Watching this today noticed at the end of Frederic Wandres’ ride he appears to take something off of his right spur and tuck it under his hat.
It’s at 54:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6ITzWcM3Q
This has some fabulous rides (an this one was nice too -I and like the horse!) but I’ve never seen anyone do something like that before. He does seem to have left a patch of unclipped hair around the spur area on both sides so maybe it’s to do with that? But it’s just odd.
I think that this rider is cheating. He took something off his spur and looks very much aware of what he is doing. I have never come out of a dressage test and immediately “cleaned” my spurs.
It looks like he’s wiping his spur. Maybe it had hair on it? The sides of horse seem very rubbed by his leg and spurs, right? I didn’t watch the ride, maybe he has loud legs?
ETA: went back and watch a short bit. In the 53/54 minute time frame you can see a lot of heavy spur action on that same side he wiped. He probably had a lot of horse hair on the spur and wiped it. 
Okay, one more ETA: he wipes it, looks at his glove, then wipes his fingers. He’s looking for blood, as he bloody well should the way he was digging his spurs in.
Disclaimer: I have no idea.
But…I have a pair of spurs with interchangeable ends. I do check when I come out of the ring sometimes that the end of my spur is still there (mine are plastic and pop on and off a little too easily). I’ve seen similar spurs in metal that screw in to the base of the spurs (like these, without the magnetic attachment: https://www.tacknrider.com/shop/mand…ngeable-spurs/). Maybe he was checking that his spur end was screwed in? Because he looked like he twisted something one way and then the other. But it did look like he kept something in his hand. Weird.
ETA: I bet emipou is right.
Ah!! Good sleuthing! But um, yeah. Not so good about the blood.
There is a middle ground - btdt. If the horse is sweating, shedding, AND the footing is super loose or muddy, PLUS you’re wearing rowelled spurs it’s not a bad idea to check the rowels are still free rolling quite regularly. Depending on the horse, the angle your leg meets the horse and about 5 billion other things, rowels can get clogged and stop rolling.
Could be completely legit but he kind of acted like he didn’t want it seen??? Horses sides were sure sweating in the spur area though, unless that wasn’t clipped the same?
Didn’t seem like many spectators at the start of the video.
It looks to me like he glanced around twice to see whether anyone was looking and then wiped something off his right spur and hid it in his hat.
“…it’s not a bad idea to check the rowels are still free rolling quite regularly. Depending on the horse, the angle your leg meets the horse and about 5 billion other things, rowels can get clogged and stop rolling.”
Sure, but he didn’t check the left spur, only the right one. It definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
And if he cleaned hair or mud off the spur, why put it under his hat?
I think he’s right about to do the same with the left side when the camera switched to the flower.
It might be just cleaning. I know I do that too.
But it looks weird…
I don’t feel he’s hiding anything under his hat.
At 55:17 just as the video fades he appears to be starting to check his left side. The fact that the horse is unclipped in the spur area leads one to think that the rider might have had spurring problems at some point - aka “sensitive” skin. Any way, had there been blood, the after test inspection would have found it.
It does seem like he looked around to be sure no one “important” was watching. Dont have a clue what he’s looking for, but IMO if you were just worried about dirt and hair, wait until you are in the stable area, take your boots off and clean your spur. Almost looked to me like he put his hand under the hat and wiped that hand on underside of saddle pad.
What a dude of a horse! Ok so he’s no Valegro, but he’s cute!
Definitely looks like he’s taking something off his spur, and he looks dodgy AF. The non-clipped bits just adds to the dodginess.
They get vet checked at their exit. 
Rowels must roll.
He’s checking for blood. You can see him twist his hand around the spur, then pull it up by his hat to discretely look at his white glove. Just as it fades away, he reaches down to check the other spur.
If he gets checked at the out gate to make sure there is no blood AND the rowels spin freely, maybe there is no great conspiracy and he’s just making sure the rowels didn’t get clogged with sweat or horse hair before they’re checked? But I suppose that’s far less interesting than assuming he was doing something intentionally nefarious. He did seem to be using his spurs a good bit in the piaffe, but that was clearly visible to the judges as well … not something sneaky.
It seems fairly common for riders to leave some unclipped hair where the leg goes. While I have never done it, clipped coats sometimes get rubs very easily, even if the rider isn’t wearing spurs.
Not even commenting on what he is doing, but genuinely curious - is this true? I have NEVER seen a horse clipped with hair left where the leg goes? I’m in CA, so maybe we just don’t do it here? But wouldn’t it look really funny to have a thick fluffy spot where the leg goes? I mean, seriously, my horses change color SIGNIFICANTLY when I clip - so any unclipped areas are VERY different in both color and hair length. What does this look like? A big circle on each side of the horse, or a vertical line of long hair?
Yes, it is increasingly common to see patches of hair left unclipped where the foot/spur go.
I don’t think it’s a grand conspiracy, or dodgy. Was he checking for blood? Maybe. Does it matter? Maybe he felt he was using a lot of spur during the ride. That’s not dodgy at all, I’d say that’s a rider who is conscious of his body movements and thinking about his ride and his horse.
The patch that is left depends a lot on the rider, and honestly the groom. Usually it’s a maybe 4x10 rectangle, I’ve seen patches that look just like normal unclipped hair, and those that looked like a freaking patch of winter coat.
Just to say this again, rowels must roll, they get checked. If the horse is shedding (a distinct possibility esp. considering the spur area on the horse is unclipped), rowels can clog easily and stop rolling.
Touching one’s spurs isn’t necessarily a nefarious thing. Whether it’s strictly legal to check/adjust equipment between the end of the test and the post ride check, well, that might be another thing altogether.
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