Despite the efforts of high-profile athletes to reinstate teams of four with a drop score at the Olympic Games, the FEI (international equestrian federation) voted today at its General Asembly in Antwerp to keep teams of three for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Teams of four will still be standard for championships, finals and other key competitions run under the auspices of the FEI, rather than those of the International Olympic Committee.
There were 70 yes votes for the teams of three, and 30 voting no.
Arguments against the three-member teams, instituted for Tokyo, include horse welfare, putting pressure on riders to continue for the honor of their country even if their horse is struggling. Dressage has operated previously with teams of three, but the nature of that discipline makes it less likely that a team member will have to drop out or get eliminated than is the case in show jumping or eventing.
Several countries, including France and the U.S., argued for teams of four. Botswana, Hong Kong and the 2021 Olympic show jumping team gold medalist nation, Sweden, were in favor of teams of three.
Cutting the number of team members from four to three meant more countries could participate in Tokyo within the parameters set for the number of show jumping slots. The International Olympic Committee wants to see a wide range of countries in each sport at the Games, and the threat of equestrian being dropped from the Olympics is a concern when it comes to FEI policy.
Stephan Ellenbruch of Germany, re-elected chairman of the FEI jumping committee, acknowledged the dissension but asked for unity, comparing it with handling a show jumping course..
“I need you, the athletes…as team members. The course is set, let’s accept the framework we have and make it the best possible format we can do for the job. I’m counting on your advice and…expertise. Let’s jump this course together.”
Next up is the December deadline for all sports to submit their qualification procedures for the Paris Games. That has also been contentious.
To read how Swiss multi-medalist Steve Guerdat argued for four-member teams on Tuesday at the FEI meeting, click on this link.
Will Connell, the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s director of sport, called for longer term thinking on the Olympic formats that goes beyond Paris, to include Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032. “We need to play the long game,” he said.
Meanwhile, Roly Owers, who heads the World Horse Welfare organization, warned those at the meeting that responsible use and care of horses in sport is vital to the continuation of competition against outside forces–some of which even believe that horses should not be ridden. Others contend horse welfare will suffer when horses compete,” he pointed out.
“We must do right by our horses – and be seen to be doing so,” he advised.
FEI President Ingmar de Vos emphasized, “We must continue to educate the non-equestrian community about equestrian sport and our values as there is a lot of misinformation which exists out there and could threaten the integrity of the sport we love.”
Roly discussed a social license under which those involved with horses should operate. (Note on the graphic that license is spelled in the British way.)
The outcry over a pentathlete’s abuse of horse that refused in the jumping phase of that sport at last summer’s Olympics, as well as photos of her coach punching the animal, led the International Modern Pentathlon Union to say it would drop riding as an element of the sport after the 2024 Paris Olympics.
While no one could condone what happened in Tokyo, Roly accused the pentathlon organization of having “an apparent knee-jerk reaction” by dropping riding. He called it the wrong decision. Instead, it could have revised how the segment was run.
The organization has come up with an ethical framework of how to treat horses across the board, not only in sport but in everything from breeding to after-care.
Here is a graphic about the threats to horse keeping in the current environment.
In other business, the FEI officially dropped reining from its list of disciplines. It had been a part of the governing body for two decades, but the FEI and the U.S.-based National Reining Horse Association often clashed on matters that were, as the NRHA put it, “legal, cultural, structural, and financial in nature.”
A memorandum of understanding between the organization that emerged in June seemed to offer a path forward, but NRHA said the advent of a different agreement three months later prompted the NRHA’s decision not to move forward.
It reminded me of the old saying that when two people ride a horse, one person must ride behind, and neither the FEI nor the NRHA wanted to ride behind, so to speak. The FEI statutes state that the FEI “shall be the sole governing body for the FEI Disciplines.” That was not the case with reining.
“We hope that in the future we may be able to work together in some capacity,” NRHA President Rick Clark said.
For its part, the FEI pledged to “support initiatives from National Federations to preserve the FEI reining legacy.”
At the General Assembly, Sven Friesecke of Switzerland, who had been head of the FEI reining committee looked very sad as he told the gathering, “We tried to make it run, and unfortunately we failed. But we have plans…”
The USA’s David O’Connor was re-elected to chair the FEI’s eventing committee. David was the individual Olympic eventing gold medalist in 2000 and the first president of the U.S. Equestrian Federation.