Paperless Judging Implemented for World Cup Western European Series Beginning at Madrid

6 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Paperless Judging Implemented for World Cup Western European Series Beginning at Madrid
Dressage judge Susanne Baarup of Denmark and escribe at Madrid World Cup. © 2018 Cora Causemann

MADRID, Nov. 24, 2018–Paperless judging to enable virtually instant results is being impemented at the World Cup Western European League series events beginning with Madrid Horse Week Grand Prix Saturday.

The system dubbed eDressage will be used at the remaining six qualifying events in Western Europe as well as the Final in Gothenburg, Sweden next April.

It was created by Black Horse One of Munich, Germany that partnered with global software company SAP to develop spectator judging now used around the world. Black Horse also developed with FEI judge Katrina Wüst of Germany and other judges the Degree of Difficulty program for freestyles that is also in use at all Western European World Cup musical performances and is scheduled for all Big Tour freestyles at the upcoming Adequan Global Dressage Festival of seven weeks of CDIs in Wellington, Florida.

Paperless judging, said Cora Causemann of Black Horse, is based on feedback and suggestions of International Equestrian Federation (FEI) officials, riders and organizations. The first experimental use was at Florida’s Global in 2016 and underwent successful trials at CDIs in Aachleiten, Austria; Cappeln, Germany and Leudelange, Luxembourg last summer.

The FEI decided to take the next step by implementing the new technology for the prestigious FEI dressage
World Cup series in western Europe.

“Data is handled securely and stored safely in the SAP cloud platform,” Cora said.

“eDressage works with secured and encrypted communication and benefits from the experience of the Spectator Judging app coinnovated by Black Horse One and SAP. Marks are immediately transmitted to the nearest server and judges sign off score sheets directly on iPads.”

Another major benefit of the system in addition to instant results is a reduction of up to seven persons per competition, fewer people in judges’ huts.

The speed of results can also significantly reduce time between the end of a competition and awards ceremonies and achieve a major goal of maintaining fan engagement.

After Madrid, the World Cup events to use the paperless system are: Salzburg, Austria; London Olympia; Mechelen, Belgium; Amsterdam; Neumünster, Germany; ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and Gothenburg.