The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) has proposed expanding the number of dressage horses and riders to 60 from the past level of 50 with dressage teams of up to four combinations, a change that would be a dramatic improvement for the sport that demonstrated its popularity at last summer’s Olympics in London.
Charlotte Dujardin - Dressage Gold Medal Winner 2012 Olympics
The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) has proposed expanding the number of dressage horses and riders to 60 from the past level of 50 for 2016 Olympics.
© 2013 by Nordlicht8
The increase for dressage to take effect for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro would be made possible by taking 10 riders from eventing but still remain within the overall limit of 200 horses for the three disciplines of dressage, eventing and eventing set by the International Olympic Committee.
The proposed changes in the allocation of the number of horses in the three Olympics disciplines–75 riders for jumping, the same as now; 60 for dressage, up from 50 in 2012, and eventing 65, down from 75 in 2012–will be a major issue at the FEI Sports Forum to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland April 8-9. The complete agenda is availablehere
Under the new proposal, all three disciplines could include a maximum of four riders per team with the three best results counting for the team results. This is no change for jumping, but means that eventing would not be able to field five combinations with three scores counting.
Dressage with a maximum allocation of 50 riders has been restricted to three combinations in both the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and in London in 2012, with no provision to discard the lowest score.
Eventing would also be on the same footing as dressage and jumping in the past two Olympics, in that eventing teams could have a reserve combinations.
Teams will qualify for the Olympics similar to previous years–throught the World Equestrian Games held two years before the Olympics, at championships such as the Europeans and the Pan American Games the year before the Olympics and other approved events.
Individual places for all three disciplines will be allocated from the respective Olympic Ranking lists to be created.
One dedicated place will be guaranteed for each group and the other places will be allocated for the three disciplines based on the rankings in order of classification regardless of the region. Nations already qualified as teams will not be included for any of the individual places.
One athlete can only earn one quota place, a change from previous Olympics.
The proposed qualifying system for the 2016 Games also directly addressed the issue that occurred in 2012 when so-called “popup” events were added on short notice to enable qualifying in some nations. The most controversial revolved around events staged in Brazil that triggered a complaint from the Dominican Republic.
Qualifying events must be entered in the FEI Calendar “in accordance with the relevant FEI Calendar deadlines (at the latest by 1 October unless an earlier date is specified by the relevant Sport Rules; for example, for 5* Events in Jumping the dates shall be approved two years prior to the year in which the Event is to take place).
“Once the list of Qualifying Events is published by the FEI, there cannot be any new Events added to such list, unless there is a Force Majeure event and subject to FEI’s approval.
“The list of the 2015 Qualifying Events will be published by the end of 2014, and the list of the 2016 Qualifying Events will be published by the end of 2015.”