The big news to come out of the Fédération Equestre Internationale General Assembly, held Nov. 19-22 in Tokyo, was the move to three-man teams at the Olympic Games, but a slew of other rule changes were up for vote, and some of the changes will have a dramatic impact on sport at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games, which will take place at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, N.C.

In show jumping, the FEI has eliminated not only the first round of competition, but also there will no longer be a “final four” competition for individual medals. Traditionally, the three individual medals were decided by the top four riders jumping four rounds and trading horses for every round, so each rider rode every horse.

Instead, athletes will contest two rounds of team competition over two days with different courses—after which team medals will be awarded. Only the top 10 teams and individuals in the top 60 after Round 1 will move on to Round 2; if a rider is in the top 60 individually after Round 1 but his team does not qualify for Round 2, they are able to jump in Round 2 for an individual score.

After a rest day, the top 25 return for Round A of the individual jumping. Only the top 12 will jump the final round, and a jump-off would break a potential tie for individual medals.

In addition, the maximum height at the World Games has been raised from 1.60 meters to 1.65 (5’4″). You can see all the changes to WEG show jumping on the FEI website. 

FEI Vice President John Madden said the format changes had been discussed following the 2014 WEG in Normandy, France, and presentations took place at the annual FEI Sports Forum in both 2015 and 2016.

“Interestingly enough, I think there was only one federation that even commented on taking the horse change out of the WEG, so it was very strongly supported by the stakeholders in the sport, and that includes riders,” Madden said.

“The reasoning behind it was, 1.) It’s very risky. When you think about horse welfare and you think about the sport, it would be an absolute tragedy if something went wrong. These people develop their horses for so many years, and they compete so often, and they work so hard to develop top horses, and they take such good care of their horses, so that’s one factor,” he continued.

“Personally, my biggest reason for supporting getting rid of it is that our sport has evolved so much to be so much about the partnership between the horse and rider,” Madden said. “In the olden days it was more horses jumping over fences and seeing if it could make it—no bigger than today, but the proficiency has developed so much that the defining difference now is really not whether you can make it or not, but it’s the relationship between the horse and the rider. And all of the tests of our sport that we’ve evolved to have become more about the communication and the relationship between the horse and the rider. So that’s a little bit a different test to crown the world champion.”

“I like the decision. It’s always seemed a little like the real competition was over, and that it was a little bit of a show for me,” said Beezie Madden, who participated in the final four twice, with Authentic in 2006 and with Cortes ‘C’ in 2014. “I think it was something great for the crowd, but I think at the same time it would have been as exciting a competition if it had ended the day before for the individual final just like the World Cup Final or the Olympics.

“A lot more of the anxiety you have on that day is other people riding your horse and you riding someone else’s horse,” she continued. “You don’t want anything to happen to their horse when you’re on it either.”

In eventing, the World Games will now follow the “Olympic” format, which means the dressage and show jumping will be at the four-star level, but cross-country will drop down to three-star, with a 10-minute course and a maximum of 45 jumping efforts.

“I think everybody is probably trying to balance what the ramifications of that will be for the four-star level,” said U.S. Eventing Chef d’Equipe David O’Connor. “I absolutely wish the World Championships were held at the four-star level. I don’t think from a risk management point of view that it’s shown that it’s been a risk management problem at that level.

“I think the competition will still be a competitive, strong competition just like the Olympic format has been for a while,” he continued. “It will definitely produce a result that will produce a champion. I just wish that it was at the top level of our sport. I can see their logic, but I just wish it was the top of the sport.”

Other rule changes of interest in eventing include changing the FEI minimum eligibility requirements to be more stringent in dressage (from 75 penalties at an FEI competition to 67). New four-star tests will appear in 2017, and the test will be a bit shorter, approximately five minutes instead of 5:15.

A new penalty of 50 points has been added for “jumping outside the flag” on cross-country. If a horse makes an effort to jump but doesn’t get his head, neck and shoulders on the correct side of the flag, then the rider will have the choice to either represent and accept 20 penalties for the run-out, or continue on and take 50 penalties for jumping outside the flag. Previously the athlete would have been eliminated for continuing.

The rules regarding spurs have been rewritten to allow for roweled spurs that are free to rotate, whereas before spurs had to rotate vertically.

And indoor eventing has gone sanctioned, with a whole section of the rulebook now dedicated to “Indoor/Arena” cross-country rules.

As of Dec. 2, the FEI dressage rules for 2017 had not been updated on the FEI website.

We’ve contacted riders and officials from eventing and show jumping for comments about these changes, and we’ll post those as they come in. Make sure to read the Dec. 12 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse for more as well.