How do we share our learnings effectively?

I have been pondering a couple of questions since Rolex, and I think they are worth sharing and discussing.

1. Why were there no Mim NewEra Clips at Rolex?
2. How do we share new ideas and concepts on “frangible fence design” effectively and efficiently?

I will start by saying neither of these questions is meant as a criticism but purely as points to generate debate. Personally I seek out frangible fences and always aim to have a real understanding of the thinking behind their use, the device incorporated and what will happen if they are deployed.

I think this is good practice for everyone involved in our sport, we all need to know and understand more about these devices.

So back to Rolex, I have had a good look at the fence photos and only the frangible pin was used, both in traditional and reverse installation.  The double corners caused a number of issues on the weekend including these incidents below, the second of which ended up being the most serious of the weekend with a dislocated elbow.

So the question I ask myself, is could the either situation have given a different result if the Mim device was used instead of the pins? Personally I think yes, the Mim installed on both front and back could and should have collapsed in both situations. But most course builder and designers, or even TDs have never seen such a fence.  I have, at Adelaide last year and I did a video for Eventing Nation on it with TD Andy Griffiths, (while the sound is terrible in parts) and it show how a frangible corner can be built.

So how do we share this information and knowledge in the future?

Thanks

John

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.

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.

Eventing Radio Episode 106

Boyd Martin is fresh from his mission in France, Jennie Brannigan is still celebrating her win at Galway Downs and Gill Rolton has a recap of the Australian International all right here.

Eventing Radio Episode 106 – Show Notes and Links:

• Show Host: Chris Stafford
• Photo Credit: www.kirbypark.com
• Guest: Boyd Martin – http://boydandsilvamartin.blogspot.com
• Guest: Jennie Brannigan – http://www.branniganeventing.com/
• Guest: Gill Rolton – http://www.australian3de.com.au
• Guest: Adelaide CCI**** – http://www.australian3de.com.au
  • Wendy Schaeffer – Koyuna Sun Dancer – 57.20 [SA]
  • Christopher Burton – Newsprint – 57.70 [NSW]
  • Wendy Schaeffer – Koyuna Sun Shine – 63.20

Please visit our sponsors as they make this show possible:

_________________________________________

Badminton – Leading the way and stepping up to the plate

Recently I leveled a direct criticism at all of the Four Star Events as NOT one included any in depth information of any kind on their website as to the safety devices used on their XC course.  My premise was that as the Four Stars, riders and other event organisers look up to them so seeing that a 4* is doing it would help promote to others to do more too.  Only one event responded to my criticism and in fact, they promised to do something about it.

That event was Badminton and last night I received this live to the story, where Badminton Director Hugh Thomas talks about safety.  I applaud Badminton, for taking the lead, I will also be preparing a story on the safety utilised at Adelaide last week.

Thank you Hugh and thank you to Monty White, who produced the video.

This is the full story on the Badminton Blog, and below is the interview with Hugh Thomas

The Mim NewEra Team are hard at it

At maximum height 120cm the Mim adjustable Post and Rail

Mats Björnetun and Anders Flogård of MIM Construction Frändefors Sweden are never happy with just letting things roll along.  Having developed, tested and rolled out samples across the globe, Mats and Anders have both been working hard at demonstrating how flexible their product is.

I mentioned in my last post that the Mim NewEra seems to have been pigeonholed in the US as a device to make a table frangible.  This device is so much more, in fact I have not seen a table used apart from the one at Chat Hills.

What I have seen is

• a vertical gate
• upright skinny and the video clip on this post demonstrates how competition durable the Clip system is

And now we have this, a frangible post and rail that is adjustable in height, YES adjustable, it can be used for a lower end national class one weekend and the next be rolled out for a 4*, in my time I have not seen a fence this flexible.  Thanks again to Anders and Mats for helping to change the way we think about XC fences.

With dressing and some good ground anchors, this could be used at an Event near you.

Side on view of the Mim Team's Adjustable Post and Rail

At mimimum height of 85cm the mim adjustable Post and Rail

 

A diversion from the normal program

Good morning People, it is 5.15am here in Australia and I am about to post something about Dressage and Jumping. Thought I better explain myself. Pretty simple really, there will be some great WEG coverage coming from the Horse Radio Network over the next three weeks of WEG and I have done a deal with Glenn The Geek to carry all four WEG (Olympic discipline) shows. So from now until the end of WEG you will find the following Horse Radio Network shows right here.

• 2010 Radio Show
• Eventing Radio Show
• Dressage Radio Show
• Jumping Radio Show

The 2010 will be produced daily during the games and will feature a full days wrap plus special guest and lots of fun from Samantha Clark and Glenn The Geek. The Eventing, Dressage and Jumping Shows are each hosted by Chris Stafford and will feature four special WEG shows (basically one at the end of each day of relevant competition).  So the good news is you won’t have to go far to get daily results, goss and the feeling of WEG.

I can’t wait and am so sorry I won’t be there myself.  There is one other place I recommend you check out for a bit of fun around WEG.  The Equestrian Australia Team have flown Hamish Cargill and Dave Campbell over to do their own warped (very Aussie) reporting on the games and will be dong regular spots of H & D TV on youtube, this is their first video.  Many more to come.

Finally, if you or any of your friends travel to WEG and see any frangible fences or anything else relating to safety in Eventing please drop me a line with any photos or videos to eventingsafety@gmail.com thanks again John.

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.

Lots going on

During the last month I have been chasing my tail, crossing the Country and busy in all aspects of my life.  Unfortunately that means I have neglected this website.  That said, I have some great new information including videos and photos to share on the Mim NewEra system in action.

Wayne Copping, highly respected Australian Course Designer and Builder has been hard at work and the results speak for themselves.  I am very pleased to report that the skinny fences from the Sydney World Cup Round earlier this year, that were dropping like bowling pins (the video is in an earlier post) was modified to change the centre of gravity for the Sydney CIC in August.

A huge improvement and I have video which I am currently editing to slow down of a horse straddling the fence without it coming down.  Wayne also introduced the Mim system into a vertical gate with a log ground line in close.  The gate was very well respected by the riders so the end result was a great fence to use the system but it was not tested as the gate was barely touched by the horses.

Lots more to get on with so I will finish here for the moment so that I can edit the videos and pictures to put up asap.