The FEI Eventing Risk Management Programme released a report in late February providing statistics on falls, injuries, competition levels and number of starters at international level eventing from 2006-2016
A summary of the main findings are listed below and in the full FEI Eventing Risk Management Statistics Report 2006 - 2016
Competition Statistics
- The total number of competitions has grown by a 66% increase from 2006 to 2016
- The distribution between the competition formats shows for 2016 an increase of CICs versus CCIs with 68% of CICs competitions versus 32% of CCIs competitions as opposed to 59% for CICs and 41% for CCIs in 2006
Starter Statistics
- The total number of starters has grown with a 46% increase from 2006 to 2016. The average number of starters per competition is 31
- The distribution of starters per star level remains basically unchanged with an average of 49.6% for one star, 31.7% for two star, 16.9% for three star and 1.8% for four star
- The starters at one star level represent nearly 50% of the total number of starters in FEI competitions and together with the two star level make up 80% of the total number of starters
Fall Statistics
- For 2016, the overall percentage of falls(5.34%) has decreased compared to 2015 (5.60%), it is slightly lower than the 2010-2014 average of 5.40%
- The number of falls on the flat has increased for 2016, passing from 12.19% in 2015 to 12.78%in 2016.The average over the period is of 7.96%
- The average for the period is of 3.88 unseated riders for every 100 starters (1unseated rider every 26 starters) and 1.62 horse falls for every 100 starters (1 horse fall every 62 starters)
- The distribution of falls per competition format shows an established trend with higher percentage of falls in CCIs with an average for the period of 4.95% for CICs and 6.47% for CCIs
- Figures for 2016 show a decrease of the percentage of unseated riders. Horse falls have also slightly decreased from 1.41% in 2015 to 1.40% in 2016. The percentage of horse falls is below the average of the period
- The percentage of rotational horse falls (higher risk of injuries for horse and rider) has decreased from 0.37 horse fall every 100 starters (1 rotational horse fall every 268 starters) in 2006 to 0.15 rotational horse fall every 100 starters (1 rotational horse fall every 664 starters) in 2016
Injury Statistics
The numbers and statistics in this section need to be assessed with due care as the reporting on injuries has not always been consistent.
The reporting of the type of injury sustained was originally left to the fence judge that could only base his judgment on a “first impression” which could often be misleading. An improved follow up procedure on injuries has been implemented as of 2010 in order to have more reliable information on the exact injuries sustained by the riders and horses.
Therefore, figures from2010 to2016shouldbeconsidered more reliable, particularly if not compared with the other years. The distribution of falls per competition format shows an established trend with a higher percentage of falls in CCIs with an average for the period of 4.95% for CICs and 6.47% for CCIs
Nevertheless the average values for the period indicate
- 4.96% fallswith no injury every 100 starters (1fall with no injury every20 starters),
- 0.36%fallswith slight injury every 100 starters (1 fall with slight injury every 279 starters),
- 0.18% falls with serious injury every 100 starters (1 fall with serious injury every 562 starters)
- 0.0072 % fatal falls every 100 starters (1 fatal fall every 13,889 starters)
