It really does my heart good to see all these great ideas that would truly benefit the sport, horses and riders worldwide. But don't forget that any organisation, once established well, becomes primarily concerned with its own survival and benefit. The FEI is no different. Remember where the money for the FEI endurance program is coming from....and it isn't AERC International or even the USEF. They get their funds from a portion of the prize money offered in competition. And WHO offers prize money in competition, anyway? We all know the answer to that question. And WHO is now the head of the FEI? As much as I like and admire Princess Haya, I spent twenty five years as a wife of a fairly prominent Arab businessman (which HRH M. Maktoum most certainly is), and I know just how free she would be to come down in favour of a policy that would not be in his favour...especially when the nation of Jordan itself is most certainly benefiting from the alliance of the UAE and the house of Hussein. I wouldn't be in her position for all the tea in China, but I was lucky enough not to be born a princess too.
If you really want to see changes in FEI policy, you are going to have to see changes in FEI money acquisition. As they say in all the old murder mysteries....follow the money.? So should everyone give up and go home? No, definitely not. But if all the member groups in FEI stopped playing the game, the FEI would have to change a bit or would simply become irrelevant, since you can't have World championship if the world doesn't come.??It's sort of like what happened in Eastern Europe when Communism fell. Basically, everyone simply stopped going along with the game and the leaders found no one behind them. Awkward position.? Why does the FEI have to be the only organisation to host a major international championship? I was very happy to see the new French ride, which I see as a step in the right direction.? Maybe a series of such rides... or a rotation of rides like that in various participating countries.
Maryanne
wishful?in Egypt
On Nov 19, 2006, at 5:42 AM, kimfuess wrote:
Instead of focusing on individual horse/rider team requirements, changing the distance of the event, or even taking away the "race" aspect,? I would rather see changes made that will change the culture at this level of competition and bring a better balance between winning and completing. Unfortunately, I really don't see many ways of positively re enforcing "completing" without taking away the "race" aspect.? The only kind of positive re enforcement I see is to re reimburse a national team some of it's expenses if it completes an entire team.? Of course, with wealthy teams or subsidized teams this will have little or no effect.? So, penalizing non completing squads seems like another viable solution.? It allows national squads to "race" any way they choose BUT the results from those choices will have consequences for future competitions.
