FEI General Assembly
I hope you had a good Easter break. A lot has happened in the last five weeks, and reports for most of these developments can be found on our web, including Clayton Fredericks' marvellous win at the Rolex Kentucky International Three-Day Event yesterday. Some of the items are listed at the bottom of this e-mail. Special grant from the Australian Sports CommissionI mentioned in the last e-newsletter that the EFA recently received additional funding of around $150,000 to purchase digital x-ray and ultrasound equipment. We are now in the process of selecting this equipment that will enable instant monitoring of our elite horses and early diagnosis of potentially damaging injuries. Again our thanks to the ASC. FEI General AssemblyThis took place in picturesque Estoril near Lisbon in Portugal. Over 350 people attended. About half of these were delegates from almost 100 National Federations that were represented. The rest of the number was made up with FEI Bureau member, Committee Chairs, FEI staff, 50 guests (around 20 of whom were connected with the Equestrian competitions of the Beijing Olympic Games taking place in Hong Kong in 2008), 14 press and 59 accompanying persons. EFA President Geoff Sinclair and I as Secretary General represented the EFA at various meetings and the Assembly itself. The official summary of business conducted can be found on our web (see link below) and the FEI web. I have also written some more personal observations for our Board. I should point out, however, that the new FEI Statutes clarify a number of matters that had not been addressed or were unclear in the previous version. One of them is the “principle” that Member National Federations are the only organisations granted permission to use FEI Rules and Regulations:
Another is the requirement for FEI-listed officials to be members of their National Federation:
GovernanceLast week, the new "non-representational" National Dressage Committee met for the first time and elected Lesley Sullivan as its Chair. This is the first National Sport Committee (NSC) to decide on a new structure. Congratulations to all involved in this move and our thanks to Debbie MacNicol who chaired the Committee for over 10 years. Debbie will, of course, continue to serve the sport in other functions. Over the weekend, the National Board met to review the 2005-2009 Strategic Plan and reassess priorities for the sport as a whole. The Board will invite Branch Chairs to meet with Directors for a communications and planning meeting 16-17 June 2007, to explain and get support for the overall direction of the sport. At the Board Meeting on 18 August, the National Jumping Committee and Para-Equestrian Australia representatives will have the opportunity to present their status report and their plans to the Board, followed with presentation by representatives of Dressage and Vaulting on 23 September. At the Board Meeting on Sunday, Peter Hickson took over the positions Russ Withers had on the Audit and the Remuneration Committees of the National Board and also replaced Kerry Brydon on the ICDF Committee. The Board reaffirmed its support for the creation of a commercially-run regular annual "icon" event and left future negotiations to Chair Geoff Sinclair and CEO Franz Venhaus. Over 04 - 06 June, we will be visiting Alice Springs and Darwin to talk with Northern Territory Branch members about a proposal to have the Queensland Branch Office take on the member administration of the NT Branch, possibly creating a "QANTAS" Branch. We will advise details soon. EFA Australian Interschool ChampionshipsAfter much planning, this year’s EFA State Interschool Championships will all include 24 standard competitions leading for the first time to Australian Interschool Championships. The Australian Interschool Championships will be 7-9 December 2007 in Warwick, Qld - home of the FEI Eventing World Cup qualifier Warwick Horse Trials (WHT). The appointed Event Director is the Queensland Sports Federation 2006 Administrator of the Year - Mr Simon Goddard (also director of WHT). Simon is supported by experienced section managers from the long-established Queensland Inter School Equestrian Association (QISEA) and by EFA Queensland and National staff. Most competition will be held early morning or evening with a number of activities planned out of the sun during the day and entertainment at night. Riders who qualified at the NSW, Vic, Tas and WA Interschool Championships will soon hear from their state branches about entries etc. The Qld, NT and SA Qualifiers are scheduled later this year, don’t miss out. Coaching and Officiation CommunicationThe April edition of The Equestrian Coach is the magazine’s 8th edition since the magazine was first designed and published in February 2004. Since then the magazine has continued to grow in size while maintaining quality articles that we hope our Coaches find interesting and informative. You will also notice that for the first time the Equestrian Coach features a colour cover. As always we encourage input from Coaches, riders and other industry professionals and look forward to receiving articles or stories that can be included in publications. In 2006 we produced a total of 4 magazines, three Equestrian Coach magazines and one ethos officials magazine. All coaching activities listed on the coaching calendar are now listed ‘online’ and accessible by visiting your EFA State Branch website. Dates of events, clinics, workshops and seminars are regularly updated by the state branch and easily accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Currently between 80 and 100 coaching activity days are held throughout Australia each year, the majority of these being in NSW and Victoria. Other states are, however, increasing the number of coach activities conducted. In particular the number of training and assessment days offered to trainee coaches and candidates completing their Horse Management or Riding certificates has risen. EventsThere are a number of important international events taking place in May. Here is the list straight from the event calendar on our web:
There are other events overseas in which Australian competitors are participating. Seven AUS riders have entered the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials taking place 3 - 6 May, while Andrew Hoy had to withdraw. We also have entries in other Eventing fixtures and a number of Jumping and Dressage events. In April, Australian riders did well in events on borrowed horses. You can download brief reports on the Seoul CSIO* in South Korea and the Trans-Tasman Friendly Young Rider competition at Werribee. Congratulations to our Teams! We will create web news stories as soon as we receive photos. We will now also need to concentrate our efforts to get things ready for the Olympic Dressage Team Qualifier that will be held in conjunction with the Australian Dressage Championships at SIEC in October. There is a lot to do. Unfortunately, FEI President HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein was unable to accept our invitation to attend as she is already otherwise engaged. The Princess wrote: "As you know, the Sydney International Equestrian Centre, as the location of my own Olympic experience, is dear to my heart and nothing could give me greater pleasure than to attend this event. However, I am heavily engaged at the time the qualifier will take place. First, I am hosting the 3rd IOC Athletes Forum here in Dubai 26th-28th October. I am also hoping to attend an IOC Conference on Sport and the Environment which falls on these dates. ..... However, I would like to continue to be in touch, if I may, as my schedule becomes clearer, to see whether it will be possible to arrange a trip as you suggest." So there is hope! Supporters and SponsorsI cannot close without thanking our funding agencies, sponsors and supporters. In particular, we would like to mention
Franz Venhaus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.