Equine Canada

Equine Canada ( _fr. Canada Hippique), commonly known by its acronym, EC, is a sanctioning organization for equestrian sport in Canada. Formerly known as the Canadian Horse Show Association, the French word "hippique" (meaning "equine") was inserted into its name to create the appearance of bilingualism, although the vast majority of its activities are still conducted in English only. It is recognized by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) as Canada's representative equestrian federation.

Equestrian sport in Canada

EC regulates eight of the ten FEI disciplines: dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, reining, show jumping, paraequestrianism, and vaulting. [ [http://www.equinecanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=95&id=355&Itemid=447 Equine Canada Sports] , retrieved 7 February 2008] Two of the FEI disciplines have remained independent of EC: horseball [ [http://www.horse-ball.ca/ Horse-Ball Canada] , retrieved 7 February 2008] and tent pegging [ [http://www.maharaj.org/tentpegging.shtml UNICEF Team Canada Tent Pegging] , retrieved 7 February 2008] .

EC also regulates the following non-FEI disciplines: hunt seat, pony club sports, saddle seat, and some breed-specific sports. It does not regulate the non-FEI disciplines of classical dressage, horse racing, or polo.

National challenges

EC has faced many of the challenges typical of a national organization in a federated country, such as tensions between the central committee and the ten provincial entities. In addition, it candidly admits that it suffers from "dissatisfaction of all four divisions", "sub-standard infrastructure", "inadequate management structure", and persistent "debates on old arguments". [ [http://www.equinecanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&id=135&Itemid=326 Organizational Review] , retrieved 7 February 2008]

More seriously for a bilingual and multicultural country, EC is often perceived as a captive of white, anglophone, social climbing classes [ [http://www.barbarakay.ca/archive/20040818stop.htm "Stop subsidizing the horsey set"] , "National Post", 18 August 2004] , for which money is more important that talent or good sportsmanship. The fact that horseball (a primarily francophone sport in Canada) and tent pegging (the most racially-mixed equestrian sport in Canada) have both remained outside of EC has tended to reinforce this view.

Perhaps as a result of these issues, EC concedes that it has become a "little known and hardly recognized" [ [http://www.equinecanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&id=135&Itemid=326 Organizational Review] , retrieved 7 February 2008] entity in Canada.

Financial challenges

The organization has been riven with internal conflict as a result of a permanent funding crisis since its inception. According to its own governance self-assessment, "Competition for scarce resources leads to internal conflict. This results in continuing disagreement amongst the various parts of the organization as everyone seeks to survive." [ [http://www.equinecanada.ca/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=701&Itemid=365 Equine Canada 20/20 White Paper] 18 September 2007]

Olympics

EC has confirmed that Canadian athletes have qualified for all three equestrian disciplines (dressage, eventing, and show jumping) at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

References

External links

* [http://www.equinecanada.ca/ Official website]