Should eventers need a licence to compete in higher level competitions?
Rider licensing was on the agenda at the eventing round table at Lausanne.
Course-designers, organisers, riders and trainers discussed ideas for testing more thoroughly whether a rider is able to ride in higher level events.
FEI eventing chairman Guiseppe della Chiesa said future rule changes must emphasise a rider’s personal responsibility for their own safety.
“The qualifying system has created a thinking that you are competent and you are almost urged to upgrade,” he said.
“Some people may be great two-star riders, but should not go three-star. We must find a way to make it clear that if and when you upgrade is a matter for the rider under the control of their national federation.”
Equally, riders could be downgraded for two falls in a 12-month rolling period.
However, further safety-led proposals to reduce speeds at CICs to 20 metres per minute less than CCIs were not favoured by technical delegates Mike Etherington-Smith, Roger Haller of the USA and Rudiger Schwarz of Germany.
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This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (10 May 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.