At the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s mid-year meeting this week, equine safety and well-being were on the agenda.
An important rule change involves a rewrite of GR838 (109-23) under the Welfare of the Horse Sub-Chapter.
The measure provides an updated description of what constitutes unethical treatment of a horse and provides definitions for both “Participants” who are bound by the rule and a “Covered Horse” expanding the ability of USEF to protect horses outside of competition. The rule change proposal went through an extensive review process. Stakeholders and affiliates across all breeds and disciplines provided feedback, which was instrumental in the creation of the final draft of the rule.
Publicity involving horses who had been mistreated generated a call for broadening USEF’s reach in such cases.
Among other proposals approved were three changes involving bio-security measures at competitions.
- GR845.1 (076-23) requires USEF-licensed competitions that offer onsite stabling to have a documented isolation plan, a copy of which must be provided to USEF no later than 14 days prior to the start of the competition.
- GR870 (072-23) and GR871 (073-23) mandate that all competition participants abide by and comply with biosecurity measures and equine health protocols imposed by USEF and competition management, and likewise, competition management must operate their competitions in accordance with all applicable USEF, local, state and federal animal health requirements.
Additional noteworthy rule changes that will be going into effect on December 1 include:
- GR302.1 (077-23) requires that individuals conducting business with USEF either as a Competition Licensee or at least one owner of a farm or business registered with USEF, must be a USEF Active Competing Member in good standing.
- GR201.2 (067-23) and GR411.1 (084-23) which remove references to paper application forms and medication report forms given that the submission of these forms now occurs electronically.
- GR150 & GR1219 (078-23) define Official Video and restrict the review of video footage or other electronic media when making field-of-play decisions to only official, unaltered video unless stated otherwise in the breed or discipline division rules.
- EV115.5 (194-23) provides a carve-out for Eventing competitions by allowing the Ground Jury and Technical Delegate to consider the use of unaltered video footage or still photography other than Official Video for making cross-country field-of-play decisions.
In other action, two rule change proposals allowing mules to compete in hunter and equitation, and mandatory reporting of febrile horses at competitions were referred to the September Board meeting to allow the proponents for each to provide additional information to the Board. Click here to view the referred rule change proposals.
The board participated in workshop sessions that provided feedback on the working draft of USEF’s 2025-2028 strategic plan. It will continue to undergo refinement before being presented to the board for final approval in the fall and be unveiled to the membership during the January 2025 Annual Meeting in Lexington, Ky.
Meanwhile, Jon Kreitz was retained for a successive four-year term as an independent director. His second term will run from January 2025 to January 2029.
Click here to view all rule changes approved at the 2024 Mid-Year Board meeting. For more information on USEF Rules, click here.