We would like to thank Vicki Glynn for her hard work on our behalf at the FEI General Assembly held recently in Moscow. ESNZ and EA were at the forefront of getting some amendments made to the proposed rules and these have resulted in some of the rules being more palatable to small countries like New Zealand.
The full details of the new rules will be released in the coming week. In the meantime, we have been advised that the CEI events occurring in early 2020 (i.e. the North Island and South Island Champs) will be run as per their current schedule and not have to be run under the new rules (even though it was voted that the new rules will partially take effect from 1 January 2020). We are yet to be advised which parts of the rules will be implemented from January 1st however we understand that whichever class your FEI-registered horse is eligible to compete in at the moment, it will still be eligible to compete at that level at these events for which the schedule has already been approved. Weights will be as per the submitted schedule.
When we get clarity on the new rules, which will be fully implemented by July 1st, and their implications for Endurance in New Zealand, we will need to discuss and decide how things progress in our sport. We will have to decide whether or not we want to continue to run combined championship classes and whether we want to continue to align our national rules for CEN classes with the FEI Endurance rules.