FEI Hybrid General Assembly: IJRC conclusions

The FEI Hybrid General Assembly held in Cape Town (RSA) came to an end on Sunday, November 13th. Many subjects were addressed and all of great importance in the context of equestrian sports.

Sixty-six national federations voted in person, while 42 federations voted online the full revisions of FEI Regulations and ranking rules for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Club has worked for a long time and with ongoing commitment to formulate and present to the FEI changes to be made to regulations that have now been approved by the General Assembly. Such changes concern in particular rules for the Olympic format. 

Here are some key points:

• Equine Welfare

One of the most anticipated sessions consisted in a presentation by the independent Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission (link here), established in June 2022 to highlight the ways in which the FEI equestrian community can address growing public concern related to the welfare and well-being of horses in sport.

- World Horse Welfare underlined the importance of the welfare and well-being of horses in sport as well as the sports social licence.

- Chief Executive Roly Owers said that the idea behind social licence is that we must be transparent,   ethical and accountable for everything we do.

The Committee has made some early recommendations (link here) that were published ahead of the assembly and then discussed during the session and has also conducted two surveys on the perceptions of equine welfare in sport (read the full results of the surveys here).  

Regarding the rules for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games:

• FORMAT

The three combinations per nation rule will remain unchanged, but the format will be different with the show jumping team competition held before the individual one, reverting to the format used prior to Tokyo. 

The dates for the Show Jumping Olympics in Paris will be:  

Thursday August 1st, 2024: Qualifier Nations Cup
Friday August 2nd, 2024: Nations Cup final
Monday and Tuesday (August 5th – 6th, 2024): Individual final.

• RESULTS

Furthermore, the Jumping Committee proposes to hold the First Individual Competition on both penalties and time. Time was previously used to separate the athletes tied on penalties for the last qualification place for the Individual Final. Running the competition on penalties and time results in athletes already being ranked so as to have a clear qualification for the Individual Final. Athletes will be placed according to their penalties and time. Athletes finishing on the same penalties and time will be placed equal. This class counts as qualification for the Individual Final.

• SUBSTITUTIONS - HORSE INSPECTIONS

Jumping: To be eligible for Team Final, horse being substituted in must have been presented and accepted at 1st Horse Inspection.

• HORSE & ATHLETE MINIMUM ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA (MERs art. 632)

Minimum eligibility requirements (MERs, must ensure capability of combination to jump Olympic courses) for show jumping must be obtained in Grand Prix, Nations Cup or World Cup competitions with a minimum height of 1.55 meters. Special Qualifying Competitions are no longer allowed, and MERs for the Olympic Games can no longer be obtained in competitions with a height of 1.50 meters.

• FEI OFFICIALS (ART.611)

The Jumping Committee proposes to appoint an additional Judge to meet the Jumping Rules requirements for Olympic Games.

So six Ground Jury (President & four members and one Limb sensitivity Judge).

• DATES FOR QUALIFYING EVENTS:

Next Jumping’s qualifiers for Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris, approved by the Board will be:

- Group C (Central and Eastern Europe) – Prague (CZE), 27-30 July

- Group G (South East Asia/Oceania) – Valkenswaard (NED),18 July.

Regarding the qualifiers - the change of dates for the FEI Asian championships was approved. The Championship will be rescheduled to 2023.

Read the full documents here.

 

INGMAR DE VOS RE-ELECTED FOR THIRD AND FINAL TERM AS FEI PRESIDENT

The Club first of all congratulated Ingmar De Vos who has been re-elected with an overwhelming majority by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) and National Federations to serve a third and final term as FEI President. The IJRC would like to take this opportunity to confirm its willingness to cooperate with the FEI on any issues affecting and involving show jumping athletes, horses and riders.  

 

NEW FEI ATHLETES COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES

The IJRC also congratulates its Board Member Rodrigo Pessoa, elected to be the FEI Athletes Representative for the next 4 years replacing Brazil’s Pedro Veniss, to whom the Club’s heartfelt thanks are addressed for all the time and work he dedicated to this important role.

Our compliments, furthermore, go to Jessica Kürten, elected Chair of the FEI Athletes' Committee for four years replacing Maria Gretzer who the Club thanks for her work during her years of service.

Jessica Kürten has been one of the backbones of the Irish Team; in the course of her career, she competed in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games riding Castle Forbes Maike, the 1994 WEG in Den Hag riding Diamond Exchange, four editions of the European Championships winning team gold in Arnehm in 2001riding Bonita 38, four edition of the FEI World Cup Final finishing second in Kuala Lumpur 2006 on Castle Forbes Libertina. Last but not least, she won the Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final 2007 on Castle Forbes Libertina.

We wish her all the very best in her work on the Jumping Committee. 

Congratulations also to FEI Jumping Committee member Michael Stone (USA) who was appointed as a member of the FEI Jumping Committee for the four-year term 2022-2026, replacing outgoing member Daniela Garcia Nigaglioni (MEX), whom the Club thanks for all the work done.

Finally, the Club’s thanks also go to Stephan Ellenbruch, Chair of the FEI Jumping Committee, who during the closing speech of Sunday’s General Assembly expressed his gratitude to the Club for the active support all its riders have provided at all events linked to show jumping organised by the FEI.

(All the meeting’s documents are available as is a recorded livestream of the events at this link)

@IJRC