Eventing Committee Meeting IN Belo Horizonte (bra)

The Eventing Committee met for the 2nd time of the year in Belo Horizonte (BRA) after the very successful South American Eventing Championships in July 2001.

The Committee had two full meeting days to consider the concerns related to the future of the sport and its consequences. As Eventing is at a turning point in its development, it was appreciated that the Open Forums organised to date (Lexington (USA) – April 2001, Luhmühlen (GER) July 2001 and Belo Horizonte (BRA) – July 2001) had been very fruitful and enabled the Committee to progress in the thinking process to finalize the Working statement.

The Committee worked on the points to finalize the report emanating from the initial working statement on the future of the sport that will be presented to the FEI Executive Board on 25 September and the FEI Bureau in November 2001. This report will be published on the FEI website and sent to national federations for information as the Eventing Committee’s proposal mid-September.

In connection with the proposals for the Working statement, the Committee reviewed the Olympic Eventing Format and after the very successful experience in Belo Horizonte of running two Show Jumping competitions the day after the Cross Country. The 1st competition determined the team classification and the second competition determined the Individual winner. The Committee decided to try this format again at CCI**** Burghley (GBR) 30 August – 2 September 2001 and allow the GER NF to experiment a different format at CCIO*** Bonn Rodderberg (GER) end September. A final decision will be made after these 2 events have taken place. It was also agreed to propose a new team concept consisting of teams of 5 Members of which 3 results would count for the team result. It was felt that these numbers would be more adapted to the specific discipline of Eventing.

The Committee also reviewed a new Qualification procedure integrating all the concerns which have been raised in the past months. This new procedure will be published in the near future and will be based on an overall qualification result by the rider and the horse on the Dressage, Cross Country and Jumping results and will be implemented 1st January 2002.

In regard to the FEI World Event Rider rankings, the point system will remain unchanged for the 2001 Rankings with the exception of lining the points allocated for a CCIO of a certain level up with the CCI of the same level. (To date the points allocated for CCIOs were the same as for a CCI of a higher level.) A new point system taking into account the number of starters at the events will be developed for implementation in 2002.

An Eventing Rules Revision Sub-Committee was formed and is chaired by the former Chairman of the Eventing Committee, Mr Hugh Thomas (GBR) in order to rewrite the Rules for Eventing in a more consistent format, taking into account all the modifications necessitated by the new format of the Eventing Competitions and Safety aspects.

The 2002 Dressage Tests were reviewed and a set of new Dressage tests for all three Categories of CICs developed by Mr Jack Le Goff were finalized and would be available with the new set of CCI Dressage Tests end October 2001.

The next meeting of the Eventing Committee will take place in Pau (FRA) during the European Eventing Championships 11-12 October 2001. Two additional Open Forums will be organised, in Pau on Thursday 12 October and in Adelaide (AUS) in conjunction with the CCI**** on 1 November 2001.