Judge grand prix dressage on your iPhone or Blackberry

Do you think you can score a dressage test better than the professionals?

Now is your chance to try — thanks to a new website for the iPhone and BlackBerry, devised by the International Dressage Trainers Club (IDTC).

Watching a grand prix from the stands, spectators will be able to access the game on their phone by visiting www.idtc-online.com/grandprix .

Each movement appears on the phone’s screen with marks from one to 10 underneath — the user scores that movement and the next appears on screen, and so on.

At the end, the spectator can compare their score with what the actual judges gave.

“We envisage adding the junior, young rider and pony tests and possibly national tests if the federations are interested,” said Linda Keenan of the IDTC.

Dressage enthusiast Ellie Beatty said: “I can see it’s a bit of fun but I think the introduction of screens showing the judge’s scores during the test was more of a breakthrough for dressage spectators.

“I would never consider myself qualified enough to judge!”

Ms Keenan hopes it will add another dimension to the sport. She added: “People will see the judges’ task of having to give marks so quickly is not easy.”

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (25 March, ’10)

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