Dear friends and member colleagues,
IJOC General Assembly, Amsterdam 2025: In my previous message, I had already stated that we are very
pleased to return to Amsterdam for our GA and the accompanying FEI in person maintenance courses.
However, one correction for dates. Please note that our General Assembly (and the IJOC Officials Forum) will
take place on the 24th of January. The Judges course is on the 25th and the Stewards course is on the 26th. The
Course Designers course will run (as in previous years) on both 25 and 26 January.
Upcoming Board Elections: As stipulated in our statutes, there must be a rotation of 1/3 board members
each year and this year it is also the term for the Presidential elections. Accordingly, there are two board
member seats and a presidential seat up for elections. Kindly note that, you will soon receive the appeal
process information for candidates to apply.
IJOC Statutes: As you have well received, the first set of our draft Statutes are now circulated. In case you
have comments, please do share them with our Secretary General. Please do not forget that “the earlier the
better” for us to process all the comments in a timely manner. On behalf of our Board, I would like to thank
personally Liliana Rivera (BOL), Cristina Alves (POR) and Elisabeth von Bawey (FRA) for their dedicated work
in establishing this first draft.
IJOC Webinars: Our next webinar is already planned for the 29th of October, and I am pleased to inform you
that following the “Sustainability” Webinar we will have our FEI Colleagues talking about “FEI Equine Welfare
Strategy” on the 26th of November. As you know, we have already conducted two webinars so far. We are
working hard to find the most suitable slot with the course directors to accommodate the annual case
studies session within this year as well.
IJOC Online Archive: We would appreciate if you can kindly go through our library. Should you have any
supporting documents for the missing years, please do not hesitate to share them with us. Following the
check of our colleagues, they will be included in our library.
FEI Officials Working Group: Last but not least, I would like to inform you about a recent development. I
have been contacted by the FEI to join the newly formed “FEI Officials Working Group”. While we are pleased
to have been included in the group of experts, we are aware of the responsibility and the important topics
that our officials are encountering on the ground. Therefore, we consider this step of the FEI as a very
important action for future. We shall keep you posted of the developments along the way.
Finally, on behalf of our board, I look forward to seeing you all in Amsterdam.
Kind regards
Glenn Maes
President IJOC
More details to follow soon
We would like to thank everyone, who attended the FEI Sports Forum 2024 in-person or followed online. We have appreciated the level of engagement and the interesting discussions.
As announced by FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez, we have taken on board the feedback made during the Session on the final report of the Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission and the proposed action plan. We are also seeking further feedback.
Please send your ideas and suggestions by email to welfare@fei.org by 15 May 2024.
The feedback will be taken into consideration and will be discussed during the upcoming in-person FEI Board meeting on 4 and 5 June. A thorough strategy will then be continued being developed and will be presented at a dedicated session during the FEI General Assembly 2024 in November in Oman.
A summary of the Sports Forum Sessions is available here along with the presentation made during the Session in pdf format and the Final Report of the Equine Ethics & Wellbeing Commission. We encourage you to consult these documents and look forward to your feedback by 15 May.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Stephan Hellwig (GER)
Q1: Congratulations on your election as the new board member of the IJOC.Can you remind our members again your current profession and your FEI functions as official ?
I am currently working as a managing director in a medium-sized company in the electronics industry. My function as an FEI official is Jumping Judge Level 3.
Q2: What are your personal goals to contribute to IJOC in near future ?
With the background of multiple functions (Judge, Steward and OC-member) I believe I can assess the most diverse areas of our rapidly developing sport from the respective perspectives and the resulting demands.
Q3: What do you think about the IJOC Webinars ?
The seminars are one of the numerous tools from the IJOC toolbox with which we reach many members. It can be achieved by ensuring that our members worldwide apply the same approach to assessing situations and incidents.
ANNIKA PHIL (SWE)
My name is Annika Pihl. I am a showjumping judge level 3 and I am from Sweden. I have been a international judge since 2004. I used to compete in showjumping myself and really love the sport.
Q1: Congratulations on your election as the new board member of the IJOC.Can you remind our members again your current profession and your FEI functions as official ?I work with horses and people every day. For the moment (since January 2023) I work as operations manager at a big riding club/school in Malmö. I have 25 employees and 50 horses at the riding club. I also work for the Swedish Equestrian Federation as a teacher for new showjumping judges in Sweden and also as a supervisor for annual refreshment courses for showjumping judges. I also work with the Swedish rules and regulations.
Q2: What are your personal goals to contribute to the IJOC in near future ?
I would like to contribute to the IJOC as much as I can. I would like to work with the webinars, education, rules and to make more officials interested to join our club.
Q3: The first board meeting of the IJOC is already conducted. What were your impressions?
A lot of experienced people, all willing to put a lot of effort for the club and for the members of IJOC. The meeting was very well organized.
Q4: You have attended the IJOC General Assembly in Rome and the accompanying Officials Forum and FEI Courses.What were your impressions ?
The meeting in Rome was well organized. I think it is always good to meet and talk with other officials. The programme was good. I think however, that it would benefit everybody to know the correct answers to the questions on the test (like on the on line test). For me, who has worked for several years as a teacher, it’s good for the students to know what they did right and what they did wrong even if they passed the test. The General Assembly was nice.
Q5: What do you think about the IJOC Webinars ?
I really love the webinars. I think it is a good source for knowledge. The webinars is really something good that the “covid-pandemic-time” brought to us. Very interesting and good. Easy for people to join and to listen. I am also a board member of a Swedish association, and we have also started with webinars. It is indeed a great success.
ANGELE SVORONOU (GRE)
Q1: Congratulations on your election as the new board member of the IJOC.Can you remind our members again your current profession and your FEI functions as official ?
By profession I am an Architect Engineer, now re-tired. I first became an FEI official (Candidate Judge Jumping) in 1993 and today I am an L3 Judge for Jumping, and a Steward L3 Jumping, L3 Dressage and L2 Endurance.
Q2: What are your personal goals to contribute to the IJOC in near future ?
To help maintain, diversify and develop our annual meetings as well as the webinar series. To help with the “history” of IJOC on our site as in the past there are lessons that help us shape the future.
Q3: The first board meeting of the IJOC is already conducted. What were your impressions?
I found myself within a dedicated group of people who show that they have the will & ability to lead and to solve problems, working all together in a friendly atmosphere.
Q4: You have attended the IJOC General Assembly in Rome and the accompanying Officials Forum and FEI Courses.What were your impressions ?
The successful organisation, the good keeping to the schedule’s time, the proximity of the social happening to the hotel
Things to solve: the “topic” of observers and how to marry it with the demands of FEI re: the IPMCs
Q5: What do you think about the IJOC Webinars ?
They are really good supplement to our knowledge and experience; in a way they are the sequel of our yearly meetings as they were before IPMCs.
Many thanks
FEI President, Ingmar de Vos was a special guest during the round table “The Future of Officiating”, part of IJOC Officials Forum on 13th of January in Lisbon, POR.
On March 12th 2022 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch CSI5*, the “IJOC Award” was given to Willem Luiten for his outstanding contribution to the IJOC as well as the equestrian sport in jumping.
FEI Board agreed to maintain the requirement for an existing in-person Maintenance Course and to provide an “Emergency Virtual Maintenance Programme” as a second option.
The Board approved an extension of timelines for Officials to fulfil their officiating requirements through the CES. The deadline is now extended to 15 December 2021.