The Swiss federation has suggested a boycott, while the Dutch announced on Friday that if the FEI could not wrest back control, it would consider its own measures.
A Change.org petition launched on Friday, also requesting reallocation of the championship event, drew more than 2,000 signatures in its first 36 hours.The UAE was suspended for four months last March for horse welfare violations, after a catalogue of doping, horse fatality and falsified results scandals, many exposed by The Telegraph.
Michael Campbell, the AERC president, said that the extra conditions imposed on the UAE to enable its reinstatement had clearly failed during this winter season (October-March), during which seven horses are already officially listed as dead.
Sport of Sheiks: Sheikh Mohammed has been involved in endurance racing for many years Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Campbell, who has has described the “appalling mistreatment” at Al Wathba in a formal letter to the US Equestrian Federation and FEI, said: “This continued abuse is a blight on the sport of endurance riding throughout the world. The desert-style racing of UAE is not endurance riding as most other countries define it.AERC further requests that stricter sanctions be imposed on UAE to drive home the lesson that mistreatment of horses in endurance rides is intolerable.”
The five stables involved in the Al Wathba incident, including the Maktoums’ premier yard, MRM, have since been fined $100,000 (£69,000) each by the EEF, and their trainers suspended.
The FEI has denied that the likely difficulty in finding a replacement championship venue at short notice was influencing its handling of the crisis. .
A FEI spokesman said: “No further events will be held until agreement on proposed measures to urgently address a number of serious issues in endurance in the region has been reached. The EEF fully understands what’s at stake under the terms of the agreement, and the fact that they have suspended the events and now taken action against the riders, trainers, grooms and stables involved in the incidents at Al Wathba clearly demon