Chief executive’s resignation prompts investigation into ruling body
The British Equestrian Federation has ordered an independent investigation into the administration of the sport following the resignation of Clare Salmon as the governing body’s chief executive.
In her resignation letter, Salmon, who took up the post in June 2016, raised what Joanne Shaw, the BEF chairman, described as “significant and serious concerns about culture, governance and the interaction of some of the member bodies.”
The BEF is an umbrella organisation covering 15 full and three associate bodies involved in British equestrian sport, from British Eventing to the Pony Club. Part of its remit is responsibility for distributing funding from UK Sport for the Olympic programme. And since the post-2016 reduction in central financing, the BEF budget for Tokyo 2020 of just under £15.5million is nearly £2.5million down on what it was for Rio.
This has led to a series of disputes with the constituent bodies, all of whom have seen budgets shaved. Issues have ranged from Carl Hester, coach to Charlotte Dujardin and a leading figure in British dressage, suggesting that his sport has lost sponsors after they were leant on to make up the ensuing financial shortfall, to those in eventing lamenting the enforced redundancy of a number of junior coaches.
Further strain has been caused by the BEF’S embrace of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makhtoum’s sponsorship of the UK Endurance Masters being held next month in Euston Park, Suffolk. This offers prize-money of £1.76 million for horses competing in cross country races of up to 80km in duration. After six horses died in an endurance event in Dubai in January, there has been widespread dismay at the connection: GB Endurance has seen a spate of resignations since the sponsorship announcement.
A hint of the strained relations at the heart of the sport was given when Nick Skelton, the Rio individual show-jumping gold medallist, made a pointed attack on the BEF in Horse and Hound magazine.
“There appears to be a growing trend for non-horsey people to run the sport and it’s a disaster,” he said of Salmon. “You can have all the credentials and qualifications in the world, but the bottom line is that those at the helm need to know horses inside out.”