Ought to cross-country fences be mechanically eliminated after horse falls?

Ought to cross-country fences be mechanically eliminated after horse falls – and will riders face extra sanctions? These have been two of the large questions debated on the FEI eventing threat administration discussion board in Jardy (20 to 23 January).

The discussion board was requested “to not get defensive” or to look again on the previous with rose-tinted glasses, however to look actively at methods to affect the game’s future for the most effective “so Versailles isn’t the final Olympic Video games” for eventing.

Laurent Bousquet, a member of the FEI eventing threat administration steering group and a coach, put ahead a number of concepts for dialogue. He requested the discussion board to contemplate whether or not a fence must be mechanically eliminated after two horse falls, and whether or not after any horse fall, riders ought to have a dialogue with officers about what occurred.

He additionally requested the discussion board to debate whether or not riders must be given a recorded warning after each horse fall. This may imply that if a rider has three horse falls inside a two-year interval, they gather a two-month suspension. His remaining matter was whether or not retrospective sanctions must be utilized – maybe involving an skilled panel to evaluation cross-country footage after an occasion, which may have energy to dish out sanctions.

Beneath the present guidelines, a fence that causes two horse falls have to be reviewed and elimination mentioned.

The concepts sparked robust views. The working themes have been whether or not this may assist change riders’ mindsets, what number of horse falls is simply too many at a fence, and whether or not eradicating fences previously may have prevented additional horse falls. On the flip facet, factors have been raised over unintended unfavorable impacts on security.

Canada’s Rob Stevenson, a heart specialist, nationwide security officer and threat administration steering group member, referenced statistics, which present that within the final 4 years, 164 horse falls occurred at a fence the place two horse falls or extra have been recorded.

“That implies that by eliminating a fence after a single horse fall we might have averted 80 falls over 4 years,” he stated. “And I assume the problem that I put out to our group is when you can consider anything that instantly can decide to keep away from 80 horse falls over the subsequent 4 years, I welcome it.”

British Eventing chief government Helen West stated she “100% clearly helps the course to make the game safer”, however questioned the dangers that eradicating a fence after a single horse fall may have.

“For me personally, two horse falls on the fence and the fence comes out, feels snug,” she stated.

“Is it honest [after one fall] for that fence to then be taken out when it comes to really the integrity of the cross-country check and having sufficient fences left within the monitor to make it of the usual and the extent it must be?”

Mike Etherington-Smith warned about over-regulation

“To mechanically take away a fence after two horse falls, I perceive the logic, however we’ve got to know the explanations for it,” he stated, including that eventing security is a “large jigsaw”.

“We have to have a look at the MERs. We have to guarantee that individuals are not getting to those competitions in the event that they’re not able to be there. Now we have to guarantee that the CCI3*-L and CCI4*-L programs are as much as normal, which they aren’t essentially. We all know that there are individuals getting gentle {qualifications}.

“So I believe we have to come at it from a barely completely different course. It’s not as black and white as as has been portrayed up to now.”

He added he understands Rob’s logic, however “has a special view on it”, and agreed with Helen that “we’ve got to know the implications”.

“It could be that we’ve got to consider completely different conditions for various ranges of the game,” stated Mike.

“However I’m simply nervous about this headlong drive to attempt to seize each single alternative to scale back threat within the sport, which we have to, however not each single alternative goes to be acceptable.”

Rider Jonathan Holling, who’s a part of the danger administration steering group and a nationwide security officer, questioned whether or not automated elimination is smart from a course-design perspective.

“I don’t assume we’re at a spot the place, whether or not we determine it’s one, two or three [horse falls], we should always simply blanket assertion say, ‘that fence comes off’,” he stated.

“For my part – and that is simply meals for thought – I believe there are fences on track[s], the place when you take that fence off since you’ve had a horse fall, or God forbid two, you might doubtlessly be making the subsequent mixture extra harmful.”

‘There must be a wash-up’

Six-time Burghley Horse Trials winner William Fox-Pitt welcomed extra dialogue round this, suggesting that maybe three horse falls at a fence must be the automated quantity for it to be eliminated.

On when officers ought to step in and pull a rider up, he added: “It’s a very powerful one. Accountability lies with the rider, however clearly the bottom jury are watching they usually see stuff that possibly they don’t like. I believe fairly often the riders are at error, however they do need assistance. Typically we do get it unsuitable. Our adrenaline goes and we do make errors.

“So typically I believe the bottom jury has acquired to be braver and possibly you remorse pulling somebody up typically and assume what, we did really get that unsuitable and we’re studying from it, however I believe typically they’re too good.”

He added that he believes there must be a correlation between horse falls and warning playing cards.

“There’s acquired to be a wash-up, you’ll be able to’t simply have a crashing fall and stroll away from it lately,” he stated, including that he “wouldn’t essentially wish to see riders being punished”.

“I believe you’ve acquired to be no less than introduced ahead to the bottom jury to debate it, have a look at it, analyse it.

“I might be fairly disturbed if I did have three horse falls in a season and a half, or two seasons. I believe that’s fairly a giant deal. It must be assessed.

“As a sport we’ve got acquired to begin to analyse, assess and settle for these items as being one thing that we’re addressing. The rider I believe in all probability does should be cautioned or know they’re being checked out, as a result of then all of us do change into extra conscious.”

He additionally welcomed the thought of a retrospective penalty, including that issues could be missed on the day, however riders “ought to pay the value”.

“I believe [riders] need to know there’s a threat that somebody will have a look at that and realise how horrifyingly you rode or what you probably did, and try to be penalised. And I really feel very strongly that there must be elimination in that too,” he stated.

• What do you assume? Ship your ideas to [email protected], together with your title, nearest city and nation, for doable inclusion within the Horse & Hound letters pages.

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