The freestyle dressage competition as a test of the horse's performance

Abstract

The objective of the study has been to examine whether the freestyle dressage classes are judged reliably and to elaborate a method assessing the consistency of judging. The data contained 13 000 marks of the ten best-ranked horses at nine Grand Prix classes and four Intermediate I classes from ten international competitions. The marks concerned 119 horses in total and were given by 37 judges. A method for evaluating the consistency of judging has been proposed. The index of disagreement (ID) assesses the disagreement of ranking by an individual judge relative to the general ranking based on the sum of marks awarded by five judges. The results show that the mean ID of individual judges is highly differentiated. The ID is influenced by the judge's position in the arena. The consistency of judging was lower in Intermediate I Freestyle Tests than in Grand Prix Freestyle Tests and it varied in different competitions. The conclusion of the study is that the results of the freestyle dressage classes are often biased. The present system of judging should be permanently checked. The offered method of evaluating agreement between judges' rankings may help to improve the consistency of judging and the reliability of the horses' scores.

Judging dressage competitions in the view of improving horse performance assessment

“…Then, the accuracy of the judging was measured with the Index of Disagreement (Stachurska et al, 2006) improved in the present study. The ID compares the horse ranking in a movement determined by a judge, to the ranking resulting from the marks awarded by the other four members of the jury, excluding the judge in question.…”

“…It is not possible to verify if the assumption is fully accurate but no better indicator is available (Stachurska et al, 2006). On the contrary, a disagreement means the judges estimate the horses differently and thus the score is controversial.…”

“…The consistency for these places is crucial, whereas the importance of ranking further and further places is decreasing. For instance, it is less important and more casual when a judge ranks, upside down, horses finally ranked at the 10th and 11th places compared to when he reverses the first two horses (Stachurska et al, 2006).…”

“…Even opposite opinions on successive movements, after summing up, may result in similarity (Stachurska et al, 2006). Hence, when studying the quality of judging; that is, the agreement or disagreement between the judges, particular movements should be considered.…”

“…A method that evaluates disagreement between judges when ranking horses in dressage was suggested by Niewczas and HulewiczStachurska (1991). The computer procedure of the method was elaborated and first used in freestyle classes (Stachurska et al, 2006). For this method, each judge obtained a personal estimate of judging quality, i.e.…”