The FEIF Committee meetings 2022 took place from October 14-15 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The feedback from all committees was that the discussions were constructive, interesting, and fruitful. Below you will find a short summary of the discussions in the different committees.
The FEIF Breeding Committee and Breeding Judges Committee used their joint meeting to finalize the proposals for the Delegates’ Assembly in 2023, but also to prepare proposals and new topics for the Annual Breeding meeting 2023. Welfare of the horse as well as further standardization were the main topics for discussion among the participants – regarding registration in WorldFengur, equipment and presentation at breeding shows. Further agenda points were the requirements for the breeding judge exam and how to ensure the highest quality of judging and of course the organization of seminars for new judges, breeding leaders and representatives or national breeding committees, young breeding horse trainers and ringmasters. The committee meetings were also the start of the FEIF strategy process to make sure that there is a clear view on the future.
In the FEIF Education Committee meeting, participants attended both in person but also via Zoom. The two most important topics were the FEIF strategy and the “social license to operate”, which the Education Committee discussed from the education point of view. And there was general agreement that it needs “promotion, education and co-operation”. The meeting was furthermore used to prepare the Annual Education meeting next February.
Details for the joint CPD Trainer/Instructor seminar which will be organized in co-operation with the Sport Department will take place in March 2023 in Iceland and further information will be published soon. Furthermore, seminars in cooperation with the Youth Department are planned for autumn/winter 2023 and spring 2024.
The FEIF Leisure Riding Committee met in Haarlem during the Committee Meetings to prepare for future work – next year but also in the years to come. In addition to the usual operational work of the Committee, in which the FEIF photo competition was a particular success, this year’s focus this was on the strategic direction of FEIF and consequently also for the leisure riding department for the coming years. For this purpose, after a general introduction in the panel meeting, where all participants of the event joined, the FEIF Vision, Mission and Goals for leisure riding were re-evaluated and concretized so that further work can take place at the FEIF Conference in Stockholm.
Like in the past years, the FEIF Sport Committee and the FEIF Sport Judges Committee had a very long agenda where ideas and interesting suggestions were put on the table.
As all other committees, the sport committees addressed the FEIF strategy and how our sport should develop over the next years. Several equipment questions and topics were discussed and in a combined effort with Breeding and Education a new proposal on allowed bits is currently being worked out to be presented. Furthermore, proposals that were initiated in the Annual Sport Meeting 2022 but also new ideas were further discussed and prepared for the meeting at the FEIF conference.
The Youth Work Committee focused on various topics, one of them was how to improve recruitment, and then the further integration of young committee members into FEIF work. From the beginning of December, it will be possible for new young committee members to submit applications to join the Youth or the Education department. The difficulty is to reach out with information to young people, thus FEIF strategy of how and what to communicate on social media was also considered carefully.
After several years without running any international youth events, which are close so to our hearts, we are very happy to finally plan the Youth Camp 2023, which will take place in Finland. We are working on the details to organize a successful camp, for 14-17 year-olds, who are interested in improving their horsemanship, as well as their social and English language skills.
At the FEIF Conference February 3-4, 2023 in Stockholm, the committee members and hopefully many national representatives will meet again to shape the future of FEIF together!