THERE were heated debates between international show jumpers and the FEI at the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC) General Assembly in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, last Thursday, which coincided with the FEI European show jumping Championships.

The issues of the Olympic Games – the changes made to the format, with the individual competition coming before the team, and teams no longer having a drop score – were discussed at length, with many of the world’s leading riders venting their frustration towards the international governing body.

Chair of the FEI Jumping Committee, Stephan Ellenbruch, discussed the test event for the new three rider format, which was tested at a young rider show in Hagan this year, saying: “You were all involved in the creation of the new concept.

“We have to agree to disagree a little bit on some things, but I am happy that at least riders were always involved in these things.”

Mess

However, world number one Steve Guerdat from Switzerland, who was sitting at the top table as a board member of the IJRC hit back, saying: “If we have some journalists here today, I want them to know that the FEI are going to be the only ones responsible for the mess that we will see in Tokyo.

“You didn’t really listen to what we were saying. We were saying four riders and team first – so there was no compromise through the whole way.

“So I think you have to take responsibility and nowhere do I want to read that it was a compromise.”

FEI President Igmar de Vos replied to Guerdat, saying the drop score was only introduced in 1972, so the concept of it being removed is not completely new.

“We had a very clear message from the IOC (International Olympic Council) – change or be changed. One of the priorities of the IOC is to give more chances, have more flags, and this is what we did.”

Unhappy

Irish show jumper Cian O’Connor, who was the athlete representative on the Jumping Committee, also responded to the FEI. Unhappy with what he was hearing, he said: “It’s quite hard to sit here in silence. It is hard to listen to the untruths that you both have spoken about for some time. You say ‘change or be changed’, if that was the philosophy from the IOC, but they never put down the parameters – those are things we came up with.

“It is completely disingenuous of you to say the riders and stakeholders have been consulted. There is no point consulting if you ignore.”

Making a point of the cricket scores at some of the lower level Olympic qualifiers, O’Conner added: “China were so good in Valkenswaard that they didn’t need to send in their fourth man on 40 something faults. You think that is going to bring up the level with more flags? You are going to dumb the level down,” he said.

“You do not have always all the parameters,” de Vos replied. “We can agree to disagree but we need to make this a success. We need to make this the best Olympic Games ever.”

On the issue of the individual final coming before the team, German legend Ludger Beerbaum said: “This is something that worries us, because the course builder is going to have a hell of a job with the weak ones.

“Either it will be far too easy or far too heavy, and we will not see welfare of the horse.”

Nations Cup

De Vos reiterated that the Nations Cup series is still the FEI’s most important competition, and said that they are working with stakeholders to improve and strengthen the series. The FEI Jumping Committee will meet at the Nations Cup Final in October to discuss its future.

Shane Sweetnam contributed to the discussion at this point. “I’ve been doing Nations Cups for 12 or 13 years. My feeling of the Super League is that in the last few years the standard has dropped. It has turned into nearly a second tier.

“My feeling is that it is getting dumbed down a little bit. There is a €50,000 bonus [for jumping double clear] but it is turning in to having 10 or 12 double clears. I feel we are getting a little bit lost at the moment with the series. It definitely has to be discussed more with the riders that do go all the time.”