Well, it’s December 2021 and what a tumultuous and disastrous and momentarily super-successful and then disrupted year all in one we have experienced in the equestrian world!

Everything, I mean absolutely everything, has been so impacted by Covid-19, including whatever is still to come! Three years ago, no one in the whole world would have believed the Covid-19 adventure that was to unfold (maybe not a good adventure but an adventure nevertheless.)

Well, life goes on. In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics — against all the odds and opinions from the public and the astute experts — went ahead and proved to be an amazing success. An amazing success! The courage and resilience of the Japanese organisers and the enthusiastic support from all over the world from the best of our best athletes, not just in equestrian but from across all sports, was magnificent. It was truly, truly magnificent. Clearly Tokyo against all odds rose to the occasion and illustrated to the world that no matter what the hardship, we all have an exciting future and we all need to get on with it.

Right, so Australia was magnificent in earning a team silver Eventing medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and now we need to move on and get our sights firmly fixed on the 2022 FEI World Championships.

This coming year, the World Championships are no longer held with all equestrian disciplines at the one venue. Really sad but all seven disciplines — Eventing, Dressage, Para-Dressage, Show Jumping, Vaulting, Driving and Endurance — are going ahead, and in Championships gone by, Australia is one of the very few countries to have teams in all disciplines (including Reining in previous years, although that is no longer governed by the FEI). Let’s hope that the outstanding Australian horsemanship once again charges across the world, challenging the best there is in every other country.

The Dressage, Para-Dressage, Show Jumping and Vaulting are all going to be held in Herning in Denmark from 6-14 August. The Eventing and Driving will be held in Italy at Pratoni on 15-25  September. The Endurance is in Verona, Italy, on 22 October.

DOWN TO THE NITTY-GRITTY

To be selected on an Australian team, whether it be Eventing, Show Jumping or Dressage, riders do need to meet qualification criteria also known within the sport as MERs (Minimum Eligibility Requirements). This selection criteria is ordinarily posted on the Equestrian Australia website usually 18 months to two years before final selection. The fact that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games experienced a 12-month postponement and so were in actual fact staged this year in 2021, has made getting ready for the next championship a bit hectic. Nevertheless, we do need to now get on with it.

At the time of writing, there is no selection criteria on the Equestrian Australia website, and as we are now only nine months out from the first of the Championships, this selection criteria is urgently needed for our riders vying for selection for these 2022 World Championships. This selection criteria has to come from the Australian administrators, in particular the selectors. This is a critically urgent piece of leadership needed from EA.

“This is a critically urgent piece
of leadership needed from EA.”

I would like to point out that the USA Eventing selection criteria was posted on 24 March 2021, the USA Show Jumping criteria was posted on 6 July 2021 and the USA Dressage selection criteria was posted on 23 August 2021, with the selection process starting on 1 September 2021. At the time of writing, the Americans had ranked their top 30 riders in the Dressage discipline and were using an averaging of Grand Prix scores and also Grand Prix Freestyle scores to determine rider rankings.

The USA Dressage team did win team silver medals at Tokyo 2020. This sort of leadership and administration support for a nation’s riders is 100% critical to allow for planning and programs to be implemented.

The International Equestrian Federation (FEI), which oversees the administration of all aforementioned disciplines, including the Olympics and World Championships, have indeed released their qualification criteria for 2022. Australia really does have an issue here.

THE RIDERS ARE RESTLESS

It would seem to me that there is a lot of unrest amongst the Australian riders in the Olympic disciplines and this is resulting in three things:

• Those riders that can afford it are packing up their bags and transporting their horses to the Northern Hemisphere to try for Australian selection. This usually means that the riders in this category are seriously seasoned and are confident that they are going to make a realistic impression on the selection process. Another way of saying that is that these riders are older! I am taking a little bit of a guess here, but to promote a campaign in the Northern Hemisphere, away from your normal support crew here in Australia, will cost something in the vicinity of $180,000 — more if you take two horses. And I think to do it on that budget, you will be really watching the pennies!
• The second category of riders affected by no selection criteria is our young up-and-coming ones who are unsure as to what standard they represent. These riders are in need of competing in international competitions (e.g. in Dressage, CDIs) here in Australia where it is not unaffordable and allows for a realistic evaluation. Some of these younger riders all of a sudden get a little close to the top riders and of course they double down, and bingo… Australia has a new superstar! Selection criteria within Australia is 100% critical for our future.
• We are a nation of horsemanship like no other country in the world and some of our really good riders are not wealthy. They have families and day jobs and responsibilities that demand they stay in Australia. This sort of administration without leadership and criteria makes it very difficult and, in my opinion, downright depressing, for Australian riders that are really, really good but have fewer resources in terms of money. God knows we need every rider in every discipline who is outstanding to make a contribution to the selection process. That is just called ‘keeping the sport healthy’.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Australian eventers won a team silver medal and an individual bronze medal. They were all outstanding. The average age for the Australian eventing team rider was just over 51. That means that these Olympic riders actually evolved from being very good riders back some 30 years ago. They come from a very different background of training and the EA administration that is current today. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that these riders are nearing the end of their careers.

HOW HISTORY WAS MADE

In 1992, 1996 and 2000, the Australian Eventing team won three consecutive team gold medals. That has never been done before in Olympic history and has never been done since. Olivia Bunn was just 18 when she was ranked fifth in the world, and she did that on two different occasions. Wendy Schaeffer led Australia to a team gold medal when she was just 21 and would have won an individual gold medal had not the FEI been tinkering with different formats. The FEI did this tinkering for just two Olympics and Wendy was unfortunate enough to be at one of those, which was Atlanta in 1996.

The Australian team whilst it was winning gold was almost entirely under 30 years of age. The Australian team that has just won the silver medal at Tokyo 2020 actually has its roots from those golden days. Australia has to be very, very aware that we have now gone more than 20 years without contributing to a new generation of Olympic riders in the Eventing discipline. Equestrian Australia really does have to apply itself to this dilemma. We certainly do need selection criteria urgently and we do need it to be embracing of our Australian-based riders.

For me, the world revolves on a four-year cycle from one Olympics to the next. So, 2024 is Paris and, goodness me, it is really important we do as well as we can. Then, 2028 is Los Angeles and I do hope we have some younger riders who are challenging the world. By 2032 it is Brisbane and God help us if we haven’t brought on our next generation of Australian superstars. We need to win gold medals at Brisbane and we can’t do that with crinkly old riders. We need to start right now producing a future that we can all be proud of. So, to everyone, I do hope you have a very wonderful Christmas and I do hope the New Year will see Equestrian Australia focusing up on our young talent here in Australia heading for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032!

Cheers, Heath

EQ