There’s no place in the world like Aachen, Germany, for horse sports. The facilities, the huge, knowledgeable spectator base, and the history there make riding in Aachen a special experience. Many changes were implemented at Aachen to make this FEI World Equestrian Games (see p. 8) more exciting and more practical for the venue. While these decisions were well thought out and were great for the spectators, some of them will have a lasting impact on the sport.

The decision to give two individual medals in dressage–one for the Grand Prix Special, and one for the freestyle test–was one such change. Competitors qualified to continue after the Grand Prix test and started over with a blank slate each day. This format meant that a rider could rally after a so-so test and still have a shot at an individual medal the next day. The two World Champions, Isabell Werth and Anky van Grunsven, said the competition was more exciting. Every day the riders had to go all out if they wanted an individual medal. There was no holding back because your score from the day before was high enough to win with a safe test on the following day.

Changes appeared in eventing as well. Some people believed that the short format–eliminating roads and tracks and steeplechase–was instituted with Aachen in mind since the venue has a limited amount of land. The cross-country course was deemed very “modern” by all the riders. It asked lots of technical questions with little let-up. Aachen doesn’t have the space for a big galloping course with questions that test a horse and rider on sheer determination and guts, so each combination was a gymnastic exercise that could only be answered by a focused rider, schooled in accuracy. Lots of horses had run-outs, and many of them were ridden by the legends of the sport. But no horse flipped, no rider was seriously injured, and at the end of the day the cross-country scores did play a major part in the competition.

So, it’s perfect, right? Not quite. These changes do make the two sports easier to understand and more exciting for the spectators, and, for eventing, the changes make the sport safer for the horse and allows for venues with less land to hold championships.

But the repercussions of these changes may move us away from the original qualities and objectives of the two sports. By adding separate medals in dressage, the reward for consistency over three days is removed. This new format encourages the riders to work for the electric test that’s so exciting to watch because the horse will either sparkle or blow up. And all of those technical questions on cross-country leave little room for a great galloping horse to prove his mettle. It’s more of an event derby with show jumping questions spread out around the countryside.

I’m certainly not advocating we remove the freestyle or go back to cross-country courses that were dangerous for horse and rider. If the choice is the demise of dressage or eventing versus making these changes, I’m all for them.

But there’s a part of me that’s sad about these changes. Money, land and sponsorship are all harsh realities of today’s horse world. Yet I can’t help feeling that many of the changes being made to make eventing and dressage more spectator friendly erode some of the characteristics that make those sports so special. I’d hate to see the bond between rider and horse that allows him to follow each cue invisibly or jump out into space because he trusts his rider get lost in the quest to draw in spectators.

Sara Lieser