Proposal to have officials in riders' tent at major events

The idea is that a ground jury member could benefit from the feedback of top competitors

- LUCY ELDER

HAVING a member of the ground jury based in the riders’ tent at major horse trials was suggested by top British coach Chris Bartle as a possible way to improve the sport.

Nick Burton, who has been on multiple Olympic and fivestar ground juries, and Chris discussed ideas to improve both safety and competition, at the FEI eventing online seminar (20 January).

The riders’ tent has TV screens where coaches, competitors and their connections are able to watch the action at top international fixtures. It is usually a busy environment, filled with a collectively vast amount of knowledge in the sport’s top riders.

Chris, Britain’s eventing high-performance coach, put forward the idea that a ground jury member should watch from the tent to make better use of this expertise.