In the past few months leading up to a US team being named to the Olympics, it seems that CDI GP scores, in southern California and Florida, are lower than in the past. Winning rides are in the low '70’s.
To be competitive in Europe at the top level, I had understood that horses need to be in the high 70’s, if not regularly scoring in the 80’s. And now comes this article from Eurodressage. Is this new judging, or are our US riders simply warming up for the Europe campaign ?
Maybe the other side of the question is, has there been score creep, with scores going up for a decade or two previous? And if so, is that because performance is more regularly meeting higher and higher standards?
Whatever the reason, if the average of top 10 scores has been creeping up, then we could wonder if a downward adjustment is virtually necessary to leave some room at the top for the truly exceptional performers, over and above the performance standard of today.
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Given the training deficits such as overdeveloped under necks, on the forehand, hyperflexion et al it is probably proper that scores SHOULD come down.
That being said I suppose an analysis on which scores were lower is necessary. Perhaps high scores are afforded toe flickers (an example) and the horses who scored lower were not toe flickers.
I sure do hope it’s the first one because that should bring positive change.
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I agree that there are likely several reasons - score creep over the years resulting in a need for a reset, judges being more mindful of SLO and therefore more apt to ding riders for “incorrect” or “unkind” riding, etc.
Also, some years back, a high level dressage judge told me that it isn’t uncommon for judges to be more critical in the lead up to USDF Regional Championships, to help prepare riders emotionally for tougher competition. I wouldn’t be surprised if judges do the same in the lead up to the Olympics.
Maybe scores have come down, but I can tell you from sitting at watching a lot of CDI Grand Prix and GPS rides at Global this winter, the quality wasn’t amazing either. There were almost no rides I saw that I would have put over 80%, and that was over February and March in Wellington.
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At the national level (US), I’ve heard scuttlebutt that a number of judges attended a meeting recently where they were lectured that they were being too generous with their scores across the board. It wasn’t clear who held the meeting or who exactly attended, though. It will be interesting to see scoring trends this year.
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yeah, I felt the scores were accurate this winter - some very quality horses in new combinations with some mistakes, and in the national, a lot of average-to-good with scores in the low 70s. I saw the judges correctly penalizing tension which may have been a bit new.
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