Lights, camera, action! Future of video in sport
Video has been touted as a way of moving equestrian sport forward and welcomed as a protective measure at shows
HOW video can be used to benefit horse sport has been in the spotlight this week after a major international show revealed it had installed surveillance cameras in a collecting ring.
Falsterbo Horse Show in Sweden, which hosts Nations
Cup dressage and showjumping as well as national classes over nine days, had film cameras in the international dressage warm-up.
This follows some high-profile cases in which riders have been accused of abusive riding at shows.
Organising committee member Johan Lenz told H&H it was in the interest of openness, welfare and protection of the sport, and also to ensure the show had its own footage should any allegations be made.
Mr Lenz said they will “definitely” be doing it again.
“There is so much focus on dressage and the dressage warm-
up and I think filming is good support for the stewards and for everybody there,” he said.
He added it helps with the transparency of the sport, plus acts as protection for riders as an unpleasant static image of a moment does not necessarily mean the rider was doing anything wrong.
He said on the other hand if bad practices are happening, they want to be able to stop those, too.
‘POSITIVE MOVE’
THE FEI told H&H it supports the step, and 97% of the 380 people who took part in a survey on horseandhound.co.uk said they believed filming of collecting rings is a good idea.
The warm-up at the Danish dressage championships has been filmed since 2013 to “protect riders, horses and the sport, so we ensure any questionable situations can subsequently be reviewed and discussed with the riders and officials”, explains the Danish Equestrian Federation.
British Dressage (BD) chief executive Jason Brautigam told H&H that the organisation is
“fully supportive” of filming at competitions, including of the warm-up arena.
“The welfare of the horse is at the heart of everything we do and it is vitally important that the standards which apply in the competition arena extend to the warm-up areas too,” he said. “It will help us to protect not just the horse, but riders and officials too, making the integrity of our sport more open and transparent.
“This should be seen as a positive move, to be embraced by riders, trainers, stewards and officials alike. We believe it will have a positive impact on the way riders train their horses in the warm-up, as well as help to highlight the number of excellent, sympathetic riders who already set high standards in their training and riding methods.”
Mr Brautigam said BD occasionally receives complaints from members who have seen poor riding in collecting rings, but it is often difficult to make a judgement without a recording.
“Likewise, stewards and other officials can only take action on the day if there is sufficient evidence, so this allows a more objective assessment,” he said.
“Having an official log enables stewards to be proactive rather than reactive and is much more reliable than amateur filming on a smart phone or similar device.”
VIDEO REPLAY
BRITISH EVENTING’S risk management chairman Jonathan Chapman has suggested that film could be used to improve equestrian sport in other ways.
Some marking of the flying changes at this year’s Badminton came under scrutiny.
Mr Chapman has mooted the idea of having a specialist dressage “video” judge, who would watch a livestream of the test and instantly correct any obvious marking mistakes as they happened. For example, a late change that was missed by one of the other judges.
“Judges don’t deliberately get things wrong, but they are human beings,” he said, giving examples of rugby and tennis as sports that have successfully adopted video into their rules. “It would be there to protect them as well — those judges come in for a slating from people and that is not fair either.
“Equally if they have made a mistake, they want to see the right thing done.”
All that’s needed is for one of the big events to be “brave enough to trial it”, he added.
“The standard is so high now that a lot of horses are jumping double clears and the dressage has even more influence,” he said.
“When you have large sums of money at stake, you cannot rely on this subjectivity, as we have for the last century.”