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 on August 1st in a bid to head off any welfare scandal this week, while the world is taking a closer than usual look at endurance.
The measures were announced in a letter to national federations from John McEwen, FEI vice-president (and newly-announced FEI presidential candidate), urging them to circulate it to their athletes and officials.
I am not sure how, in future, the normal low-budget CEI in Europe or North America will afford all these gizmos or whether those that can afford them, the Middle East, will want to be bothered.
But first things first: after all the negative press Middle East endurance has brought to equestrian sport in the past 18 months, Sartilly needs to go well and to be seen to go well. When that hump is over, the FEI can apply itself to the more serious business of affecting change during the Group VII (Middle East) winter season, where the significantly larger incidence of doping, fatal and/or career ending horse injury and general disregard of FEI rules has taken place.
Endurance riders and horses at Sartilly will be subject to high definition, closed-circuit television essentially everywhere in and around the vet gates, with the facility to extract still pictures for more detailed scrutiny. Another device will automatically log arrival times at vet-gates and ensure horses are directed to trot-up lanes etc to be examined by vets not of their nationality, to avoid any perceptions of favouritism.
What message this is giving to the outside world? Horse people have become so used to the you-couldn’t-make-it-up skulduggery of endurance we forget how astonishing the extremes now being taken to clean it up must sound. In recent weeks, journalists who don’t normally cover equestrian sport have contacted me to express their bewilderment: is endurance so rife with covert horse-swapping or sneaky short-cuts that tracking devices have to be applied? Well no, but because a tiny handful of riders from an equally small number of countries have, in the past, tried it on, everyone is now paying the price.
As for tamper-proofing, any device is only infallible until such time as someone works out a way to by-pass it.
This brings me onto the subject of checking horse IDs before any tracking device is even fitted.
During the many discussions about endurance reforms last winter, the French asked for increased microchip scanning. But if that procedure has been strengthened in any new rule or code, I seem to have missed it.
It is nearly six months since I provided the FEI’s integrity unit with picture evidence – some of it on the respective ride organisers’ own websites, no less – of HH Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum jnr riding a white-faced chestnut entered as “Marmoog” at the world championships in 2012 at Euston Park, UK. According to the FEI, “Marmoog” passed all the standard pre-ride identity checks and all his paperwork was “in order.” However, a completely different-looking chestnut had used that same identity, also ridden by Hamdan, in Italy two months early.
Two of the issues arising are a) is someone duplicating or cloning horse identity microchips and/or knowingly issuing two horses with the same paper passport; and b) have qualifications become so slack that some riders genuinely have no clue which luckless equine they are clambering aboard at any particular competition?
I provided the who, where and what regarding Marmoog on March 7th; all the FEI had to find out is the how and the why. But this investigation has dragged on so long that the rider is freely entered to represent the UAE at Sartilly.
I asked the FEI a very general question about passport fraud, without suggesting any examples. They replied that passport irregularities are covered by the FEI Veterinary Regulations, art. 1030 and that fraud is covered by the FEI General Regulations, art. 169.6.4, which specifies: “Fraud of any kind, violence and other acts defined as criminal by the national law prevailing at the Event shall entail a fine of CHF 1,000 to 15,000 and/or a suspension of a minimum of one (1) month up to life.”
Quite recently the FEI’s standard “no comment” reply to my regular requests for an update about the specific Marmoog investigation has changed a little, to advise that when it has concluded they will decide the “the next steps.” I infer from the use of the word “the” rather than “any” that they expect there to be some next steps, but am not holding my breath!
The Marmoog “ringer” allegation is about a straightforward horse identity swap at entry stage. The white-faced “Marmoog” was vetted out at an early stage at Euston and his result did not count towards the UAE’s team gold. Maybe just a slap on the wrist, then, and a minimal ban at a convenient time of year for whoever is finally declared responsible.
Is it really worth pursuing it? Well, yes. Apart from the fact it’s grossly unfair on every other competitor who has assiduously prepared and properly qualified his nominated horse, just about everything we do that involves passing or selling on a horse to another person for sport, leisure or meat relies for integrity or biosecurity reasons on the horse being who it is claimed to be.
Back in March, I discussed passport infallibility with Roly Owers, chief executive of World Horse Welfare. I am surprised so few picked up on his bleak warning. “A robust system is fundamental, not just for the effective regulation of horse sport but for the practical enforcement of any law or rule governing equines,” he told me. “This is a challenge to get right but without it the whole house of cards will come crashing down, including opening the door to the spread of equine disease that could have catastrophic consequences.”
At the moment, much thought is being given to the legacy of Princess Haya as she prepares for her last few months of FEI presidency.
One of her huge achievements falls into an important-but-boring category and so hasn’t had the media coverage it deserves. This is her work, as a goodwill ambassador of the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Heath) in easing barriers to the movement of sports horses around the world as the sport enjoys rapid growth in new regions.
How ironic this now seems to have been undermined by yet another scandal involving her extended family’s stables.
