Marc Boblet Gets Yellow Card at 2016 CDIO Saumur

Dressage

French Dressage News

FEI stewards officiating at the 2016 CDIO Saumur on 28 April - 1 May 2016 have given a yellow card to French Grand Prix rider Marc Boblet.

The FEI stipulated that the yellow card was given on 1 May 2016 for "Abuse of Horse, Non-Compliance with Protective Headgear Rules and Non-Compliance with applicable Sport Rules." The chief steward in Saumur was Belgian steward Ariane Boelens.

Appeal committee member Marc-Andre Morin spotted Boblet training his horse on Sunday 1 May 2016 at 8h45 in the arena without a helmet. As the steward drove by the arena in his car, he noticed the horse standing on its hind legs in the right corner of the ring. The arena had been dragged and prepared as warm up ring for competition ring D, where the competition started at 10h. The arena was not open to the riders and closed off with a chain which should have prevented them from entering.

"The actual schooling ring for competition horses as well as those just in training was the Grand Manege, which was open from 8h till 14h," said Morin told Eurodressage.

Boblet explained to Eurodressage that he received the yellow card for not wearing a helmet, riding in an unauthorized arena and for voilence on a horse.

"I had a problem with my helmet. So I did indeed take it off for the last 10 minutes of my ride," Boblet told Eurodressage. "The arena I was riding in with a training horse was not closed. The horse was very hot in this new environment. I calmed him down but I never infringed the rules of equestrian sport, nor the welfare of the horse."

At the 2016 CDIO Saumur Boblet competed his 19-year old Belgian warmblood Whitni Star (by Pik Solo x Latano x Osiris xx) in the Grand Prix and Kur to Music, scoring 68.560% and 70.200%. He was training his new Grand Prix horse, the Hanoverian stallion Soliman de Hus (by Sandro Hit x Donnerhall), when he received the yellow card.