Frustration grows over HSI decision not to send an Irish dressage team to Tokyo

Hope is dwindling for the Irish dressage team following a battle between riders Dane Rawlins and James Connor and Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) over HSI’s decision not to send a dressage team to the Tokyo Olympic Games later this month.

Irish dressage had the opportunity to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, a first in the discipline, however when a number of qualifying team members were not available to travel to Tokyo, HSI made the decision not to send a team. This news broke on 21 June, which was the deadline for Olympic entries.

This decision came from dressage high performance director, Johann Hinnemann and was approved by the HSI board. This was met with criticism as there are enough Irish combinations who have achieved the Olympic minimum eligibility requirements (MERs) to compete at the Games.

Hearing

At the beginning of last week, there was an independent panel hearing in which senior counsel Dermot Kelly SC dismissed the appeal of Rawlins and Connors, saying: “The DHPD (dressage high performance director, Johann Hinnemann) gave very full and careful consideration to all the factors set out in the nomination policy.”

No more than 12 hours later, Rawlins and Connor lodged their second appeal which concluded on Friday evening. It was not upheld by an independent arbitrator.

Rawlins took to social media that evening to say: “We lost. Thanks for the support. Time to move on.”

Campaign

A social media campaign titled #letthemride gained traction over the course of last week and a Go Fund Me page with a fundraising goal of £10,000 was set up to cover the legal costs of Connor and Rawlins. It states that any surplus raised will go to Dressage Ireland – £2,385 had been raised when this publication went to press.

In a final bid to get a team to Tokyo, on Saturday (3 July) Dressage Ireland called on the Minister for Sport or the Olympic Council to step in and help Rawlins and Connor.

Dressage Ireland described the failure to send a Dressage team to Tokyo as “an international embarrassment to Irish equestrian’s reputation”.

The deadline for definite entries into the Games was Monday 5 July, however when this publication went to print there was no update from HSI or Dressage Ireland on the status of the Irish dressage team. As it stands Heike Holstein will be the sole Irish dressage competitor at the Games.

A statement from HSI on Friday evening reads: “Horse Sport Ireland welcomes the decision of David Sharpe SC, the independent arbitrator nominated by Sport Dispute Solutions Ireland (SDSI), to uphold the decision of Horse Sport Ireland with regard to the dressage team event at the Tokyo Olympics.

“The independent arbitrator dismissed the appeal of both Mr Rawlings and Mr Connor. This is the second independent arbitrator to dismiss their appeal in the last 72 hours.

“This evening, 2 July, Mr David Sharpe SC heard the second appeal initiated by the appellants and issued his decision. The arbitrator found that the selection process was conducted fairly. The arbitrator came to the conclusion that the appeal filed was not made out and as such failed.

“In the arbitrator’s view there was an athlete nomination policy in place and the requirements in the nomination policy were simply not met. Any suggestion that the process was unfair was not made out.

“The Olympic selection process for dressage has been in place since 2019 and was widely communicated to all relevant athletes.

“Horse Sport Ireland thanks SDSI for their management of the case and for giving Horse Sports Ireland and the athletes an opportunity to make their case to a further independent arbitrator.

“In the interests of the dressage community and the sport horse industry, Horse Sport Ireland waived its right to seek costs in the matter.”

“This week has seen the equestrian community in Ireland and abroad embrace the #letthemride campaign on social media. The story behind the hashtag centres around the Olympic dream of two Irish dressage riders and their current appeal against Horse Sport Ireland’s decision not to send them to Tokyo.

“Horse Sport Ireland nominated entries for the show jumping and eventing at the Tokyo Olympics. On 21 June they elected not to nominate any dressage team for the Olympics.

“This has left [Heike] Holstein as the only Irish dressage competitor who will now be competing at individual level. This decision came as a shock to the equestrian industry and to both Rawlins and Connor. Horse Sport Ireland could have chosen to have a dressage team – they chose not to. They also failed to announce their decision until it was too late for anyone to appeal their decision which seriously questions the governance of the process.

“The decision itself is at odds with past decisions by Horse Sport Ireland who allowed a rider to compete at the World Equestrian games in 2010 with scores lower than 68% or 66%. At the time the decision was applauded as the ethos was to allow eligible athletes to take part. It was celebrated participation by Ireland at such a high level.”