Well, as an American endurance chum put it, that was as useful as a bucket of warm spit. I don’t know a single sceptic who wouldn’t have been ecstatic to be proved wrong about the efficacy of the “strong new measures” put in place on February 13th for the remainder of the UAE winter season. […]

Two days ago, the FEI wrested its latest second/third/fourth-chance agreement from the UAE over the breaking of endurance rules and the breaking of horses. There is no black and white solution. After 20 years of doing exactly what they want, the UAE was never going to roll over in a matter of months. At first […]

After just eight rides over three weekends, Sheikh Sultan Al Nahyan has achieved significant improvements – well documented on this blog and elsewhere.

The FEI has grown a pair of something that isn’t wings and wants all UAE rides to adopt similar measures to Bou Thib, to reduce the killer speeds.

For eons he has despaired about the evolution of the desert racing and yearned for classical endurance, or anything that doesn’t view horses as expendable.

Virtually no controversies have happened in 30 years at the London International Horse Show. But this year there was two on the last day. Blood was spotted.

I am not a fan of everything the FEI does, but sympathise with them over the Global Champions League (GCL). The FEI and Global Champions Tour (GCT) have uneasily coexisted since 2006, especially after GCT forgot it wasn’t meant to clash with super-league Nations Cups. That’s when GCT had about eight shows per summer. Now […]

It may be just my vintage, but I am cringing at the thought of eventing being re-named. We are all worried about its long-term prospects within the Olympics, but I simply don’t get how a new moniker will make any difference to the sport’s popularity with either the IOC or the wider public. I am […]

I meant to tell you the Apathy Society cancelled its meeting due to lack of interest, but I couldn’t be bothered… How many tens of thousands of man-hours have been expended thinking up new formats for the Olympics and WEG, only to end up not far from where we started? In April, I spent four […]

What a difference a year-and-a-bit makes. Or rather, what a difference it makes when a picture of an endurance horse perched on two shattered forelegs causes a global public relations disaster, and when a national federation is exposed as so cavalier it fobs off the international governing body with fabricated results. In February 2014, not […]