RE: FEI Stuff

["Steph Teeter" <steph@endurance.net>]

>>So, if the motivation of the FEI in passing the addition of whips to
the "spurs are prohibited" rule was because of the excessive use of the
whip at the finish line at the WEC in France last summer, then the FEI
should not have needed to pass a new rule, the existing rules were
already adequate to disqualify any such rider.>>

This is a very big *if* - the only thing we know for sure is that
the rule was ammended. Why? We can only speculate. According
to Teddy (who was at the finish line when the winners arrived)
whips were not used by the winning riders. I had heard that they
were (I wasn't there) - which probably indicates that rumor and
hysteria should be taken into account whenever we hear about
outrageous things happening...

There does seem to be a fair amount of wishy-washiness over the
issue though. At the '99 PAC we were told that we could carry a
crop, but we couldn't use it... In France there was uncertainty up
until the days before the race. The final word was that crops
were allowed - and - that we could use them.

Speculation: I think some of these types of decisions are made by individual
ride
organizing committees, probably because FEI (and other organizations)
prefer not to get too rule-bound. Plus I wonder if the heart of the
issue is not that horses are being abused, but that it looks bad to
the public. Televised events, Olympics, etc etc.

Steph