When Fédération Equestre Internationale President Princess Haya of Jordan called for the resignation of the entire FEI Dressage Committee on Oct. 31, her demand sent shockwaves through the international dressage community.
   
But instead of meekly disappearing into the night, Belgium’s Mariette Withages, president of the Dressage Committee, replied with an open letter stating that the Dressage Committee members had done nothing wrong and refused to resign.
   
Now the national federations have started to weigh in, and it appears the battle’s just begun.
   
The conflict between the FEI Executive Committee and the Dressage Committee apparently started in 2006 when the Dressage Committee chose Dolores Fernandez (Bobby) de Bobadilla of Spain instead of Maribel Alonso de Quinzanos for the committee. Princess Haya blamed the choice on personal issues, but Withages said they chose Bobadilla because they were concerned about having too many judges on the committee. The Dressage Committee did recommend that Quinzanos be raised to “O-level” judge, the highest level of FEI judge.

Then the trouble between the two committees came to a head over the appointment of the Olympic judging panel and the aftermath of their decisions.
   
Although in the past Withages has been accused of favoring the Dutch, particularly dressage superstar Anky van Grunsven and her husband Sjef Janssen, it was the Dutch Federation who made an official complaint to the FEI Executive Committee about the judging panel for Hong Kong.

Withages was attacked because she nominated Germany’s Gotthilf Riexinger as president of the jury, which meant he was the only judge to officiate in all three tests at the Olympic Games. Originally, Withages was going to be the jury’s president, but FEI rules changed to prevent the chairmen of all discipline committees from participating in the judge’s jury at championships and Olympic Games. “Only Gotthilf Riexinger of Germany and Ghislain Fouarge of the Netherlands came under consideration. Not only do the best riders come from these two countries, but also the best judges,” said Withages.

The Dutch Federation feared nationalistic judging from Riexinger, but he was one of the most experienced judges on the panel, so the Dressage Committee stuck to its guns and refused to make any changes, even after the Executive Committee tried to convince them otherwise at the FEI meeting in April of 2008.
   
The next battle came after the team competition at the Olympic Games when Withages arranged a secret meeting between the judges and the chef d’equipes of the top four teams to discuss judging complaints. Withages admits it wasn’t a wise action, but it did relax the atmosphere a bit.

Because of the judging complaints, especially in the Dutch media, before, during and after the Olympic Games, Withages, Fouarge and Riexinger decided to present their point of view in an interview with the Dutch magazine Hoefslag during the CDIO Mondorf (Luxembourg) in mid-September. They claimed Janssen was responsible for the hostile approach to the judges.

Hoefslag offered Janssen the chance to respond to the statements of the three judges in the same edition. Nevertheless, after the publication of the interview from the FEI he requested the three judges be removed from the FEI list.

Besides his request to the FEI, Janssen has taken legal action against the three judges for ruining his reputation with this interview. He claims that he’s owed damages because after the Olympics he had inquiries from some nations looking for a national coach, but after the interview these nations didn’t contact him again. The legal case is still pending.

Withages, Riexinger and Fouarge were asked to attend a hearing in front of the ethics panel at the FEI Headquarters at Lausanne (Switzerland) on Oct. 31. The conclusion was that the three judges didn’t disregard the code of honor and didn’t damage the reputation of the dressage sport. Therefore, there was no reason to suspend them from the judge’s list.

This was the same day Princess Haya wrote her letter to the FEI Dressage Committee, in which she requested their immediate resignation.
   
The unanimous opinion of the members of the FEI Dressage Committee is that they won’t honor the request for resignation by the FEI President. The committee members include Withages, Vincenzo Truppa, de Bobadilla, Minako Furuoka of Japan and Dieter Schuele of Germany. Germany’s Monica Theodorescu is the rider’s representative.

Schuele, who is an O-level judge, responded to one of Princess Haya’s complaints by pointing out that he wasn’t even in Hong Kong. “The short meeting with the chef d’equipes and the judges had nothing to do with the Dressage Committee,” he said. “I cannot understand the actions of the FEI President. If she wants to compose the FEI Dressage Committee in the future according to her own wishes, then she would have been able to do so very soon without this very drastic, unjustified step. Mariette Withages will leave in 2009 the committee, as well the deputy chairman and representative of the organizers Vincenzo Truppa of Italy.“

The Belgian Equestrian Federation sent a letter to David Holmes, the Executive Director of Sport at the FEI. In this letter, sent to all the national federations, officials from the Belgian Federation state that the material sent by the FEI to the national federations shows no evidence of infractions against the statutes and rules of the FEI. “If this was the case, the FEI Secretary General should have brought this before the FEI Tribunal, the only competent FEI body for such matters,” said the letter.

The German Equestrian Federation sent out a press release agreeing with the Belgians. German Equestrian Federation President Breido Graf zu Rantzau said, “The FEI is a democratic organization, and the Dressage Committee was selected democratically. It is totally inappropriate that the Dressage Committee is suspended in this way.”

The Spanish Equestrian Federation (RFHE) also objected to Princess Haya’s manner of dealing with the Dressage Committee.

“Regarding the petition for the resignation of the FEI Dressage Committee issued by the Executive Board, leaving aside the motives and reasons made public both by the
President of the FEI as well as the Committee, the RFHE thinks it fundamental to remind
that the FEI is a democratic institution, with internal functioning rules duly approved by the different bodies, that determine at all times the way its members must proceed,” stated Javier Revuelta del Peral, President of the Spanish Equestrian Federation.
   
The Dutch Federation hasn’t made an official statement one way or the other about the situation. The only organization to come out in full support of Princess Haya is the International Dressage Riders Club. President Margit Otto-Crepin published a short IDRC newsletter, in which she welcomed the call for the Dressage Committee’s resignation and the other requests of the FEI President, which would guarantee a better representation of all groups interested in the dressage sport.
   
However, Theodorescu, who is a board member of the IDRC, said that Otto-Crepin’s statement wasn’t discussed with her or Spain’s Beatriz Ferrer-Salat, who is also a board member.    
   
“The accusations of Princess Haya are beyond me. Of course, we have to make decisions in the committee, and it’s just normal that they not please everyone,” said Theodorescu.

On Nov. 4 the FEI Dressage Committee published a response, which was sent to the media. In this letter, in the name of all committee members, Withages defended the committee and announced they would not resign.

The FEI General Assembly will meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beginning Nov. 16. Although the resignation of the Dressage Committee wasn’t originally on the agenda, it’s very likely that the issue will be settled there.