The FEI has requested new reporting procedures of all National Federations and Ride Organizers. This entails reporting metabolic eliminations for all events, both CEI and CEN. Note that riders (and horses) Certificate of Capability (CoC) will be withdrawn if:1) a metabolic elimination which requires invasive treatment occurs within 6 months of the Nominated Entries Date for the 2008 WEC.
2) two consecutive metabolic eliminations occur within the same 6 month period.
This loss of CoC will likely effect the decision by riders, trainers, and owners with respect to the application of invasive treatment following an endurance event. It is assumed that intravenous re-hydration following a metabolic elimination will cause the withdrawal of the CoC.
Endurance-Belgium.com Report
FEI Letter to National Federations
FEI Article 825.6 - Final Qualification Criteria
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12 comments:
have wondered about this since they put it in place. Two questions come to mind:
1) is giving fluids following a metabolic pull "invasive treatment" if given intra-venously?
2) what is the "time window" for the metabolic treatments restriction. The horse is already eliminated, so the 2 hour restriction does not apply.
The other difficulty, in the US at least, is that there are no "National" rides (i.e. CEN rides), they are all AERC - do these count??
The effect of this on the US is, IMO:), that our selection process needs adjustment so that we do not put riders/horses at risk of loosing their CoCs in order to make the team ....
jt
Hi John,
in Germany they also don't call the non-CEIs CENs. They are Endurance
rides that follow the regulations of our national endurance organization
called VDD, which vary in some parts from the CEI-rules e.g. 20 minutes to
reach pulse criteria of 64bpm instead of 30 minutes.
you can see the reason of elimination in the results, but you usually
don't know if, when or with what a horse is treated.
I dunno how the FEI will be able to find out about this.
Greetings from Germany
Stefanie
Stefanie,
The wording of the letter uses the phrase: " ... eliminated for metabolic reasons at all National Rides ..."
I think b/c National rides are defined in the FEI rules (CEN events) that it is only CEN national rides that the NFs will be reporting to the FEI.
We should all maybe ask our NF representatives what the REAL process will be:)
It is winter in Germany, yes? a difficult time to train so we have time to get the answers maybe!
jt
John states:
We should all maybe ask our NF representatives what the REAL process
will be:)
Of course that is the sensible way to handle this matter. In all aspects,
the AERC does not have a relationship with the FEI, only with the USEF, our
NF.
One response, and the only real response, is to tell the USEF that if they
need the information, to develop it from our ride results. Of course that is
not an auditable method of control, but would be the most cost effective
one.
While some members would divorce the AERC from all international
relationships, I believe that some association is necessary. It should,
however be based on the conjunction defined in the USEF rules and the AERC
should hew to those definitions much more positively. Until that is done the
AERC will be subservient.
Bob
"...3. AERC national rides are like our national rides; they just have another acronym..."
If this interpretation is right, the AERC will soon be requiring passports etc. For all rides.
My reasoning:
The FEI is paranoid that the wrong horse will be entered and thus requires careful identification via passport. When I have seen this done it took quite awhile for each horse. This would raise the staffing needs of AERC rides considerably, and really piss off the average AERC rider who has no aspirations of ever riding FEI. If only COC horses were checked, an unscrupulous rider could claim that he/she had left the passport home or that this was a different horse and thus did not need a passport.
If John Smith were to get his COC on Beetlebomb and then later enter Beetlebomb in an AERC only ride where Beetlebomb colics and needs an IV, how would the RM and or AERC report that this was actually Beetlebomb, unless the horses passport was checked before or during treatment? If the passport was not checked, John Smith could just claim to the FEI that it was some other horse entered. I'll bet that this would hold up given the legalistic non-trusting nature of international sports.
This is possibly another example of why the AERC should divorce itself from international competition.
ED
Sounds like a case of good intentions likely to cause unintended consequences. Unfortunately, its the horse that is going to suffer.
Possibly - but then again, it MAY be that there will be less effort put into qualifying and being selected for the WEC. After one has achieved the CoC, the competition schedule will likely be greatly reduced, with the effect that the horses will be less stressed going into the WEC experience.
Remember, the current qualifications criteria came about AFTER an initial requirement for a second CoC of greater speed was announced (I can't remember the actual number but it was something like 15km/hr). NO ONE agreed with that except the individuals in FEI who made the requirement.
After a belated request for comment from NFs, that requirement was changed to the current one (and at that time they added the CoC retraction b/c of metabolic eliminations/treatments.
So, there are maybe three issues:
1) who will monitor/audit the competition records (CEI/CEN) of the individuals and horses involved.
2) with respect to invasive treatment, what is the time window following elimination for metabolic reasons which will be in effect?
and now more generally,
3) Is the requirement going to benefit, or be detrimental to the horse?
jt
A CEN is just a nationally-recognized endurance ride, as contrasted with a CEI, an internationally-recognized endurance ride. All non-CEIs are CENs, by default, assuming of course that they are recognized by *some* national org, otherwise for all intents and purposes they don't exist.
Seems to be a "Catch 22." You don't want to send a horse that can not safely put the hammer down and have a chance to get it done. You don't want a horse to have to have put out his fastest ride at the WEC. The selection process needs to determine what horses (and riders) can safely move up to the next level - especially if we have any desire to be anything but also runs.
On the other hand to do so and test the horses in the selection process to see if they can handle the stress, puts them in risk of a metabolic pull. While such pulls should be taken seriously they should be evaluated on their own merit concerning the capability of the horse to perform. It may simply point out a hole in his conditioning rather than a indicator that he can't succeed if conditioned properly.
You are looking at sending a team of horses that have not been tested and could not be up to the task in which case the WEC would put them at great risk or you are looking at potentially eliminating your best horses during the process.
So it seems you are damed if you do and damed if you don't.
I actually think the FEI is going in the correct direction and hopefully the AERC will follow their lead in elevating the concern over horse welfare. However, I think the FEI concept needs a little more work before it is ready for prime time.
Truman
well, we have the same problem with the passport and the cost involved, here in Europe. On top of that all horses need a chip now and are all registered in a database. All horse movements have to be reported. You want go to France for a ride, you have to ask the vet inspection to come and make the paperwork (they don't even look at the horse) and pay, pay pay. One have to add 100 euros on the total cost of a ride.
c'est la vie :-(
Leonard (www.endurance-belgium.com)
sure it goes to the right direction, but ...
- the good NFs will probably strictly enforce the rule because they support it; this rule comes from Leclerc at the endurance committee and is +- similar to one rule in France
- but this rule was mainly made for emerging NF sending unappropriate riders or horses to Championships. in this case how can we make sure that the rule will be enforced everywhere ? who will check that ?
Leonard (www.endurance-belgium.com)
But does it HAVE to be like that? Surely there could be an alternative.... or eventually all sport will be something that only professionals and rich people engage in while the rest of the world sits and watches it on TV. Shades of sci-fi, but I can surely see the gentle beginnings of such a scenario.
Maryanne
who won't join her national federation because she knows all too well where the money goes.
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