FEI Promotional Meeting Held during the 2004 NRHA European Affiliate Championship Show

During the NRHA European Affiliate Championship Show held in Deurne (NED), an FEI Promotional Meeting was held. The objective of the meeting itself was to provide the international reining community information regarding the upcoming major FEI World Reining Masters presented by NetJets, the 2005 FEI World Reining Masters and the 2006 World Equestrian Games.

With regard to the 2004 FEI World Reining Masters Series presented by NetJets, a fractional jet ownership company with branches world wide, the prize fund of USD100,000 was confirmed. $75,000 will be offered in the Open Division, open to all qualified riders, and $25,000 will go to the Restricted Division (a division for competitors from those countries not among the five finalists at the 2002 WEG: USA, Canada, Italy, Germany and Great Britain). For both divisions a set of FEI medals (Gold, Silver and Bronze) will be awarded.

The World Reining Masters Final competition, which is scheduled for Thursday 2 December at 7.30 p.m., a prime time performance hour, will be held at the State Fair Arena, Oklahoma City in conjunction with the NRHA Reining Futurity. The competition will comply with all FEI rules and no elimination or go round will be held.

To this date 15 countries have planned to organise one or more qualifying CRI. Teams that made the finals at the 2002 WEG may submit two entries and all others may submit one. Entrants do not need to compete on horses with which they qualified and no ownership restrictions will be applied.

Each finalist will be provided with seven room night accommodation in a four star hotel, $50 per day meal allowance for seven days and $1,500 for travel to and from Oklahoma City where shuttle service will be made available from the hotel to the event site at specified times. These funds are generously made available by Classic S Ranch, Reichling, Germany.

The Organising Committee will attempt to coordinate travel arrangements from a central point in Europe to New York or Miami and on to Oklahoma City. Those interested in shipping horses from Europe to this event will be able to stay in the USA on a Performance Carnet. In addition on and off site quarantine facilities will be available. The FEI World Reining Masters finals will be televised by America's Horse TV and the FEI is working for TV broadcasting in Europe.

2005 FEI World Reining Masters Series

Frank Costantini, Chairman of the FEI Reining Committee, announced that the time limit for submitting bids to host the 2005 FEI World Reining Masters Series finals had been extended to 15 August and that Organising Committee's from Bremen, Kreuth, Stockholm and Milan were planning to submit their nominations. The location which will prove to be the most beneficial to the promotion of the sport of Reining will be chosen and the purse will not be lowered. Costantini was pleased to note that interest in hosting the prestigious final proved to be higher than expected and took the opportunity to thank all those involved in helping promote the FEI World Reining Master Series. It was reported that Trigg Rentfro had been appointed FEI Reining Development Officer and that Ramona Billing and Simona Diale would be the Media Contacts for the FEI Reining Department.

2006 WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES - AACHEN, GERMANY

Don Treadway, AQHA Executive Director of Marketing, announced that Reining would be a full FEI discipline at the 2006 WEG in Aachen which signifies that it will join the six FEI disciplines in terms of expenses and prize money being provided for by the Organising Committee. The purse will be the same, or higher, than the one offered in Spain at the 2002 WEG "Our long term goal is the Olympics and there is a good chance for our sport in the future", said Treadway. "Even though we have accomplished much in such a short period, it is however imperative that we do have more FEI competitions with more countries competing". Hosting the meeting were also Trigg Rentfro, FEI Reining Development Officer and Dan Wall, NRHA Executive Director.

Media Contact::
Ramona Billing, Tel. ++49-89-72447410, Fax ++49-89-72447411
Simona Diale, Tel. ++39-0143849139, Fax ++39-0143849914