Staking debate

This is my latest story on Eventing Nation about staking Cross Country Fences.

Eventing Nation

The FEI have released a policy and action plan

Hey guys, the long awaited FEI Eventing Risk Management Policy and Action Plan has been released.

At first glance I am disappointed.  To me this is a policy statement, the words Action Plan have been tacked onto the end of the title.

My understanding of an action plan is this:

• Quantifiable goals, targets, actions and achievements
• Identify and give deadlines for all of the above
• Set review dates, and keep updating the plan.

An action plan without specific and measurable Key Performance Indicators is not a plan.

However, I do hold out hope.

“Communication plan

The FEI Eventing risk management needs also to take into account the risks for the FEI deriving from an unmanaged communication of any accident that will inevitably produce a bad image for the organization and the sport if not put in the right context of a proactive risk management policy.

Public perception of proactive risk management is as important as the risk management actions performed and an effective risk management communication plan is key for achieving the mission of the organization.

In order to ensure the above:

 A communication strategy for FEI Eventing risk management must be urgently developed. All risk management actions must be made public and actively explained .

 A clear procedure has been established in case of any serious accident to allow correct distribution of information.”

An urgent development of a communication strategy is a fantastic leap forward and I can’t wait to read it, even better be part of the team helping to develop it.  So yes we have taken a baby step in the right direction and for that I am thankful.

ESJ

 

 

 

Me on Eventing Nation – Eventing’s Honor Roll, the one list you don’t want to be on

Hi Guys I was moved to write this after reading about Jade South.

Eventing’s Honor Roll

Thanks for your interest

ESJ

Risk Management & Frangible Device meetings

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to let you all know I have not forgotten about these meetings and reporting on how they went. They were on 27, 28, & 29 of January. To date the “Cone of Silence” has been most effective and I have almost no information.

What I do know is that at least one other person tried to participate in the FEI Risk Management Meeting and despite a demonstrated track record in the area of Eventing Safety was excluded. Additionally, there are whispers of discontent amongst some present and the whole “cone of silence”. Hopefully this will lead to some change and more open and transparent discussions in the future.

I can’t even tell you if the ProLog guys were invited to the second TRL meeting after being excluded from the first despite the fact that the FEI stated the meeting included all known manufacturers of frangible devices.

As of now, I have no other information to share.

If you have more information and would like to share it anonymously with me drop me a line, your confidence will be respected 100%.

eventingsafety @ gmail.com

In the meantime, please rider safely and wear your helmet.

2011 Eventing Risk Management Seminar in Greenwich

On January 29 & 30 2011, the Annual Eventing Risk Management Seminar was held in Greenwich, the site of the 2012 London Olympic Games Equestrian Events.

This meeting is an important event on the future of Safety (Risk Management) in our sport and brings together National Safety Officers and other interested parties from across the Eventing world.

What was discussed is unclear at this stage as the minutes and papers from the Seminar are yet to be released and although I have placed a number of calls and emails to people I know were present at this stage I am none the wiser.

There was a press release from the FEI that can be seen here. However at this stage we are short on detail.

For one I have been trying for a period of time now to obtain a copy of the “FEI Eventing Risk Management Action Plan” mentioned in the press release and the best answer I have obtained is that it is being updated and will be made available when the updating is complete.  To my knowledge although in the press release it states that “launched in January 2010” it has not been released publicly before now. So this will be an eagerly awaited document.

In addition as I have mentioned previously there was a meeting on the 28th of January 2011 at the offices of TRL in London to discuss the creation of an industrial standard for Frangible Devices to be used in Eventing.

Again more information has been promised at some stage, however in the meantime the only mention of this meeting having occurred from the FEI is a paragraph (below) in the FEI Monthly Review from November 2010. Here is a copy of the full document on the IEOC website.

Eventing: meeting at Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Wokingham (GBR), 10 NovemberThe meeting took place to discuss the possible creation of industrial standards for frangible / deformable Cross Country fences.Among the 18 participants were the Chairman of the FEI Eventing Committee, researchers from the universities of Bristol (GBR) and Kentucky (USA), as well as MIM Construction AB (SWE) and several top Cross Country Course Designers.Several frangible and deformable devices were presented. Discussions included possible definitions of tests to be undertaken (ie. forces to be measured) for such fences and enabled the participants to set out the principles for a first draft, which will be further reviewed at a meeting in January 2011.

That said I have seen a copy of the minutes of this meeting in November and it sounds promising.  However I will reiterate my previous comments that only a select few were present at the meeting, the team from ProLog were a notable exception despite some very promising research conducted that they have real capacity to stop rotational falls before they even begin.

I think that is enough said until I can obtain copies of the documentation.

Yours in Eventing and please wear your safety helmet, securely fastened at all times when mounted.

John

A turning point? I hope

Sebastian Steiner died on 18 September 2010

In a little over two week there will be two meetings of critical importance to the future of Eventing.

The first on 28 January is a follow up to a meeting that occurred on the 10th of November. This meeting is working on “discuss the possible creation of industrial standards for frangible/deformable Cross Country fences to be used in FEI competitions”.

This is exciting. What is not exciting is that very few people participated in the meeting, the meeting is not open to all concerned or it seems anyone outside the United Kingdom bar a select few from Europe and the USA.

In addition, the minutes from this meeting have not been published publicly for the wider Eventing community, the goals, papers and responses are locked away in a secure part of the FEI Family website.

One can only hope that they will release further information following the 28 January meeting.

The second very important meeting is the annual gathering of all National Safety Officers at Greenwich on 29-30 January.  This meeting too, does not encourage input from outside the select group of NSOs and others by invitation (mine it seems got lost in the mail).  I am confident that at the NSOs meeting they will discuss the aforementioned industrial standard for frangible/deformable cross country fences at the NSOs meeting.

What I hope is, will we turn the corner, will we move away from the situation of paranoia, closed doors, secret meetings and secure password controlled minutes?

Will we see publicly for the first time, a written simple and concise plan, that outlines in plain English (and French as well as many other languages), our goals, KPI’s and statistics for moving forward.

I am not hopeful, it only takes five minutes on Google to know that this conversation was happening, in the same tone, with big plans in the late nineties.  Have we improved? I think so, have we learnt anything, technically & scientifically YES, from a Public Relations and Management point of view, it seems not.

I recently came across a list, it is a list that will chill the bones of any Eventer or Eventing supporter.  The list contains the names and details of EVERY death of a rider, that has made it into the public domain since about 1997. Some of these names I have heard before but many I hadn’t.

For me personally, this list and the people whose lives were lost in our sport, this is why I do this, stick my neck out.  Unfortunately, every year on average just under four lives are lost in our sport.

2010 was an average year as we said goodbye to Dirk Grouwels (48) of Belgium in March, Elena Timonina (16) of Russia in May, Robin Donaldson (64) of Great Britain in September and Sebastian Steiner (22) of Austria in September.

I hope, dream and pray (I’m not very good at it) that 2011 will not be an average year.  Will we find some miracle cure in 2011 in the Industrial Standards?  I don’t think so, but I do hope that we can be more open, inclusive and forthright about the challenges our sport faces and how we will tackle this as a team.

Can we continue to add names to this horrific list and look at ourselves in the mirror and honestly say with hand on heart, I did everything in my power to stop adding to this list.

Believe me I haven’t forgotten about our horses and those that have given there lives for the sport.  Personally I have been around to see three of these, three too many and I know how tragic it is.  But, if we can’t get motivated enough to stem the list of human deaths, how can we even start on the list of horse deaths.

One final thing I ask, I want to ensure that this plea is read by every single person who will be in those meetings.  Please share the list as far and wide as possible, post it to your Facebook, email it to your Eventing contacts or Tweet it, whatever you can do to help spread the word will be truly appreciated.

Hopefully in late January, we can move past the excuses for not doing something, focus on the list of the past and prepare a plan for the future.

If you can bear it, there is a fairly comprehensive list on Horsetalk of both horses and riders.

The IEOC and a new Board

Are you an FEI Eventing Official? If so you should have received a Ballot paper on the email today from Jean Mitchell. I have nominated for the Board of the International Eventing Officials Club. The IEOC is now recognised by the FEI as a member of the FEI Family.

The IEOC continues to be influential in bringing about appropriate changes for the sport to ensure its relevance today and in the future. I believe I can contribute more to the future of our sport by being a member of the IEOC board and would appreciate your support.

My agenda is very simple: –

• Eventing is a tough and demanding sport that is the pinnacle of the relationship between horse and man (& women).
• It is tough and dangerous, however, if our sport is to continue to be relevant today and in the future, especially at an elite level, we need to do everything in our power to avoid tragedies for both horse and human.
• I sincerely believe that change can be implemented successfully, sensibly and without turning the sport into glorified showjumping.

I would appreciate your vote today. Please nominate John Lechner (me) on your ballot and return it ASAP.

I thank you in advance for your support.

John Lechner

A Great Story on the ProLog

ProLogs into the water at Red Hills Horse Trials 2010

The ProLog is an engineered Polystyrene log painted to look like a real log.  It is the brain child of Canadian Eventers Mike Winter and Kyle Carter (recently named on the Canadian WEG Team).  Kyle operates from a base in Florida USA whilst Mike is based in the UK and is also a Course Designer.

The ProLog site is here.

However, this is a great story on the Pros and Cons of the ProLog on the Eventing Worldwide website, enjoy.

This is what a ProLog looks like on the inside, from Red Hills Horse Trials 2010

AECs and frangible technology

Mim NewEra Clip & Frangible Pin on a Corner at Chattahoochee Hills for the AECs

I haven’t seen or heard it reported anywhere yet but I know there was a potentially nasty fall at the AECs (American Eventing Championships) last weekend in the Advanced Class.  The good news is that both horse and rider walked away! The reason, the fence was frangible. The fence (see pictures) was one of three with the Mim NewEra Clip System installed.  There were also many others using frangible pins around the course.

NOTE: In the USA Frangible Pins are compulsory on certain fence types and are provided FREE of charge by the USEF.

The corner fence that had the fall was an open corner and in fact used both Frangible pins on the front rail and the Mim Clip on the back rail.  I hear that the horse chested the back rail which would normally have severe consequences and in fact may still have done so with a frangible pin installed in the traditional manner.

I leave you with this, an email sent by Dan Starck (Course Builder for the AECs) to Mats Björnetun (co-Founder of Mim), it says it all.

Hi Mats,
The American Eventing Championships ended here today. I ended up using the MIM hardware on 3 jumps on the Advanced course.

1. The table that you built here with my help
2. an oxer (actually, a hybrid with a frangible pinned front rail and MIM back rail)
3. an open corner (again, with a pin on front rail and MIM back rail sharing the corner post)

I’ve attached a couple of photos of it.

We had a potentially disastrous crash at the corner.  The horse totally chested the back rail.  It was really ugly, but the MIM system worked beautifully!  It was still an ugly fall, but the horse and rider both walked away. I watched the video of it this afternoon.  There is no doubt that we would have had a very bad outcome had it not been for the MIM hardware.

Congratulations on saving another eventer.

Best to you and your family.

Dan Starck

Mim NewEra Clip & Frangible Pin on a Corner at Chattahoochee Hills for the AECs

Frangible Fences & the future of Eventing

Wooroloo CCI 3* 2010 Frangible Gate #3, this fence was frangible with the Mim NewEra system

From the outset, I am passionate about our sport and believe that jumping big solid fences is paramount to the future of the sport.  Whatever we do in the coming years must not change this.

That said, there is one thing that is critical to the future of the sport that requires change, minimising horse falls, in particular rotational falls.  Simply minimising this element from our sport will reduce fatalities and serious injuries to both Horse & Rider.

How do we remove this most dangerous element of our sport?  Big question, lots of answers and NO simple fix, but there are a number of ways we can (and have) start turning the corner.  I have been criticised since beginning this website for being overly supportive of the introduction of more frangible technologies in the sport.  My simple principle is that, whilst we continue to have preventable deaths of horses and riders in our sport we need to push hard to find a safer way and frangible technologies are a critical element in this change.

Frangible fences can provide part of the solution and quickly.  In the last few months I have seen the evolution first hand of the Mim NewEra Clip System and let me tell you each time I see it, we have learnt more.  This system is no panacea to fix all issues but it is certainly flexible in its application, simple to understand and measurable in its results.

I first saw the clips first hand in March, a sample newly minted from the factory in Sweden.  Only four weeks later I saw it first hand in action at the Sydney CIC-W, it was set up on the A & C elements of a coffin for both the 2* and 3*-W classes.  It was exciting to see it in action but those early results proved more needed to be learnt before the system could be rolled out more widely.

The engineers in Sweden went back to the drawing board and in consultation with Wayne Copping the Course Designer responsible for the Sydney event, a simple but fundamental lesson was learnt.

The fence must be set up with a neutral centre of gravity, ie at the Sydney CIC-W event the heavy log was already leaning forward, taking the smallest hit to come down.

In August, I returned to another event at SIEC the Sydney CIC run by a different committee but on the same site and with Wayne once again at the helm.  Wayne had made two changes, a slight change of striding between the elements.  However more critically he adjusted the centre of gravity to be neutral, in essence without the clips in place the fence stayed upright.  The clip is then added to ensure that the fence is frangible at the desired force 180kg or 1800kN.

The stark contrast in the way the fence performed was amazing, at the CIC-W we broke all but 1 pair of clips (over 20 pairs I believe).  In August not one pair was broken and only one pair registered any force, wait until you see the video below to see what it took to pop the indicator flags (90-180kgs of force).

Most recently I was lucky enough to see the clips in action for the third time this year at the Wooroloo Horse Trials in Western Australia again with Wayne Copping at the helm.  This time Wayne had installed the clips on a vertical gate 1.2m tall with a log set 60cm out from the base, it was a very upright fence.  Thankfully the riders respected the fence so highly that it barely copped a knock from a wayward hoof.

This fence was frangible with the Mim NewEra system

These tools are a way to help improve safety in our sport, they are not changing the nature of the sport, but they will save lives.

I have heard it said many times that we need to improve the quality of riding to reduce these falls, that rotational falls are a new phenomenon that has arisen in the last 10 or so years.  That may be true, partly that is because the sport has grown, lots more riders at the lower, “Grass Roots” levels. AND yes, we need to improve the quality of riding but not every rider can work with Lucinda Green or Mark Todd or one of the many old school riders who have the lost art of horsemanship.

In addition we have spent a lot of time, money and effort broadening the base of our sport into Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa, once again a critical measure to ensuring the long term survival of our sport especially at an Olympic level.  These new riders have limited access to schooling of cross country let alone being able to work with some of our older and most experienced riders/coaches.  We need to use every tool available to us to ensure the viability of the future of our sport, frangible fences are a critical tool.

We must improve safety by mechanical means.  In my  opinion there was one positive to come out of Oliver Townend’s fall at Rolex this year. Few people can argue that Oli lacks either skill or experience necessary to compete at 4* level.  The frangible pins did not break, but they were not designed to break under the circumstances that led to his fall.  Frangible clips may have worked, we will never know, but we need to keep evolving, striving and reducing horse falls.

WEG is less than four weeks away and I will be interested to see what types of frangible devices will be used at the Games. Will we see the reverse frangible pin or the Mim NewEra Clip make their debut in Kentucky?  I hope so.