Dressage-News

OTTAWA, Canada, Dec. 15–Canadian international four-star dressage judge Lorraine Stubbs has won an appeal against Dressage Canada removing her as chair of the country’s high performance committee, and the national federation issued a formal apology for its actions.

Equine Canada, the national governing body of equestrian sports, on Thursday announced the results of an inquiry it conducted into an appeal filed against decisions by Dressage Canada.

The dispute revolves around a decision by the Dressage Canada board on March 30, 2011, ratifying an earlier decision by the High Performance Committee to name Ms Stubbs as chair of the committee.

However, the Dressage Canada Athletes Council on Aug. 24 asked the Dressage Canada board to remove Ms Stubbs as chair of the High Performance Committee because of concerns over conflict of interest in having a dressage judge serve as chair of the High Performance Committee. There were no allegations of wrongdoing by Ms Stubbs.

Equine Canada said that after an investigation of the circumstances of her resignation following a meeting that essentially removed her from the post, “all parties are agreed that she did not and has not filed a letter of resignation. As a result, she can not properly be said to have resigned.

“It is, therefore, the finding of Equine Canada that Ms Stubbs remains chair of the DC High Performance Committee and a member of the Dressage Canada board.”

“As the body ultimately responsible for Dressage Canada, Equine Canada expresses its regret and sincerely apologies to Ms Stubbs and to the other members of the Dressage Canada board for any distress that precipitous statements, errors in process, and public speculation may have caused them,” it said in a statement.