This is an opportunity to make the riding phase a real test of SKILL.
Here’s my take- 10 or 20 horses, or however many they use now. These horses are put through a jump chute with a gymnastic. The horse is attired in a saddle and halter, and get put through once as their “warmup”. No stirrups and no reins are added.
We toss the rider on, walk them over to the start, and had them 2 glasses of champagne. Coupe glasses, not flutes. Then we send them through the chute and they try to stay on and not spill champagne. At the other end we measure the volume of champagne still in the glasses. This is both kind to the horse’s and a SUPERIOR test of skill.
The jumps don’t even have to be big. Trot polls in to a couple of bounces, one stride to vertical, 2 strides to a 3ft oxer.
I’ve got pretty good chops and am comfortable jumping around 3’6” but this would be quite a challenge! And the champagne would work with the fox hunting based sport where we still dress up like we’re 18th century men going to a dinner party.
There’s an easy to measure outcome, no horses getting hit in the mouth, and definitely an athletic endeavor.
