Irish riders address equestrian top brass
IRISH international event rider Sam Watson and his business associate Diarmuid Byrne of leading Irish fledgling company Equiratings are this afternoon’s guest speakers at the FEI Sports Forum being held at the equestrian federation’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Watson and Byrne set up Equiratings in 2015 with a view to using analysis of athletes and horses’ performance history in a bid to reduce the risk of falls in eventing.
Using a form tracking system called the EquiRatings Quality Index (ERQI), they have analysed over 150,000 results worldwide across all levels of competition. The output shows a strong correlation between a low ERQI and the likelihood of a horse incurring penalties, elimination and falls in the cross-country phase.
Eventing Ireland was the first to trial the system in 2016 and it yielded significant results, resulting in the reduction of falls at twostar level by 66%.
The ERQI system is now monitoring and tracking all horses competing at EI national competitions. It will highlight horses showing signs of being uncomfortable at a particular level (ie frequently incurring cross-country jumping penalties).
The ERQI system will restrict entries of horses that are showing an unsatisfactory level of performance at a given level.
Last week Equiratings signed a four-year agreement with the FEI and will analyse data from the FEI database to measure and help manage risk for both horses and riders in eventing, starting at four-star level.
The agreement will also see the FEI and EquiRatings further collaborating on horse welfare and data analysis projects in endurance, formalising exploratory work between the parties over the last 12 months.
EquiRatings director Diarmuid Byrne commented: “Managing risk in equestrian sports is a collective responsibility and we are delighted to be working alongside the FEI as we all play our part. This official partnership shows the ongoing commitment of the FEI and the FEI Risk Management Steering Group to new measures and tools. We will also be working with a number of national federations around the world in 2017 to implement ERQIs at national level.”