Eventing
and the Law of Unintended Consequences Eventing
has the former President of the FEI, The Infanta Dona Pilar de Bourbon, of Spain,
to thank for the Short Format. The Infanta was heavily under the influence of
Germany. Are we surprised? How many of us are old enough to remember the friendship
between Germany's Adolph Hitler and Spain's Generalissimo Francisco Franco? At
the 2004 Olympic Games, held in Athens, Germany's Bettina Hoy crossed the start
line twice after the signal to start had been sounded. Admittedly the Ground Jury
blew the call. Bettina was presented the Individual Gold Medal and Germany the
Team Gold. Great Britain and the United States protested and the result was corrected.
Bettina dropped out of the top ten and the German Team dropped out of the Medals. What
did the Infanta, the President of the FEI do? Instead of upholding the Eventing
rules, she went to Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee,
and asked him to allow Bettina, a German, to keep her Gold Medal! Was that outrageous?
You bet! The
German breeds cannot handle the endurance required for Eventing's long format.
Presto! Thanks to the Infanta, the Long Format - which included two Roads and
Tracks and a Steeplechase - were out of all FEI Championships after Athens. Now
all FEI Championships are run as Horse Trials. All the CCI****'s and CCI***'s
followed suit. Supposedly
the Short Format is kinder to horses - surely no one would want to test their
endurance ability, now would they?
Some of the popularity of the Short
Format comes from organizers who are unwilling to go to the trouble, and the added
expense, of running the Roads and Tracks phases and the Steeplechase.
Some of the popularity of the Short Format comes from competitors and owners who
want to run, run, run, and hopefully win, win win.
The Short Format may, in and of itself, be harder on horses - no warm up and cool
down phases, and many, many more runs per horse per year. By
far the more serious result of the Short Format is the fact that The Law of Unintended
Consequences has raised its ugly head. Under the Long Format, no one would have
considered running a horse in more than two CCI***'s or CCI****'s a year - one
in the spring and one in the late summer or fall. Under
the Short Format
run, run, run competitors and owners are competing their horses far too often. How
does Rocking Horse Winter, in February; Poplar Place, in March; two CIC-W***'s
(Red Hills and The Fork), a CCI**** (Rolex Kentucky); the Virginia Horse Trials,
in May; a CCI*** (Jersey Fresh); and Groton House, in June, sound to you? - a
nice easy first half of the season, eh? - only eight runs including a CCI****
and a CCI***. Where
are you FEI? Are you watching? This situation was the creation of your former
President. Most
competitors and owners have the sense to space their horses' competitions. A few
just run, run, run. Is
a rule limiting the number of competitions needed? - only for those who are not
horsemen. Cora
C. Cushny, Editor | 