Have you ever wondered how the dressage competition is scored? For people who can't ride a horse (or even just don't practice dressage), just watching the game makes it almost impossible to understand what's going on. If you don't understand the sport, how can you talk about appreciating it?
So whether you're just getting into equestrianism, just getting interested in dressage, or trying to express your knowledge of equestrianism, here's a basic guide to the principles of dressage competition.
First and foremost, dressage is not like tennis, you have to directly beat a specific opponent. In this competition, everyone competes and you get your own ranking position. A detailed guide to judging dressage can be found on this website: https://inside.fei.org/fei/disc/dressage/useful-docs
Referees are the ones who rate you, and while it's a somewhat subjective sport, all referees are well trained. Theoretically, every referee should give the same score for a performance by the same pair of centaurs – although one referee may see it from one position slightly differently than another referee sees it from another position. Just like in a football or rugby match, dressage moves have cuts!
Second, each action is marked with a score of 10 out of 10. So the rider has a theoretical maximum total score, and then calculates a percentage based on the specific performance and score of the centaur combination. The rider with the highest percentage is the winner of that level.
At high level international performances, there is usually more than one referee, but in most local small matches, there may be only one referee. If there is only one referee, they will be at point C of the dressage venue, but if there are more, they may be in B, E and A. If there are multiple referees, the average of each person's score is taken – in some cases, the highest and lowest scores for each action are removed to ensure fair and equitable judgment.
For each action, the corresponding marker scale is as follows:
0 = not performed
1 = very bad
2 = bad
3 = fairly bad
4 = insufficient
5 = sufficient
6 = satisfactory
7 = Relatively good (quite good)
8 = OK (good)
9 = Very Good (very good)
10 = excellent
Therefore, if a score of 7 for a particular action, it means that the action is done quite well.
If you are playing a dressage dance with music, there will also be an artistic score added to the overall percentage score.
If you make a mistake, you can still do well in dressage. While one mistake can result in a lower score for one action, sometimes you can compensate by doing very well in other moves, because the overall percentage is the most important. So if you forget a certain action or do something stupid, it's best to pick yourself up and continue as if nothing had happened.
But that doesn't mean you won't be eliminated or penalized in dressage competitions! Here are a few things to keep in mind. If you forget your route or make the wrong move, then that move will score a minus 2 points. In most cases, if you make a mistake a second time, you will lose another 4 points; if you make a mistake 3 times, you will be eliminated.
If your horse walks out of the field during a race, you'll be eliminated. Horses that fall down will also be eliminated! If your horse resists for some reason so that you can't continue racing for about 20 seconds, you could also be eliminated.
Hopefully, this basic guide will give you a basic understanding of the dressage project! Stay tuned for more information at the International Union of Malaysia!
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