I have seen all the articles and rider opinions about the 4 person versus 3 person team. It appears that the driving theme is they want a drop score. So why not re-instate the drop score with the 3 person team. 3 riders compete and you count the two best scores. So if one horse or rider has a bad day it won’t affect the team result and if they are really not going well they can withdrawal without jeopardizing the welfare of the horse. Just some food for thought.
From a competitive perspective, 3 seems like a pretty small “team” to begin with. Removing one of those already meagre scores just makes it feel like it may as well just be an individual competition.
If the purpose of a team competition is to display those teams/programs that have more depth - as opposed to having a single “star” and a few other mediocre riders - then removing the depth (especially any further than it already has been) arguably ends up removing the point of the competition.
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