UNIVERSAL SPORTS TO BROADCAST ROLEX FEI WORLD CUP FINALS LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS

Live Online Coverage Begins Thursday, April 16

LOS ANGELES – April 8, 2009 – The top riders in the world compete as Universal Sports presents live TV and online coverage of the Rolex FEI World Cup Final from Las Vegas, Nevada, April 16-19. Coverage will include the Dressage Grand Prix, Jumping Finals I, II, and III, and the Dressage Final.

The Rolex FEI World Cup Finals, held annually since 1979, features the world’s best dressage and show jumping horses and riders in the world. This year, the field includes 2008 Olympic Gold medalists McLain Ward and Beezie Madden representing the United States in show jumping. Since it began, the World Cup Jumping Final has been held in the United States eight times, and the U.S. holds the most jumping titles of any country, with seven victories.

The FEI World Cup Dressage was introduced in 1986. This year’s competition will feature Individual Olympic Gold Medalist and defending World Cup champion Anky van Grunsven and the American star from the Beijing Olympic Games, Steffen Peters.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS:  Universal Sports, available in 45 million homes, will present live coverage of the FEI World Cup Finals.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM:  UniversalSports.com will provide live coverage of the FEI World Cup Finals. More information, as well as highlights, full-length videos, photos, breaking news and more, available at UniversalSports.com.

FEATURED RIDERS: This year’s FEI World Cup Finals will feature reigning Olympic, World, and World Cup Champion, Anky Van Grunsven from Netherlands and Isabell Werth from Germany. The remaining 16 riders will include three Americans; Steffen Peters from San Diego who finished fourth in the 2008 Olympic Games, Jan Ebeling of Moorpark, Calif, and Leslie Morse of Beverly Hills, Calif.

ABOUT UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports is a 24-hour television channel available in 45 million television households in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Reno and Omaha. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports range from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.com
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For more information, please contact: 
Melisa Mowry
Universal Sports
240.396.1906
mmowry@wcsn.com

After months of meetings as well as consultations with the Stakeholder Groups and NF’s, The FEI Dressage Task Force is closing in on a final proposal to go before the FEI Bureau, where we hope it will be easily approved. It has not been always easy, but we feel that our work has truly shown a new beginning in a more democratic and transparent process by which to make great and necessary change.

I want to say how much I admire the other members of the DTF, who have all proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they care about the Dressage sport with a passion which is not at all divided by the interest group they represent. This is not to say that we do not understand our obligations to our constituent groups, but rather that our experiences overlap nicely into each-other’s fields of expertise such that we are able to empathise easily with each-other’s issues.

In case you haven’t met my colleagues, let me do a brief introduction.

Our Chairman (and “Fearless Leader”), Frank Kemperman, is an absolutely great guy, as well as being the organizer of the grandest horse show in the world, Aachen. In that capacity he has had to become an expert in all FEI sports as well as negotiation and, luckily for me, patience!

Katrina Wuest represents the International Dressage Judges group and is amazing. She has trained and ridden to Grand Prix and, coming from Germany, this ‘O’ Judge has huge experience which she draws from in passionately working for positive change.

Elisabeth (Sissy) Max-Theurer was an Olympic individual Gold Medalist in 1980 and still trains, rides, and work for her Austrian FN. All this and she is also a major horse owner and the proud Mom of her top internationally competing daughter. Enough said.

Alain Francqueville, representing the Chefs d’equipe, is our resident genius. Thank goodness, whenever we are a bit cloudy as to procedures and formulas, Alain comes to the table with an at once intricate but also simple way of solving complex problems.

And what can I say about my good friend and competitor for many years, Richard Davison? With his very special British humour and his excellent ability for tact and diplomacy, Richard is a vigorous defender of athletes’ rights. Not only is he a rider and trainer, Richard puts on a CDI in England and is the vice-chair of the IDRC.

These are the folks on the Dressage Task Force with me, but I can’t forget the FEI staff, as without them, we’d be literally running around in circles!

David Holmes is the Executive Director of Sport at the FEI and, as a dressage rider from his native England, has not only the special expertise needed to ensure positive change, but the intellect and passion to take us to the next level in horse sport in general.

Anna Milne has been invaluable at keeping track of the minutes and making sure we are living up to our goal of becoming a more transparent and approachable organization.

Last but certainly not least is Eva Soloman who, as director of Dressage for many years, left us the other day to pursue other things. Eva had the strength and wisdom to be able to deal with so many issues at one time, that my head would spin. It was an honour to serve along side her for the brief time before she left her post and I know we all wish her the very best in the future. She is a great friend and will be greatly missed!

In the next couple of days I will send out our latest version of the DTF’s proposals (we are just waiting for them to be typed up) and I hope you will see that we are truly trying to deal with everyone’s concerns. At the same time we must all remember that, while keeping the basic principles of Dressage a priority, our goal must also be to “sell the sport” to a wider world audience and ensure our spot in the Olympic family for ever.

Cheers!

RD

As you know, I’ve been a member of the FEI Dressage Task Force since it was formed due to the resignation of the last Dressage Committee. We have been meeting weekly to resolve pressing issues and will continue to meet on a regular basis to achieve our goals until the next DC is elected. Here is the document sent out today to all the National Federations as well as the Stakeholder Groups for their opinions and consultation.

RD

Click below to read the document:
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Whenever there is a major event like the Olympic Games, I read time and time again about how outraged horse fans are that there is not more TV coverage of our sports. Naturally, I too would love to see more horses on TV,
so much so that I produced my own show, The Search For America’s Next Equestrian Star - Dressage. It not only was very difficult to stage and produce, it was amazingly difficult to finally get picked up by a network.

I thought for sure that Animal Planet would jump at the chance to air this very well produced series. But they had previously aired a horse-related show for which the numbers did not come back very high. Therefore, they passed as did most of the networks we hoped for. Finally, we got Fox Reality to air the show and received quite good numbers and were happy. The whole thing almost killed me but my determination to see horses on TV and bring our sports into people’s living rooms was worth it. For us to create a wider acceptance from the world for horse sports we must get them on TV every chance we get.

So, the Jumping and Dressage World Cup Finals is coming in April again to Las Vegas. It is a fabulous event and for the first time has the chance to be televised all over America LIVE as well as to be viewed again and again as repeats on an NBC affiliate. The sad reality is that this may never happen because nobody so far will step forward to sponsor it. Can you believe it? Not one horse related company or major breeding farm that sells to the U.S. market thinks that there is value for them to sponsor this amazing event! And the thing is that for what they would get, the amount for the sponsorship is extremely inexpensive. For less than $100,000.00 the sponsors can receive a package that would make them the official sponsors of the FEI Jumping and Dressage World Cup Finals. They may receive valuable live and taped commercial time throughout the week’s competitions as well as banners, ads in programs, announcements, and premier suites and tickets for the show.

So with all this, I just can’t believe there is not anyone out there who will step up to the plate to ensure our horse sports get on TV. Please, if you or anyone you know is interested in becoming the World Cup sponsor, get in touch with me immediately and I will connect you with the folks at Las Vegas Events. I, Along with so many horse enthusiasts will be so sad if we miss yet another chance to watch are wonderful sport on TV!

As you all probably know, I had surgery on my back in the end of October, am really still convelessing and have only partial feeling in my right leg from the knee down. Nerves are very strange and complex things, I’ve come to learn. Anyway, I am much better now, but for the first three weeks after my operation I was on a lot of strong medications.

Which brings me to the day, a couple of weeks after surgery, when I was laying on my couch in a definite haze when the phone rang. In my limited state of consciousness I answered, “Hallo” and heard a faint voice say, “Hiah” to which I naturally replied with another, “Hiah” after which I heard, “No, Robert. It is Haya.”

Even in my stupor, I realised what I had just said to the Royal Princess of Jourdan who also happens to be married to the king of Dubai. So now I froze while trying to assess the damage at the same time as figuring out how to proceed with this conversation. Should it be, “Pardon me, Your Royal Highness” or “I am very sorry, Princess Haya?”

Luckily, she and I go way back to the mid-eighties when we were both competing on the European show circuit, she in jumpers and I in dressage. We would meet and joke around in the elevators on our way back from the shows and she was so amazingly down to earth that it was very easy to feel like she was just another cool “girl.” So after much deliberation, my final answer was, “How’s it goin?”

Princess Haya was just as down to earth as she had been 20 years earlier and we laughed and reminisced over old times and discussed the difficult things  going on in the dressage world, most recent of which was her asking the entire Dressage Committee to step down. And then came the big question- Would I consider sitting on a temporary Dressage Task Force to keep things moving forward in the sport until the next D.C. could be elected?

Now, I had gone off all committees a long time ago and  had just retired from my business as well on October 1st. I had also been extremely happy with my new found freedom and time to spend on non-horsey activities. And here I was again, high on painkillers and at the veritable precipice of saying “yes” to yet another stressful appointment, one I definitely never believed I would ever even need to consider. So I asked the Princess if I could think about it over night and, after our conversation lasted another 10 minutes, agreed to go on the Task Force. I still blame it all on Vicodin!

I did have the presence of mind to say that I would only consider such a job if I would be allowed to make it my mission to help create a new and totally democratic, transparent process by which the next Dressage Committee (and hopefully all F.E.I. committees) would be nominated and elected.

And Her Royal Highness agreed, so here I am, on my way to Frankfurt on January 10th for our first official meeting. The good news is that, unlike the last group, which consisted of 6 people who, though well respected and experienced, were all judges other than one active rider, this one is made up of one person from each major stakeholder- one judge, a rider, one trainer (me), a Chef d’Equip, one organiser and a major horse owner. This gives us the diversity of views necessary for the best interest of the sport.

And as soon as we have the selection process in order to correctly form the next Dressage Committee, it will be my greatest pleasure to fire myself!

I have recently been told that our show managers are feeling very stressed by what they feel are unfair rules being applied to them as well as all nations, regardless of the strength of the sport in their respective countries. The costs of putting on FEI recognised competitions, they feel, is extremely prohibitive. while I completely understand their feelings, I believe American show managers need to get together, form an organization which they can bring their collective experience, energy, and talents to, and figure out a way to create a model which raises the bar for all recognised shows.I know that I am going to take considerable heat for saying this but here are my reasons.

Our shows were actually more exciting and had greater prize money in the biggest classes back in the early 80’s. That is a very sad commentary on how the sport has evolved in the U.S.  The early 80’s saw the beginning of the Florida dressage circuit and show managers trying to entice northerners to make a major life change and head south for the winter. They did this by creating high-profile shows with lots of prize money and very fun parties full of pomp and circumstance. And not only did it work but then the show managers found themselves actually competing with each other to make a better show to lure the top riders to. We even had quite a few top Europeans spend full winter seasons, believing they could enjoy the great weather, ride in some very nice shows, and sell their mounts to Americans before returning home with lots of U.S. dollars in their pockets. Everyone had fun and Dressage bloomed until the mid- nineties when things began to change.

Sponsors were still giving money for dressage but show managers, I believe, had learned a formula of running our shows. They figured out that, especially in competitions that were qualifiers for teams, they would get large numbers of our best riders, regardless of whether or not they offered prize money at all. Slowly the bar began to drop and even our top U.S. shows have not increased their prize money; if anything, even they have reduced it. And since it did not require huge amounts of resources to put on shows, we began to see more of them, allowing riders to pick and choose between them and thereby lowering the number of top riders and horses one would see at any given competition. Now we have major CDI’s where there might be no more than 8 or 9 Grand Prix riders in a class, which is very sad for the shows, the sponsors, the vendors, and the spectators.

So I say we have to raise the bar! We need to look at the model already existing for the huntger-jumper industry in which all major competitions have prize money for all top classes. They need to or else the riders would just go elsewhere to find better shows with more money offered. I say that if a show wants to be recognised by the USEF, all FEI classes must have substantial prize money offered. And if they want to hold champioship classes or CDI’s, they will need to have a minimum in all GP classes of $10,000 for 1 star and go up to $25,000 for 3 stars and so on. We need to see more classes like the upcoming Masters Class which will offer $115,000 and we will see a new resuurgence of our sport.

Why you ask am I so sure of that? The top money classes will bring top riders from all around the world to our shows. When top riders come, so come the spectators to watch them, and where great numbers of spectators abound, so come the vendors to sell them their wares. Great numbers of vendors relate to greater sponsorships at shows and this brings more money back to he managers. Look at any great European show, but even better, look at Spruce Meadows. Who would have thought that a competition in Canada could rival even the grandest of European shows in every sense of the word. The key is in the prize money!

Our show managers need to get together and figure out an approach to pool their resources and find one or preferably several new major sponsors like Rolex has been for so long. It is not enough to wish one might come along while our shows remain dismal- we need to mandate that they do something about it if they want to remain sanctioned. I guarantee you that, just like many of the same managers find a way to sponsor their hunter-jumper classes, they will find a way to do the same for dressage.