will be developed to be introduced at courses next year..

5. Scoring
The Committee considered the tremendous response received from NFs, Officials and riders, however it was clear that no consensus could be reached to date.

The purpose of the review of the scoring system was to propose a system for better public understanding. A summary of the pros and cons of the proposal will be circulated to NFs again for comment. However it was felt that the new system could not be implemented until after the 2008 Olympic Games in order not to interfere with the qualification procedure.