Call for more dressage competitors at Rio Olympics
International dressage riders want to increase the number of competitors in their discipline at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Members of the FEI dressage committee have called for the number of dressage combinations to be increased from the current 50 to 60 for Rio.
But as only 200 horses are allowed to take part in the Games under International Olympic Committee rules, it would mean a reduction in eventing and showjumping equines – currently 75 in each.
London Olympian Richard Davison told H&H: “It is a marvellous idea, but a long-running one that I put to the FEI Bureau before the London Olympics, when I was part of the taskforce [set up in 2008 to overhaul the sport]. They were completely unreceptive.
“It is totally illogical that at an Olympics you have 75 riders in both showjumping and eventing but only 50 in dressage, and that you have five eventers on a team and two discard scores, four showjumpers and one discard score and three dressage riders, all of which count.”
FEI dressage director Trond Asmyr told H&H: “No decision on how this will be processed further within the FEI has yet been made.”
The possibility of it happening was doubtful, he added.
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This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (11 October 2012)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.