Dressage judges and BTV (article)

[CanteringCarrot]

A really interesting article popped up in my newsfeed about dressage judges rewarding behind the vertical head carriage. It's worth a read, IMO.

Studies Reveal Dressage Judges Reward BTV Head Carriage

Stricter dressage judging guidelines are needed, as current trends in FEI judging practices undermine equine welfare.

horsesport.com

 

[HopOnTrot]

I would love for AI to get involved with dressage judging. A fourth judge?

No bias, no opinion, only hard wired facts.*


*depending on who writes the program

 

[splashgirl45]

This is what I have thought for years , it seemed to
Improve when Valegro won so much but sadly seems to be worse now. People used to say was a good rider Edward Gal was because he managed to ride such hot horses ,not my view as I felt he had created the behaviour. looking at the so called training methods which have recently been shown I wonder if the horses being labelled as hot were just scared as they have been used to harsh methods to obtain results especially in passage and piaffe. Let’s hope that all this publicity will change the way of judging these horses

 

[ycbm]

“Since this effect was observed regardless of the competition level, it is suggested that the flexed posture itself rather than the rider’s skills or the training level of the horse is the main factor inducing conflict behaviour.”


They really must change the judging, BTV is now clearly a welfare issue.

Tail swishing was penalised back in the 80s but riders complained and that was removed, wrongly IMO.
.

 

[reynold]

Concern as study found dressage horses behind the vertical earned higher scores - Horse & Hound

Dressage horses competing at the top of the sport were more likely to be marked higher if they were behind the vertical, a study has found, which “implies that there might be concerns related to animal welfare and rule compliance”. Kathrin Kienapfel, of the equine research group at the Swiss...

www.horseandhound.co.uk

Swiss study on btv gaining higher marks. Interesting that the study looked at both the warmup and the competition arenas and considered stress, such as tail swishing.

Article contains some interesting perspective comments from Stephen Clarke

 

[Cloball]

Was just about to post the same the study is cited at the bottom https://thehorse.com/1125947/elite-...HmoqhkNkdEN4tkaHTSZZbSQD4NeBCZKIX99kJpZN89grM

It's nice to have something objective to back up what everyone seems to be seeing.