The new rule approved on 6/6/15 to be in effect for 2016 competition year. GR 404.0 Tracking #080-15 Draft #1 Approved
RULE CHANGE TYPE
EFFECTIVE
BOARD ACTION
Extraordinary 12/1/2015 Approved 6/30/2015
EO REASON
to ensure that this rule is in effect for the 2016 competition year.
PROPOSED CHANGE
GR404 Responsibility and Accountability of Trainers [CHAPTER ] change to read:
GR404 Responsibility and Accountability of Trainers and other Persons Responsible
1.Trainers and other Persons Responsible, in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary, are responsible and accountable under the penalty provisions of these rules. The trainer and other Persons Responsible are not relieved from such responsibility as a result of the lack or insufficiency of stable security.
2.The Persons Responsible may include the rider who rides, vaults, or drives the horse and/or pony during a competition, and/or the Owner, Trainer, and other Support Personnel.
3. Support Personnel is defined to include but is not limited to grooms, handlers, longeurs, and veterinarians may be regarded as additional Persons Responsible if they are present at the competition or have made a relevant decision about the horse and/or pony.
4. A trainer is defined as any adult or adults who has or shares the responsibility for the care, training, custody, condition, or performance of a horse and/or pony. Said person must sign the entry blank of any Licensed Competition whether said person be a trainer, owner, rider, agent and/or coach. Where a minor exhibitor has no trainer, then a parent, guardian or agent or representative thereof must sign the entry blank and assume responsibility as trainer. The name of the trainer must be designated as such on the entry blank. It is the responsibility of trainers as well as competition management to see that entry blanks contain all of the required information. The responsibilities of a trainer include, but are not limited, to the following:
a. for the condition of a horse or pony at a Licensed Competition (whether or not they have signed an entry blank),
b. to guard each horse and/or pony at, and sufficiently prior to, a Licensed Competition such as to prevent the administration by anyone of, or its exposure to, any forbidden substance, and
c. to know all of the provisions of this Chapter 4 (including any advisories or interpretations published in equestrian) and all other rules and regulations of the Federation and the penalty provisions of said rules. For purposes of this rule, substantial evidence means affirmative evidence of such a clear and definite nature as to establish that said trainer, or any employee or agent of the trainer, was, in fact, not responsible or accountable for the condition of the horse and/or pony. If any trainer is prevented from performing his or her duties, including responsibility for the condition of the horses and/or ponies in his or her care, by illness or other cause, or is absent from any Licensed Competition where horses and/or ponies under his or her care are entered and stabled, he or she must immediately notify the competition secretary and, at the same time, a substitute must be appointed by the trainer and such substitute must place his or her name on the entry blank forthwith. Such substitution does not relieve the regular trainer of his/her responsibility and accountability under this rule; however, the substitute trainer is equally responsible and accountable for the condition of such horses and/or ponies.
5. The trainer and owner acknowledge that the trainer represents the owner regarding horses and/or ponies being trained or managed, entries, scratches for any reason and any act performed on any horse and/or pony under the care and custody of the trainer.
6. In the case of a horse and/or pony competing under the Therapeutic Substance Provisions, any trainer or other Person Responsible subject to these rules who actually administers, attempts to administer, instructs, aids, conspires with another to administer or employs anyone who administers or attempts to administer a forbidden substance to a horse and/or pony which might affect the performance of said horse and/or pony at a competition licensed by the Federation without complying with GR411, is subject to the penalties provided in GR406.
7. Any trainer or Person Responsible subject to these rules who administers, attempts to administer, instructs, aids, conspires with another to administer or employs anyone who administers or attempts to administer any substance to a horse and/or pony by injection or by any other route of administration, whether the substance is forbidden or permitted, in the competition ring of a competition licensed by the Federation during a scheduled class, is subject to the penalties provided in GR406.
