There are calls for a review of the FEI’s “blood rules” following Monday’s night’s controversial disqualification of winners Bertram Allen and Quiet Easy from the Olympia Grand Prix.
Aside from a backlash on social media, top show jumpers say the 20-year-old Irish star was harshly treated when minor nicks were spotted on his horse’s belly, just behind the girth. Allen said he was “utterly devastated” and assumed he accidentally caught the horse with his spur during their audacious jump-off round.
Michael Whitaker, elevated from second place, gave his winner’s rosette to Allen as a gesture of solidarity.
Former Olympic champion Ludger Beerbaum, the eventual runner-up, said: “I’m not happy about the final result. Bertram and his horse were the best combination. I had to put my glasses on to see where the tiny mark was.”
Allen, ranked No 6 in the world, is admired for his sympathetic riding style, a point flagged up by Nations Cup veteran Geoff Billington. He wrote on Facebook: “A razor blade is a very safe object until you give it to a monkey! Surely discretion is the better part of valour. Bertram Allen could not kick his way out of a bag made from rice paper, he is absolute poetry in motion.”
FEI rules about visible blood vary among its disciplines but are most stringent in the arena-based sports where the public sit close to the action.
On Tuesday Olympia confirmed Allen’s formal appeal was dismissed late on Monday night. A statement said: “Bertram Allen was disqualified by the ground jury under Article 242.3.1 of the FEI Jumping Rules when the FEI Steward tasked with the mandatory post-competition boot and bandage control reported to the ground jury that Allen’s horse, Quiet Easy, had presented with blood on the offside (right) flank.
“The Appeal Committee upheld the decision of the ground jury that Bertram Allen was correctly disqualified.”
Allen’s team-mate Cian O’Connor, London 2012 individual bronze medallist, says the rule needs reviewing. On Facebook he suggested the stewarding was “over-zealous,” with the controversy “bringing the sport and this great show into the spotlight for the wrong reasons”.
The FEI has not yet issued any statement, though has previously declined to ease blood rules on welfare grounds after similar controversies abroad. It even tightened up blood-specific rules in dressage after Adelinde Cornelissen, then the world No 1, was eliminated for blood around the mouth of Jerich’s Parzival at the 2010 World Equestrian Games.
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