At Jersey CCI***, Will Coleman’s horse Cool Connection suffered a horrific accident when he became impaled by the flag at a narrow fence. In the interest of improving safety, the USEF Eventing Technical Committee has issued a rule proposal to ensure safe flags are used at corners, skinnies, and other narrow-faced obstacles. There remains the potential for the rule to be amended during the approval process as it does require final approval by the USEF Executive Committee on June 18th. If passed, it will take effect on August 1.
From the USEA:
EV140.4 (New)
4. Safety Flags
i. The types of fence required to use safety flags include:
- a. Corners;
- b. Fences of less than 3m ( 9’8”) width;
- c. Related fences which because of their design offer a jumpable line of less than 3m (9’8”) width;
- d. Fences designed to be jumped on an angle where knocking a flag is a possibility;
ii. The flags and poles on these fences must meet the following criteria;
- a. The flag poles must be made of a material that cannot shatter, break or splinter, such as suitable plastic or carbon fiber or any other appropriate materials;
- b. There must be no points anywhere on the flag poles and any sharp corners and/or edges on the flags must be rounded;
- c. Flags must be secured in such a way that they ‘break away’ and/or move away from the fence if/when struck by either horse or rider in such a way that the chance of horse and/or rider being injured is significantly reduced.
- d. All flags and flagpoles to be used in these situations will need to be approved by the Technical Delegate.
