These are allegations and the incident was outside the sport.
Inside the sport, accountability and suspensions seem harder to come by, even when there are human fatalities involved.
What I’m saying is that it’s all a bit of hand-waving for FEI/NF to suspend someone for criminal charges pending resolution of those charges.
Where there’s actual pain for the FEI/NF - in terms of holding officials accountable or even informing membership of issues on a particular designer’s courses - nothing is done. And this is something that actually falls under the purview of those orgs.
I don’t think it matters where it happens if he is a member though, correct? With SS arent they suspended once charged?
I know what you are saying about the fatalities, I mean, preaching to the choir for me lol At least they had the inquest and some actual recommendations for the sport.
This is the actual EA policy (from their website);
Formal Report – Police or External Agency
ï‚· If a report is made to the police the matter is considered under a criminal process and except for taking precautionary action Equestrian Australia will not undertake any internal investigation until the criminal process is concluded.
ï‚· If a report is made to an external agency in addition to Equestrian Australia then the matter can be investigated concurrently unless it is determined that this would negatively impact either process.
ï‚· Equestrian Australia will support the police and other external agencies with any formal report made to them including where they progress to an investigation.
Outcome of criminal process
ï‚· If a person bound by the Policy is convicted of a criminal offence then the conduct of behaviour that they have been found to have committed can be relied upon to establish a disciplinary offence and can be considered to determine sanctions.
ï‚· If a person bound by the Policy is acquitted, Equestrian Australia can still take disciplinary action if there is sufficient evidence that the unacceptable behaviour which constitutes a breach of discipline under the policy occurred.
At some point, it isn’t eventing any more. Or else the LL’s aren’t eventing any more.
If there is a market for a horse sport that is based on eventing, but is not actual eventing, that’s fine. If some eventing pros go chasing off after it, that’s fine, too. It doesn’t stop the pipeline to traditional eventing. It comes down to semantics and definitions.
I feel more need for the LL’s to separate and define themselves to remain true to the traditions. While allowing some flexibility, because without that, nothing survives.
The more I watch horse trials in this area with riders and horses cantering briskly over natural country and fairly basic jumps with a minimum of fru-fru decorations, I see less and less similarity to the 5* sport I see on the livestream. And that widening gap seems to matter less and less, because LL eventing may not mean much to the highest levels. The pipeline doesn’t lie through the average regional eventing org. It lies through the specialists and insiders that are close to USEA headquarters and the Olympic eventing group.
Its popular and it isn’t…in Europe…many have different horses. They have the horses they are aiming for the 5*…Badminton, Burghley etc. and horses they aim for EMR and the derbies. They are often a different horse and different type of horse. Not that different from show jumpers with their GP horses and speed horses. They are derivatives of the same sport…and you do have a few horses who cross over and can do both. But yes, there are a lot of “pro” riders keen to have more prize money. But what many don’t realize is that you add more money…it does change things. It doesn’t “trickledown”…it seems to always go to the same people (often who already have money and owners)…and does more of widening the gap among professional riders than I would say it does to widening the gap between upper and lower levels of the sport.
What I think is a bigger issue, is all the things being pushed through and just life changes that make it more and more expensive just to put on events. Cost of running events, available land etc…that is ultimately making it more and more expensive to run events and that DOES trickledown to the increasing the costs to compete in eventing. That is what is going to change the sport more than anything IMO.
“With the recent resignation of Dr Ricky MacMillan as chair after six months, and the resignation of a further director after four months, eight directors have now resigned including three chairs in the last 16 months. There are currently only four directors with only one director having been elected by the members of EA. No other sport funded by the ASC has experienced this level of board turmoil.
“The ASC has invested in the improvement of safety standards across the sport including a grant to employ a full time safety officer to implement the recommendations arising from the coronial inquests into the death of two riders. EA has not been forthcoming with reporting transparently the progress of the implementation process.”
So it seems that the Australia Sport Commission put up funds to help implement safety recommendations following the 2 fatalities and then EA hasn’t come through with the implementation.
Eventing will do just fine without the Olympics. Probably better than ever cause without the Olympics everybody can focus on the big events and the international championships instead of everything and anything eventing being altered and changed just to fit into the Olympic program.
I agree letting go of FEI would benefit eventing but with all due respect no one cares about ERM but the competitors and the organisers. It is a great idea on paper that has been terribly executed and turned totally uninteresting. One of the main reasons for this are the choices of venues and riders pulling out the competition as soon as they are not top ranked heading out to cross country.
As a member of an EA affiliate state branch, I can whole heartedly say that EA has been a cluster f for a number of years. This is the shake up it needs to implement a whole new way of doing things in Australia.
The last few CEOs have somewhat naively gone in and attempted to put a band-aid on a broken leg . All well intentioned of course, but the whole system needs a major overhaul
I’m also a member of an EA affiliated state branch, totally agree that EA has been a disaster for quite a while now. I am not holding out much hope for improvement. There is still no transparency or information about what is actually happening. I got emails asking to make different people my proxy, depending on their view of how EA should be fixed. Or not fixed. The meeting came and went . . .
I did see one suggestion that EA simply ceases to exist and that each discipline has its own national body. I am not sure how that would work with memberships, horse registration, insurance. What do other countries do?
Interesting, that is the opposite from what I have observed in that ERM is wildly popular and many in North America are dying for something similar here. I guess it depends who you speak to. I have never been to one but I would like to see what its all about.
Could any of our Australian friends comment on the failure to address safety/welfare concerns? What isn’t happening and why not?
The investigation into the deaths and subsequent recommendations seemed like a real step forward for eventing safety - so why did it stall out?
Also, the mass resignation and repeated upheaval administrative situation at EA sounds a bit like the perennial sh*tshow of the NF in Canada. One major difference is that EA was dealing with two high-profile fatalities. Although that reminds me that a Canadian eventer was killed in competition at a US venue earlier this year.
It sits in the midst of an “ordinary” event and runs as a special class rather than being put on as an ERM only competition. IMO it lost a lot of support when it left Britain because because eventing is an even more minority sport outside the UK. But it has grown TV coverage to some degree as it offers a neat package to broadcasters.
Interesting that Cricket Australia has a temporary CEO and Rugby Australia has just lost its CEO also. Something perhaps afoot in Australian sport that is wider than equestrianism.
That’s what I saw. I think it was actually the final in the series that year and they ran it at Blenheim. So yeah…nice trade fair etc but that was because it was Blenheim not because of the ERM.
In NZ our equivalent of EA covers Olympic disciplines, show hunter, endurance & CTR. Showing and height certificates (even for other purposes, like ESNZ registrations) are through the Royal Agricultural Society. Western seems to be completely separate. You can compete at low levels on an unregistered horse but beyond that you need to register the horse with ESNZ and for the discipline (although some disciplines have casual/flexi options at mid-levels). Of course it’s all a lot smaller here and we don’t have separate state bodies.
