Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Re: [RC] Membership forum??And Mike Maul's point. - Eric Rueter
 
I've always been curious about this, just exactly *who* appointed USEF
as "...the National Governing Body (NGB) of Equestrian Sport in the
United States"?  Did anybody bother telling the Quarter Horse
Association ( and other breed groups / equine sports groups) about
this?  Or is this a case of -like my momma used to say- "Because I said
so."

thanx eric
Eric Rueter
_________________________________

The USEF's authority comes from the USOC, whose authority comes
from US federal law in the form of the Olympic and Amateur Sports
Act. http://www.olympic-usa.org/12699_12720.htm 
Some of the more salient excerpts:

Subchapter II - National Governing Bodies

§220521. Recognition of amateur sports organizations as national
governing bodies

(a) GENERAL AUTHORITY?
. .
 .the corporation [USOC] is authorized to recognize. . .
only one national governing body for each sport* [e.g., Equestrian] for
which an application is made and approved. . .

(b) RECOMMENDATION TO INTERNATIONAL SPORTS
FEDERATION?
. . .the corporation [USOC] shall recommend. . .the national
governing body to the appropriate international sports federation
[e.g., FEI] as the representative of the United States for that sport.

§220522. Eligibility requirements

(a) GENERAL.?An amateur sports organization is eligible to be
recognized, or to continue to be recognized, as a national governing
body only if it?

[. . .]

(5) demonstrates that it is autonomous in the governance of its sport, in
that it?

(A) independently decides and controls all matters central to governance;

(B) does not delegate decision-making and control of matters central to
governance; and

(C) is free from outside
 restraint;

[. . .]
__________________________________________________________
 
*An important note about terminology??sport? does not refer to, e.g.,
?endurance.? For the purpose of governance, from the IOC on down,
the ?sport? is ?Equestrian,? which is defined as all the
Olympic AND World Championship ?disciplines? (e.g., endurance)
recognized by the respective international federation (FEI). So when
they refer to ?a sport included on the program of the Olympic or Pan-
American Games,? they are talking about ?equestrian sport,? not
just ?jumping, eventing, and dressage.? Which FEI disciplines doesn?t
factor in, although I?m a little rusty as to exactly WHY that is, and I?d
have to poke around a little to explain it further. But it is all based
upon the monopoly principle, and that won?t change.

So the AQHA (or any other breed association) doesn?t have any say in
this,
 because they don?t govern anything within what is affectionately
known as ?the Olympic family.? The AHSA (now USEF) predates even
the FEI, and was one of the FEI's founding members (1921). So it has
been a part of the "system" since the system began. This naturally
makes things difficult when other disciplines (e.g., endurance, reining)
develop separately on their own, and are later brought "into the fold" for
the purposes of international competition. The FEI represents all
equestrian sport within the IOC and that cannot be changed. Monopoly
for the IOC = monopoly for its affiliated International Federations and
National Olympic Committees = monopoly for National Governing Bodies.

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