Federation Equestre Internationale

FEI Press News - January 8, 1999
Happy New Year from the FEI

- Show Jumping - Samsung Nations Cup Series
- 1997/98 World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses
- Eventing: New FEI Scoring System from January 1, 1999
- In Memoriam: Dr Robert Baird (CAN)
- New FEI Secretariat: January 15, 1999

Show Jumping - Samsung Nations Cup Series: France Takes the Lead

With its victory in the last Nations Cup of the year 1998 at the end of December in Mechelen (Belgium), France took the lead in the 1998/99 Samsung Nations Cup standings. Six of the 27 Nations Cups of the season has been held: Zagreb, Athens, Washington, New York, Toronto, and Mechelen. The competitions will resume on 9 May 1999 with the CSIO La Baule in France.

The Top Three after Mechelen, based on the new point system approved in November 1998 by the Bureau:
1. FRANCE, 2. USA, 3. CANADA.

For Samsung complete results

World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses: Season 1997/98

At the forthcoming prize-giving ceremony which will take place in Zwolle (NED) on 11 January 1999, the following three horses (individual) and the three studbooks (team) will be awarded:
Individual
Dressage:
Gestion Bonfire. Oldenburg (GER) by Welt As.
Bred by Karl-Bernd Westerholt, ridden by Anky van Grunsven (NED).

At the forthcoming prize-giving ceremony which will take place in Zwolle (NED) on 11 January 1999, the following three horses (individual) and the three studbooks (team) will be awarded:
Individual
Dressage:
Gestion Bonfire. Oldenburg (GER) by WELT AS.
Bred by Karl-Bernd Westerholt, ridden by Anky van Grunsven (NED).

Eventing:
Broadcast News. NZSH (NZL) by TIME 'L TELL.
Bred by L.E.Mesapark. Ridden by Mark Todd (NZL)

Jumping:
E.T. FRH. Hanoverian (GER) by ESPRIT.
Bred by Detlef Saul, ridden by Hugo Simon (AUT)

Team
Dressage: Hanoverian
Eventing: Irish Sport Horse
Jumping: Holstein

Eventing: New FEI Scoring System from January 1, 1999

The objective is to make the scoring system easier to understand for the media, viewer, spectator - and indeed riders and their connections.

It was agreed that if possible the cross-country should have more influence. The new scoring system will change the results to some extent.

Hugh Thomas, Chairman of the Eventing Committee wrote a brief guide to the new scoring system as follows:
Dressage:
All FEI Tests in Eventing are marked out of 250. The Judges' marks will be averaged and subtracted from 250 to give the penalty score, which will be rounded to the nearest whole number. Thus there will be no "coefficients," "multiplying factors" or decimal points. It should be much easier to see straightaway that if a horse averages 5 per movement (out of 10), his final score will be 125. If he averages 6, it will be 100, 7 - 75 etc.

Cross-Country
The description "Speed & Endurance Test" is being dropped. The "2nd day" will be the Cross Country Test, consisting of:
Phase A: Roads & Tracks
Phase B: Steeplechase
Phase C: Roads s Tracks
Phase D: Cross-Country Obstacles.

1. Time Penalties: On all Phases, time penalties will be at the rate of 1 per second (the previous system was 1 for A and C, 0.8 for B and 0.4 for D).

2. Jumping Penalties: These are doubled:
1st Refusal: 40
2nd Refusal at same obstacle: 80
Fall: 120
One effect of these changes is that a refusal will now be equivalent to 40 seconds - it used to be 50 seconds. This may possibly have some slight effect on rider tactics at fences with alternatives.

Show Jumping
As with cross-country, time faults will be 1 per second Jumping faults are unchanged (5 for a knockdown etc.)

Because cross-country and dressage influences will both increase, show jumping will obviously reduce a little in its effect on the result. Research has shown that the influence of show jumping has increased in recent years. The FEI is likely to encourage show jumping courses to be more difficult technically (e.g. turns, related strides) and is setting up a working party to come up with recommendations.

In Memoriam :

Dr Robert Baird (CAN) passed away on 18 December 1998.

In his long involvement with the Canadian Equestrian Team, Dr Baird acted as Chef de Mission of the Canadian Team at the 1990 and 1994 World Equestrian Games. Named for the 1998 WEG in Rome, he was unable to not attend due to his health.

New FEI Secretariat: January 15, 1999

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