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Photos:
Images from the official video of the
2002 Games in Jerez:
Farbenfroh's passage,
with
scores beside him.
Invasor's pirouette, also
with scores displayed. Jerez
marked one of the first widely
available transparent videos.
Dressage un Ltd. photos
Nadine Capellmann on Farbenfroh
shown scoring 8s and 9s for the
canter half-pass.
Ulla Salzgeber on Rusty (shown at
Jerez scoring two 10s for one-tempis)
might have placed differently at the
2000 Olympic Games had the three-
rider rule been in effect.
"Corporate
sponsorship can support
the sport of dressage. Transparent scoring and videos are
expected
to help the discipline attract larger
audiences, greater broadcast opportunities, and more corporate and
private sponsors. "
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Continued
from page 1
In 1998, the World Equestrian Games in Rome, marked the first time
that the scores for each movement were released to the press.
FEI rules now mandate that marks by movement be released to the
media. [Article 435 (4): At Senior Continental Championships,
World Cup Finals and Olympic Games, the score given by each judge for
each movement performed by the participants must be made available in
spreadsheet form (one form for each rider) for the use of judges,
riders, chefs d'equipe, and the media.] The '98 World Equestrian
Games competition is remembered for its freestyle, in which Bonfire
(Netherlands) and Gigolo (Germany) vied for first place. Scores
released to the press told the story. Three of the judges placed
Bonfire first, but the German judge (7 points) and the Belgian judge
(4 points) placed Gigolo on top --- with scores so high that the
opinions of the other judges were mathematically overwhelmed.
Gigolo won.
More recently, at Dressage at Devon in the U.S. as well as major
European shows, leaderboards began to show the horses' scores from
each judge for each movement. Spectators enjoyed the
'transparent scoring.' Rather than simply accepting a single
opaque statistic at the end of the ride --- 74.12% -- spectators could
evaluate each movement's quality as it happened. They could
understand why a horse ultimately placed well (or did not), and where
the crucial flaws had occurred. No particular controversy was
associated with transparent leaderboard scoring. Did a few
judges have to become more subtle about politically motivated
scoring? If so, they managed to do so quietly.
Electronic transparent scoring at the shows is described by a
prominent California dressage trainer as "... visible, immediate,
and fun to watch." The U.S. Selection Trials for Athens was
the first west coast event to display the judges' marks by movement on
the scoreboard.
Anyone who tries to attract new fans and new riders to the discipline
knows that making the sport entertaining and understandable is
essential. Transparent scoring on leaderboards has helped
immensely. However, leaderboards display numbers for only a few
seconds. Then they're gone, replaced by new numbers and then
more numbers. Not even the most dedicated fan could recall all
of the scores per movement from each judge for 20 different riders
....
... Until transparent video.
continued
on page 3
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