http://www.fei.org/news/fei-removes-uae-international-endurance-events-official-calendar
FEI REMOVES UAE INTERNATIONAL ENDURANCE EVENTS FROM OFFICIAL CALENDAR
[B]26 Feb 2015
[/B]Following the first meeting of the new FEI Executive Board, chaired by recently elected President Ingmar De Vos, Secretary General Sabrina Zeender has removed the two remaining international Endurance events scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in March 2015 from the FEI calendar in an emergency measure to protect horse welfare and to preserve the integrity of the FEI rules and regulations at FEI events.
The move follows a mandate from the FEI Bureau to the Executive Board to urgently investigate horse welfare issues and non-compliance with FEI rules and regulations in the UAE. The Executive Board will now finalise its recommendations to the Bureau.
“We have made this our top priority and will make our conclusions as speedily as possible so that the recommendations can be presented to the Bureau for urgent consideration”, the FEI President said after the meeting, which was held at FEI Headquarters in Lausanne (SUI).
The Executive Board meeting was attended by the FEI President, 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Vice President and Chair of the Jumping Committee John Madden (USA), 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Vice President and Chair of FEI Regional Group VII HE Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa (BRN), Chair of the Dressage Committee Frank Kemperman (NED), Chair of the Athletes’ Committee Maria Gretzer (SWE), and FEI Secretary General Sabrina Zeender (SUI). Luiz Roberto Giugni (BRA), Chair of FEI Regional Group VI, was unable to attend due to meetings in Brazil on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The Endurance Rules were strengthened last year specifically to protect and promote horse welfare following recommendations from the Endurance Strategic Planning Group. The widely supported measures include additional dope testing, injury surveillance and reporting, athlete penalties for equine injuries, and extended rest periods. Other measures increase the responsibility and accountability of riders, trainers and officials, as well as steps to address any conflicts of interest.
Notes to Editors:
The removal of international events from the FEI calendar is covered in the FEI General Regulations. Article 112 states: “The Secretary General shall have the authority to remove any Competition and/or Event from the Calendar if justified circumstances relating to a Competition or the Event are established.”
Good for them. Pleasantly surprised.
This may be the first step leading towards the FEI requiring CEN events being run under FEI rules, and that National federations shape up.
Of course, the Bad Boys of Group 7 will simply run their own races if they don’t want to play by the rules.
Then what?
Well, the whole Region 7, or at least the UAE, could get painted with the same brush and banned from all FEI events and then hopefully the good guys will weed out the bad guys so they can come back into the fold after that self-policing - put in very simplistic terms…
But most importantly, the rest of the world needs to stop selling their horses to these specific stables at the least, if not the UAE altogether. I am upset with some of our US American Endurance riders who have made it a business (that now they rely on and probably can’t stop) to buy cheap prospects (off the track), train them and ride them for a season or two, then sell them for five figures to the ME, mostly UAE.
In fact, one person has said to me “I’m going to xyz ride and I am not planning on bringing the horse back.” And that’s how it works… I have been to one ride where a couple of Omanis were shopping for their (Omani military) endurance club. People were falling all over each other to present their horses!!! I couldn’t believe it, it was so embarrassing. These were super nice guys (helped me cool my horse down at the vet check!) but come on, people! Someone with a big bank account shows up and you throw your horse at them, no matter where it may go? Now, we haven’t really heard anything bad out of Oman so I give my fellow US riders the benefit of doubt (even though I suspect a lot of them wouldn’t know that’s not one of the Emirates…) but still, it confirmed for me that money talks and these discussions are pretty useless if in our own ranks we have people who “feed the beast” and we are afraid to point them out.
You are right Lieselotte, the US needs to stop selling to the UAE but I think their greed overrides their conscience. Still, this is a small step in the right direction and I was pleasantly surprised by the decision.
