You might not believe me, but there are rare occasions when I wish I weren’t right. The appearance of a press release titled ‘Princess Haya signals intention to stand for re-election as FEI President’ in my inbox this morning resulted in one of those unwanted moments. If you have been only dropping in on a sporadic basis to this blog, you will still most likely have gleaned from one post or another that I have been predicting HRH’s ‘pulling a Chavez,’ as I call it, for quite some time. It would be not just a little irrational for me to say I was surprised to read the news from the Extraordinary General Assembly in Lausanne today, and indeed I was not. If the press release had instead stated ‘Princess Haya puts her money where her mouth is and stands by the statement she has made repeatedly since she created the two term limit statute herself in 2006’, now that would have surprised me. A LOT. But I still feel a sense of futility, as much as I was braced for this highly predictable outcome.

I’m kind of tired of looking for meaning in what has become an endless stream of pronouncements and actions from the FEI that make no sense, are not ethical, and should (but don’t) invoke sufficient outrage among its membership to throw even one broken bottle in its path. But if there is one lesson that hit me over the head as I reflected on the inevitability of HRH’s impending third term, it’s this: it is not possible to be too cynical when it comes to the FEI.

Now that the slippery slope has been descended, HRH has chosen the position taken by so many politicians: to simply wipe her previous protestations against even considering a third term from the face of the Earth – or at least her Earth. ‘I’m very honoured for the opportunity you’ve given me to be available as a future president of the FEI for a third term,’ she was fawningly quoted in today’s release, which is liberally seasoned with déjà vu-inducing phrases from last November’s FEI GA, things such as ’emotional Princess’, ‘standing ovation’, and ‘prolonged applause from delegates’. Please pass the Dramamine. And the Pepto. And just to be safe, a little Gastrogard if you don’t mind. And send some over to the poor person who had to pen this statement. Imagining being in that media staffer’s shoes reminds me of when I once scribed for one of the world’s particularly mean dressage judges; I felt guilty by association for having to write the nasty remarks she had for the riders she particularly despised.

Tomorrow morning you will find on this blog another guest post from our boots on the Swiss ground, Pippa Cuckson, who posted a story well worth a peruse in the Telegraph tonight.  In case you are too busy or too lazy to check it out, here is the most salient bit of news in there for my jaded eyes: at the vote taken today regarding the change to FEI statutes to allow HRH (and any Bureau member) to stay for a consecutive third term, there were 103 votes in favor (no doubt the US and Canada were among the ‘yays’), and just three opposed: Holland, Switzerland and teeny tiny Liechtenstein. I’m glad I have a Dutch horse, a Swiss army knife in my pocket, and – well, I can’t think of anything Liechtensteinian in my life but I’m seeking to immediately remedy that situation. If only I can just figure out what  comes from Liechtenstein besides tax havens.

Pippa will have many insightful thoughts to share with us, of that I’m sure; and since I wasn’t in Lausanne to watch the surreal events of today unfold, I’ll leave off now and wait to read Pippa’s post over my coffee tomorrow morning.

Before I go, I’d like to extend a bit of unsolicited advice to Pierre Genecand, the only person to-date who has expressed (unofficial) interest in becoming the next FEI Prez. Don’t do it Pierre. Standing on the tracks in an attempt to stop the runaway train that is HRH will achieve nothing except to reinforce how tightly she has the equestrian universe wrapped around her royal little finger.