Many articles of the Global Dressage Forum have been published in magazines and webistes all over the world. A detailed report of the 2 days program has been written by Andrea Hessay. In the next few weeks we will publish weekly a part of the report. This week:

1. Opening, Richard Davison2. Introduction, David Hunt3. FEI Update, Davod Holmes, Trond Asmyr

Opening & welcome Richard Davison

Richard Davison, Moderator for the Forum since its inception, opened the 9th Global Dressage Forum by welcoming 275 delegates from 18 countries; some familiar faces and some new ones; truly a Global Forum for dressage; going from strength to strength.

Questions to the presenters were welcomed but time restraints meant that written questions were preferred so that a variety could be picked for the members of the Panel to answer. ‘Question Corner’ is a popular feature of the Forum that allows                            Richard Davison      

delegates to meet with the presenters after their sessions to discuss further any aspects

of the presentation that are of particular

interest. Each year, the Global Dressage Forum produces a ‘Reader’ issued to each delegate that informs them of the programme contents and schedule, and also outlines biographical details of each presenter and their achievements.

Richard gave grateful thanks to everyone who supports the Forum and makes it possible – the commercial and private sponsors and partners - the International Trainers’ Club (co-organisers of the Forum), KNHS The Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation, dressagedirect, Equine Elite, Dressage Today,  Mrs Lyke Sonnenberg, Mrs Jamie White Welling, the Spijkers family, and the Kettner family. 

Also sincere thanks must go to the Bartels family, who host the Forum every year; to Dr Joep Bartels, Chairman of the Programme Committee, and to the staff behind the scenes. Finally, thanks to the audience for their participation.

Richard introduced David Hunt, current President of the International Dressage Trainers Club (and recently voted in for a further 5 year term), and Director of Training for British Dressage.

Introduction David Hunt

The dictionary definition of ‘Forum’ is ‘a place of meeting for open discussion’ and, over the years, this goal has been realised at the Global Dressage Forum. 

With respect shown all round, the discussions become more and more open, with people feeling able to give an honest opinion without fear or favour. 

The European Championships at Windsor earlier in the year heralded quality of a different league across the board, which can only be positive for the future of our sport and it certainly made for exciting viewing. 

The FEI Task Forces for judging, stewarding and anti-doping are currently reviewing                                          David Hunt

procedures from many different aspects;

their deliberations and conclusions are enthusiastically awaited later this year when they have been approved by the General Assembly.

Our sport is going in the right direction once again. David welcomed all delegates and hoped that they would find this year’s programme of tremendous interest and value.

FEI update David Holmes & Trond Asmyr

David Holmes from Great Britain is the FEI Executive Director for Sport, based in Switzerland, and has been in post for one year. Trond Asmyr from Norway is the new FEI Dressage & Para-Equestrian Dressage Director. In the interests of honesty and transparency, the first issue to be addressed was that of the Patrik Kittel video on the social internet network, Youtube, which has been causing concern. Welfare is at the top of the FEI agenda and thus a full investigation is in train. It should not be construed that this is a negative investigation, intent on guilt; it is an open information gathering procedure and there can be no further comment until this has been reviewed by the FEI. The conclusions will, of course, be made public at the conclusion of the review.                                                              On the same theme of openness, the                                      David Holmes

Audience was reminded of the FEI statement on hyperflexion available on the FEI website (www.fei.org – then Dressage, then type in ‘hyperflexion’ under ‘search’). The statement is straightforward and unequivocal; however, it is still the case that practical application ‘on the ground’ is a work in progress. Further education of stewards, riders and trainers is vital so that these issues don’t continue to keep returning to bite us from behind!                                                     

Trond spoke of the number of registered horses in FEI dressage, which is down about 2.5% from 2008, and there is also a decline in rider numbers of approximately 5.5%; hardly surprising in a global recession but, interestingly, there are more shows on the calendar, so presumably there are more starts from less competitors (possibly a reflection of the costs of attending competitions?).

The Task Force has been in place for a year and has completed a huge amount of work in readiness to report to the General Assembly later this year. The information is available on the website, and has gone out to the National Federations for comment, but is in proposal form until ratified by the GA. There are proposals for a new Olympic format changing how the team competition will be decided, and also to allow the reserve team riders from each country to compete as individuals.

Although Trond has been in dressage since the 1970’s, he has never seen so much activity and so many proposed changes; the new Dressage Committee will be formed in November 09 and it will implement the approved changes from the GA. Freestyle classes have increased spectator support exponentially and it’s important that everything we do is seen to be safe, open and spectator friendly. The prize giving in Windsor was a case in point and                             Trond Asmyr

this will be further discussed within the FEI.

Universality is essential to the continued growth of our sport – to an extent this inevitably means that we won’t always have the top performers across the board as often the emerging dressage interested nations lack experience and expertise – but inclusion will promote both these aspects and quality should follow. 

A clean, forward moving sport must be the major priority, after welfare.  Good sport needs good officials – judges, stewards, vets and so on.  Procedures for the first two are being formalised and intensified; with qualifications and re-qualifications being analysed and proposals being put forward. Statistical analysis and formal feedback are just two of the aspects under review. We have top sport for horses and ponies with many more countries participating.

It’s a very exciting time – let’s enjoy it!

David’s job is to provide a strategic overview for all equestrian disciplines, including the liaison between the governing bodies and organisers of major competitions. It‘s currently the case that not enough countries are coming forward to host the major championships and we need to find ways to Increase the value of such hosting and the attractiveness of the sport to major sponsors. The key to this is to appeal to the media, in particular television as, without this in place, sponsors don’t receive the coverage necessary to attract them.

There are too many championships out there ‘cluttering the landscape’ that are confusing, or meaningless, to the media, sponsors and spectators.  In the process, the major championships get lost and their credibility is lessened. The Commercial Manager of the FEI is currently in talks to find a way to improve this situation. There must be benefits all round for organisers, cities, countries – and sponsors – and the FEI must become more proactive encouraging bids from more organisers, whilst making sure that its fees are at a level to encourage a more positive response. Competitions must become shorter, easier to understand and interesting, whilst show-casing a clean, transparent sport for all.

Improved communication between the FEI, riders, trainers, owners and associates is essential to such progress. Improved education for everyone so that all are well informed, experienced and can apply a practical, common sense approach is also critical. Welfare of the horse always comes top of the list and the FEI is looking at every aspect of the sport – medication; anti-doping measures; surfaces; travelling; how often horses could and should compete; costs of ticketing and accommodation – to mention just a few.

David acknowledged that the FEI governing structure is too top heavy and too large to be effective; streamlining the numbers of people on committees, and the numbers of committees, is underway and, equally important, the ways in which decisions are reached and communicated are also being scrutinised. It is hoped that reducing numbers will tighten and make more effective the processes within the FEI. Lastly, the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in 2010 has amazing facilities already in place, with a test event scheduled for April; there are, however, significant issues of costs of ticketing and accommodation to be addressed.

The Youth Olympics (show jumping only) will be held in Singapore 2010,

and excellent progress is being made towards the 2012 London Olympics; the FEI is working closely with both organising committees.

David and Trond were congratulated on their detailed presentations and the fact that the FEI obviously considers that the Global Dressage Forum to be a serious enough contender on the world dressage stage for the FEI to take the time to update the delegates on an annual basis.