Considering Dressage, at the highest level.

[crabbymare]

And to add a bit more balance here, the horse was withdrawn after the initial team competition following being seen by vets after the performance - so at least someone did spot the issue albeit after the test. The trot up vet has a lot to answer for in this instance!

To be fair the trot up vet did not want the horse to continue but was over ruled by other officials that were not vets

 

[Cortez]

To be fair the trot up vet did not want the horse to continue but was over ruled by other officials that were not vets

Yes, this is true. Shameful, IMO. A judge can eliminate a horse for blood (in the mouth/on the body) during a test, why can they not do so for obvious lameness?

 

[OwnedbyJoe]

To be fair the trot up vet did not want the horse to continue but was over ruled by other officials that were not vets

Wouldn't be the first time a vet has been overruled by the Ground Jury.. Happened to me once (albeit at a much lower level). There's a reason why I don't vet dressage and eventing any more.

 

[The Snowman]

It is all a vicious circle - you cannot become a judge until you have ridden at certain levels in accordance to what level you want to judge, so you have to ride in a competitive fashion at affiliated competitions to become a judge, so these bad riders can become bad judges because they have ridden at that level (and are all of this competitive mindset hence not putting the horse first etc as per my original post). So they will carry on judging in the way they rode - badly. That is not to say there are not good judges out there and there hopefully in the future will be some good riders becoming judges rather than just the bad riders becoming judges - but because of the way BD insist on you becoming a judge it does aid the recruitment of poor judges we seem to have an issue with currently.

Again I think another problem, more so on an international level, is that many judges are of the older generation (no offence intended!), we have very few younger judges coming through the ranks (mainly because they are too busy riding!). So for the continental judges who perhaps are more inclined to like the tense/RK style of past on the continent, they may mark that higher - whereas younger riders on the continent are starting to catch on to the more relaxed style as per Carl and Charlotte, so they are starting to ride in that way but it may take a while for the judging to catch up purely down to the age of the judges and how they used to ride.

That makes sense, hopefully within the next generation or two then we will see some improvement within judging, and riding as well. Apart from having to ride to a certain level to judge do we know if there is any other requirements? Surely an experienced judge should mentor them first and they should be moderated until BD etc know that they are accurate? Mind you, I'm not sure that will work if the judge that mentors them is a bad judge, I think any way you look at it, it is a vicious circle.

Maybe more focus should be on riding instruction to produce more good riders, perhaps then the majority of riders will realise that the judging is bad and there will be some sort of system to become a judge - a proper system should I say.

 

[tristar]

how about getting the rspca to attend and pull lame horses, if the riders , judges and comp organisers can`t face it.

only joking really.

 

[rara007]

That makes sense, hopefully within the next generation or two then we will see some improvement within judging, and riding as well. Apart from having to ride to a certain level to judge do we know if there is any other requirements? Surely an experienced judge should mentor them first and they should be moderated until BD etc know that they are accurate? Mind you, I'm not sure that will work if the judge that mentors them is a bad judge, I think any way you look at it, it is a vicious circle.
.

There's a clear system for how you get into judging, how you stay in judging and how you progress within BD, published on its own website. You don't need to ride at any level in order to judge a level, only get 6 scores at 60% at novice to start (or have taught people to do this) if I've interpreted it properly.

 

[elliefiz]

According to Eurodressage, PETA has launched legal action against Gal and Rath for animal cruelty. What a disaster this has turned out to be. Whatever anyone's opinion is on PETA, they have a lot of supporters around the world and does dressage need the bad publicity? As it is, it's a support the general public don't understand. The FEI are as useless as a chocolate teapot- it was obvious from social media that thousands of people were angry and upset about scenes at Aachen. They should have done some sort of damage litigation but have done absolutely nothing, no doubt fear of supporting wealthy sponsors. The whole situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a repeat of the terrible handling of the situation in Endurance riding.

 

[oldie48]

This is very sad but not totally unexpected. I hope all the dressage judges at Aachen feel totally ashamed!

According to Eurodressage, PETA has launched legal action against Gal and Rath for animal cruelty. What a disaster this has turned out to be. Whatever anyone's opinion is on PETA, they have a lot of supporters around the world and does dressage need the bad publicity? As it is, it's a support the general public don't understand. The FEI are as useless as a chocolate teapot- it was obvious from social media that thousands of people were angry and upset about scenes at Aachen. They should have done some sort of damage litigation but have done absolutely nothing, no doubt fear of supporting wealthy sponsors. The whole situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a repeat of the terrible handling of the situation in Endurance riding.

 

[marotelle]

But surely, Totilas must have been seen to be lame in the training area?! Where were the stewarts? He was sorounded by
very competant and knowledgeable people ; how come they didn't pull him out then? What about his trainer???
For heaven's sakes this was not a small poney club gathering......I really think, this has done more harm to modern dressage, than all the fabulous work achieved these last ten years.
What a pity, and yes, the German delegation should hang down their heads in shame.

 

[Barnacle]

I hear rumour of talks with the BBC for a Dressage/FEI exposé...