Asian equestrian panel meet in Abu Dhabi

By A Correspondent

7 March 2006


ABU DHABI ? A three-member committee from the Asia Equestrian Federation held a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday with the officials of the UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation and discussed equestrian activities during the forthcoming 15th Asia Games, scheduled to be held in Doha, from December 1 to 15. Hussein Mohammed Hussein, secretary-general of the UAE Federation, chaired the meeting.

The members of the Asian Federation included II-Hong Kim, secretary-general of the Asian Equestrian Federation, Won-Oh Park, secretary-general of the Korean Federation and Mehdi Nikooee, chairman of the R&R Committee and also council member.

The meeting discussed at length the problems faced by some of the Asian Federations willing to participate in the Doha competitions due to the exorbitant costs of transportation of horses from the Asian countries via Europe and then to Doha. In lieu of this, the Asian Federation members suggested Dubai could be considered as the intermediary place from where the horses could be sent to Doha.

Hussein Mohammed Hussein expressed UAE?s readiness to provide all possible facilities to make this event a success. Hussein requested that the suggestion should be put forward in the meeting of the Organising Committee in Doha. A joint technical meeting attended by both the parties could follow this to discuss the other procedures. He also requested for a list of the participating countries to be submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in the UAE to make sure that those countries maintained the quarantine procedures in accordance with the UAE regulations. Hong Kim explained that they were working on appointing endurance technical committees. He said since endurance was not very popular in the East Asian countries and that the Asian Federation did not have sufficient experience in selecting the ride officials, the FEI had prepared a list of officials. The FEI recommended that the list be presented to Hussein Mohammed Hussein, who is also the chairman of the Asian Endurance Committee, who on his behalf offered all the support from the UAE technical committee to make the event successful.

Hong Kim also sought advice and help from the UAE Equestrian Federation keeping in mind the humble standard of endurance rides in Asian countries. He suggested that a seminar should be organised on endurance on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting of the Asian Equestrian Federation to be held in Malaysia from April 27 to May 2.