Graeme Cooke Resigns as FEI Veterinary Director

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FEI News

Graeme Cooke is resigning from his position as FEI Veterinary Director, which he took up in 2009. Cooke cited personal reasons for his departure.

Cooke’s main goal since joining the FEI in August 2009 has been to improve the international movement of horses and he has been instrumental in not only creating the High-Health High-Performance horse (HHP) concept, but also getting it accepted by the World Organisation for Animal Health, the OIE.

“Graeme was brought in to the FEI with the key objective of opening up borders for competition horses and his tireless lobbying of the OIE has resulted in huge improvements,” FEI President HRH Princess Haya said. “It’s a very difficult balancing act between promoting the free movement of horses while assuring governments that sanitary barriers are still in place.

“As our sport becomes more global, the movement of horses across continents takes on even greater significance, so the work that Graeme has undertaken and what he has achieved are extremely important and we are indebted to him for it. We are of course sad to see him go, but we have to respect his decision and wish him well for the future.”

“The FEI has been my home for the past five years and I’m going to miss it enormously, but I am leaving so that I can spend more time with my ageing parents,” Graeme Cooke said. “I feel we’ve really made a big breakthrough in international horse movements and I’m proud that the FEI has led the way on that. It’s an important chapter in equestrian sport history and I’m happy to have played a role in it.”