Mules could be excluded from FEI competitions from 2020.
The Italian national federation has proposed to amend the definition of “horse” in the FEI general regulations to “clarify that mules are not considered as horses and therefore cannot compete in FEI competitions”. The FEI has voiced its support for the change.
Read more at https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/fei-mules-proposed-ban-691470#3BSiswU1IAE2RiGg.99
What a bizarre regulatory challenge. Who is possibly being disadvantaged by the current definition? As the article says, mules aren’t competing FEI anyway. Changing the high-level definition as a way to keep mules out of lower level dressage competition seems unnecessarily restrictive and silly. I don’t see the point.
I just don’t understand what the hubbub is about mules in dressage. If the mule can correctly perform the movements, at the proper tempo, and enjoys its job, why not? It’s mule discrimination!
I wonder why people think of these rule changes? What happened in their world that makes this seem logical?
Is there a word for logic in Italian? :winkgrin:
Given the recent spate of hullabaloo over mules in various equine sports here in the US, I feel like there’s some sort of ulterior motive at play. Why make a move to ban mules (especially where there are like three sports I could see mules succeeding in at FEI levels against horses) unless there’s a mule-and-rider team showing up the horses and ticking off their riders?
Italy has a lot to lose I guess…LOL
My bets are that someone in Italy has a pretty good mule that is doing pretty good and someone(s) got their panties in a wad losing to this creature and thus petitioned for the rule.
Ohhh Italy.
Mules are so scarce, who cares? I don’t care to pay much attention to Italy, but maybe there is a promising mule going up the levels. If so, good for the mule and rider. Sure, maybe you can get rid of this one mule, but you still can’t get rid of the tons of horses that are competitive against you, so why worry about one mule?
They’re half horses, good enough for me. If such a creature can prove themselves suitable for the sport, let 'em in.
If you get beat by a mule, then up your game. Or accept that maybe the pair is just better than you and your mount. This happens. Life and all that.
It could have something to do the TREC competition.
https://en.fite-net.org/La-FITE/Actu…FITE-et-la-FEI
Italy trying to spike French mules ?
There was a mule named Buckeye at Breyerfest who does dressage. It is what he chose as his discipline, his owner told me. (Lord knows a mule ain’t doing anything he doesn’t care to do!) I didn’t catch what level he is confirmed to. My impression based on the small amount I saw was that he doesn’t come onto contact like a horse does. The contact thing could just be indicative of a lower level dressage equine and not a mule characteristic, I suppose. There’s that mule in England that is fairly high level, IIRC. Two things I noticed that could be a mule advantage over a horse - his foot placement was superior (I believe mules can see further behind them than horses can) and his sense of rhythm was dead on. That was especially fascinating for me as a musician. The rhythm of the gaits appeared to be coming from him and not the rider. When he found his groove at the collected trot and then a mini piaffe, he started swinging his tail side to side like a metronome. I’ve seen high level dressage horses flick their tails when they concentrate but nothing like this. It was completely even - never sped up or slowed down.
Total fangirl fluff thing that I fell in love with: When he swivels his ears to focus on his rider they flop around in time to his gait. It was adorable!
OK, I’ll play devil’s advocate just for grins. OP, why do you care? Do you compete on your mules? Do you have FEI aspirations? All kidding aside, my first thought when I read the OP was, so?
I don’t particularly care…it’s just weird. Couldn’t work out why the Italians would bother.
I agree that it’s bizarre to agitate for a definition that explicitly outlaws mules, given the dearth of uppity dressage mules on the scene.
H&H naturally compared this to recent mule-related goings on in British Dressage, but it sounds like the definition change would apply to all of FEI so perhaps it’s driven by mules in other disciplines (driving? endurance? I’m too out of touch with some sports to know if there’s a hot mule rising in the ranks right now).
Another possibility is that the BD mule acceptance drew attention to the fact that FEI definitions currently allow mules, and some faction of Italian pedants decided they couldn’t let that stand. When Carl Hester starts applauding the advancement of mules, perhaps it riles some purists?
I hope this won’t have ripple effects for the folks who are working with mules at lower levels outside of Italy (e.g. Wallace the mule in UK). It would be quite a jerk move to agitate for a regulation change that would serve mostly to crush the ambitions of lower level pairs in other countries.
yeah, I was like why do we think this has something to do with dressage? I would almost wonder if it has more to do with some (Italian) horse losing its $hit over a mule being … there, because that seems more likely to disrupt upper level competition placings than the mule competing in upper levels
(I have seen mules in ADS CDE, and even a mule/horse pair, so they are out there. But driving horses mostly do not care about a lot of things that make other horses die a thousand deaths, and what they do care about (minis)? That’s what blinders and turning the other direction is for!)
I’ll bite.
I care because I’ve never seen a ban on mules in competitions that wasn’t completely reactionary. That is, I’ve never come across an incident where a mule ban wasn’t precipitated by a mule winning against horses or (at some local, unrecognized shows) the mere thought of a mule beating horses.
And that’s just bad logic. Whiny, churlish, and unsporting bad logic.
If you allow mules (non-horses) to compete, that could lead to donkeys, then zebras. And now it’s a circus. 
That guy is mostly Appy, so doesn’t look quite so mule-ish. Now Wallace the mule is a whole different story:
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqGPhRrJTlA
Any equine that is a cross between horse and donkey is considered a mule. I’ve worked with draft mules and seen pony sized ones, too. Not sure what I’m missing here?
I just had to look up Buckeye because of this thread. Darn. He is adorable.
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