LEC
Opinions are like bum holes, everyone has one.
Might be dull for some of you but I found it quite interesting and here is what you missed out on those who did not go.
At the meeting were Yogi, Mike Etherington Smith, Robert Mackensie and Alex Fox.
Yogi was up first:
Dressage whips in warm up are to be no longer than 1.10m and will be checked occassionally. Aparantly all of them were checked at Pau.
CDP came about when some trainers wanted to be involved in Pony, Junior and YR teams but it was felt they did not have enough experience.
The 4 teams (Pony, Junior, YR and Senior) have this year 187 days of training!! Wow!
4 time changes are coming into 4*.
Yogi basically talked about the planning, training, horses, etc that went into the success of the teams.
Now Mike E-S was up
They are currently interviewing in final stages 2 girls for PR position. They are looking to move in a new direction.
Marketing wise they are looking for more corporate sponsors and increasing Non riders by 20,000 people. This is the thing they are really targeting in membership because they cannot deal with huge quantities of riding members as not the events.
They are looking for 20% increase in riding members. Interesting last time there was a recession membership dipped.
In an ideal world they would reduce all the BE levy fees. There is currently a proposal for the reduction of BE fees from 1* and 2* CCI events.
They are looking at reducing the numbers of officials as they are expensive but some organisers in the room were not happy about this as much of the stewards and TA are back up in disputes.
They are currently having an insurance review which is a nightmare!
The long term goal is for Intro & PN to be no more than £50 in entries, N to be no more than £60, Int no more than £75 and advanced no more than £90. Realistically they do not see themselves getting to this stage till 2010. It would be done through the non rider membership development and increased corporate sponsorship.
Did you know that Burghley subsidises each riders membership by around £50??
Next it went on for organisers about good footing being vital and they have bought out a guide for organisers on machines and how to use them.
Aparantly they are being tough on organisers who do not provide good footing.
Realisitcally: Training level will grow and the growth of membership will be made up at the bottom. In 20 years the number of Grade 1 horses has not really changed.
They are looking at making BE an all year sport. They have not decided on how though.
They want to improve money but its the organisers who set this not BE for each event.
Dressage tests are currently being looked at and will probably be renewed.
There is also a review of penaltys for being naughty!
The website is undergoing a face lift and will be launched at start of season. There will be an interactive forum like HHO they said!
Safety
Bristol uni students are doing a PHD into it and have designed a N and Int fence to get data this will be trialled at events around Bristol.
There was a meeting of FEI in Copenhagen from that came the following:
Black/Yellow flags to be introduced
Since pins not much else has come along the dutch are still pushing cardboard poles but they collapse in the middle and not at edges so still not workable.
The question was asked is the sport about fixed fences or knock down fences? It was agreed it was about fixed fences. Though one or two including Carl Bruckhart (sp?) and The Italian who built Pratoni were in favour of knockdown. There was a feeling from some that we should be thinking about it.
There was clarification on substiution of horses Pm me if you want info as I do not think it applies to most if us!
There is a changing rule about refusals this was only decided yesterday so check website.
Red Flag protocol
This is coming in for dangerous riding or misuse of the horse.
If you get a red flag you must stop. You will also get given 25 pens. I think the 25 pens is in case you are accused at fence 24 out of 27 and finish before pulled up. Also it has to go through ground jury before you are stopped for confirmation so on 1* course its likely you could have finished.
Aparantly at Aldon 1* somebody was red flagged but it was not clear if she was elim or not.
If you are red flagged you are usually sent a letter, someone like Yogi will ring you up and you also have to see the steward at your next event to report in.
The 25 pens could very well effect your CCI and CIC qualifications.
There were some questions by fence judges about child protection with helping 11year olds back on if fallen off. Basically rule is ask loudly if they want a hand in front of other fence judge.
If pony pisses off the child has to sit in back of car for lift and the car must have 2 adults in it.
Aparantly a rule about presenting at a fence has been updated. You can now cack up coming up a step out of water pull up circle and then if you do not change your mind present and its fine. Not very sure of this as was someone who had judged at 3* level who asked about it. The rule used to be that if you presented that was it but not so any more aparantly.
Somebody bought up about breeding saying BE needed to do more. Especially in young eventers under age of 4. More showing classes and maybe ridden classes.
Aparantly BE is hoping BEF futurity will grow but I do not know much about this. They think that long term there will be an eventing studbook but there is no such thing as a definitive eventer.
Aparantly if you needed help you could contact BE breeding panel and they would offer advice.
Aparantly they are running all the best horses bloodlines through a computer and monitoring it to see if anything definitive arises.
Someone asked about open corners and why they are not seen. Aparantly its something that is coming back in vogue as they are so much less forgiving than filled in.
They are working on building courses that riders will respect more. They want to introduce more vertical fences as there is a feeling people just go round a course without thinking about it.
At CCI level an extra 5 efforts will now be included as people are going to fast and getting the time too easily.
The maximum number at an event on one day would be 280-300 depending on the event and no more than 40 in a section.
Quite a bit was on about volunteers and ideas about how to make riders/owners volunteer more were raised. The best idea was of giving them priority stickers which they could then use at events. Aparantly the 100 free passes to Burghley and Badders did not happen as not enough people entered.
BE sold the rights to Badminton many years ago for £1!!
BE owns Blenheim and Burghley. Used to own Windsor as well! It was asked why BE did not organise more events if Burghley is such a cash cow. But What is BE an administrator or organiser?
Expanding the sport all year round might be a way of making money and owning the rights to those events.
Anyway well done and hope you found it interesting!!
At the meeting were Yogi, Mike Etherington Smith, Robert Mackensie and Alex Fox.
Yogi was up first:
Dressage whips in warm up are to be no longer than 1.10m and will be checked occassionally. Aparantly all of them were checked at Pau.
CDP came about when some trainers wanted to be involved in Pony, Junior and YR teams but it was felt they did not have enough experience.
The 4 teams (Pony, Junior, YR and Senior) have this year 187 days of training!! Wow!
4 time changes are coming into 4*.
Yogi basically talked about the planning, training, horses, etc that went into the success of the teams.
Now Mike E-S was up
They are currently interviewing in final stages 2 girls for PR position. They are looking to move in a new direction.
Marketing wise they are looking for more corporate sponsors and increasing Non riders by 20,000 people. This is the thing they are really targeting in membership because they cannot deal with huge quantities of riding members as not the events.
They are looking for 20% increase in riding members. Interesting last time there was a recession membership dipped.
In an ideal world they would reduce all the BE levy fees. There is currently a proposal for the reduction of BE fees from 1* and 2* CCI events.
They are looking at reducing the numbers of officials as they are expensive but some organisers in the room were not happy about this as much of the stewards and TA are back up in disputes.
They are currently having an insurance review which is a nightmare!
The long term goal is for Intro & PN to be no more than £50 in entries, N to be no more than £60, Int no more than £75 and advanced no more than £90. Realistically they do not see themselves getting to this stage till 2010. It would be done through the non rider membership development and increased corporate sponsorship.
Did you know that Burghley subsidises each riders membership by around £50??
Next it went on for organisers about good footing being vital and they have bought out a guide for organisers on machines and how to use them.
Aparantly they are being tough on organisers who do not provide good footing.
Realisitcally: Training level will grow and the growth of membership will be made up at the bottom. In 20 years the number of Grade 1 horses has not really changed.
They are looking at making BE an all year sport. They have not decided on how though.
They want to improve money but its the organisers who set this not BE for each event.
Dressage tests are currently being looked at and will probably be renewed.
There is also a review of penaltys for being naughty!
The website is undergoing a face lift and will be launched at start of season. There will be an interactive forum like HHO they said!
Safety
Bristol uni students are doing a PHD into it and have designed a N and Int fence to get data this will be trialled at events around Bristol.
There was a meeting of FEI in Copenhagen from that came the following:
Black/Yellow flags to be introduced
Since pins not much else has come along the dutch are still pushing cardboard poles but they collapse in the middle and not at edges so still not workable.
The question was asked is the sport about fixed fences or knock down fences? It was agreed it was about fixed fences. Though one or two including Carl Bruckhart (sp?) and The Italian who built Pratoni were in favour of knockdown. There was a feeling from some that we should be thinking about it.
There was clarification on substiution of horses Pm me if you want info as I do not think it applies to most if us!
There is a changing rule about refusals this was only decided yesterday so check website.
Red Flag protocol
This is coming in for dangerous riding or misuse of the horse.
If you get a red flag you must stop. You will also get given 25 pens. I think the 25 pens is in case you are accused at fence 24 out of 27 and finish before pulled up. Also it has to go through ground jury before you are stopped for confirmation so on 1* course its likely you could have finished.
Aparantly at Aldon 1* somebody was red flagged but it was not clear if she was elim or not.
If you are red flagged you are usually sent a letter, someone like Yogi will ring you up and you also have to see the steward at your next event to report in.
The 25 pens could very well effect your CCI and CIC qualifications.
There were some questions by fence judges about child protection with helping 11year olds back on if fallen off. Basically rule is ask loudly if they want a hand in front of other fence judge.
If pony pisses off the child has to sit in back of car for lift and the car must have 2 adults in it.
Aparantly a rule about presenting at a fence has been updated. You can now cack up coming up a step out of water pull up circle and then if you do not change your mind present and its fine. Not very sure of this as was someone who had judged at 3* level who asked about it. The rule used to be that if you presented that was it but not so any more aparantly.
Somebody bought up about breeding saying BE needed to do more. Especially in young eventers under age of 4. More showing classes and maybe ridden classes.
Aparantly BE is hoping BEF futurity will grow but I do not know much about this. They think that long term there will be an eventing studbook but there is no such thing as a definitive eventer.
Aparantly if you needed help you could contact BE breeding panel and they would offer advice.
Aparantly they are running all the best horses bloodlines through a computer and monitoring it to see if anything definitive arises.
Someone asked about open corners and why they are not seen. Aparantly its something that is coming back in vogue as they are so much less forgiving than filled in.
They are working on building courses that riders will respect more. They want to introduce more vertical fences as there is a feeling people just go round a course without thinking about it.
At CCI level an extra 5 efforts will now be included as people are going to fast and getting the time too easily.
The maximum number at an event on one day would be 280-300 depending on the event and no more than 40 in a section.
Quite a bit was on about volunteers and ideas about how to make riders/owners volunteer more were raised. The best idea was of giving them priority stickers which they could then use at events. Aparantly the 100 free passes to Burghley and Badders did not happen as not enough people entered.
BE sold the rights to Badminton many years ago for £1!!
BE owns Blenheim and Burghley. Used to own Windsor as well! It was asked why BE did not organise more events if Burghley is such a cash cow. But What is BE an administrator or organiser?
Expanding the sport all year round might be a way of making money and owning the rights to those events.
Anyway well done and hope you found it interesting!!
