In just two months, you’ll have the opportunity to make your voice heard regarding our sport and rule change proposals which, if approved, will make significant changes to how our sport operates.

We all have opinions, and at every horse show you attend you’ll hear people expressing their views on what changes need to be made in our sport. Well, for all of you who have an opinion, Dec. 7-10 are the dates, and St. Petersburg, Fla., is the place to let the rest of the equestrian world and leaders in your sport know your thoughts.

Before reading further, it’s important to remember that this article addresses just a portion of the many rule changes proposed this year and that there are many additional changes that will have to be implemented to support some of the systemic changes coming forward.

Over the past five years that the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association has been in existence, we’ve heard a lot of comments regarding the mileage rule and the state of our competitions. More than a year ago, the U.S. Equestrian Federation sent the USHJA a letter directing the organization to review our current competitions with emphasis on addressing mileage, adequate competition choices for exhibitors and standards for competitions.

In order to properly complete the work with which we were tasked, the USHJA leaders formed a Competitions Committee comprised of geographically and constituency diverse representatives. All of these committee members currently serve in various roles as active participants in our sport. Additionally, Committee Facilitator Howard Pike and I traveled to several venues over the past year to speak with competitors, competition management, officials, vendors and other equine service providers.

As a result of our work on the road, the extensive data obtained and studied and the in-person retreats and teleconference calls, the USHJA Competitions Committee has proposed five rule changes that have a direct impact on our current system of licensing competitions. All of these proposals have been developed on a truly national basis and always with the goal of promoting what’s best for the sport and our equine partners.

They are available on the Federation website under reference numbers 607-09 through 611-09. In an effort to obtain feedback prior to the USHJA Annual Meeting, USHJA officials have sent a letter to competition licensees and management to draw their attention to these rule changes and to receive feedback prior to the convention and included announcements in our E-News. And, after all, many of the ideas discussed on our travels this year have been incorporated in the new proposals.

The Mileage Conundrum

To start, you’ll find proposed changes that will make more transparent the process for transferring authority and financial responsibility of a competition to another person and for obtaining permission to hold a competition within the mileage of another existing competition.

Another change simply adds the 2010 requirements for prize money to the existing mileage tables while introducing new rating nomenclature for hunter competitions (see sidebar). The new proposals replace our current system with a new competition system based on standards including number of entries for rating. The new hunter rating nomenclature will help you to understand the next proposal dealing with competition standards.

The Competitions Committee recommen-dations establish a baseline set of standards required by competitions seeking to obtain a Federation license, with the standards increasing in proportion to the rating.

You’ll also notice a section regarding the “Options Menu.” This component adds a measure of flexibility to the system to take into account variations in geographic location, climate and services available. It will provide a means for competitions to offer additional amenities from the options list, which work for their particular situation.

The final proposal deals with a facility mileage limitation. Simply put, competition facilities that host several consecutive weeks of hunter, jumper or hunter/jumper competitions, regardless of licensee, will have to choose one of three options dealing with mileage protection.

    •    Hold three consecutive weeks of competition and go dark one week to reset protection.

    •    Hold four consecutive weeks of competition and go dark for two weeks to reset mileage protection.

    •    Or a licensee may decide to forgo mile-age and after four weeks, continue holding consecutive weeks of competitions with no mileage protection for the subsequent weeks until going dark for two weeks to reset.

For the purposes of this proposal, going dark means no Federation-licensed hunter, jumper or hunter/jumper competition. However, the facility can be used for other purposes including other discipline and breed competitions. This proposal gives competition management the flexibility to choose the option best suited to their situation, while potentially providing participants with alternative options for competing.

Another group of proposals adds a complimentary layer to our system by implementing changes to our current menu of sections to be offered at Federation-licensed competitions.

The Hunter Restructure Committee has come forward with numerous changes to the professional divisions that they believe will reverse the current trend and rebuild our professional hunter divisions. Changes to the green, conformation and regular sections are included as well as the addition of an open section that will allow horses to move up and down heights at the same competition, much like the options available on the jumper side of our sport.

Our Competition Management Committee is moving forward with a proposal that sets a minimum age of 25 years for a competition manager, requires that a person has never been convicted of an animal cruelty offense and establishes an educational component that requires anyone acting as a competition manager to attend a USHJA Competition Managers Forum once every four years.

This proposal supports one of the core philosophies of the USHJA, which is educating equestrians from all facets of our sport.

Our USHJA Owners Committee has long been educating members regarding sales integrity, our Trainers Committee has been actively providing educational ser-vices through symposiums and the mentor program, our Trainers Certification Program is underway to provide educational services to our trainers, and now our Com-petition Management Committee seeks to provide educational services to our managers.

Consistency And Transparency

There are changes proposed to our amateur sections, which include clarifying the offering and combining of the amateur hunter sections and a proposal from the jumper discipline of our sport to remove the ownership requirement from the amateur-owner jumper sections. The latter proposal is a significant philosophical change for our sport and should be studied by all of our equestrian participants.

Changes to long-standing fundamental philosophies are well worth the struggle if the positive benefits exceed the negative. I think it opens the door to a more important discussion, and that is: What is the correct definition of an amateur, and should it be the same for both disciplines of our sport? If we expect our officials to enforce our rules, those rules need to be clear and consistent.

Along with the other significant rule change proposals are changes to the Regulation and Drugs and Medications Programs. With respect to the drugs and medication rule changes, I firmly believe that our technology has surpassed the practicality of our environment, and these changes are long overdue.

For several years, changes such as these have been discussed, and now we need to move forward. This is why you see these changes proposed now, to get the conversation out in the open and the issues on the table for action and resolution.

Our technology has become very advanced, and our sport has not kept pace with these advancements, especially the sensitivity of drug testing. To rectify this situation, a rule change has been proposed to establish threshold levels for several medications. In addition to the D&M proposals, it’s vital to the credibility of the Federation that the regulatory processes be transparent and fair.

There’s a proposal that would provide for all administrative penalties to be handled by the Federation Executive Director for Administration and Finance, with recommendations from the appropriate volunteer leadership and subject to the approval of the Hearing Committee Co-Chairmen.

This is a significant move in the right direction and how all administrative penalties would be conducted until a consistent, transparent and fair alternative method is adopted.

Our process of suspending persons for rule infractions also needs adjustment. Let’s be realistic. Regardless of the suspension imposed, no trainer is going to close his operation for 30 or 60 days while suspended. The current rule encourages people to break the rule and undermines the credibility of the Federation. The regulations governing a suspended person need to be the domain of the Hearing Committee and decided on a case-by-case basis.

Looking to the future, another pro-posal that needs to be forwarded is to establish penalty guidelines for rule infractions subject to the parameters of each individual case. Every court system has them, and we must require this mechanism in our sport. The development and implementation of penalty guidelines will give us the ability to get away from the use of past precedents and create a system that makes sense in our sport and that’s annually reviewed for relevancy in our world.

One example of our system being out of whack is that if you are caught competing as an amateur and you are found not to be an amateur you basically get a penalty of a short suspension and a small fine.

I ask you, what deterrent or punishment is this for falsely representing yourself?

What about a range of three to five months suspension, cannot re-apply for amateur status for a minimum of three to five years and a $3,000 to $5,000 fine for a first offense? Now, that would be a deterrent!

Our regulatory system would be so much more effective and accepted by our membership if it was more transparent and fair in its application.

I’ve highlighted many of what I feel are the most significant rule changes being proposed this year. Whatever your passion and background is in our sport will have bearing on what rule changes you feel are most important to you and to our sport.

There’s no better way to be a part of your future than to attend the USHJA Annual Meeting. Bringing people together for the good of the sport provides us with the ability to openly discuss the issues, work out solutions and find compromises that continue to move our sport forward in a positive manner for all of us. I hope to see you in St. Petersburg.

Bill Moroney is president of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association, a member of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Board of Directors and a USEF R-rated judge. In between officiating, he’s head trainer at Salamander Farm in Middleburg, Va. He started writing Between Rounds columns in 2004.