Am I the only one that saw at Paris they are going to run 65 dressage tests in eventing in one day? To accomplish this they are going to shorten the test. Apparently it is going to be trialed in some unnamed events in the next year.
So it appears that the Eventing is going sell another piece of its soul to stay in the OLympics?
Sucks to be those judges
I’m not sure I agree that shortening the dressage test constitutes eventing “selling a piece of its soul”. Olympic and World Championship cross-country must be 4* level? That’s selling a piece of the soul. Dressage test has slightly fewer movements? In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t bug me. The judges will still have plenty of time to assess the level of training presented (though it will be a long day for them, I’m sure). It’s not like dressage is a stamina test.
Didn’t the Tokyo Olympics use a shortened test too? I don’t think this is new.
What I had read, and I can’t find the link, is the test is going to be shorter than Tokyo.
The Tokyo dressage test was a shortened test at just under 4 minutes. I couldn’t find anything about Paris specifically other than the schedule which does have all 65 in one day. There was discussion that they were going to “adapt the test to fit one day and have a trial event for the judges”, but I didn’t see anything further. The FEI general assembly is set to vote on proposed changes at the next meeting (Nov 10-13). Hopefully we’ll know more soon on what changes there will be.
I would think 65 tests at 4 minutes each (about 4.5 hours) could be done in a day. Of course there will be time taken in between rides and breaks but it doesn’t seem impossible to fit this number of rides in a day? Of course math has never been my strong point so it’s very possible I have missed something in this calculation!
Add at least 2 minutes per test to enter and exit and have the judge make notes.
Sometimes dressage judging is a stamina test. 
But 65 tests in a day is something lower level judges frequently do at schooling shows around here. And they have to judge many different tests.
Lol I remember when the biggest complaint was that there is too much emphasis on the dressage phase in eventing.
That…would still be my complaint 
But a shorter test will not change how the penalty score is calculated, so won’t change the influence of the phase itself one way or another (though if there are fewer movements it could theoretically change the influence of each individual movement, which I don’t think is a common concern).
I think the shorter tests are going to be harder, as TPTB will try to cram all the movements into that test. Tokyo’s test was hard. If you messed up one movement, it likely messed up the next two movements. e.g. half-pass to counter-canter to flying change all done within less than 60m.
I love the current test, hard if you don’t have the skills but looks effortless for those who do. Really shows the harmony, or lack of lol
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