I recently heard a fantastic put-down in a trailer for a TV show. A new boss introduces himself: “Hello, I am replacing Professor Dalton.” A waspish underling retorts: “No, you are not replacing him. You are merely getting his job.” The election campaign for the new FEI president is becoming a bit like that, for […]

It’s seven months and 11 days since The Daily Telegraph gave the FEI photographic evidence of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum (Crown Prince of Dubai, new world champion and stepson of outgoing FEI president Princess Haya) riding two different horses under the same identity at the 2012 endurance world championships at Euston, UK and CEI Numana, […]

I have keenly read debate on social media and elsewhere as to whether the all-sports-in-one-basket formula has reached its sell-by date, in the wake of the shambolic WEG at Normandy. I don’t know Bromont, but from what one can deduce from Google Earth, its outstanding natural beauty is equally matched by physical constraints. I hope […]

I was unexpectedly in the news myself this week when the FEI Tribunal upheld the protest I lodged with fellow journalist Lucy Higginson over the Bahrain endurance “video nasty” that caused such public anger back in February. Horse-Canada and others posted the clip, showing the closing stages of the 120k King’s Cup in Sakhir, where […]

Burghley 2014 will long be remembered as an “I was there” tick-box. Even before Andrew Nicholson and Avebury had sealed their historic third consecutive win, spectators were revelling in a collective adrenalin rush. Avebury raced to the top of the leaderboard with one of the most dazzling cross-country rounds Nicholson has produced, even by his […]

“We are truly sorry Ceri Kennedy. And everyone. We told everyone to come as early as possible, and we tried our best to make things smooth… Well it is obvious if you look at this Facebook page so [sic] it was not the case for many people. We are sorry.” Believe it or not, this in […]

Competitors who have never even subconsciously contemplated rule-breaking will be subjected to the type of surveillance one normally associates with electronically-tagged bank robbers out on parole, when the WEG endurance ride sets off from Sartilly on Thursday. “Tamper-proof” GPS units on both horse and rider are among high-tech measures to enforce new rules rushed in […]

There will be mixed feelings in the eventing community regarding the wholesale exoneration of Jock Paget and Kevin McNab for their reserpine doping offences at Burghley 2013. Many people will be feeling terrible that the pair were grounded for so long, their reputations on knife-edge, all for nothing after the supplier of the herbal supplement […]