Collective marks to be voted in in international dressage – as uniform blood rules look to be shelved
The final draft of this year’s FEI rule change proposals has been published
Stakeholders will vote on whether to remove collective marks in international dressage – as uniform blood rules across disciplines look to be off the table.
The final draft of this year’s FEI rule change proposals has been published, ahead of voting at the General Assembly (2–5 December). Dressage is undergoing a full review for 2027 and one proposal that generated much discussion is around collective marks.
During the first draft of proposed changes in July, four organisations – including the German federation and the International Dressage Riders Club – called for the single collective mark to be increased to two; one for horse and one for rider.
The FEI dressage technical committee (DTC) did not support this and recommended that collective marks be removed entirely “and instead focus on evaluating harmony and the demonstration of the training scale when evaluating each technical movement in the test thus aligning with the object of dressage and further reducing subjectivity”.
The DTC recommendation had feedback from seven organisations, of which only British Equestrian (BEF) was in favour.
“We support the removal of collective marks at international level, as the principle of rewarding harmony should be embedded in the scores for every movement. This will provide a simpler method of scoring for communicating to the public and removes the potential for unconscious bias,” said a BEF spokesperson.
“For this reason, we would not support the addition of more collective marks. However, Great Britain continues to retain collective marks at lower level national competition to assist with education, progression and development. Para dressage may also require a different approach.”
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The European Equestrian Federation “insisted” on a second collective mark – and the German federation said the collectives should not be removed without an appropriate replacement and reiterated its calls for a second mark.
“As the sport develops in the direction in which it is judged, judges must be provided with effective tools to recognise and encourage harmony, lightness, rider effectiveness, horse welfare and correct progressive training in line with the principles of the training scale,” said a German federation spokesperson.
“Such marks would send a clear signal about the values and standards the sport seeks to promote.”
But the DTC confirmed that the vote to remove collective marks will go ahead at the General Assembly.
“Collective marks at the end of a test are intrinsically more subjective than marks given for each component throughout the test. Judges revert to judging holistically and comparing performances. In other subjectively assessed sports, the number of disagreements among judges always increases significantly when evaluating collective marks rather than per-component marks,” said a DTC spokesperson.
“The collective mark is also prone to increased subjectivity depending on preferences of each judge.”
In the vet regulations, an FEI proposal around fitness to compete has been amended following push-back. The first draft stated that horses must be excluded from competition if they have an injury or disease that causes “pain or discomfort that could be exacerbated by competition".
Multiple stakeholders questioned the term “discomfort”; the International Jumping Riders Club said this was “too broad” and asked, “Is discomfort the stage before pain?” The term “discomfort” has now been removed ahead of the vote.
Another talking point across disciplines has been the harmonisation of blood rules. The FEI established the horse condition task force in June to review protocols with the “primary objective to recommend a more harmonised approach across disciplines”. It was confirmed in July that no change would be voted on this year as the work continues.
In an update on 7 November, the task force “acknowledged that for various reasons, a uniform approach to every aspect of blood across disciplines is neither practical nor desirable”. Draft protocols are being prepared for discussion at the next task force meeting in January, with a view to going through the rule revision process for implementation in 2028.
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.