Mike ES – Part Two


Mike in front of the famous Sydney 2000 Omega

[Part 1]

Having the chance to meet with Mike ES brings the possibility of not only meeting with one of the world’s most renowned cross country designers but also the CEO of British Eventing, a man who has been involved in the development of the frangible pin and someone who has been at the forefront of frangible fence design for much of the last ten years.

Mike has also played a key part in developing officials from around the world. I had to pick his brain. We face many challenges in our sport and one of those is ensuring we have not only sufficient officials (mostly volunteers) but well trained people with both an aptitude and ability to help our sport grow.

Mike believes we need to invest money in the right people who have a future with the sport. That is a hard line to walk at times as some people have the drive and/or some experience but lack the aptitude to make it further in the sport or just can’t handle the pressure when the proverbial hits the fan. We almost need to have a talent identification program for key official roles and back those identified with sufficient skills and training for the future.


Personally I was very pleased to learn Mike is firmly of the opinion that the current ‘Age Rule for Officials’ (the maximum age for most officials is 70 years old) should not change. There has been a move by some to have this raised, mostly because they are getting close to this and feel they still have much to contribute to the sport. I have no doubt they do but let’s look at the other end of the scale, very few officials around the world are under 50 let alone 40 like myself.

Those of us in this younger age group mostly have full time jobs outside the sport, we have younger families and really can’t afford to personally fund trips around the world in pursuit of gaining skills and accreditation in our sport. The only way this experience happens well is without the guys and girls at the upper end of the age limit doing it for free, with countless weeks of time to travel.

As officials we need to build our experience by working in our backyards, as much as we would love to travel around the world developing our experience financial realities must be taken into account. That means getting our experience closer to home. I can vouch for the value of travelling the world to gain experience, I can also vouch for how hard it is to convince a committee to pay an extra $2000 in airfare for an overseas TD.


The full view of the Sydney 2000 Omega

I must say that Mike ES has been instrumental in making changes to better support his volunteers in the UK. They have quite a different national system in the UK as they have employed Technical Assistants (TA) at all British Eventing (BE) events, so instead of a volunteer TD there is a paid TA. This certainly helps to lift the level of professionalism in the sport.

I couldn’t avoid the issue of safety, in particular frangible devices. I asked Mike specifically about the use of different devices notably the frangible pin, reverse pin, the Mim clip and the ProLog. Mike was adamant that each had a place in the sport, but he remained cautious that we needed to do more testing in the Lab, controlled conditions, before we tested in the competition environment. This is an area where his views deviate from those of FEI Chair Giuseppe della Chiesa.

Mike also believes that innovation is the key. He personally has set the challenge to the wider BE team to bring their ideas to the table. Mike wants at least one new idea on the table and in testing by the end of the year.

I asked Mike about the Industrial Standard for Cross Country Fence Design, he told me it had been completed and was due for release imminently. It was actually ratified at the FEI Bureau meeting in November. It has not been publicly released (despite the fact it came into force on January 1), it has been completed and (the word on the street is that) preliminary testing has failed most devices, what this means I do not know. Shall the standard be revised to meet the current devices or will some current devices be de-certified for use? I do not know. All I know is that those close to the issue are being very tight lipped on the matter.

Mike highlighted the challenge of frangible fences, we cannot make fences that competitors will ride more aggressively as they know they have a get out of jail card. We must build fences that horses and riders alike will respect, that have consequences if broken due to a mistake or poor riding but do not leave the ultimate consequence for those that make a mistake. We all know that Eventing is dangerous, we participate in the sport knowing we could be injured or even die. But it is a fine line for all participants, riders, horses, committees, volunteers and officials. We must do our best every time to avoid these days.

I would like to thank Mike for his time and insight into our sport, he is certainly a man playing a number of critical roles in our sport and I personally relish his closer involvement in Eventing in Australia, the word is, he has committed to working in Australia on at least two projects for the next few years, watch this space.

Yours in Eventing,

ESJ

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