What started off as an innocent remark following the cross country at Red Hills, that wouldn’t we all love to see a Henny helmet cam at Badminton, has turned into something akin to an international incident, and although we don’t have all the answers, yet, it seemed like a good idea to share what we do know so far.
Eventing Nation’s own Eventing Safety John, as an FEI Technical Delegate, is communicating with the FEI and will have all the details from that perspective as soon as he hears back from them to follow up on his story up on EN already.
The rule that started the furore (“1. Beginning 1 January 2013, while riding on the show grounds the use of a properly fastened Protective Headgear will be mandatory. In the Competition arena venue and adjacent warm-up areas, as well as riding from one to the other and from the stables for the purposes of competing, the Protective Headgear requirements are governed by the applicable Sport Rules. The use of cameras on Athletes or equipment (such as on Protective Headgear, head covering or carriage) shall not be permitted, unless otherwise specifically agreed by the FEI. An Athlete’s decision to wear a camera while competing shall always be voluntary and at the Athlete’s own risk.”) was updated in the small print to be effective on January of this year, but apparently not many people are aware of it.
Certainly not Peter Atkins, who’s original helmet cam two years ago at Red Hills went viral as soon as they posted it on the event website, and was subsequently used in the Red Hills tv promotion programme to great effect.
“The only FEI person I’ve spoken to was at Rolex, and he took a copy of the video to show to all his friends. He loved it, and and was wondering how they could best use it to promote the sport more.”, Peter told me.
Since that first Red Hills video Peter has famously posted helmet cam videos from many advanced courses, but especially Rolex CCI**** and the Alltech FEI 2010 WEG. The Run Henny Run Youtube channel has had well over 150,000 hits, many of them from non horsey and eventing people, as Peter told me, from spouses and connections who enjoy the ride for the pure thrill and nothing else, and Henny, and the view from between his ears, has become something of a phenomenon.
Elisa Wallace was also competing at Red Hills in the CIC*, and although she too was unaware of the FEI rule, she did actually receive permission and sign a waiver before wearing her helmet cam on the cross country. I spoke to Timothy Harfield, who manages video production for the Wallace Eventing Team,
“There was no formal announcement, and to my knowledge none of the other riders signed anything. Elisa made a point of going to the the FEI representatives and asking them if there was anything she should do as she intended to wear the helmet cam, and they asked Elisa to sign a personal injury waiver. It was nothing official, basically just a signed letter accepting full responsibility for any injury related to wearing a helmet-cam. The letter was submitted to Rick Dunkerton.”
Elisa said that the FEI representatives were “very happy and grateful” that she asked permission before wearing the helmet cam, and praised her initiative as exemplary.
Timothy added that the Tallahassee Deomocrat posted Elisa’s helmet cam on their website on Sunday, but whereas in the US it has become the norm for videos to be posted on youtube within hours, to be shared and enjoyed by all, this is not always the case in Europe.
Competitors at Badminton Horse Trials for instance, including Peter Atkins, will have to abide by the competition rules as well as FEI ones, and Badminton Press Officer Julian Seaman told me,
“ We own rights to all competition footage, the only headcams are the ones on riders chosen by the BBC.”
Julian did add that if Peter were to volunteer, and that if the Director is using headcams again this year, then he has a good chance of being chosen. Paul Tapner’s 2011 ride around the iconic course, with a voice-over commentary by Paul, is still up on the site, and still gives me goosebumps.
The FEI has said it will issue a clarification on the rule regarding safety, but copyright falls under a different jurisdiction altogether and the rules are bound to change depending on where you are riding. For example, British Eventing has it’s own rule in place regarding hat cams at BE events – (waivers to be signed, the footage belongs to BE and must only be used for ‘home use’ basically). The only sensible advice at the moment would be to try and find out exactly what you can and can’t do in advance, like Elisa did, and assume nothing! Go helmet cams, carefully, and under advisement, and Go eventing!
