Let's talk with the FEI, across the virtual table, all week long

For one week, I'm going to transform camera-obscura into an open forum for communicating with the FEI, trusting that while Malina may not be able to respond to every comment, she will be reading and absorbing what we have to say.

For anyone who doesn't know, Malina is Malina Gueorguiev, Communications Manager for the FEI and she has been a regular visitor here for a number of months.

WHAT TO DO: If you'd like to communicate with the FEI in a slightly less formal way than letter or email, this is your chance. Put your message in a comment. It will be remain in the comment section as usual, but what I plan to do, depending how many comments there are, is post some or all of the comments throughout this week as the next day's new blog post, to make the comments more visible and allow for further discussion.

This is a work in progress, so bear with me if I change the structure to accommodate what actually plays out.

IMPORTANT: Please honor my guidelines: genuine and respectful communication. No one will come back to a table to talk or listen if they are treated rudely. I will not approve comments that are blatantly rude in a way that is personal to Malina or the FEI staff.

We are communicating about the use of rollkur, hyperflexion, and LDR (low deep and round), and the FEI's role in governing the use of these methods in warm-up and competition.

I especially welcome suggestions, ideas, and brainstorming with reference to creating the kind of competition atmosphere we could embrace as riders, trainers, and spectators. I'll be adding my own comment at some point this week.

Right now I'm thinking about the kind of upper level competition I would love to see and experience as a spectator. I'm thinking about the quality of life of competition horses. I'm also thinking about all the information I've read about the use of the above methods and the resulting physical and emotional/psychological damage to the horses. And I'm thinking about movement and classical dressage and dressage at its essence as a discipline that creates harmony between horse and rider, as well as healthy animals who live long, productive lives.

Between us, I am betting we come up with a good spectrum of thoughts and ideas.

I wrote last week:

It's possible to channel passion and strong belief in ideals into engaging discussion that has the potential to create change. And remember, change is a spectrum. It's a path made of small stepping stones. If every time you speak, you put one stone into a solid place on the path, you've succeeded.

Last night, as I go through the TV series West Wing for the second time, I happened to watch one of my favorite episodes, title Two Cathedrals. It's the episode where Jed Bartlet makes an important announcement to the press and the nation, loses someone important to him, and ultimately decides to run for his second term as President. There's a sequence near the end where he leaves the White House with his entourage, in the pouring rain and wind of a tropical storm, to get to the site of the press conference. Dire Straits' song Brothers In Arms is the soundtrack, and Bartlet is thinking of all the work he's done during the first term, how difficult it's going to be if he decides to run for a second term, and how much work there is left to do, work that he feels must be done.

It's an incredibly inspiring and poignant sequence, and it immediately made me think of this issue with rollkur and hyperflexion and LDR and the hearts and minds and bodies of the horses we love.

Thanks to the incredible technology at our disposal today, not only can I embed the sequence from West Wing via YouTube (you will get the overall impact but to get all the amazing subtle nuance of the sequence watch the entire episode!):



I can embed this, the video that started this latest outpouring of debate, discussion, and outrage against a training method that so dishonors the mind, body, and spirit of not only dressage, but the magnificent horse:



However hard the work of advocating, however pointless it can seem, there is good reason to continue, if only to keep the issue alive for the next generation.

I think we can do more than that. Let's talk about how.

party postponed and a moment of silence

I realized this weekend that we have two more February birthdays to celebrate, and I decided to combine the party next weekend. Redford had a special birthday tub on Friday, lots of hugs and play, and he is quite happy to be 2 years old.

The weekend was gorgeous and I spent most of it dragging, mulching, trimming tree branches, gathering and burning fallen wood, and moving stones. The front field is now on official hiatus so the spring grass can grow unimpeded by equine hooves and teeth. Tomorrow's rain is perfectly timed - now that the field is all cleaned up it needs a little rain to settle it.

*******

Linda at 7MSN and all her animal family lost Skippa Little Lyle this weekend. We here at November Hill love reading about all the 7MSN adventures and reading about Lyle brought me to tears and made me realize just how much we can come to care about animals we have never met but feel we know almost as well as the ones we live with.

All our sympathies and healing wishes are with Linda and her family in this very difficult time.

there is a birthday boy in the building

(okay, not exactly IN the building)

I have not forgotten the young donkey whose very name invokes fame and presence and whose personality matches that perfectly!

His name is Redford and he is affectionately known (by me) as Redbug. Compared to the serious and quite thoughtful Rafer Johnson, Redford is a firecracker. A spitfire. And we knew this the first day he arrived when he sailed not once, not twice, but three times over a stall wall to be with his brother-in-arms Rafer, sporting a leg cast and needing the company of another young donkey.

The party will be on Sunday, so stay tuned for photos and celebration!

Meanwhile, happy birthday, Redford. Two years old! And at least two million smiles you have brought to us since your arrival at November Hill.

and the FEI responds, personally

This morning I woke up and found this in my inbox:

Hi Billie,

Malina here, from FEI Communications.

Thank you for your positive feedback.

I was very humbled by the fact that you posted my previous comment in such a prominent way.

I would like to say we not only welcome but need the dialogue with all those involved in the sport, be they top riders and trainers or the millions of horse lovers who care about their horses and without whom the sport wouldn't exist.

Now thanks to social media this is possible.

Congratulations on the quality of your blog which is always interesting to read.

All the best,
Malina



Malina, thank you for continuing to read and respond.

Given that I am not an upper level rider or trainer, but someone who has come back to riding at middle life and chosen dressage as a discipline to study, along with my horses, I appreciate very much that anyone in the FEI cares what I think. I do feel my opinions and those of my readers are informed and many of my readers have far more experience riding and training than do I, so I learn here every day.

If I can offer anything in this ongoing debate, it's my experience as a psychotherapist trained early on from the perspective of social work, which prides itself on the philosophy that all work begins where the client IS. Not where we want him/her to be.

We are where we are, wrt the current situation in competitive dressage, and I know from long years working on child welfare issues that polarizing and refusing to talk to one another will gain us exactly nothing.

Change begins when there is genuine communication, and I personally feel that has happened since the blue tongue video hit the internet.

Plenty of people will work hard and then quit because the FEI didn't give them exactly what they wanted.

But there are many dedicated and knowledgeable horse people who will continue advocating for the horse, while at the same time realizing that it is a longer-term endeavor, and that finding common ground and developing respectful communication is the way to move forward.

While I will never compete at the FEI level, I want to watch dressage in the Olympics and feel both pride and inspiration in what I see there. And I want to see happy, healthy horses who have freedom to move and breathe and show off their unique skills.

I don't doubt this is what the FEI wants as well. The work is how to get there in a way that honors the horse and sets clear standards for the rider.

Thank you for your part in this journey!


I'm planning a special blog post that will go up on Monday, Feb. 22nd. I hope everyone will participate and tell anyone you know who might be interested to come by and join in.

For one week, I'm going to transform camera-obscura into an open forum for communicating with the FEI, trusting that while Malina may not be able to respond to every comment, she will be reading and absorbing what we have to say.

I'll explain more on Monday, but be thinking about what you'd like to say, and remember my guidelines: genuine and respectful communication. No one will come back to a table to talk or listen if they are treated rudely.

It's possible to channel passion and strong belief in ideals into engaging discussion that has the potential to create change. And remember, change is a spectrum. It's a path made of small stepping stones. If every time you speak, you put one stone into a solid place on the path, you've succeeded.

FEI Update

Text from the FEI website:



FEI ANNOUNCES COMPOSITION OF NEW WORKING GROUP

The composition of the FEI working group tasked with expanding current guidelines for Stewards to facilitate clear implementation of the policy on warm-up techniques following on from last week’s round-table conference on hyperflexion/Rollkur has been finalised today.

As announced after last week’s conference in Lausanne, the working group will be chaired by Dressage Committee Chair Frank Kemperman. Group members are Richard Davison (GBR), Rider/Trainer; John P. Roche (IRL), FEI Director Jumping/Stewarding; Jacques Van Daele (BEL), FEI Honorary Dressage Steward General/Judge; Wolfram Wittig (GER), Trainer; and Trond Asmyr (NOR), FEI Dressage Director/Judge. The working group will also draw on the expertise of a number of other specialists, including but not limited to the participants of the round-table conference*. The working group aims to have the guidelines completed by the end of March 2010.

The guidelines produced by the group will be communicated directly to Stewards and also to riders and trainers. The working group is expected to put forward further proposals for the education of Stewards to ensure that FEI rules are strictly adhered to and that the welfare of the horse is maintained at all times.

Guidelines for Stewards will incorporate the use of a range of sanctions, including verbal warnings and yellow cards for riders who transgress. Stewards will also be readvised to watch out for signs of distress in the horse, which may include but are not limited to obvious fatigue, profound or inappropriate sweating, persistent rough use of aids (i.e. bits, spurs or whip) and over-repetition of exercises.

The FEI Management is also currently studying a range of additional measures, including the use of closed circuit television for warm-up arenas at selected shows so that potential abuse accusations can be more readily identified and recorded.

The FEI will ensure that all findings produced by the working group are communicated on an ongoing basis.


* Participants in the Lausanne round-table conference on hyperflexion/Rollkur (9 February 2010) were:

HRH Princess Haya, FEI President
Alex McLin, FEI Secretary General
International Dressage Riders Club, Margit Otto-Crepin
International Dressage Trainers Club, Linda Keenan
Francois Mathy, International Jumping Riders Club
David Broome, jumping representative
Sjef Janssen, dressage representative
Jonathan Chapman, Event Riders Association
Graeme Cooke, FEI Veterinary Director
Trond Asmyr, FEI Director Dressage and Para-Equestrian Dressage
John Roche, FEI Director Jumping and stewarding
Catrin Norinder, FEI Director Eventing
Ian Williams, FEI Director Non-olympic sports
Carsten Couchouron, FEI Executive Director Commercial
Richard Johnson, FEI Director Communications
Jacques van Daele, FEI Honorary Steward General Dressage
John McEwen, FEI Veterinary Committee Chair
World Horse Welfare, Roly Owers and Tony Tyler
Ulf Helgstrand, President Danish NF
Dr Sue Dyson
Dr.Gerd Heuschmann
Professor René van Weeren
Frank Kemperman, FEI Dressage Committee Chair (by phone)


I personally feel the FEI's efforts to inform people on this are commendable. Richard Johnson posted this on the Blue Tongue Facebook page, which he didn't have to do, and I also feel the responses on the video to very specific concerns show the FEI as an organization are listening to what we have to say.

I realize many people are skeptical of the FEI's intentions to make meaningful change, but the first step is communication, and when they listen and respond specifically to concerns many of us have had in the past week, it is, in my opinion, a positive shift.