EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING IN MADRID

The FEI Executive Board met in Madrid (ESP) on 30 January.

The following items were discussed:

The Executive Board agreed to establish a special "FEI Award for Distinguished and Dedicated Service to Equestrian Sport" this award will only be given to persons who have given an outstanding service to Equestrian Sport. The Award will be the most prestigious honour that the FEI can bestow and will therefore not necessarily be awarded every year. Tiffany's of New York are designing a unique piece of crystal for the award and the first presentation will be made at the FEI General Assembly in San Francisco in April.

A draft set of statutes for the formation of the Pan American International Equestrian Confederation (PAIEC) was approved. This confederation will represent the NFs who take part in the Pan American Games. The organisation which runs the Pan Ams; the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO) require that each International Federation establish a Pan American Confederation to deal with issues that concern participation in Games under the control of PASO.

The Executive Board reviewed the IEOA presentation of their Strategic Plan. It was decided to ask the IEOA to attend the next Executive Board meeting to explain in more detail their ideas for the future of Equestrian Sport.

A draft proposal for the registration of Sponsored Teams was approved and will be further discussed with the FEI Jumping Committee and the International Jumping Riders Club.

The Technical Committees of the Olympic Disciplines will be asked to review the minimum technical requirements of their disciplines in order to reduce some of the costs of organising the Equestrian element of the Olympic Games.

The Executive Board approved a request from the FEI Dressage Committee to alter the format for the forthcoming Team Competition at the FEI European Dressage Championships in Verden (GER). The top five teams from the Grand Prix will now go forward to the Grand Prix Special and the combined scores from both competitions will decide the medals. This approval has been given on a trial basis and will be reviewed following the Verden Championship.

2000 FEI World Event Rider Rankings:

Olympic Champion David OConnor (USA) appropriately won the first place of the 2000 Global FEI Event Rider Rankings. His Individual Gold medal and Bronze Team Medal won at the Sydney Olympic Games were of course included in his Top Six Scores, which count for the rankings.

A relatively new rider to international Eventing, Andreas Dibowski (GER), claimed the 2^nd place of the Rankings. He had a very regular season, placing 1^st at Boekelo (CCIO***); 2^nd and 9^th at Luhmühlen (CCIO***); and 1^st at Bonn-Rodderberg (CCI**).

The year 2000 saw the first victory of Pakistan in an International Three Day Event. Nadeem Noon (PAK), with his horse Greystone V, won the CCI* in Bromont (CAN) with 59.8 points.

The complete list of the FEI World Riders Rankings is available on the FEI website www.horsesport.org and will be published in the FEI Bulletin 2/2001.

Two sets of points were awarded for the Olympic Games Individual and team competitions respectively.

The riders competing in the individual competition were awarded points according to the four star Championship scale.

As the team competition was conducted according to IOC guidelines, it was, as for Atlanta, decided that there should be no individual classification in the team competition. Points were therefore awarded to riders relative to the position of their team. The scale of points used for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games was adjusted according to the point system implemented since 1998, for the team riders, as shown in the table below:

All the other riders having completed the competition have been awarded 30 points.

The year 2000 also marked the ninth year of the FEI World Event Rider Rankings. The FEI wishes to express its gratitude to Mr Daddy Stibbe (NED), long time supporter of equestrian sport, for his very generous donation towards the Prize money for the FEI World Event Rider Rankings. Mr Stibbe made it possible to give £ 22'000 to the 15 best placed riders on the Global Rankings and to the first placed riders of each zone. An award ceremony will be organised in Great Britain on 17 February 2001 on the occasion of the ball of the Event Riders Association (PERA).

FEI/BCM WORLD Dressage Riders Rankings
New rules effective 1^st January 2001

General Principles

The FEI/BCM World Dressage Rankings are based on:

Percentages, scored in international competitions under FEI rules;

In principle, up to two Grand Prix level results will count from each international event, including the percentage score in the Grand Prix and the highest percentage score in the Grand Prix Special or the Kür (Consolation Grand Prix results will not be taken into account);

Three results per event will count from the Olympic Games and World and Continental Championships;

Calculation of the World Ranking List

The rankings list is calculated over a period of one year. The ranking list begins on the 1st of January each year with a carrying over of the total number of points accumulated during the previous year (i.e. as of 31st December).

At the end of each month the points earned during that month are added to the list. The points from the same month the previous year are dropped from the list.

The FEI World Ranking List is a ranking list of riders. The ranking list takes into consideration the best results/percentage scores of each rider with any of his/her horses.

Point system

The scores obtained in a maximum of ten tests per year will count. The average of these ten scores will be reflected as points (with up to two decimal points). The FEI Dressage Committee may change the maximum number of results taken into account per year.

The points for the rankings are obtained by adding the 10 best scores of the last 12 months (expressed in percentage) and dividing them by 10. Riders, who have less than 10 scores will also have their total of points divided by 10 (i.e. the rankings do not necessarily reflect the average score of the rider).

Of the ten results taken into account, a minimum of five must be Grand Prix competition results.The remainder may be made up of Grand Prix and/or Grand Prix Special and/or Grand Prix Kür results.

Scores to count for the rankings

At all CDI***, CDIO and CDI-W events, judged by five judges of whom at least two judges are foreign, a maximum of two results per rider may count: the percentage score in the Grand Prix and the highest score in the Grand Prix Special or the Kür to Music. A maximum of two scores are taken into consideration, even at events including combined Dressage events*.

(* At events such as CDIO Aachen and CDI-W s Hertogenbosch (CDIO/CDI-W and CDI*** combined), only the two best results per rider are taken into consideration. In other words, the riders best Grand Prix score on any horse is taken into account. A second score i.e. the highest score obtained by the rider on any horse in a Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special or Kür competition is counted as well.)

At Olympic Games, World Championships and Continental Championships, three results per rider count: the percentage score obtained in the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Special and Kür to Music.

In regions or countries with a limited number of international events under FEI rules, special permission may be given by the FEI Dressage Committee for more than two results per event to be taken into account. This permission will be given on a year-to-year basis only.

Olympic and World Championships points

Points obtained at Olympic Games and World Championships will be counted twice  provided they are among the best 10 scores taken into account in a particular year.

Points obtained at Olympic Games will be retained on the list until the next World Championships (counted twice the first year, and only once the second year) and points obtained at World Championships will be retained on the list until the next Olympic Games (counted twice the first year, and only once the second year).

Replacing of points

At the end of each month the points earned during that month are added to the list. The points from the same month the previous year are dropped from the list.

Points obtained at World Cup Finals are retained until the next Final is held.

Fairness

The FEI Dressage Committee has the right to accept reasonable exceptions to these rules, in the interest of the competitors and the sport in general, such as the possibility to accept more than two percentage scores per event in areas where there are fewer international Dressage competitions.

The FEI Dressage Committee may decide not to include the scores obtained at an event in the rankings, should the event not have been organised in accordance with general principles of fairness. The Executive Board should confirm the decision of the Dressage Committee (Art. 002.8 of the Statutes).

Complete rankings soon on www.horsesport.orgsection consult

FEI WORLD CUP JUMPING: SITUATION IN THE LEAGUES

In the 2000 / 2001 season there were 12 Leagues in the FEI World Cup Jumping.

Seven Leagues have ended their qualifications: Central Europe, Canada, South East Asia, Central Asia, Japan, South America Southern Part and South Africa.

Five Leagues are still going: Western Europe, USA East Coast, USA West Coast, Australia and New Zealand.

The following 7 leagues have ended up their qualifications:

Central European League (3 qualified)

107 riders competed in 12 competitions. For economical or other reasons 4 events had to be cancelled (Hortobagy, Cherniakowsk, Vilnius and Minsk). It can be expected that the League winner, Grzegorz Kubiak (POL), the third placed Czech rider Ales Opatrny and probably a second Polish rider will compete in the Final.

Canadian League (3 qualified)

31 riders competed in the 5 competitions (Quebec and Nepean were cancelled). It can be expected that the 3 qualified riders will compete in Göteborg.

South East Asian League (1 qualified)

18 riders from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia as well as a Swedish national living for nearly a decade in Thailand competed in the 4 events, held at 3 different sites in Kuala Lumpur. The League winner, Helena Gabrielson, intends to compete in the Final in her native Sweden.

Central Asian League (1 qualified)

21 riders from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan competed in the 3 events in Bishkek, Almaty and Tashkent. For the first time the normally dominating Kazak riders did not place in the top 3 of the League. The league winner, Gayrat Nazarov, intends to compete in the Final.

Japan League (1 qualified)

.. riders competed in the 5 events of the League. Chieko Yamaguchi was the winner and she intends to compete in the Final.

South American League - Southern Part (2 qualified)

57 riders started in the 8 competitions. Vitor Teixeira of Brazil was the League winner, ahead of his countrymen Bernardo Rezende Alves and Rodrigo Sarmento

South African League (1 qualified)

25 riders, all from South Africa, started in the 5 competitions, held in Pietermaritzburg, Midrand, Part Elizabeth, Pretoria and Capetown. Ronnie Lawrence is the winner of the League ahead of Barry Taylor.

THE SITUATION IN THE REMAINING LEAGUES

Western European League (18 to qualify)

162 riders started in the 8 Western European qualifying competitions of the FEI World Cup held in 2000  79 qualified at least once for the World Cup class. Ludo Philippaert is in the lead with 63 points ahead of René Tebbel with 57 points. The latter earned his points in 3 starts, winning in Amsterdam and London and placing second in Berlin. Also Rolf-Göran Bengtson with 50 points should have enough points to be among the 18 allowed to compete in the Final in Göteborg (SWE). There are 5 competitions remaining: Bordeaux (10 February), Paris-Bercy (3 March), Dortmund (10 March),

's-Hertogenbosh (24 March) and Oviedo (31 March).

USA East Coast League (7 to qualify)

6 of 10 competitions have been held. Still to come are two competitions each in Palm Beach and Tampa, from 11 February to 1 April. 65 riders have competed up to now. Sydney Olympic rider Lauren Hough is in the lead with 55 points, ahead of Gabriela Salick (53 points), Mark Leone (52 points), McLain Ward (50 points) and Leslie Howard (48 points)

USA West Coast League (3 to qualify)

4 of the 8 competitions have been held. From 4 February to 11 March there will be four competitions in India CA. 33 riders competed up to now. Rich Fellers is in the lead with 57 points, ahead of Ray Texel (53 points), Michael Sudicott (52 points), Richard Spooner (49 points), Dick Cavin (47 points) and Nicole Shahinian Simpson (46 points).

Australian League (2 to qualify)

14 of the 16 competitions have been held. Still to come are Kiama (all in New South Wales) and Canberra, the capital city. 54 riders competed up to now. Sydney Olympic rider Ron Easy is in the lead with 122 points ahead of Chris Chugg (109 points) and Vicki Roycroft (106 points)

New Zealand League (1 to qualify)

7 of the 9 competitions have been held. Still to come are Levin and Auckland. Up to now 27 riders competed. Ann Wilson is in the lead with 72 points, ahead of Maurice Beatson (64 points), Lu Thomas (61 points) and Kim Zander (60 points).

FEI WORLD CUP JUMPING ON TELEVISION

News from Göteborg (SWE), host of the 2001 World Cup Final

Ericsson is the presenting sponsor of the FEI World Cup Final, which takes place this year in Gothenburg, April 12-16.

"The organizing committee of the Gothenburg Horse Show and the FEI very much appreciate that Ericsson is supporting this equestrian highlight. We are proud that a global player like Ericsson will invest in our show at the Scandinavium arena" says Ulf Bergqvist, member of the executive board of Göteborg Horse Show. "We are very glad that Ericsson makes it possible to come back to the birth place of the World Cup" states Max Ammann, FEI World Cup Director.

The first World Cup final was held in the Scandinavium in April 1979.

VISIT WORLD CUP FINAL WEBSITE:www.scandinavium.se

IN MEMORIAM

Eugen Steinmann (SUI), for many years President of the Swiss Equestrian Federation, died at the end of last year, at the age of 91. The industrialist and cavalry officer rode in two Nations Cup for Switzerland in 1947. Later, he was Chef dEquipe of the Swiss Jumping Team.

Wilfried Pabst (GER), a prominent German horseman, died at the end of 2000 aged 92. Mr Pabst was instrumental in the rebuilding of the German equestrian sport after World War II. For many years, he officiated as international judge at FEI events.

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