| INDUSTRY |
Alysen Miller Eclipse Sportswire, Caroline Norris, Marc Rühl
T
he eighth World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina were not, it is perhaps fair to say, an unbridled success. From unfinished facilities to misspelt signage and, most catastrophically, an entire endurance race that had to be aborted after riders were sent in the wrong direction, the competition generated so much negative coverage that the future of
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the Games themselves, already in some doubt, now appears to be hanging by a thread. (At the time of writing, no formal bidders had thrown their hats into the ring for the 2022 renewal.) So it might seem to be a strange time to ask if horseracing has anything to learn from the Fédération Équestre International (FEI). And yet, there is one area in which the FEI is arguably setting an example. Unlike the global racing industry, which operates under myriad rules and regulations between different countries
(and sometimes within the same country), all 134 affiliated nations of the FEI operate under a single set of rules. This includes a single Prohibited Substances Policy to which all jurisdictions must adhere; meaning that a horse trained in Australia is subject to exactly the same medical requirements, including regulations governing banned substances and threshold limits, as a horse trained in, say, America. This stands in stark contrast to the thoroughbred industry. Despite being an increasingly global