Having a member of the ground jury based in the riders’ tent at major horse trials was suggested by top British coach Chris Bartle as a possible way to improve the sport.
Nick Burton, who has been on multiple Olympic and five-star ground juries, and Chris discussed ideas to improve both safety and competition, at the FEI eventing online seminar (20 January).
The riders’ tent has TV screens where coaches, competitors and their connections are able to watch the action at top international fixtures. It is usually a busy environment, filled with a collectively vast amount of knowledge, in the sport’s top riders.
Chris, Britain’s eventing high performance coach, put forward the idea that a ground jury member should watch from the tent to make better use of this expertise.
He told the forum he has been at major events where coaches and riders are watching a tired or distressed horse and will be shouting at the screen, “stop this horse!”.
“Now I understand that it’s not all events and in fact, it’s a minority of events where there is such an opportunity for riders and coaches to be together watching the screens, but you certainly get very good feedback,” said Chris.
“I do think it’s something that could be considered. I totally understand that in the modern sport, image is very important.”
He added: “In the same way as the ground jury have a role to play in the dressage about making a subjective opinion on the performance, I think that the ground jury also have to make a subjective opinion on performance [across country]. On whether this performance is acceptable to the audience, and obviously, primarily, is it fair to the horse?
“I do think in the past, maybe there’s been a hesitation on the part of ground juries to make a decision, they allow a horse to continue for maybe a bit too long in the fear of making a mistake – and in so doing, they actually do make a mistake.”
Nick said he thought the idea could “work very well”, as long as the communication between ground jury members works – adding that the logistics would need to be rehearsed.
“There’s a lot of knowledge in there, and if those people are making those sorts of expressions of concern, that could be communicated to, say, the president of the ground jury in the control centre,” he said.
“The biggest challenge we find [currently] is that communication can take too long. And by that time the horse has gone on too long, or has finished the course.
“I think we do have to be open now to getting our processes changed, and also perhaps, our positions as to where we are on the day.”
Similar discussions have been ongoing in showjumping. In a H&H column following the Tokyo Olympics, Nick Skelton suggested having a professional rider in the judges’ box to help inform the ground jury on eliminations. The idea has been the subject of much debate in showjumping, and has been championed by the International Jumping Riders Club.
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