As has been reported elsewhere, an FEI World Endurance Forum is planned for the spring of 2007. Originally scheduled to take place this year in Kuala Lumpur, the forum will now take place in Paris on 31 March - 1 April 2007 followed by the annual FEI Endurance Technical Committee meeting on 2 April.

The Forum will be structured along the same lines as the successful 2003 Endurance Forum and will allow delegates, from amongst the 76 National Federations who organize FEI Endurance events, to debate the overall status of the discipline as it exists today. There will also be opportunity to discuss the future of Endurance following its rapid growth and the ever increasing public scrutiny of the sport which has occurred in recent years.

With the approval of the FEI President, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, an FEI Endurance working group will be established, following on from the forum, to evaluate and develop those ideas and proposals raised by the delegates and to formulate a five-year plan for the sport for consideration by the FEI. Members of this working group will be drawn from both within and outside of Endurance itself.

As part of a fact finding exercise, a questionnaire has been produced and can be downloaded from the FEI website accessed through the Endurance > documents (direct link http://www.horsesport.org/e/PDFS/2006ENDURANCEQUESTIONNAIRE.doc). All FEI registered Endurance riders are asked to complete the form and to return it by email to the FEI ahead of the Forum next March.

The findings of the working group will be considered by the FEI Endurance Technical Committee as part of its ongoing review of Endurance.

Further details of the Forum: timing, venue, accreditation and programme will be published in due course and invitations issued to those NFs concerned as soon as possible.