The Return of the Horse

"The Return of the Horse" is the name of a series of events currently taking place in New South Wales with generous support from the NSW Government. Let's go out there and support these and all the other equestrian fixtures being conducted now. For further details, download the poster (472KB) and/or go to www.nsw.equestrian.org.au. In the last e-news, I forgot to mention a few things, most importantly that Australia had qualified for Dressage Team participation at this year's Olympic Games in Hong Kong. We thank all the riders, who did their best to make it happen, and it did. Congratulations also to the organisers, officials and other volunteers who faced terrible weather conditions at the Sydney leg of the "assessment" but maintained their cool and just did it. 2008 will be the first time that Australia has qualified for team entries in all three of the Olympic Disciplines. In 2000, Australia as the host nation had automatic Team entry. Read more about Australia's preparations for the Games in the "Beijing-bound via Hong Kong" newsletter that we publish on a monthly basis until August. But before we go to other Olympic matters, back to Equine Influenza. Equine Influenza and its consequences The crisis is over although its consequences will linger for a while. These will not be restricted to "Travelling Horse Statements" and "Way Bills", but also EFA-regulatory matters and the all-important finalisation of cost-sharing arrangements between Federal and State Governments and the industry. The horse industry, like other industries threatened by the importation of exotic diseases, needs to be a party to the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA) to ensure that governments will respond quickly and effectively to any disease outbreak. The implication of this is that the "industry" affected has to contribute to the cost of these measures. There is a good argument that in the current case "Government" should bear all cost (in other words, the whole community should rather than just the sector that has already suffered badly from the outbreak). This is particularly the case if the Callinan Inquiry establishes that faults in the quarantine system led to the outbreak. We need to think about future risks, however, and how to react to them. Please remember that Equine Influenza is just one of them. The issue of how Equine Influenza should be classified under EADRA is already being addressed. Vaccination As indicated in the last e-news, the National Board met via telephone conference to discuss this matter. The Board believes that horse owners should have the choice of vaccinating their horses with a suitable vaccine but that vaccination should not become compulsory. Industry representation The National Board also confirmed its view that the EFA should have a separate voice to Government, both at the State and National level. Because of the broad base of its membership, the Australian Horse Industry Council (AHIC) is not in a position to properly represent the special interests of Equestrian sport and all that goes with it. In fact, AHIC and "leisure horse" views on occasions were quite different to EFA views. The Australian Racing Board (ARB) and the Australian Harness Racing Council (AHRC) are both members of AHIC but through their membership of Australian Animal Health (AHA), of which AHIC is also a member, they have separate and individual representation on government bodies such as the National Management Group (NMG) and the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases (CCEAD). Separate representation can be justified on a number of grounds and I will mention just a couple. EFA is the governing body of Equestrian sports in Australia and EFA rules and regulations set the standard for the sport. EFA rules, coaches, judges and other technical officials are used by a large number of horse organisations covering hundreds of thousands of equestrian sport participants. During the recent EI outbreak, it was only the EFA apart from Racing that was able to immediately assist in the administration of the Commercial Horse Assistance Payment scheme (CHAPS) through its network of professionally-staffed Branches, in this case the NSW and Qld. Branch Offices. The EFA also played a key role in the immediate communication of the horse standstill to large numbers of horse owners and readily assisted Departments of Primary Industry with the location of horse properties in infected areas. Intellectual Property (IP) We all know that there are a number of organisations in Australia that use FEI and EFA Rules and Regulations for their own purposes without having made the appropriate arrangements with the EFA, either through affiliation or licensing arrangements. The EFA as the National Federation representing the FEI in Australia is the only body entitled to use FEI Rules and other specified FEI intellectual property in Australia. The FEI Statutes state: "National Federations are granted an exclusive license to use, modify, print and distribute as appropriate the documents referred to in this Article, which are FEI property, for the purpose of regulating horse sport within their national territory." The EFA pays affiliation fees to the FEI, takes part in its meetings, contributes to the development and revision of rules and regulations including FEI governance and internal documentation. The EFA also has its own rules, regulations, policies, coaching, officiating and general education resources. For their management, it has paid staff in National and Branch Offices, hires consultants, seeks legal advice, has a number of volunteer National and State committees and subcommittees that meet regularly to work on these and other matters, et cetera, et cetera. All this costs money (travel/ accommodation/ venue/ meals/ staff costs/ etc.) and more importantly huge amounts of time and effort by volunteers. Then there are all the volunteer technical officials who keep up their skills through attendance at courses and seminars prepared and organised by the EFA and its affiliated bodies. We want to encourage other equestrian organizations to utilize all our resources including rules and EFA accredited judges, coaches and officials. In return we want these organizations to be fully affiliated with the EFA and to recognize officially the EFA IP that they are using at national, state and club level in their communications with members. Olympic Tickets The shortage of tickets is still creating a problem in a number of countries. Apparently, they are readily available in Hong Kong (not really surprising sing BOCOG reserved the lion share for Chinese residents), and a number of web sites are also offering them, usually at exorbitant prices. We are still investigating other means of securing tickets at the correct prices. The AOC-appointed agent in Australia, CoSport, is also expecting further allocations, so please keep an eye on the CoSport website. Better still, please register you interest for tickets via e-mail with CoSport directly, to give them an idea of the demand. Australian Youth Olympic Festival and Youth Olympic Games You may have heard that Equestrian will be part of the 2009 and 2011 Australian Olympic Youth Festivals, an initiative of the Australian Olympic Committee. Competition Directors have been appointed: Edwena Mitchell for Jumping and Toni Venhaus for Dressage, and details of the program will be published as they become available, so watch www.equestrian.org.au for further details. We will set up a special page on our web in the near future. In the meantime, you may wish to consider offering your horse(s) for the event. Australia will be fielding one or two teams in each of the Disciplines, with three riders in Dressage and four in Jumping. There may be up to six foreign nations taking part. It remains to be seen which will send teams in which disciplines, but surely the demand for loan horses will be greater than it was in 2005 when a total of six teams competed in each Discipline, with three teams each from Australia. The generous owners who provided their horses had a great time being part of the event. The IOC has obviously taken note of what has been happening in Australia and will now stage its own Youth Olympic Games. The inaugural Games will take place in Singapore in 2010 and Equestrian will have Jumping as a participating discipline, on borrowed horses, of course. Find out more .... EFA National Carriage Driving Committee Nominations for elections to fill three vacancies close 15 April 2008. You can find details on our web. National Education Manager Nathan Holman reports: Over the past months the EFA National office in association with the EFA National Driving Committee and other driving specialists has been working to redevelop the EFA NCAS Carriage Driving Coach accreditation scheme. On 27 and 28 March the EFA in conjunction with the National Carriage Driving Committee ran the second Carriage Driving Recognition Course to train and accredit presenters to be able to deliver the Intro and Level 1 Carriage Coach and Personal Driving skills courses. The course was run at Werribee and attracted participants from WA, Qld, NSW and Vic who are now accredited to be able to run the Introduction to Coaching Course for Carriage Driving in their respective state. Several of the presenters were also trained as candidate / trainee Coach Educators and SSTA’ and are able to sign off on candidate Coaching and Personal Driving activity slips. The EFA will be releasing the Intro and Level 1 CD Coach and Personal Driving Skills workbooks over the coming week for any candidate wishing to become accredited as an Intro CD Coach or completing the Intro CD Personal Driving Skills certificate. These workbooks will be available for purchase with the: Coaching Resource Order Form Emergency Numbers on your mobile phone BTW (which stands for "by the way"), a number of you will have been receiving e-mails promoting the storing of ICE ("In Case of Emergency") name-number combinations on your mobile phone. This will assist emergency personnel and helpers on the scene of an accident involving you to identify on your mobile phone whom to call. I think this is a great idea. You could even have several contacts listed in order of priority (ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc.) or go ICE_Parent, ICE_Wife, ICE_Girlfriend (not if listing the previous), ICE_Friend, etc. 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

Rozzie Ryan finishes 11th at the World Cup final Rozzie Ryan and Susan Duddy’s Donna Carrera scored 69.600% at the FEI World Cup Dressage final in s'Hertogenbosch, Holland, yesterday 29 March.

Australia qualified for Team entry to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games After rain forced a change of arenas and delayed the start of the competition, the Australian representatives at the Regional Olympic Dressage Team Assessment at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre scored well to go into the lead.

Dressage & Show Horse Judge Accreditations Due All Dressage and Show Horse Judges have been posted an accreditation pack this week, to renew their Judge accreditations which will expire on 1 April.

Berrima CIC runs successfully The first CIC in NSW since July 2007 has been successfully held at the Briars Autumn One-Day Event.

Kristy wins at Braunschweig Kristy Oatley and Quando-Quando have won the Löwen Classics Grand Prix Freestyle at the CDI4* Braunschweig (GER) on the weekend.

Announcement of the National Youth Development Dressage Squad The EFA is pleased to announce the Dressage Youth Development Squad for 2008. As there has been a lack of competition in recent times the Squad will be reviewed mid year following the National Young Rider Championships and the Sydney CDI.

Megan Jones first and second at Tonimbuk CIC3* It was a great weekend for Megan Jones at Tonimbuk winning the CIC3* on her Elite Squad horse, Kirby Park Irish Jester and coming second on Kirby Park Allofasudden.

German Jumping Shows confirmed for Olympic Nomination

Lingen CDI5* named as Olympic Dressage Nomination Event It has now been confirmed that Lingen CDI5* (GER) to be held on 29 May – 01 June 2008 will be the second of the Australian Olympic Dressage Nomination Events.

Biosecurity Education Course - designed to help event organisers In conjunction with the Veterinary Advisor Dr Warwick Vale, the EFA has developed a Biosecurity Education Course, designed to educate and train event organisers on necessary biosecurity measures and how best to practically implement them for their events.

A great start for Edwina and Itot du Chateau Edwina Alexander finished in third place in the Grand Prix at the CSI 3/4* Arezzo Tour (ITA) last weekend riding her new horse Itot du Chateau.

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” said Vicki Roycroft this morning at the official launch by the EFA NSW of the Return of the Horse at the Domain in Sydney.

An Aussie assault on Badminton Australia has eleven horse-and-rider combinations accepted to compete at the prestigious 2008 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials CCI 4* to be held 1-4 May.

An update on Bianca Craddock Bianca is making excellent progress and is no longer in intensive care.

Contact Us:

If you have any comments about this newsletter or our website, or want to contribute, you can email us. The Equestrian Federation of Australia 's postal address is PO Box 673, SYDNEY MARKETS, NSW, 2129 Tel: +61 2 8762 7777 , Fax: +61 2 9763 2466 , Email: info@efanational.com.

If a friend or colleague has forwarded to you this edition of our newsletter you can subscribe online.

The Equestrian Federation of Australia recognises that privacy is important and that individuals have a right to control their personal information. If you send us an email message we will record your contact details. This information will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it. We will not use your email for any other purpose and will not disclose it without your consent. When users choose to join a mailing list their details are added to that specific mailing list and used for the stated purpose of that list only. The Equestrian Federation of Australia members are automatically subscribed to our newsletter when they initially join The Equestrian Federation of Australia or The Equestrian Federation of Australia receives their email address.

If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter please unsubscribe.

Copyright 2006, The Equestrian Federation of Australia. This material is protected by copyright. The owners of the copyright in this material reserve all rights. Users must not copy, reproduce, frame, transmit, link to or otherwise use any of the material, including audio and video excerpts, without the prior written permission of The Equestrian Federation of Australia.