Wednesday, September 2, 2009

90.7% What do you think?

I can say that this is an amazing ride. I can also say that I enjoyed watching it, and I put it in my favorites on my account at Youtube. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_FDK04vXaI

I wonder, now that we have broken through the "glass ceiling" of 90% (it wasn't that long ago that 80% was unimaginable), if we are going the way of other olympic judged events (I am thinking of ice-skating, gymnastics and diving, for instance) that we will soon have to re-think our scoring system....because after 100%, where do we go?

Now, before you start thinking, "well that won't happen, because how often do you see a perfect ride?", remember--a score of ten does not mean it is "perfect"; a score of ten means it is "excellent"...and we don't even have the luxury of tenths of points (yes, I know--halfpoints for freestyle) It is not just semantics. There are real consequences to approaching 100% scores, and there are widespread ramifications. I wonder if anyone at the FEI organizational level is thinking about this--I wonder if our FEI judges are thinking about this?

But then, watch the video, and ask yourself--"where would I have taken away points?" I understand the score, and agree with it when it is judged against our current standard and methodology, but this is what begs my question in the first place.

2 comments:

  1. If that isn't suspecting enough that a world record was broken, FEI plans to revaluate its current system by comparing it to alternative systems by creating a series of 'tests'. Inaddition, FEI said that they cannot say anything about the proposed changes but that some of the alternatives that they tested was 'likely'. In the current issue of dressage today they have a section dedicated to Gal and Totilas for there recording breaking performance and next to the article is the FEI article. Interestingly enough, the tests were conducted before this event had happened.

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  2. Hi there,

    Yes, you are right...since this post, the rollkur debate has reached critical mass, and the FEI is scheduled to discuss it as an agenda item next week at its Annual Meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. I am not familiar with the alternative tests that you mention, but I am waiting with "bated breath" (an American expression) to find out what the FEI's position will be on Rollkur from that point forward. Thanks for posting!

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