Ulf Helgstrand and Jakob Ravnsbo, the chair and vice chair of the board of directors at the Danish equestrian federation, are both stepping down from their top position in 2024.
A new chairman and deputy chair will be elected at the board meeting in April 2024.
Ulf Helgstrand has been chair of the Danish Riding Association since 2003 and was elected for another two-year position at the board meeting in 2023. However, he took a leave in September 2023 after the federation's ethics were questioned caused by the alleged protected status of Andreas Helgstrand within the federation despite a doping scandal and Operation X. Vice chair Jakob Blicher Ravnsbo stepped up and acted as interim chairman of the federation since then.
Ulf Helgstrand has now announced that he will be resigning from his position and Ravnsbo added that he also wants to make room for new people on the board. He will also resign at the board meeting in 2024. Ravnsbo has been a board member since 2009 and is vice chair since 2021.
Former Danish team trainer Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein made a call on social media that it is time to give the Danish federation new direction. She posted "Now is the Time. The time is right for a new way of thinking. Now it is the responsibility of the clubs that the right people get the right positions." Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was the Danish team trainer from 2017 till 2021. She was suddenly shown the door by the Danish federation and rumour has it that the group surrounding Helgstrand and his students lobbied for the discontinuation of her job. Nathalie continued as personal coach of Cathrine Dufour and Daniel Bachmann Andersen, two key riders on the Danish team.
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