When the editor kindly offered me a guest blog about the FEI endurance conference in Lausanne on February 9, I decided to wait a day or so. I had already written five different news reports about it and wanted to crystallise some thoughts.
I also wanted a few hours off to play my viola and hug my horse. If you had just sat through an intense debate which included a serious discussion about the desirability of honouring horses that are still living five years after retiring from endurance, you’d be craving some normality, too.
Other stuff then happened to push the conference onto the back-burner. So here is my take on yet another you-couldn’t-make-it-up week of the unvarnished awfulness that defines endurance in the Middle East.
First – the decidedly unrevelatory Quest report into wrong-doings at Sheikh Mohammed’s various UK properties last year. Quest has provided the FEI’s integrity unit since 2010 yet accepted a commission direct from the FEI president’s husband to investigate the background to the Al Zarooni racehorse doping incidents, plus the drugs raids on Sheikh Mohammed’s Moorley Farm East stables, Newmarket – where he bases his endurance horses for the European season – and his private plane. Lord Stevens has stressed Quest’s impartiality and insisted that his investigating teams remain separate.
At Lausanne, I quizzed Quest’s Paul Greenwood about progress with the enquiry. Paul said he genuinely did not know, not being involved in that particular investigation; so distanced, in fact, he had no hint the report would be published in 72 hours time.
The report, or rather the version omitting “sensitive” info and names, has been well covered elsewhere. The exoneration of Sheikh Mohammed was, according to Marcus Townend of the Daily Mail, the racing certainty of the year. I also recommend reading Greg Wood of The Guardian for another intelligent assessment from the racing perspective.
For me, the biggest disappointment – apart from failure to identify the true perpetrator – was the spin put on the seriousness, or not, of these raids. Anyone unfamiliar with the globe-trotting world of elite sport horses could well infer that illegally importing unlicensed medicines is a relatively trivial offence, a paperwork error that is as much the fault of us pesky Brits for having over-the-top laws about what you can put in an animal.
Forget FEI doping, the Rules of Racing, and what is permissible in a third world country for the moment. Moorley Farm was the only known veterinary drugs raids by government agencies that has ever taken place in Newmarket, the hub of British racing; and the only drugs raid of any kind of equestrian establishment anywhere in the UK last year. This was no routine event and it was ingenuous to portray it as such.
Because the drugs were seized, Sheikh Mohammed’s employees were relieved of committing the criminal offence of administering them, but mere possession is still illegal. We are told that DEFRA (the government department in charge) has “accepted” the unlicensed drugs were not for use in the UK. If so, DEFRA has just handed a defence to everyone else caught red-handed in future. This is at odds with DEFRA’s vigorous prosecution of previous comparable offences. In December, someone was fined £2,000 for possession of a mere 19 bottles of an unauthorised anti-biotic intended for cattle and sheep.
The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) was listed as assisting the Stevens enquiry, but BEVA clearly felt something important was omitted from the report because it issued its own statement, suggesting the drugs were intended to be administered by “non-vets.” That would have been another offence – and a reasonable deduction because a UK registered vet would break the law by touching unlicensed drugs unless he personally had formally applied to import a specific product for a named horse.
I’m also wondering what Quest must have privately recommended about general procedures for the loading of planes about to carry a Head of State, if we are asked to accept that anyone can plonk sundry containers in the hold without attracting attention.
Now, on to the Sakhir (Bahrain) horse-abuse video. This went viral the day after the conference, but if you haven’t seen it, click here.
I can safely say “abuse” because that’s what is cited by the FEI for the in-hindsight handing of a yellow card to the winner, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa of Bahrain. This is the first yellow card in Middle East endurance in 11 months – another example of the hopelessness of rule enforcement.
The video was posted by the CEI’s live stream broadcaster, who presumably did not appreciate the incriminating content (because similar unchecked behaviour has been the norm for years) of this, plus a second clip showing the rider himself slapping the horse with a lash fashioned from exceptionally long reins (also against endurance rules).
A delegate at Lausanne had searched for it after hearing rumours of electric shock treatment at Sakhir. What he found instead was this woeful proof of beating, unauthorised assistance, vehicles on course and mobile crewing. It was shown to Ian Williams, FEI head of non-Olympic sports. I later asked Ian what would happen if it was no mentioned in the Sakhir Ground Jury report. Astonishingly, Ian said he could not act on merely viewing the video on someone else’s laptop. An official complaint needed to be lodged. I volunteered to do this.
The rider has meanwhile been slapped on the wrist, but I agree with the many on social media who think disqualification should be added, so will proceed with my complaint.
Actually, I have to Protest with a capital P. The process so far has been a revelation, highlighting the limited options available to the public. FEI general regulations require most Protests to be lodged within 30 minutes. This is workable for arena sports; even for eventing cross-country. But surely not in endurance when the field of play is spans 160 km and witnesses are potentially 40-50km away from an official at any time – with the likelihood, too, of a dodgy cellphone signal in the middle of nowhere. No wonder we never hear about them.
As for the endurance conference, the Endurance Strategic Planning Group has done great work and, as the FEI press release states, delegates roundly supported their suggestions. But then again, they would, because only the federations who cared bothered to attend.
Endurance figures from Group VII were universally absent, as was Saeed Al Tayer of the ESPG, citing commitments elsewhere. This was a slight to the FEI, the ESPG and just about everyone else who, guess what, have busy lives too but all had ample notice of this massively important conference and arranged their diaries to suit.
Moderator John McEwen asked everyone to keep concerns general and not be political – which meant not mentioning by name a Group VII country. When Belgian coach Pierre Arnould claimed that 90% of the problems were caused by the region not present, John retorted this remark was “not helpful.” Neither, alas, is failing to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
In order not to offend/single out Group VII, the blameless rest-of-the-world must shoulder the cost of applying the new measures/rules too. Then Ingmar de Vos, FEI secretary general cautioned it would all be expensive [because everyone has to do it] and maybe not entirely affordable. Like I say, you couldn’t make it up….
There was a lot of discussion about exiling the desert sport into a separate discipline or jurisdiction. The conclusion was it is better left in. In reality, Middle East endurance is already exiling itself. This winter season, notably fewer rides are CEIs and are instead CENs, letting the FEI off the hook. (The FEI has often reminded me it has no jurisdiction at CENs). Four fractures were anecdotally reported at the National Day ride in the UAE on December 7, downgraded from CEI to CEN; another four fractures are alleged at a single CEN in the UAE this past week. But we will never know….
Veteran judge Juliette Mallison of Germany made a proposal for rewarding completion rates and recognising longevity, ie. things that encourage respect of the horse. She said the normal career span of a Middle East endurance horse is 12-24 months. (Compare that with Becky Hart’s three times world endurance champion RO Grand Sultan, who competed from the age of five to 21).
The Indian delegate even suggested initiating a prize for horses that are alive five years after leaving competition. We are so hardened to the depravity of desert endurance we forget how incredible the clean-up solutions sound to outsiders – even to people in other horse sports that acknowledge their own odd welfare blips. I was talking to a senior eventing figure a few days ago about something else. He asked about endurance – and was rendered speechless by the notion that endurance might use more GPS to deter the taking of short-cuts, or microchip-check horses throughout a ride to ensure they weren’t swapped.
That’s enough insanity for today. I’m off for a (non-endurance) ride.
I would like to thank Pippa for this insightful post. If only those with the power to clean it all up had her courage and integrity – not to mention a simple love and respect for the victim, the horse. For my own ruminations on the latest atrocities in endurance, please visit my own post of today over on Straight-Up.
