Letter from the EEF President

Dear Friends,

In our Christmas letter of last year, we said that time flies. Well, it definitely did for 2014. The political agenda of the world chased after oil prices, terrorism, territory conflicts and so on. We also did our part by chasing after our sport. EEF projects, two General Assemblies, future structures, Furusiyya Final, the World Championships, FEI Presidential Elections and many more during the year. For the sports part we could generally say that the colour of the medal was orange with Dutch domination. However, it was Belgium who won the more important race of this year for the FEI Presidential campaign. Our colleague, Ingmar De Vos, has come out triumphant- of a 5 candidate battle.

When I look back, I see that 2013 was a time of new activities and promises. I am now pleased to see that in 2014, we kept our word. We have witnessed the realisation of our Brotherhood Programme- safe and sound on the ground. This year, the projects yielded their results in Bulgaria and Hungary. Additionally, we were even more excited to see new applications from Greece and Estonia, where we commenced the initial activities already. I can only thank our donor countries for this: i.e. Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland and Spain.

The Jumping discipline also kept us on our toes with extensive agendas and frequent meetings/preparations. We as EEF, continued to be a major player in format review of series and championships and we are thankful to our Working Group and all participants including our colleagues from the FEI.

For the first time this year, our “EEF Survey 2014” embraced results from 27 countries, yielding a 63 % response rate. Very interesting points have been shared with our members during our General Assembly. It is important that we continue these efforts to obtain a solid data base with the help of our member NFs. I am looking forward to the 2015 version where the goal of our secretary general is to combine other sectors such as racing and trotting.

Another first for this year: We were pleased to create a special cooperation with Atheneaum “The Young Riders Academy” providing new possibilities to our future champions. Our newly associated member , Euro Pony Club, worked continously to remind us that our big champion athletes were once pony riders and we are happy to have them in our family. Last but not least, the International Dressage Trainers Club (IDTC) has been affiliated to the EEF as associated member in our last General Assembly 2014. Once again, a very warm welcome to our new member, for which I know that our Secretary General is already working on various cooperation projects.

In October, sad news from one of our board members arrived. Above all, our friend, Wojtek Markowski(POL) has gone through an operation and currently is in recovery. On behalf of my board and all members, we wish him a speedy recovery.

Towards the end of the year, we received the news of yet another board member colleague. Our Executive Board Member, Manuel Bandeira de Mello. We were sad to see his departure from our board due to his new post in the FEI as the Director of Endurance. While we are sorry for this loss in the EEF, I truly wish him all the success in his new endeavour in the FEI.

It is slowly becoming traditional that I end my Christmas letters with my board and staff and this I do with heart-felt pleasure. I would like to thank my fellow colleagues, the EEF Board Members, Secretary General, and our Assistant. I am grateful for their hands-on involvement and enthusiasm in every step of the way.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Hanfried Haring
President

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