FEI Opens Door to Accept All Six EEWB Recommendations, Including Choice in Spurs and Double Bridle

Dressage

FEI

In the lead-up to the 2022 FEI Hybrid General Assembly in Cape Town (RSA) on 10 - 13 November, the FEI has published the supporting documents for the FEI sessions.

In these sessions recommendations made by the Equine Ethics & Wellbeing Commission (EEWB) will be discussed and voted upon; as well as on general regulations and calendar related proposals. They documents also disclose which new rules are up for voting, including the the 2024 Paris Olympic rules.

The documents reveal that the FEI has opened the door to accept all six recommendations made by the EEWB.

Equine Ethics & Wellbeing Commission

During the EEWB Commission in-person meeting on 3 and 4 August 2022 at the FEI Headquarters in Lausanne (SUI) a number of Recommendations were discussed and agreed to be submitted to the FEI. These Recommendations were initially defined by the EEWB Commission as “early Recommendations”, with the purpose of being implemented as speedily as possible by the FEI, ideally by the end of 2022.

The 6 EEWB Recommendations can be divided into:

1. Field of Play Regulations across FEI Disciplines
2. Double bridle not to be compulsory in Dressage’s Grand Prix
3. Spurs not to be compulsory in any FEI Discipline
4. Tightness of Noseband to be harmonised across FEI Disciplines ideally with an FEI approved measuring device.
5. Establishing an Education Focus Group to review existing horsemanship modules in FEI Campus and propose new ones as necessary
6. Setting aside a research fund specifically to address evidence to underpin decisions that relate to Horse Welfare

The 6 EEWB Commission Recommendations were submitted to the FEI Board on 17 August 2022, upon which the FEI Board agreed to share first four recommendations with the FEI Technical Committees for their feedback.

After having received the feedback from the FEI Technical Committees a final report was submitted to the FEI Board on 4 October 2022.

IDTC/IDRC Joint Letter

At the Teleconference on 4 October the FEI Board Acknowledged that Recommendations 2 and 3 (double bridle, spurs) provoked the reaction of 2 MOU Stakeholders, the International Dressage Riders Club (IDRC) and the International Dressage Trainers Club (IDTC), as explained by letter of 16 September 2022 addressed to the FEI Board and to the EEWB Commission; and

The FEI board underlined the importance of following a consultation process with the National Federations and MOU Stakeholders, particularly on the controversial topics.

FEI Board Accepts All 6 EEWB Recommendations, Discussions at General Assembly

Based on the above considerations the FEI Board accepted all 6 EEWB Recommendations and agreed the following:

1. Field of Play Regulations Across Disciplines;
2. Double bridle not to be compulsory in Dressage’s Grand Prix;
3. Spurs should not to be compulsory in any Discipline;

The FEI Board agreed to have a first discussion about these 3 Recommendations during the FEI Session 1 at the upcoming FEI General Assembly in Cape Town (RSA) on 12 November 20221 . Consequently, these Recommendations will be submitted to the National Federations and MOU Stakeholders on 14 October 2022, date by which the General Assembly agenda and related working documents must be made available to them

4. Tightness of Noseband to be harmonised across Disciplines ideally with an FEI approved measuring device:
Mandate the FEI Headquarters to investigate the possibilities and come up with proposals for such a device and to harmonise the rules and methodology to measure tightness of nosebands at FEI Events.

In Detail

1. Field of Play Regulations Across Disciplines;

One of the recommendations is that in any discipline the President of the Ground Jury can eliminate a combination if the riding is contrary to the principles of horse welfare. For dressage it means that "the Judge C can eliminate the Horse/Athlete combination if the performance is against the welfare of the Horse and/or shows abusive riding."

2. Double bridle not to be compulsory in Dressage’s Grand Prix

The Dressage Committee discussed this point at its Teleconference on 20 September 2022 and highlighted that in the current Dressage Rules the Double Bridle is optional up to CDI2* level but is mandatory in CDI3* and up. This change, which was introduced in 2019 , reflects a progression in the level of skills of the Athlete and training of the Horse from low and medium level to the highest level of performance and therefore are in favour of maintaining the Double Bridle compulsory at Grand Prix Level.

3. Spurs should not to be compulsory in any Discipline

The Dressage Committee discussed this point on 20 September 2022. In the current Dressage Rules, spurs are compulsory in Dressage in all categories, except Ponies and Children. The Dressage Committee would be ready to consider making the use of spurs optional, as the rules already allow the use of dummy spurs. The Dressage Committee however would like to point out that using spurs allows for a use of refined and discreet aids and that allowing to ride without spurs may lead to images of strong use of legs on horses, which is not in line with the general principles of the discipline (discreet aids).

Complete document here.