Princess Haya Expands Team Harmony

Returning to our intended specialty of creating the fake news, rather than explaining fake news from other sources, HRH Princess Haya has added to her Team Harmony string of international show jumpers. The Carrot has learned exclusively of the exciting and surely expensive purchase of Jane Richard's intriguing World Cup ride, Zekina Z. Renowned since Geneva for her ability to pass any veterinary inspection despite having been crippled since Tuesday, Zekina is sure to be a valuable contributor to Team Harmony, an initiative of the late King Hussein of Jordan.

No word yet on who will get the ride on the stoic creature, is it possible that HRH has a "comeback" in mind for 2012? This chestnut mare's extraordinary potential to withstand all conceivable veterinary scrutiny will no doubt help the princess in any last minute quest to earn her FEI Certificate of crash-and-burn Capability.

After a pricey name change on her passport, the mare will henceforth compete under the name Team Harmony Crippled Since Tuesday, to serve as a veritable mascot of HRH's strong commitment to protecting horse welfare at all major FEI events.

special belated thanks to Penelope Popover!

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Where In The World Is The USEFEI Tribunal Ruling?

OK we see what you did there

So we knew these kids were up to something based on the wonky press releases, we just really needed to either see the actual ruling, or have them refuse to publish the ruling, to confirm it. If they had refused to promptly publish the ruling after we asked so nicely last Wednesday, the Carrot would have taken that as enough of an answer to publicly pose the questions immediately raised by the oddities in the press releases, in context with the oddity of how this whole thing has been handled. We never expected the actual ruling to see the light of day. But then. . .they published the ruling.

Oh, my.

Just as we suspected, the actual ruling did not match the bullshit served up in the press releases. Why on earth did you guys publish that? How stupid do you think we are? Either the USEFEI is far more stupid than we realized, or they are just incredibly brazen because they know it will never be reported on and they will never be called out on duping almost the entire FEI Nation into believing there was actually a judicial proceeding in favor of McLain Ward.

Watch This, It's For The Good Of The Sport

Clean Sport Update: FEI Retains Paul the Psychic Octopus, Refines Witch Hunt Protocol

In the aftermath of the FEI World Cup fiasco, The FEI: Clean Sport Division has retained the services of FIFA World Cup sensation Paul, the Psychic Octopus. At each major event, Paul will be given a choice of two chestnut mares from which to choose in helping to put on the proper display of "welfare" concern. Coming under fire for reliance on so-called "anonymous" tips, the FEI emphasizes that Paul's transparent psychic screening process will introduce more objectivity into the bogus hypersensitivity evaluation. These revisions to the Witch Hunt Protocol are effective immediately.

In a last minute addition  intended to create a "win-win" situation for all parties involved, or something like that, riders/owners/NFs of chestnut mares who are having a hard time financially are also free to propose their steeds for consideration by Paul, who will nevertheless demonstrate the utmost integrity in not being swayed by financial need while determining who is and is not probably hypersensitive.

Paul's appointment was recommended by the Stevens Commission. Or the Clean Sport Commission. Or some shadowy undisclosed conflux of two somewhat nebulous commissions which were "dovetailed" for the purpose of drastically increased bullshit dissemination last year. In any case, some really important people who have the ear of HRH thought it would be a SUPER idea. And you should too.

Many thanks to Horsetalk’s four-legged blogger Geldoff, and of course to Paul himself, for inspiring this entirely fictional story.

For more fake news on Paul, visit The Spoof.

For more fake news on the FEI or USEF, you can now get that from them directly; they have cut out the middle man.
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The Carrot: The Movie

Oh yes, this is happening

Dubya's back, y'all. A purported Carrot fan sent us some kind of unusual emails with some kind of scary looking links that we were all afraid to click on, we thought it was a stalker trying to harm the Carrot with a nasty virus or something. But then we looked up the site and it's fantastic. It might be the best thing that ever happened to The Carrot. Just imagine the potential! The now confirmed Carrot fan and genius "I Love the Carrot" (lol) made this first creation with many we're sure to follow. (/hint)

Like we need another time waster here.

Here's the (confirmed safe) link to I Love the Carrot's sure to be productive xtranormal.com production company. http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6773661
Rated PG-13 for profanity (there's a "clean" version posted at the link, but that's not as funny for some reason)

FEI Fails Public Relations 101. What, Again? Really? So Soon?

Or, look what mayhem ensues when everybody gets a press release, but nobody gets "it"

The FEI has massively failed Public Relations 101, yet again. We've never seen anything like it. And we've seen a lot. It's like the FEI got everyone drunk on Double Trouble Carrot Punch^TM without even meaning to! Given some very wishful thinking Stateside it's a full scale media disaster for the FEI. One award-winning American journalist in particular is so badly spun we think she might have motion sickness. We won't even link to that mess for comedic purposes, it's that far gone. It's so bad, we feel sorry for the FEI (save the Person Responsible for this whole mess). L'Affaire Sapphire even made us feel sorry for John Roche, and we didn't think that was possible.

In the interest of promulgating reality, our first Gold Media Star goes to none other than St-Georg (yes, really), which has published the first clarification we've seen (The Carrot doesn't count) of this latest massive communications failure. Unfortunately in addition to being in German it's wrapped up in a predictable "welfare" agenda when we all know this had nothing to do with actual welfare, only the manipulation of the concept with obvious motives. The Interweb Mayhem is not limited to the English language, oh no. So far we've seen it in French, German and it's probably in Dutch too, but we can't make any sense out of Dutch. So St Georg has differentiated itself by publishing a more nuanced explanation of the ruling bullshit that the FEI and USEF actually tried to put out on July 3 (and did, if you knew that both the retro-elimination AND the disqualification were protested with only the first likely to be overturned, the essential dispute not so much). But well . . . look where that got them.

The resulting mayhem worked very well for the USEF though, didn't it?  Hey peoples, if the May Tribunal ruling (that has  strangely yet to see the light of day) was so favorable to the USEF/MW, why did they just spend the entire 30-day appeal period negotiating to stay out of arbitration over it? If it was really in their favor, there'd be no reason to appeal and thus nothing to haggle over all this time to get them to NOT appeal. And the American side "officially" got so little out of it and yet is so satisfied, isn't that kind of odd?  "Officially" the story is something nice about "the good of the sport," the main need for the good of the sport being to get the protocol revised so this can't happen again. But they could easily have gotten the protocol revised without using the leverage of a CAS appeal, there was surely overwhelming support for that before the WEG, given the widespread outrage. So we have to ask, is that it? Are you SURE that's all you guys got? Especially considering the highly irregular way in which the resolution of this case has been handled, well . . . let's just say Cinders, the mysophobic piglet, might have to pull on her Wellies again. We love Cinders.

Horse and Hound has been conspicuously silent on the matter; we hope they're on the case and will knock our socks off clarifying the FEI decision for the largely confused anglophone masses.

If you read French, the Swiss site Le Cavalier Romand also has commentary on the BFF situation. They and L'Eperon posit BFF concern about the WEG was a strong motivator; it would indeed be unfortunate if the USEF had appealed and the CAS decision came down in the midst of the WEG. Awkward!  We all know how important it is to USEF to not have anything screw up the WEG. Progressive list, anyone?  Probably the arbitration would have stretched into 2011, given who is involved. But we're pretty sure it would never get that far. If you had all that dirty laundry, and all that at your disposal, would you let it get that far?

thanks to reader Lisa for sending the St Georg link, and other humorous contributions on this issue.

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BFFs USEF and FEI Back On!

The USEFEI is back in full force, for the good of the sport USEF's continued influence in the FEI if HRH gets re-elected and they know what's good for them. Contrary to what you will read all over the internet, Sapphire is still disqualified from the World Cup Final (this is not fake news) because sorry, read the press release, the FEI did not rule that the finding of hypersensitivity was incorrect, or that her disqualification from the rest of the event was incorrect. They only ruled said that her extra, extra wacky, retroactive WTF elimination from the second class of the event was incorrect. That's different!  Meaning, you can't say the horse is OK to jump, then determine her to be unfit AFTER she jumps and take her prize money away after the fact as if she didn't have the right to jump to start with. As everyone already knew. That's ALL the FEI has admitted they did wrong. They still maintain they were correct to DQ her from the rest of the event for hypersensitivity. And that, of course, is still bullshit.

However, the former BFFs have decided to agree to disagree on the hypersensitivity finding and continued disqualification, and gotten back together. Otherwise USEF would be totally screwed if HRH wins in November and it's just not worth it given that even if they won the DQ appeal in the CAS (longshot), there would be no practical effect.

Prior story

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Henk Rottinghuis Is Fabulous

The website of FEI presidential candidate Henk Rottinghuis (NED) is up and running, and he even linked to the Carrot, like we're a real news source or something. FABULOUS! We like a candidate with a sense of humor. It looks like HRH's latest PR team there at Good Relations noticed the link as well. Maybe they are handling HRH's attempted re-election whereas the crew at Hill and Knowlton seems more crisis oriented, focusing more on eg, the Morrissey cluster. Or maybe the latter agency just liked reading the Carrot on an April Sunday afternoon along with the FEI and USEF, in the interest of managing a PR crisis horse welfare. Good times!

This is better than when we got a press release from NOGOE, just like we were the real media or something. The Carrot felt badly for not coming up with anything on Greenwich but we'll keep trying. Ideas always welcome!

Other than a link to the professional survey Mr. Rottinghuis sent to all the national federations and affiliate organizations, we don't see anything newly published on the site that we haven't already linked to, other than his contact details. But the survey company promises to have the results ready by July 14. Efficient. Informative. Open. Professional. We like it.

Always on top of all things Swedish (and HRH-related), Hastmagazinet reported that Dear Leader's other challenger Sven Holmberg gave an interview to tabloid from hell Expressen. Unfortunately like most things Swedish, it's in Swedish so no one else can read it. However TranStar, which is the  Carrot's Official Swedish-to-English Translation Partner, tells us he emphasizes that he is not a princess. This is indeed a plus however we must note that Henk Rottinghuis is also not a princess.  What else ya got?

Mr. Holmberg recently traveled to China on behalf of the FEI (and Rolex), to sell watches see about a World Cup League there.  Interesting. In related news, here's a recent Australian news item about an upcoming international horse fair in China. And as we noted awhile back Meydan is building a giant horse city near Tianjin. Everybody wants some of that. As long as they don't do this to the horses, it's all good.

In the interest of keeping up with the transparency game and salvaging her presidency, HRH is to be fitted with an "ear-cam" at all future major events, so the public can see just who is manipulating her aural orifice. The footage will be broadcast live on FEI TV. Whether or not audio is to be included is still under discussion.

Since transparency is all the rage, HRH will also be publishing a list of all her personal heroes and other cohorts on the FEI website, so all riders are fully informed and can be sure to stay in the good graces of anyone who might be able to influence her to do something totally wacky. Like retroactively eliminate and disqualify a perfectly sound horse on "welfare" grounds even as an unfortunate Swiss creature, "crippled since Tuesday" in the words of Rodrigo Pessoa, is allowed to pass inspection.

As you can see we're fresh out of material here until she does something else crazy!

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Back To Disqualification For Flogging By Blogging

Returning to the Disqualification for Flogging by Blogging fiasco, USEF has made a move out in front in the Let's See Who Is Toughest On Crime race, even though thinking members of the public would expect that they have a faster hearing process than does the FEI. (the FEI also does not have a formal plea bargain option.)

Accepting a plea deal, the USEF suspended Morrissey for three months and fined him $3000 way back on May 6, as reported today by the intrepid Karen Robinson. He might have had a shitty lawyer unless someone can cite some similar precedents because that seems a bit much at first glance, for a plea. Especially when you consider he was already (air quotes) "banned from the selection trials" by USEF (LOL) AND "disqualified" by the FEI (LOL). What jokesters they are at the USEFEI! And of course the FEI still has to have its way with him. Plus he starred on YouTube. That is not fun.

Boy they sure did keep that proceeding quiet, which is surprising because we were expecting more of a PR show. Points to USEF for NOT putting on a big show on this, even if it's a little curious that they didn't even put out a news release. We suspect that is less about them wanting to give the guy a break and more about them not wanting to invite further commentary on the ethical issues surrounding the botched cover up. But we're happy to go there anyway, since no one else will.

The punishment was for something vague along the lines of violating their code of conduct, which can mean simply bringing the sport into disrepute or whatever (how dare he end up on YouTube!), but apparently not for violating their whip/abuse rule, which unlike the FEI's is only subjectively worded (no "three strikes" clause):

MICHAEL MORRISSEY violated Chapter 7, GR702.1d in that he was observed excessively striking, with a crop, the horse Crelido, during Class 101, the USEF WEG Selection Trial #2. This conduct constitutes a breach of the USEF Code of Conduct.

For anyone interested in navigating all that USEF mess, the articles relevant to whip usage in jumping are GR803 and GR839.4a, and JP102.1b and JP111.2, but he wasn't found to have violated those. The only article he was actually found to have violated is as follows:

GR702 Violations.
1. A violation is any act prejudicial to the best interests of the Federation, including but not limited to the following:
d. Acting or inciting or permitting any other to act in a manner contrary to the rules of the Federation, or in a manner deemed improper, unethical, dishonest, unsportsmanlike or intemperate, or prejudicial to the best interests of the sport and the Federation.

The "cruelty to a horse" violation is 702.1f, so they did NOT find for cruelty. This does probably make some sense given that FEI rules supersede making this case fairly legally complex in terms of jurisdiction, in addition to the plea factor. And there is likely some coordinated USEF-FEI "strategery" going on here. But more importantly we think this whole thing might possibly be unprecedented for USEF to take action under their rules against a rider for conduct in an FEI event rather than acting after an FEI ruling. When has that ever happened? Thinking members of the public also know that YouTube surely had something to do with that. Did anyone notice that the video only hit YouTube AFTER the botched cover up prompted by Ms. Robinson's blog? The Carrot sure did. And we doubt that was a coincidence. How nice for young Mr. Morrissey.

Witch Hunt Humor

Sapphire Continues To Be On Fire (but not due to capsaicin or other banned substances)

Grand Prix Replay reports (en français) that McLain Ward and Sapphire have taken the Rome Grand Prix today at the Piazza di Siena, or il Gran Premio Loro Piana - Città di Roma, if you're Italian. Another 50,000 € says "Kiss my ass HRH!"

Back To Geneva

Dressage-news.com has reported today's FEI announcement that Sapphire's leg swabs have come back negative. Now there's a surprise. Obviously HRH wasn't expecting to find anything or the swabs would have been ordered to start with, rather than only after being demanded by the victim of her outrageous witch hunt affected rider. Which suggests that perhaps she knew the "anonymous tip" was total bullshit and just wanted to put on a "welfare" and "integrity" show anyway for media whore purposes. Or maybe that unsubstantiated rumor was specific to non-prohibited-substance-induced hypersensitization. Right. We're pretty sure the rumor was not about Sapphire having a bit of pain in the pastern. But of course no one, not even the "officially" non-accused, gets to have that information. Nancy Jaffer has the latest comment from McLain. Blood and urine were already negative as previously reported.

Sorry to beat a dead-but-otherwise-fit-to-compete horse but once the dust settled we still kept coming back to the elephant in the room which few have really explicitly called out. (we can't imagine why.) We heard a lot of criticism about the FEI falling back on "protocol" rather than common sense, vague references to unusual arm twisting sessions meetings and that the rules are wrong, no appeal etc.  But  the hypersensitivity (as opposed to hypersensitization) rule was in fact put in place after Hong Kong and the current version of the testing protocol took effect last summer (the effective date is even listed in the rule book). No one seemed to have any problem with it until political interference caused it to become an issue. So if the rule can prompt that kind of flagrant interference, yes the rule might be a problem in and of itself, but the bigger problem is the interference which can also be applied to other subjective decisions without appeal. Plenty of subjective things are not appealable, that is nothing new. This rule is just especially conducive to abuse based on gossip in an incredibly gullible president's ear so she can help her buddies out and earn points with naive clueless people outside the sport who will applaud her "tough stance."

At Home With Top Riders

We often get exclusive access here at The Carrot. Here's
a renowned show jumper enjoying some lovely spring
weather out on his deck:

It's too bad he didn't manage to actually win,
or we would have used this photo instead:

Prior story

Prior story

Horse and Hound Grows A Pair (We Like It)

Publishing an article by Pippa Cuckson, Horse and Hound has gotten a bit saucy about the FEI presidential election. We didn't know they had it in them.

Asked about the election Princess Haya told H&H:
"An election that focuses on ways to strengthen,
improve and unify our federation is good for the
FEI and our sport."

Readers may recall HRH putting forth to the NFs an election "Manifesto." And the rest is history, thank you Simon Brooks-Ward. It disappeared from just about everywhere online, we can't imagine why (see prior story). But the reliably saucy Aussies still have a copy posted even though it's barely readable.

It's great that Sven Holmberg has already published an outline of his intentions. We haven't had a chance to read it yet and it's probably just a bunch of vague bullshit but at least he didn't call it a "Manifesto." But that it is published at all is modern. This is good. Progress has been made.

There's also contact information on there for Mr. Holmberg so you can ask him really important questions like, "Do you think it's appropriate for the FEI president to be meeting with officials in the middle of a major event and where is that role stated in the president's job description?" (see prior story)

No word yet on if HRH will recycle her old Manifesto or if the comedy gods will bless us with a new one. She did sort of promise not to screw anything else up: "My goal now is a period of calm to build on the progress we have made together."  Somehow, we're not convinced. Especially because that comment was published on March 31 and then there was that little World Cup thing just two weeks later. And somehow, we doubt all that money is going to NOT try to get endurance into the Olympics regardless of what discipline has to be sacrificed. Best to wait until you get a second term for that. Heads: eventing, tails: dressage!

Breyer Introduces Sapphire Model

As reported by hunterjumpernews.com, the new Breyer Sapphire model will be unveiled Saturday at the Old Salem Farm show in North Salem, New York. Breyer guarantees that all Sapphire models will arrive fully "fit to compete" in whatever silly competitions those obsessed model horse collectors are into these days. Unless the FEI president interferes based on gossip that the model horse exhibitor is cheating in which case the model Sapphire will be retroactively eliminated and disqualified for unsoundness and have to forfeit any prizes already won. No refunds will be given by Breyer even if the mare is found to be unfit to compete in model horse competitions through no fault of the exhibitor.

Not that they're accusing anyone of anything.
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True Story: HRH Calls For More Transparency In Sports Governance

At the SportAccord convention last week in Dubai (see our related story), Gulf News reported that the FEI president appeared to get a bit off track as the topic at hand was actually "Sport as a Leader in Sustainable Development." Even if oblivious to the common environmental concerns shared by all sports and industry at large, one would think that recent equestrian topics such as white elephants, Greenwich, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and so on might have been seen as somewhat more appropriately tangential.

"The FEI has such an impeccable record even though we deal directly with nature through the involvement of animals in our sport. And since 1997 we have had a code of conduct in place," Princess Haya said at the SportAccord International Convention at the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah yesterday.

What???

Princess Haya went on to expound on the fact that sustainable development in FEI events was the least concern for their sport.

"Sustainable development is so multi-faceted and multi-layered. And I believe that the emphasis ought to be on transparence in governance at the moment. I think this needs to be the main topic of the day," she said. "Changes take time and we accept this as an evolutionary process."

What???

So why did she, the president of the organising committee, put herself on this panel exactly, to say that she should have planned a panel on transparency in governance instead? That horse has left the barn, don't you think? And an organisation can't have transparent governance while also concerning itself with sustainable practises? Multitask much?

Swedish Equestrian Federation Makes it Official

The Swedish Equestrian Federation made the official announcement today that Sven Holmberg, FEI 1st Vice President and Chair of the FEI Jumping Committee, will stand for election to the FEI presidency against HRH in November. They have put out a strong statement against what happened in Copenhagen, which we applaud. As usual, Häst is also not mincing words. We're glad there's another option; however we're disappointed that Mr. Holmberg did not use Geneva as an opportunity to further differentiate himself from HRH at least by remaining silent, especially when his entirely appropriate outrage over the General Assembly had been so, uh...vividly expressed. So we can only conclude that either he agrees with HRH's activities at the World Cup Final, or he was just being a good boy and falling in line. That he is running against her would seem to suggest it's not the latter, which is concerning.

The problem in Geneva was the same problem that existed in Copenhagen: a president out of control. Whether it takes place in an office or on the field of play, it's the same beast. Anyone who agrees with what went on in Geneva is unfit for the FEI presidency, even if they think the guy was indeed up to something. Plenty of people are up to something, but it's for the event officials to decide, without political interference, period. This cannot be negotiable. And anyone who plays footsie with her under the conference table to get what they want by any means necessary (e.g., NSAIDs) must accept they played a role in creating the monster that just came back to bite them in the arse. It's still corruption, even when it gets you what you want. You can't pick and choose and say, "Oh, we don't like that kind of corruption." You can't have it both ways. You're either for it or you're against it; pick a side.

HRH formally announced her re-election bid back in March, which was almost entirely overlooked by the equestrian media. We sort of got the feeling she didn't want to make a big deal of it and didn't even notify them. The mainstream press reports consistently noted that HRH was responsible for the introduction of term limits for the presidency, so that must have been part of her own press release. That change was great and much needed (of course, it could always be changed again later if it suits). But we are reminded that there was another huge change in the FEI Statutes that was introduced at the same time and never got any press at all, even though the negative consequences of it have been seen time and again. We think it's very relevant at this juncture.

EXCLUSIVE: McLain Ward Explicitly Prohibited From Winning Rolex FEI World CupTM Final By Terms Of FEI-Rolex Sponsorship Contract

It has taken awhile, but The Carrot has finally gotten to the bottom of the latest FEI fiasco in Geneva. Utilising our excellent sources in Switzerland, we have uncovered a highly confidential copy of Rolex's latest FEI sponsorship contract, the curiously timed renewal of which was announced on Monday, 12 April, just before the start of the Rolex FEI World Cup^TM Final (you'll want to see our related story). Apparently, McLain Ward does not have many fans at Rolex, SA, but they insist it is not because of his past history or family connections (that would be wrong!), but because of an anonymous tip received by the very expensive public relations firm Hill and Knowlton that it just might be best for the welfare of the horse Rolex's image if Mr. Ward and a chestnut mare with a bit of a reputation did not top the podium this time. Maybe that would have been OK for Las Vegas, but not in Geneva.

Once we had the contract in hand, Rolex, SA CEO Bruno Meier proved quite chatty: "When our Rolex Testimonee Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum indicated she was not yet up to the top level of competition following the arrival of little Brianne Victoria, we had a problem. We don't sponsor HRH's personal hero Ludger Beerbaum, otherwise that would have been a no-brainer," he remarked. "Therefore, we took the highly democratic decision to leave the title open to the entire field, with one important exception. The contract was amended to exclude Mr. Ward and the witchy, twitchy mare from the podium, by any means necessary. We have to protect our bottom line; we lost a billion Swiss francs on that Madoff thing. Oh wait, we officially denied that, never mind, that didn't happen. But we still need to look after our financial interests. It is a very difficult time for luxury goods."

The FEI president agreed enthusiastically to these terms, since clearly she'll jump off a cliff and take the sport with her if the right person whispers in her ear at the right moment in time. The Carrot notes that this was definitely the right moment for a little "welfare" and "integrity" display.

Have You Hugged Your Hero Today?

Woof!

Prior story

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A Miner Matter

We left this news item alone at the time, because we really don't want to give anybody's PR people a psychiatric condition, but now it's just too perfect. We're sorry, we can't help it. The stars rarely align like this. This assuming you believe in The Beerbaum Conspiracy. Now we don't know if it's true and we certainly don't jump on the first conspiracy theory we hear, but we do know it's at least possible, and that alone is funny enough on its face for us to have a go. Very sad if true, but also deserving of ridicule regardless. We like to sit back and see just what bumbling Equestrian Twit behaviour comes to the surface (it always does) before coming to any conclusions, but we do know that no rider could possibly get that done if the will wasn't there at the top.

The FEI president received an interesting award in Bochum, Germany last month, which just happens to be right around the corner from Riesenbeck. We're guessing the good people of Der Steiger are entirely oblivious to the FEI Statutes. And lots of other stuff.

The Steiger Award is named after "Der Steiger" (The Miner) and symbolizes traits that are associated with miners in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany—straightforward, open, honest, fair and tolerant. It also stands for reliability, loyalty and cooperation in good times and in bad. The award is given annually to personalities who are recognized for their work in fields of music, sports, media, environment and film.

The Person Responsible for the laudation of HRH was none other than Ludger Beerbaum. Yes, really.

The given reason for this award was: "Princess Haya of Jordan is not only an exceptionally gifted sportswoman, but she also fights with all her dedication for fairness in sport in her function as President of the World Equestrian Federation." As Ludger Beerbaum himself wrote on his website (www.ludger-beerbaum.de), he described Princess Haya in his laudation as "a self-confident young woman full of willpower, who stands up for all the interests of her riding colleagues even after the end of her active riding career. She has opened the door for the Arabian world!" (Ed: Yes, we can see some of that "Arabian" influence in a certain possible Geneva scenario). Princess Haya was quite happy about the fact that Ludger Beerbaum handed over the award to her: "He is a hero!"

"Er ist ein Held für mich!"

And look there's even a kiss. Get a room, you two! 

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