The composition of the Fédération Equestre Internationale working group tasked with expanding current guidelines for stewards to facilitate clear implementation of the policy on warm-up techniques following last week’s round-table conference on hyperflexion/Rollkur has been finalized.

As announced after last week’s conference in Lausanne, Frank Kemperman will chair the group. Group members are Great Britain’s Richard Davison—rider/trainer; Ireland’s John P. Roche—FEI director of jumping/stewarding; Belgium’s Jacques Van Daele—FEI honorary dressage steward general/judge; Germany’s Wolfram Wittig—trainer; and Norway’s Trond Asmyr—FEI director of dressage/judge. The working group aims to have the guidelines completed by the end of March 2010.

The guidelines produced by the group will go directly to stewards and also to riders and trainers. The working group will then put forward further proposals for the education of stewards to ensure that FEI rules are strictly adhered to and that the welfare of the horse is maintained at all times.

Guidelines for stewards will incorporate the use of a range of sanctions, including verbal warnings and yellow cards for riders who transgress. Stewards will also be advised to watch out for signs of distress in the horse, which may include but are not limited to obvious fatigue, profound or inappropriate sweating, persistent rough use of aids (i.e. bits, spurs or whip) and over-repetition of exercises.

The FEI management is also currently studying a range of additional measures, including the use of closed circuit television for warm-up arenas at selected shows so that potential abuse accusations can be more readily identified and recorded.

The FEI will ensure that all findings produced by the working group are communicated on an ongoing basis.