Restructure of Eventing Ireland classes

FOLLOWING the recent online survey regarding the proposed class restructure of Eventing Ireland Classes, the Board of Eventing Ireland has agreed the following changes, effective from 1 January 2014 and will be included in the new rule book.

1.  CHANGES TO CLASS NAMES

The following changes will be made to Intro and Pre-Novice classes.  The new class names have been developed to help explain the standard, ie: the maximum height of the fences for the classes.  This comes into line with British Eventing and also with Show Jumping Ireland.

Intro Classes

EI 90 (old name Intro)
EI 90 S (old name Sportsman C)
EI 90 P (old name Pony C)

Pre-Novice Classes

EI 100 (old name Pre-Novice)
EI 100 S (old name Sportsman B)
EI 100 J (old name Junior C)
EI 100 P (old name CNCP1*/Pony B)

CNC1* Classes

CNC1*
CNCJ1*
CNC1* S (old name Sportsman A)
CNCP2*

CNC2*/CNC3* Classes

There will be no changes to class types or names for these classes

Amalgamation

Event Organisers have the right to amalgamate classes with entries of 6 or less into the main class at the same level without the entrants having to be consulted. The exception to this will be CNCP2* which will always have its own class regardless of numbers of entries.

Entrants not wishing to compete in the amalgamated class will have the right to withdraw and receive a full refund but this must be done by noon on the Thursday before the event. Withdrawals must be done by telephone or email to Head Office.

In the situation of classes being amalgamated there will be an extra prize (if monetary, the same as the lowest prize awarded for the placings or in kind as according to the rules) and rosette for the leading Sportsman, YR, Junior and Pony rider placed outside the class prizes, so long as they finish in the top 25% of the starters.  Riders will only be eligible for one prize in an amalgamated class.

2.   MERS

The plan to introduce MERs to determine upgrading has been shelved for 2014.  This is due to the ongoing development of the new website and database and the desire of the Board to complete that work before making any major changes.  For 2014 points will determine upgrading and points will be awarded for CIC/CCI completions which gain an FEI MER rather than just a completion.

3.  POINTS

Points for horses will still be awarded from CNC1* level upwards.

A new system whereby horses and riders can compete over, at least, three levels is being introduced based on the points table below:

This new system will, to some extent, do away with Hor Concours.  Hors Concours is still available to a horse with over 20 points wishing to compete at EI 90 and EI 100.

By definition EI 90/100/CNC1* S,  EI 100/CNC1*J (i.e. the Sportman and Junior classes) are open classes and therefore horses with any number of points may compete in them.

4.   RIDERS

All riders will be labelled on the EI database as Senior, YR, Sportsman, Junior or Pony. This will become part of the event programme and will assist the Event Organiser in identifying the winners in each section from the scorer’s print outs, and will look like this:

Each rider will also be flagged on the EI database as an FEI A, B, C, D or National rider.  A new rider category will be introduced for EI100 and EI90 classes called Restricted rider.

To compete at the higher levels (1* and above) riders must have achieved the following completions before moving on to the next level.

These qualifications do not have to be as a combination and can be gained with a different horse.  Junior and Pony Riders would still need to obtain the MERs and be approved by their Regional Co-Ordinator to move up to another level.  There might be occasional exceptions and these will need to be agreed with the Regional Co-Ordinator and/or High Performance Coach.  Head Office must be notified in writing on an underage rider’s upgrade.

5.     DOWNGRADING

Riders will be downgraded a level if they persist at a class/grade at which they are struggling. But as horses can run at up to 3 different levels and H/C at EI 90 and EI 100 level downgrading is easy and can be at the choice of the owner/rider.

Compulsory downgrading will be enforced if the same horse/rider combination has two consecutive eliminations for horse fall at a fence, rider fall at a fence or accumulated refusals in the cross country phase and the combination will need to attain one clear cross country at the lower level before upgrading again.

Technical eliminations (ie. error of course) will not trigger compulsory downgrading.

All relevant circumstances will be considered by the Steward’s Committee before initiating compulsory downgrading.

Existing horse fall rule will still apply (Rule 20 “The owner of a horse, which has two falls within a calendar year, may receive an advisory letter.  Further action may be taken if a horse has a third fall within a calendar year.”)

EI 90 riders who have received two consecutive eliminations must attend training with an HSI affiliated trainer and submit a letter from their trainer to Head Office before being allowed to compete again.

All riders with two or more consecutive eliminations will be placed on the EI Watchlist which is circulated to event officials.

6.      ELIGIBILITY

Some changes have been made to Eligibility, the most important one is that adults may now ride ponies over 143cm.