Stuart Buntine takes a course walk with ground jury members Jenny Draper, Ginny Tocher, Barbara Woolhouse, and technical delegates John McGiven, Wendy Lansdown, and James Leva. You can see the red MIM clips on each side of the fence. Fiber Fresh NEC Taupō. Copyright photo: Take the Moment.
Eventing is one of the most popular equestrian disciplines in New Zealand. Yet it is also considered one of the most high-risk, but Australian cross-country designer Stuart Buntine is doing his best to change that.
Stuart is conducting a workshop in Melbourne, to be attended by three kiwi eventing course designers who will learn more about frangible pin safety devices increasingly being used on cross-country fences. The designers are Mike Guilfoyle, John Holmes and Chris Lever, and the course will be held over three days at the Werribee 3DE venue.
As well as Stuart, Mats Björnetun, the inventor of the MIM frangible device from Sweden and two UK course builders will be present to share their knowledge and ideas.
“It’s the first workshop we’ve ever done globally and I’m really looking forward to it,” says Stuart.
“It’s very much hands-on. The whole aim of it is to try and build six to eight different fences over the three days, so people can see how you can adapt the system. It’s all about getting the builders’ knowledge and understanding how to do it. It should be great.”
Stuart and his team in the UK have worked closely with Mats to adopt the MIM frangible system for use in a multitude of cross-country fences.
He says that there are some key areas that the builders need to abide by, so that the mechanism is correctly built on an agreed and accepted system.
“The whole system is trying to be as user-friendly as possible, but you don’t go outside the parameters and need to keep the weight of the fence within the limits.”
Clips can be seen on this fence being jumped by Carys McCrory. Copyright photo: Take the Moment.
The frangible pin has been in use on post-and-rail fences since 2002 when trials were conducted at nine British Eventing competitions, including the Badminton Horse Trials, and were deemed successful. In 2013, the MIM clip, which adds an extra dimension of risk- avoidance to frangible fences, was approved for use by the FEI.
Frangible pins break under vertical force, while MIM clips can be activated from either significant vertical or horizontal force, and trigger the deformable part of the fence to collapse. This allows a horse to either re-stabilise themselves or, at the very least, twist in mid-air into a less injurious tumble than flipping on its back and on top of its rider.
Last year, a pilot study was conducted in the UK where three courses were designed and 70% of them were frangible, demonstrating the versatility of the system across a wide range of fences.
The MIM clips have been in use at ESNZ Eventing competitions since 2018, where horse falls have continued to track downwards from a high of 32 in 2018, to just 7 in 2024 (ESNZ Eventing NSO Report –Jan 2025).
Australian technical delegate James Leva “measures up” against the Taupō signage. Copyright photo: Take the Moment.
A former Badminton eventer and current horse trials organiser based in Nottingham, Stuart is a frequent visitor to Australia during the European off-season. This year, he travelled across the ditch to design the 4* course at the Treadlite 3-Day Event in Taupō.
“It was lovely to be back. You know, I’ve been away for 34 years, but this side of the world is very special for me. I absolutely loved it. The majority of the riders went clear, so that was great as it certainly wasn’t a giveaway course.
“Taupō is a course designers dream with such a variety of terrain. The ability to access the amphitheatre, woods and the galloping areas offer designers a real choice of questions, on top of this the ground at Taupō offers great all weather tracks.
“I learned a huge amount about what’s possible. And I have lots of new ideas for next year!” he says.
Two kiwi riders Mackenzie Marlo and Matthew Verhoeven are the GCF ambassadors for the Georgie Campbell Foundation in NZ and are pictured wearing the foundation’s X Country shirt with GCF on the sleeve. Source: Georgie Campbell Foundation NZ.
Meantime, the NZ working group for the Georgie Campbell Foundation (GCF) is raising awareness and funds to help with improving safety in the cross-country phase of eventing. This is to be distributed to NZ course designers/builders in the form of frangible fence kits which have to be imported from Sweden. The foundation is currently on a fundraising mission to get this underway. For more see The Georgie Campbell Foundation.
More info on frangible fences: https://eventingnation.com/the-more-people-that-push-barriers-the-better-new-era-of-frangible-fences-debuts-at-thoresby/
Explanation of the technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFuk6b0-cns
A frangible fence in action at Christchurch: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17VzXb9547/
Stuart is currently the chair of the FEI Risk Management Team, Course Designer (Level 3) and Technical Delegate (Level 3), along with New Zealander Neil Mackenzie-Hall, who is also a Technical Delegate (Level 3), and an FEI Eventing Committee Member.