There have been ‘FEI Directives for FEI Dressage Competitions for 5, 6 and 7-year old horses’ in place since January 1st 2019. This document specifies mandatory rules to be followed by judges while judging young horses’ competitions (yes, directive means it is compulsory, contrary to guidelines). The Directives describes minor and fundamental mistakes which should be under thorough scrutiny of judges. In this document we read that ‘Fundamental mistakes will generally lead to lower marks being awarded.’ One of the fundamental mistakes defined in this document for both 5 and 6 year old horses is ‘Lack of clear three-beat in canter including counter canter‘.
Lack of clear three-beat in canter - diagonal dissociation
The canter is a pace where we can identify three-beats of hooves landing on the ground (and one beat of airtime/suspension with all hooves off the ground). The correct sequence of foot placing as defined be FEI rules is:
• outside hind leg,
• diagonal pair of the inside hind and the outside front legs,
• leading inside front leg.
Sometimes, when skilled observer studies foot placing sequence of particular horse, there is a doubt if diagonal hooves do contact the ground simultaneously. These cases find evidence in horses’ canter video recordings. If analyzed in slow-motion, pretty often diagonal pair of legs does not land at the same time on the ground. This occurrence is called Diagonal Advanced Placement (DAP).
As there are two legs in diagonal, this missing unisono may be due to either front leg or hind leg advanced placement. From the scientific studies and training practice we know that horses with hind leg advanced placement, called Positive DAP, achieve higher scores from judges and are highly demanded as dressage prospects.
Contrary, the front leg advanced placement, called Negative DAP, is often innate deficiency of the horse (horse is born with such conformation and biomechanics) or may be observed for horse trained not in line with training pyramid.
Positive DAP is associated with uphill movement, improved horse balance and increased load on hind legs. Of course, this positive dressage phenomenon shall not be punished by judges. However, Negative DAP is associated with increased load on shoulders resulting in downhill tendency. As such, it should be reflected in lower marks as described in the Directives. However, the Directives is not precise if only Negative or both DAPs should be awarded lower marks.
How much the mark should be lowered?
Unfortunately, there is no rule in the Directives specifying how much the score should be lowered in case horse demonstrated Negative DAP. Of course, there is the FEI Dressage Handbook which specifies, that lack of clear three-beat counter rhythm should be scored no more than 5.0. However, this is just Handbook, which is not used by judges and is not obligatory.
Real live examples of scoring
So let’s look at canter quality and scoring during 2021 WBFSH Young Horses Championships in Dressage in Verden. I have conducted visual analysis of both classes qualifiers made publicly available by FEI on youtube under the address:
5 yo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx4SJv3ImDc
6 yo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnY8-4RNKWs
The platform offers the feature to slow down the video up-to 25% of original speed. With such a slow-motion presentation everyone can see the occurrence of both Negative and Positive DAP. In my exercise, I have looked for horses demonstrated Negative DAP persistently throughout all canter exercises (with different degree of dissociation but constantly or nearly constantly present). In the following list I did not include horses with only incidental Negative DAP as it could be attributed to the loss of balance or temporary contact issues. The horses are presented in alphabetical order including scores awarded for canter:
Qualification for 5yo horses
- Bella Maxima 6.8
- DSP Big Bang 7.5
- Danciero 10.0
- Hesselhoej Down Town 9.5
- Las Vegas 9.5
- Lemirah-Gonda 7.5
- Lightning Star 9.2
- Lord Platinum 7.8
- Malcom X de Massa 7.3
- Slaughter JB 6.8
- Van Damme 7.5
Qualification for 6yo horses
- Atterupgaards Spiderman 8.0
- Bavalou 7.2
- Dancier Gold 8.4
- De Angelo 8.0
- Diamantina 6.8
- Fürst Kennedy 8.5
- Kind Pleasure 7.8
- King van het Haarbosch 8.0
- Kycara 7.0
- Kyro Hot Sway 7.5
- Logo's Gaya 7.6
- Parodie Ter Dolen 7.5
If my observation is correct, there is no correlation between canter score and broken three-beat rhythm. The horses which present four-beat canter are awarded full spectrum of notes between 6.8 up to 10! I guess this is clear indication that clarity of three-beat canter rhythm is not taken under consideration by judges.
Can Negative DAP be spotted by judges?
The simple test was conducted with the objective to determine whether Negative DAP can be identified just by observation. I have presented a sample of horses from analyzed video coverage published on youtube to few non-equestrian observers. Presentation was in a normal speed. I have asked, if they can see if the diagonal pair of legs hits ground simultaneously or not. Surprisingly, these observers could differentiate (or lucky guess?) over 50% of cases out of 10 presented with Negative DAP. Moreover, the sample included horses without Negative DAP. There were hardly any cases of false positives! To me that was a simple proof that it is possible to identify at least large portion of four-beat canter, especially by trained professional judges.
Is the adequacy of canter beat deficiencies judging a real issue or this is purely academical biomechanics theory problem?
WBFSH Championships for Young Horses is both sport and breeding event. Stallions rewarded with high scores gain interest and leave their genetical heritage in hundreds of offspring. By appropriate and objective judging the promotion of Positive DAP and elimination of Negative DAP should be ensured. Mares, to smaller extend, but still will continue their genetical heritage including potential innate deficiencies in canter. Clearly, this is a vital interest of breeders, riders and dressage in whole, to have Negative DAP effectively identified and properly scored.
The Directives and FEI Dressage rules are clear. Four-beat canter shall ‘lead to lower marks being awarded’ for young horses and any horses competing at any FEI event. And we all know that the rules should be followed. However, everything in our lives is a bit more sophisticated than simple math, we need to deal with shades of grey, not only black and white colors.
I have looked again at horses with Negative DAP and asked myself whether I would like to ride any of those horses or use any of those stallions on my mares. I did ask few friends who are FEI riders the same question. And for large portion of those horses the answer was positive. I guess that again dressage proved to be not just a sport in which you can measure result in seconds and centimeters. This is an art which makes our hearts beat quicker when we enter stable, which gets us excited while watching young horses competition, which makes us dream about future stars when selecting the stallion for our mares, and spend weeks and fortunes to find this perfect foal which will bring us to WBFSH World Championships for Young Horses.
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