A few people mentioned on the Maryland 5 Star broadcast that starting next year, horses over 18 years old cannot compete in FEI eventing. I cannot find this rule anywhere in writing. Does anyone know where to find it?
I haven’t looked yet but this seems to be a solution in search of a problem…
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I just love that Classic Moet is 18 and still looks fitter then a fiddle around a 5* , so impressive and encouraging for us with older horses.
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Yes. What problem would this rule be solving exactly? I can not think of one. They already jog for soundness and all that so an aged horse that is not sound would not be competing.
So weird.
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What the eff.
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Yes, very curious to know the intent behind this one. Classic Moet, for example, doesn’t look remotely ready to slow down - literally!
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Maybe someone does not want to compete against Hale Bob.
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And what about up-and-coming talents like Mai Baum or On Cue? Both are a bit “older” but show no signs of needing to slow down…
I can’t imagine this could ever gain traction. “FEI Eventing” is a pretty broad scope of levels relatively speaking, and there are many horses nearing that 18 limit or at that 18 limit.
For the FEI’s reputation’s sake, I hope this is just idle gossip.
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Couldn’t have said it better. I can think of no justification at all for this rule. You are going to tell me a mare who added ZERO cross-country faults (jump OR time) and just a single rail across two 5*s this year needs to be forced into retirement? You’ll have to catch her before you can retire her…
It’s also not clear to me what level this applies to. The older horses stepping down from top level to give junior riders their first FEI experience give a hugely beneficial gift to those riders, both in terms of education and IMO safety (I haven’t been lucky enough to compete one of those horses, but can certainly recognize all they have to offer). To prevent that when, as trub very correctly points out, we already have protocols in place to ensure horses are physically fit to compete is ridiculous.
So glad this was raised in the coverage. I am hoping it opens the door for some sanity to shine through before this rule comes into effect.
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It’s beyond bizarre. This is my thought and my thought only, but at the YR Dressage champs last year I think a bunch of them were eliminated for being lame. They were all older. So maybe they were seeing old lame horses being pushed?
It’s sad for so many YRs who ride schoolmasters.
Is this maybe just something under consideration, or a rumor? I had also not seen anything from the FEI on it, & it sounds like I’m not the only one. My 1st thought when Tamie mentioned it on the livestream was that it would have ruled out 19 year old Tayberry from the Tokyo Olympics. That horse looked well within himself on cross country, despite also being tiny! (15 hh? 15.1? Something like that.)
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I agree - does anyone have a link to any actual documentation that mentions this rule being brought up? It seems like it would be controversial enough that we all would remember whatever announcement the FEI made.
The FEI’s reputation already sucks 
I hope there is a way to stop this from happening, as running a 5* as an over-18 year old is much different than running a 1*. I agree that there are many examples of horses on the age threshold in fine shape (another is Harbour Pilot) that would be excluded if the rule happens.
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The draft FEI rule revisions that have been put forth by National federations or the FEI for consideration for this year are here: https://inside.fei.org/fei/about-fei/governance/rules-revision-2021. I didn’t see anything about age of horses in the eventing or general sections. The timeline for rule proposals is here: https://inside.fei.org/fei/about-fei/governance/rules-revision. Final drafts of proposed rule revisions for this year are supposed to go out to National federations soon.
However, the eventing rules are on the schedule to get a full review next year so perhaps someone has expressed a plan to propose an age limit in that revision.
Now they’re “recommending” that riders wear air vests? FFS. AFAIK, the studies out there are somewhat inconclusive, not to mention one of them said riders had an increased risk of injury. 
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This is speculation as nothing has been explained. But… perhaps this is due to a study or data showing that older horses or horses past 18 years old have a higher incident rate of cardiac events/arrhythmia.
Potentially the FEI limiting the age for competition to cut down on horses dropping dead during cross country due to heart failures. Again, purely speculative.
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Are there lots of horses dropping dead on cross country due to heart failure?
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I’d link the post/thread if I knew how but the “WTF Are We Doing?”.
Which sadly the list has not been updated since 2019 and we’ve lost more riders/horses since then. There is cardiac discussion and losses detailed in that thread.
Recommending air vests? YIKES
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meanwhile over on Hunter forum more question and ask about air vests for hunter jumper. it is , perhaps, heading towards being trendy, I guess.
