Vested Interest

I see (Eventing, June 2005) that Clayton Fredericks has had 400 response to an online survey which queried the FEI scoring system. 99% of respondents preferred the BE system, which gives greater weight to the XC.

Under current FEI scoring dressage scores are multiplies by 1.5, which gives a greater spread of marks, but also gives an advantage to Dressage Queens over cross country riders.

Andrew Hoy, president of the Event Riders Association, has come out against the proposed changes. However his reason seems at first to support the changes.

"I believe that if someone has done a test which is good enough to leave them six marks ahead going into the cross-country, they deserve to be there."

Absolutely right Andrew. Except under current FEI rules if someone has done a test which is six marks better than another rider they are currently nine points ahead going into the cross-country. They certainly don't deserve that.

I personally suspect that Andrew has a vested interest in the current FEI rules, after all Bettina usually relies on her dressage score rather than her sense of direction across country to achieve her results.