Finally some light at the end of the tunnel

Things are finally looking rather promising. At the National Management Group meeting last Friday, a timetable for the progressive re-zoning of Equine Influenza zones proposed by the infected States of New South Wales and Queensland got the go-ahead. This means that barring major upsets, the crisis will be completely over by the end of June. You can download a copy of the proposed zone changes (click) and also of the revised requirements for horse movements between zones (click). You should also check your respective State DPI web site regularly to keep up-to-date with changes. Links are listed on the EFA web. Please "stay alert" and comply with relevant biosecurity requirements. A lot of effort and money has gone into getting us this far. NSW and Qld DPI still have a huge surveillance job to do. Let's make sure that all goes according to plan. Since a large number of competitive riders are actually located in the currently purple and red zones in New South Wales and Queensland, a critical date for them and for event organisers will come in mid-March when these zones will turn "green" and movement restrictions will become limited to the completion of a Travelling Horse Statement (THS). And just a quick word on vaccination: We published details of a vaccination program a couple of weeks back to assist riders coming from other zones or interstate to events in the purple or red zones. With the rapid improvement in the EI situation, we are trying to avoid the unnecessary issue of vaccines, particularly for events that take place in April. We will leave authorisation until about eight weeks before the start of the first nominated and will review the situation as it develops. Federal Minister for Agriculture visits the EFA National Office EFA President Geoff Sinclair and I had the pleasure yesterday of welcoming new Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke to our office at Homebush. You can find a link to a brief report below. The main topic was the impact that the Equine Influenza outbreak has had on our Olympic preparations and how the High Performance Program has had to be adjusted to maintain our chances of success at the Games. Regional Olympic Dressage Team Qualifier What had been planned to be the grandest Dressage occasion in Australia since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games has, as a result of Equine Influenza, been reduced to a series of "assessments" by a jury of travelling judges. The qualifier was supposed to have taken place together with the 2007 Australian Dressage Championships at SIEC in October last year. A full team of four horses and riders representing Japan would have flown in from Germany to join AUS and NZL in competing for the two Olympic Team spots available for the region. Under the new arrangements, the Japanese Team will be "assessed" on 31 January at a private facility in Cannes (FRA) together with lone AUS representative Maree Tomkinson and Lanzaro, supported by Chef d'Equipe Deborah MacNicol. Next Monday, 04 February 2008, the same Ground Jury will assess the remaining three riders of the Australian contingent plus one New Zealand nomination at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre. Other Grand Prix riders will have a chance to get an "MES" (Minimum Eligibility Standard) performance from these judges, and there will be other competitions on Sunday and Tuesday. The balance of the NZL team will be assessed at Palmerston North in New Zealand later next week. The FEI will announce the two nations that will receive team entries for the Games on 13 February 2008 (AUS time). So if you have the time, please come out to SIEC and see the first Grand Prix competition (more details) since the EI outbreak last August. Entry is free. Pity the event is not on the scale it deserves but it is still virtually impossible to stage a full-scale event with horses from a number of zones and from interstate. The day of the week was not our choice, either, but even without trade stands and the usual buzz of a major event in the air, it is going to be great to watch our top riders in action again. FEI Registration of Horses and Riders As a result of the IT project approved by National Federations at the FEI General Assembly in 2007, more automatic processes will be implemented during 2008, thus bringing many changes to the way National Federations and the FEI work together. FEI registration has been mandatory since 2006 for riders and horses taking part in international competition. So far late registration was possible shortly after the competition had taken place. This will change soon. Once the new FEI registration system is in place mid-2008, all FEI registrations will have to be completed prior to competition. If a registration is not done prior to the competition, the entry at the event will not be accepted by the FEI and the rider or the horse will not be authorised to participate in the competition. EFA National Awards The EFA Board has chosen the winners of the 2007 EFA National Awards and they have been notified. The awards will be presented during the Welcome Function for the EFA Annual Forum weekend after next and will be published on the EFA web then. These are not the only events and meetings taking place in February. It will be hard to find the time to prepare for them all but just to mention a few: the Olympic Dressage Team Assessment (see above), a National Board meeting, the EFA Annual General Meeting (and Annual Report), a National Eventing Committee meeting, the FEI Olympic Workshop, a "National Pathway" presentation to the Australian Sports Commission in Canberra and many others. Olympic Tickets Those of you who have tried to buy tickets after the close of the reservation period (and maybe even during it) will have been disappointed. The number of tickets allocated to Australia was obviously far below what the demand turned out to be (we do not know the size of the allocation). The appointed ticket agents CoSport have advised that there has been an overwhelming interest for tickets to Equestrian events but that they have been unable to assist so far. The Australian Olympic Committee is trying very hard to get additional tickets for Equestrian and other sports that have sold out, so watch this space! You can also try to get your friends overseas to buy tickets for you (or order in their country and use their address for delivery), but please stay away from unauthorised agents who are trying to sell tickets over the web at hugely inflated prices. They might not deliver. Supporters and Sponsors I would like to thank our funding agencies, sponsors and supporters for their continued assistance. In particular, we would like to mention the Australian Sports Commission, our Principal Sponsor, the Australian Olympic Committee, Horseland Kentucky Equine Research and Ridley Agriproducts, Horse Deals magazine, and Aon Risk Management Services. For more news and other information, please visit www.equestrian.org.au or your State Branch web (www.[state].equestrian.org.au). Make it a good day! Franz Venhaus Chief Executive Officer

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke visits EFA National Office The new Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry, the Hon. Tony Burke MP, took the time yesterday to visit the EFA National Office at Homebush in Sydney

2008 National Squads Announced The National Selectors for each of the Olympic sports have announced the National Squads for 2008.All riders listed on the Elite Squads for these disciplines will form the Olympic Shadow Team.

Edwina Alexander and Isovlas Socrateswins Mercedes CSI in Zürich (SUI) The result came at the last jump of the Mercedes Classic at the 20-year Jubilee-CSI Zürich. Both Toni Hassmann (GER) and “oldie” Hugo Simon (AUT) gave away the win and the key to the $100,000 Mercedes Cabriolet at the vertical. Edwina was the first female rider to win the trophy.

Dressage Team selected to compete for place at Olympic Games The National Dressage Selectors have announced the Australian Team that will compete against Japan and New Zealand for the right to send a dressage team to the Beijing Olympic Games.

'Mac' Greaves passes away Today, the funeral was held of W. McL. (“Mac”) Greaves (aged 77), one of the original EFA Victoria committee members. He will be sadly missed.

FEI Eventing Safety Forum The sport of Eventing must improve in the areas of rider education, fence design and data collection in order to reduce the risk to horses and riders. These were the main issues to emerge from the FEI Safety Forum held in Copenhagen (DEN) on 19 January 2008.

A Big Thank You to AOC and adidas On behalf of our riders and coaches, the EFA would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Australian Olympic Committee and adidas. A number of elite riders and coaches recently received financial support from the AOC through the adidas Medal Incentive Scheme. The funding comes at what has been a difficult time for the sport of Equestrian.

Exell 4th in FEI World Cup Driving Final One of the favourites to win the 2007/2008 FEI World Cup Driving Final, Australia’s Boyd Exell was forced to settle for 4th place. The final in Leipzig, Germany, 18-20 January was full of surprises as the wild card entrant Christoph Sandmann (GER) took home the title.

Vaccination of horses for participation in events held in purple and red zones in NSW and Queensland Signs are good for an end to the Equine Influenza crisis and the horse movement restrictions and conditions that have come with it.

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