The FEI Bureau gave its unanimous approval today to new stewards' guidelines on warm-up techniques produced by the Working Group formed after the round-table conference held in Lausanne in February.

One of the key stipulations in the Working Group's report was that all unacceptable training methods and techniques must be stopped immediately. The Working Group was also insistent that abuse of the horse should be avoided and, in particular, stressing the horse, aggressive riding and inflicting pain and/or discomfort on the horse must be prevented.

The current guidelines for FEI Stewards already include instructions covering aggressive riding, but the Working Group has created a new Annex (XIII) that includes clear instructions on action to be taken if necessary relating to flexion of the horse's neck during pre and post-competition training