I recently saw 25 penalties awarded at an FEI event during the xc phase. Having never seen this, I looked at FEI scoring rules and learned that 25 penalties can be applied for “dangerous riding.”
How does this differ from a yellow card or warning that a rider receives from the FEI, also for “dangerous riding”? In the case of a yellow card, for example, I haven’t seen the 25 penalties added to a rider’s final score.
I am not an expert on FEI rules (and I am not going to look it up right now) but I THINK it is at the discretion of the ground jury whether to give a dangerous riding (score) penalty,OR a yellow card.
I was scoring at an FEI event this weekend and the TD came in and requested that I apply a DR penalty to one of the riders. Every official was out on the course so I think there was some discussion involved.
You might have been at the event I’m referring to. I think I’ve only seen a 25 applied two times.
If someone is going to receive a yellow card for dangerous riding or abuse of the horse, it seems like a good idea to apply the 25 to their score as well. It doesn’t make sense when someone receives a yellow card for abuse of the horse, for example, they can still finish with a competitive score.
and, if we are thinking of the same person, it would have been a 2nd place finish at a 4* without the 25 DR penalty
Might be a different event. The rider I am thinking about would have finished in second by .1 points. A very costly penalty.
yeah, I think that may be the same person. 18 time penalties had her in 2nd place before the 25 DR penalties were assessed.
I am all in favour of DR penalties plus warning or yellow card, if/when warranted.
To me it seems like a no brainer to apply the 25 when a yellow card is warranted.
Do you know what happened to incur the DR?
No I don’t know what prompted the DR. I was not on site, just saw the scoring.
This has me very curious of the decision-making protocol for when to issue a yellow card, when to apply 25 penalties, when to eliminate, etc.
It’s described as “discretionary” but I imagine those decisions are not made lightly.
The recorded reason:
Dangerous riding - Endangering the public in any way (Eventing Rules Art. 525)
I have seen the 25 applied multiple time when DR is assessed for missing roping, going on the wrong side of ropes, or jumping ropes. I assume the logic here to apply the 25 when roping is involved is not only is it dangerous, but it can give an obvious unfair advantage (shortening distance of the track) and therefore it makes sense to add the 25 penalty.
I was not at MD and have no knowledge of what happened, however I would not be shocked if it was something as simple as missing ropes vs anything more nefarious.
That makes a lot of sense if the 25 penalties are applied in instances where the public could be endangered and/or there could be a significant competitive advantage… like jumping the ropes.
Ask me how I know…accidentally missed roping at a T3D 
I wasn’t really informed “why” I was to apply the 25 penalties, other than a vague “the way the rider rode through a particular section of the course”. I completely forgot to ask about it later. But I got the feeling that the offense didn’t rise to the level of a yellow card, but it was a poor decision on the rider’s part.
It’s odd that the 25 penalty feels like a bigger “cost” to the rider at a big event than a yellow card.
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