FEI EVENTING RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
The FEI Eventing Risk Management Program including data collection has been ongoing since 2000 and now includes 20 years. The data collected by the Eventing Department includes fence description forms, fall reports, and fence analysis. The amount of data now allows for a significant base for information queries in regard to risk management and all other questions related to qualification and technical issues in the discipline. The effort is substantial however the results are invaluable.
For 2020, the number of competitions had decreased by 51.5%, from 742 in 2019 to 360 (figures at end October 2020) due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation. The number of announced competitions in the calendar in January 2020 was 763 (which would have been an increase of 2.83% compared to 2019). However, more than 50% of the competitions have been canceled.
EVENTING RISK MANAGEMENT POLICY AND ACTION PLAN
The ongoing primary commitment of the FEI Eventing Committee is to ensure that the FEI Risk Management Policy and Action plan is endorsed and implemented by all involved in the Sport with the support and dynamic involvement of National Federations, National Safety Officers, Athletes, Officials, Organizers, Owners, and Sponsors.
The FEI Eventing Risk Management (NSO) Seminar was organized together with a “Future of the Sport” Forum in Aintree (GBR) in January 2020. A total of 145 participants from 29 countries attended. All sessions of the Forum were live-streamed and are available to watch on replay on the FEI website, which was very appreciated by the eventing community.
The main points of discussion included the future of eventing, the internal structure of the sport, risk management, data and the use of statistics, the safety program, rule changes, dressage tests, the importance of athlete education, cross-country specific items such as course design, the role of officials on cross-country day, Cross-Country Performance Indicator.
The Forum was followed by an NSO Seminar where 67 National Safety Officers and NF representatives from 25 countries participated. The agenda focused on the Risk Management Program update, including discussions on body protectors, rider representative role, frangible devices, horse injuries, etc. In addition, each nation had the opportunity to give a presentation on the Risk Management program in their country.
The FEI Eventing Risk Management Steering Group met further to the Eventing Risk Management (NSO) Seminar and recommendations were put forward to the Eventing Committee.
The 2021 FEI Eventing Risk Management (NSO) Seminar will be organized online due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation. It will be held in January 2021 over two to three days and available to all Eventing Officials and NSOs. The subjects could include: Officials roles during cross-country, education of athletes and coaches, Covid-19 related to risk management, return to play of horses, horse injuries, EquiRatings Horse Form Index, and new technologies
Continued work in partnership with EquiRatings® to implement a reviewed and improved Cross-Country Horse performance index (HFI) available in the FEI Database available for Athletes and their NFs. EquiRatings mandate with the FEI also includes specific data analysis for decision making support to the Eventing Committee and Eventing Risk Management Steering Group.
EVENTING RISK MANAGEMENT STATISTICS
The number of competitions is growing consistently, with an increase of 10.8% and an increase of starters of 2.8% over the last five years (2015-2019).
Falls: The total falls are stable (except at the five-star level where the low number of starters had an influence on the percentage of falls). The horse falls have decreased from 1.41% in 2015 to 1.36% in 2019. The number of rotational falls is very small with 26 falls in 2019, the percentage has dropped over the last 10 years from 0.31% in 2010 to 0.12% in 2019. Up to 2017, falls on the flat, included all falls not related to a cross-country fence (dressage, show jumping, warm-up areas, and on the flat in cross-country), as of 2018, the split showing where the falls occurred allowed a better understanding of the non-fence related falls. Out of 1,166 falls reported for 2019, 54 were cross-country falls on the flat (4.63%), 109 in show jumping (9.35 %), one in Dressage (0.09%), and 72 in warm-up (6.17 %).Falls per athlete category: At all levels of competition, the non-categorized athletes incurred the highest number of falls, it is concluded that this could be due to a lack of training and/or adequate cross-country education.The provisional 2020 data (end July) shows a total fall rate of 3.67% (128 falls for 3,690 starters). The significant decrease of total falls from 5.57% in 2019 could be linked to the lack of five-star competitions. This figure could evolve as the remainder of the 2020 competitions are entered in the Risk Management database.
EVENTING RISK MANAGEMENT STEERING GROUP (RMSG)
The Risk Management Steering Group Meeting as a subgroup for the Eventing Committee met in January 2020 following the Risk Management Forum and the Eventing Risk Management (NSO) Seminar. An additional member, Dr. Dave Vos (USA) had been nominated, his knowledge and work on the Update of the Frangible Device Standard as well as the video projects were very valuable. Members include: Geoff Sinclair (AUS) (Chair), Mike Etherington-Smith (GBR), Jonathan Holling (USA), Rob Stevenson (CAN), Gert Naber (NED), Staffan Lidbeck (SWE), Laurent Bousquet (FRA), and Dave Vos (USA)
In addition, conference calls took place in August and September to discuss the following points: · Qualification Criteria / Higher Level Events: Increased MERs for CCI5*-L competitions to be adapted depending on the athlete category
- Education of Coaches / Athletes / Officials: development of a video to be made available on FEI Campus
- Update of the Injury of Athletes and Horses definitions
- Update of Cross-Country Design Guide on sloping shoulders, minimum widths of fences, and a description guide for ground lines
- Frangible Technologies: Finalization of the Updated Standard for Frangible Devices to be implemented as of January 1, 2021.
- Communication: increased number of posts on the NSO Facebook page
- Risk Management Policy and Action Plan: Review and update of the current version needed to take place based on a “risk matrix” used during company risk assessment to define the level of risk by considering the category of probability or likelihood against the category of consequence severity
- Body protectors Standards: suggestion to the Medical Committee to change the body protectors standards currently recommended in the Rules to mandatory
- Update of the Medical Coverage at Events (Annex D) with the Medical Committee
- Video at CCI5*-L Events: Further to the valuable technical information obtained based on the filming in 2019, the projects would be pursued in 2020
- Online reporting for Officials: the importance of developing for officials the possibility to enter the Risk Management related data in the FEI database was again emphasized
- Horse Injury Reporting: coordination with the Veterinary Department to correlate the information from the Veterinary Reports and the Eventing Fall Reports
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