FEI News: World Endurance Forum, 2008 WEC Malaysia

From: m.gueorguiev@horsesport.org
Sent: Sunday, December
03, 2006 11:57 AM
To: fei_prnews@horsesport.org
Subject: FEI
Press News 39/2006

01/12/2006 - World Endurance Forum 02/12/2006 - 2008 FEI World Endurance Championship 01/12/2006 - World Endurance Forum As has been reported elsewhere, a World Endurance Forum is planned for the spring of 2007. Originally scheduled to take place this year in Kuala Lumpur, the forum will now take place in Paris over the weekend 24th/25th March 2007 followed immediately by the annual FEI Endurance Technical Committee meeting. The Forum will be structured along the same lines of the successful 2003 Endurance Forum and will allow delegates, from amongst the 76 FEI National Federations who organize FEI Endurance events, to debate the overall status of the discipline as it exists today. There will also be opportunity to discuss the future of Equestrian Endurance following its rapid growth and the ever increasing public scrutiny of the sport which has occurred in recent years. With the approval of the President of the FEI, HRH Princess Haya, an FEI Endurance working group will be established, following on from the forum, to evaluate and develop those ideas and proposals raised by the delegates and to formulate a 5 year plan for the sport for consideration by the FEI. Members of this working group will be drawn from both within and outside of Endurance itself. As part of a fact finding exercise, a questionnaire has been produced and can be downloaded from the FEI web site accessed through the Endurance pages/documents. All FEI registered Endurance riders are asked to complete the form and to return it by email to the FEI ahead of the Forum next March. The findings of the working group will be considered by the FEI Endurance Technical Committee as part of its ongoing review of Endurance. Further details of the Forum; timings, venue, accreditation and programme will be published in due course and invitations issued to those NFs concerned as soon as possible. 02/12/2006 - 2008 FEI World Endurance Championship Senior FEI Endurance Experts Give a Conditional Green Light The 2008 FEI World Endurance Championship Trial run was held last weekend at Terengganu, on the East coast of Malaysia. The Championship had been provisionally granted to the Malaysian Equestrian Federation subject to there being a number of successful trial runs held in 2006 and 2007. Three senior FEI Endurance Officials attended the event: Dr Hallvard Sommerseth (NOR), Chairman of the FEI Endurance Technical Committee; Dr Jim Bryant (CAN) and Mr John Robertson (GBR). The Malaysian Equestrian Federation, together with the Organising Committee (OC) Â? the State Government of Terengganu & Yayasan Kebajikan Perkasa Alam Terengganu, invited a number of leading Malaysian riders as well as riders from America, Europe and Australsia. A detailed report is being produced; it will be submitted to the FEI Endurance Techncial Committee for further consideration but Dr Hallvard Sommerseth expressed his appreciation for the commitment made by the organizers in producing a very successful trial run. The FEI Endurance Committee had required the trial run to be held at the proposed venue on a date to match the date of the 2008 Championship and for there to be a minimum completion rate of 40% and a maximum riding time of 16 hours for the 160 kms distance. A total of 23 horses were presented at the start of the event and 60% completed the full distance well within the maximum ride time allowed. All of the horses performed well with no heat and humidity related problems. Dr Jim Bryant confirmed that the horses had competed well under the conditions which had been relatively cool because of the timing of the event within the monsoon period. He commented that all of the riders had taken great care to compete using all of their horsemanship skills. Dr Bryant linked the performances of the riders and horses to a time within Endurance when events were less about speed and more about the combination of rider and horse working in close harmony together to overcome the challenges presented. Mr John Robertson felt that there were certain areas which needed to be reviewed in relation to the overall management of the event. He confirmed that the OC was aware of these issues but he was confident that the OC would be able to solve them ahead of the Championship. Dr Sommerseth confirmed that the next trial event, scheduled to take place in the first half of 2007, would involve the use of overseas based horses who would travel to Malaysia to test out the facilities and also to fully evaluate the timing required to allow overseas horse to acclimatise properly ahead of competition. A team from FEI Television attended the event and will produce a short documentary to be shown at the planned FEI World Endurance Forum planned for March 2007.