How is Working Equitation scored?

Two of the four trials are marked, and two are timed.

Working Dressage and Ease of Handling are marked. A judge gives every exercise or obstacle a mark from 0 to 10, then adds collective marks for the ride as a whole. Speed and Cattle are timed. The clock runs, penalties in seconds are added, and there is no judgement of style at all.

Each trial's finishing order is then converted into points, and the points are added together into one placing.

I · The 0 to 10 Scale¶

Working Dressage and Ease of Handling use the same 0 to 10 scale, with a descriptor attached to each whole mark.

Half marks are allowed. Internationally, any mark below 5 has to be justified by the judge in the comments box.

II · How the Working Dressage Test Is Marked¶

The international senior Working Dressage test carries twenty-two compulsory exercises and five collective marks.

Each exercise is marked from 0 to 10 as it is ridden. No coefficient is attached to any of them, so every exercise counts the same as every other. Internationally, the maximum score is 270 points, and the test has to be completed within eight minutes. Anything ridden after that scores zero.

The five collective marks come at the end and assess the ride as a whole.

Paces - freedom and regularity.

Impulsion - the desire to move forward, elasticity of the steps, suppleness of the back and engagement of the hindquarters.

Submission - attention and obedience, lightness and ease of the movements, acceptance of the contact.

Rider - the position and seat of the rider, and the correct use and effectiveness of the aids.

Artistic - the music and the sequence.

The Rider collective mark specifically assesses the rider's position and seat and the correct use and effectiveness of the aids.

The Young Rider and Junior tests are built the same way with different weightings. The international Young Rider protocol gives the first four collective marks a coefficient of two and the presentation mark a coefficient of one, for a maximum of 300 points across a seven-and-a-half-minute test. The international Junior test runs to a maximum of 240 points in the same time.

Read next The rider's position and its collective mark

III · How Ease of Handling Is Marked¶

Every obstacle receives its own mark from 0 to 10, on the same scale, for the quality with which it was ridden.

The mark assesses the quality of the execution as well as completion of the obstacle. Two riders may both open and close the same gate, one on a horse that stays straight, attentive and balanced, the other on a horse that swings its quarters and rushes away. The more balanced, straight and responsive execution receives the stronger mark.

Alongside the obstacle marks, the international protocol carries a note for the course as a whole (the canter, the walk, and the transitions between them) and an overall impression built from four of the same collective marks used in the dressage: paces, impulsion, submission and rider.

The rider's assessment is set out explicitly: position in the saddle, ease of movement and stability, use and effectiveness of the aids, and, in the senior classes, the exclusive use of the left hand.

The Portuguese Manageability test also carries a Course Score, marked from 1 to 10 with a coefficient of two, judging the round as a whole.

IV · How the Speed Trial Is Scored¶

The Speed trial is decided by time, and the time is adjusted.

The clock records the round. Penalties in seconds are added for faults. One bonus is available, and only one: a ring speared on the tip of the pole and returned to the drum with it takes five seconds off.

Speed is decided by adjusted time rather than a quality mark. Accuracy still affects the result because a cleaner line can reduce the distance travelled and avoid time penalties.

Other faults result in disqualification rather than a time penalty.

Read next The Speed trial, with the full penalty tables

V · How the Cattle Trial Is Scored¶

The cattle trial is timed and placed. It is not marked.

Riders are classified by the time taken to complete the trial plus any penalties for faults. There is no mark out of ten anywhere in it: no mark for the cut, none for the drive, none for the team's containment work. The clock and the penalty table settle the order, and the order becomes points.

A rider who exceeds the three-minute limit for a cow is disqualified and scores nothing for it.

Internationally, only the three best results achieved by a team's riders count towards the team classification.

Read next The cattle trial, in full

VI · How Marks Become Points¶

Each trial's finishing order is converted into points on the same principle: a rider scores one point for taking part, and one more for each rider ahead of them.

Internationally, in a class of twenty, that gives 21 points for first, 19 for second, 18 for third, and so on down to a single point for twentieth. The extra point awarded to the winner creates the two-point gap between first and second.

A rider disqualified in a trial is ranked last in it, and counts as one point in every trial that follows.

The Portuguese national rules use the same arithmetic: first place scores one more than the number of competitors, second scores one less than that number, and every place below that drops by one.

Under the Portuguese rules, all tests carry equal weight, a coefficient of one each, for the General Classification.

VII · How Ties Are Broken¶

Internationally, for teams. Highest total points in Working Dressage first, then Ease of Handling, then Speed.

Internationally, for individuals. The classification is ordered first by the number of trials completed, then by the number of points. If riders are still level, it reads the highest placing in Working Dressage, then Ease of Handling, then Speed.

In Portugal. Number of completed tests, then total points, then the Working Dressage percentage, then the Manageability percentage, and finally the Speed trial time.

Both systems use completion and Working Dressage before Ease of Handling and Speed in their respective tiebreak sequences.

VIII · The Judges¶

Five judges sit for a championship dressage or Ease of Handling test, each in a separate booth, each judging independently.

Where there are five, the highest and lowest marks for each rider are excluded, and the score is the average of the remaining three. Results are announced as a percentage after the following rider has gone.

A judge may not be called on to mark more than forty-five athletes in a day in Working Dressage and Ease of Handling, except at world and continental championships with larger fields.

Nobody involved with a competing team may sit on the jury, and a judge with students, colleagues or a business relationship among the riders may not judge them for six months.

IX · A Mark Is a Reading of the Work¶

A score turns a piece of riding into a number. The useful part is understanding what the judge had to see before that number appeared.

Behind the number is a judge reading the quality carried through the work.

For College Members, scoring therefore becomes a way of learning to look more closely.

The mark starts at the visible result, then asks about the qualities inside it. Rhythm, accuracy, balance, responsiveness and the way horse and rider carry the movement all contribute to the picture the judge has in front of them.

That makes a score useful after the test as well as during it. A number can become a clue to what the judge saw, where quality was already present and where more could have been carried through the movement.

The Member study develops that reading so marks become more than results on a sheet. They become another way of understanding the standard the rider is working towards.

Branch One gives Members the standard they are learning to recognise. Branch Three brings the judge's mark into that picture, following how the work in front of the judge becomes a score and what that score says about the quality produced.

The number then becomes evidence of the riding that produced it.