Notification of Rule Changes for 2012 Season

As the first event of the season governed by the Equine Canada Rules is almost upon us, the OHTA wants to alert you to some of the more significant changes in the rules this year. Please review the 2012 Rules of Equine Canada, Section D Eventing: Combined Tests, Horse Trials and Three-Day Events and the Annexes (Effective January 1, 2012) – all easily found on the Equine Canada website. The Canadian Eventing Committee of Equine Canada has also done a summary of some of the more significant changes – see pages 22 & 23 of the 2012 Omnibus.

The more significant changes include the following:

• Cross country will be timed and time penalties will be awarded for all levels.
• Penalties for going too fast up to and including Preliminary will be calculated using the “Speed Fault Time” concept (which may not result in a 30 second window).
• On Cross country, the fourth disobedience (refusal, run-out or circle) over the course will result in elimination at Training (in addition to the lower levels), and elimination still results after the third disobedience at the same obstacle. (While a change this year in the wording of D311.1.1 appears to allow one or two refusals at any number of obstacles for Preliminary and above, we understand that this is not intended and will be corrected. It is our understanding that at Preliminary and above, elimination will result after the third disobedience on cross country.)
• Breaking or unhinging a frangible obstacle/device on cross country results in 21 penalties, subject to the discretion of the Ground Jury.
• The 2012 Omnibus indicates that Article D311.1.3, which dealt with dangerous riding, has been deleted. “Dangerous riding” is now dealt with just in Article D111. 6 (where there have been no changes).
• The rules now make it clear that half marks are not allowed in dressage marking.
• The rule concerning “larking” has been changed. It now reads as follows (the sentence in bold is new): Larking - (the unnecessary jumping of fences that do not form part of a rider’s course) is prohibited under penalty of elimination at the discretion of the Ground Jury. However the Ground Jury may permit a rider (once only) who has mistakenly jumped a fence from another course to continue as long as he/she subsequently jumps the correct fence before jumping the next obstacle. It is permissible to jump a fence of a lower level, in the correct direction, if it offers a better line to the next obstacle.

If you have any questions about these changes or any of the rules, please feel free to contact any member of the OHTA Rules Committee:

Robin Campbell (Chair) racampbell@rogers.com

Brandon McMechan mcmechan@hotmail.com

Stephanie St. Pierre sst.pierre9@hotmail.com