Proposed new level qualifications and their implications

Welcome to Sporthorse.tv 's dressage forum! My name is Kara and I'll be helping out with the discussions and questions on the community forums. If there is anything that you would like to bring up for discussion, or question that you would like to have answered, I'm here to help! The first topic that I would like to tackle is the proposed new requirements for advancement through the levels. How would this effect you, and how do you think that it would effect the sport? Would it turn off riders from other disciplines i.e. three day  eventing, where would riders competing at preliminary and above be placed in the new system?  Could it change the growth of the sport?  Comments and discussion on this and any topic is always encouraged, feel free to join in!

Kara, in many ways this proposal seems fair to me... although accumulating 20 points all from Second Level may make this a costly endeavor and a time-consuming task for riders who may happen to be well-qualified but who own one horse and have been bringing it up through the levels at the time this proposal takes effect. In doing the math conservatively, if a rider rides one test per show for qualification purpose and scores 2/3 points for that ride for each single judge show, that means 6-10 shows to accumulate the points needed to move up. I pulled out the calculator and the financial costs involved for this scenario range between roughly $1,800-$3,000 depending on whether you trailer in or stable, not including fuel or hotels if needed. This also assumes no rides with scores lower than 2 points A more ambitious route of riding 2 tests per show that attained 2/3 points per ride could bring costs down incrementally and move the rider up more quickly. I'm assuming that the points "rollover" like cell phone minutes to the next competition year. That said, it's possible that lack of understanding of this proposal on the part of riders could put a dampening effect on local regional shows and turn off the more "recreational" competitors.

I suppose that a possible solution is that there will be more "casual"  competitors at unrated shows, but those that wish to compete seriously in more than one discipline will have to see if there is a solution to the qualification points system. Perhaps there could be equivocal points between dressage shows and events. For example; if a rider has a certain score at a specific level at an event ( i.e. a 30 at training level) it could equal the same as 2 point ride at a dressage show.