No more bowlers, top hats or hunt caps in Australian FEI Dressage!

Equestrian Australia announced last month that there would be numerous rule changes for FEI Dressage, which will come in to effect on 1 January 2017.

The most notable of these changes is the banning of traditional bowlers, top hats and hunt caps for dressage competition. Approved safety helmets will now be required to be worn. This change has come after New Zealand also introduced this ruling earlier this year, in July.

The safety versus tradition debate has been the source of much discussion over the past few years, and we feel that this is a great move! We are firm proponents of wearing approved safety helmets during ANY form of horse riding - pleasure or competition.

Other significant changes include double bridles no longer being mandatory at FEI national level classes in Australia, and also a drop in the age requirements to allow children as young as 8 to compete on ponies in official competitions.

You can read the original media release here: http://www.equestrian.org.au/news/changes-note-201...

And a summary of the rule changes can be found here: http://www.equestrian.org.au/news/national-dressag...

Plus don't forget from 2017 there are new helmet safety standards. You can read about this in our previous blog post: New EA Helmet Standards from 2017. 

If you need to upgrade your helmet to the latest standards - check out our affordable riding helmet range from Horze.