The following items were brought to the attention of the Bureau for information and approval following the FEI Eventing Committee held at Pratoni del Vivaro (ITA) in September 2007.

1) EVENTING SAFETY
a) FEI Eventing Safety Programme. The number of accidents that have occurred in the last ten months needed to be related to the fast development of the discipline and to the increasing number of competitors in national and international level. As a result, the FEI Safety Sub-Committee was created to address the issues.

The areas of investigation of the FEI Safety Sub-Committee are based on prevention, analysis and management. The FEI Eventing Safety Programme is focused on:
• research on construction systems combination of Safety measures;
• regular rules updates to provide the best current practices (rider qualifications, safety sanctions, design requirements);
• education of Course Designers and other officials;
• Coordination of national information;
• Standardized national reporting systems;
• Monitoring statistics, veterinary and medical information (concussion tracking) and input;
• Communication plan: launch of public relations action in international magazines and newspapers to provide in-depth explanation and update about the programme.

b) Cross Country Design Advisory Group. The Eventing Course Designer has the most influence on the evolution of the design and therefore on both national and international safety-related issues. The formalisation of a Cross Country Design Advisory Group as an extension of the Safety Sub-Committee was therefore approved. The Group will have as its objective to provide research on safety course design and frangible devices as well as Cross Country fence building directives. Mark Phillips has been asked to chair the Group.

c) An Eventing Safety Forum, to be organised on 19 January 2008 in Copenhagen (DEN), will give an important start of safety discussions. All NFs with Eventing activities will be invited to attend and make presentations on Eventing Safety along with course designers, trainers, riders, officials, equipment manufacturers, and veterinarians.

2) CONFLICT OF INTEREST. The issue of Directives on Conflict of Interest for Eventing Officials approved by the Bureau & General Assembly earlier this year were reviewed as it was felt the they needed to be re-addressed in a more practical way. A certain degree of conflict of interest needs to be tolerated as too harsh an approach would make the Officials most involved in the sport ineligible. It is important not to discourse Course Designers and Technical Delegates to officiate at international events as this specific category of officials are not involved in the judging/scoring process. The updated principles will be included in the Conflict of Interest Rules for Eventing and will some into effect as of 1 January 2008.

3) EVENTING STRATEGIC PLAN. A working group including riders, organisers, media, marketing and development representatives will be created to reflect on and plan the future of the discipline. The strategic vision of the Committee included priorities such as safety, education, and FEI World Cup TM Eventing.

4) EDUCATION. Furthering the education of Eventing Officials is priority for which the following objectives have been set:
• Define concept and budget required;
• improve quality and system of education;
• encourage and improve the education of Course Directors (tutors);
• improve and insure equal level of course information and material for all courses;
• improve the requirement and criteria selection and promotion of Officials;
• necessity of attracting new Officials.

The corrections / modifications to the FEI Rules for Eventing, 22nd edition, were approved (effective 1 January 2008).

Report on FEI World Cup TM Eventing
The importance of the continuation of the series for this discipline was acknowledged as it had potential and had been hugely successful in many parts of the world.

For various reasons, the 2008 Final would not be organised, it was agreed to award the FEI World Cup TM Eventing to the rider with most World Cup points at a major Eventing competition in the spring. The normal World Cup cycle would then resume for in 2008 with a Final in 2009.

Stricter organisational criteria for the FEI World Cup™ Eventing events as well as for all high level Eventing competitions would be set-up for the future to ensure that all events met the necessary standard expected. The Bureau approved the Committee’s proposal to reduce the number of qualifiers to one per NF, with the exception of the USA and Australia, as of 2009.