Dressage bias behind O'Connor gold

After a poor dressage, Britain's Stark had no chance

American David O'Connor, riding Custom Made, was a deserving winner of the gold medal in the individual three-day event.

But, as the BBC's Lee McKenzie reports, his victory also highlighted a weakness in the scoring system.

Full marks to David O'Connor and Custom Made - over the three days of competition they were clearly the best, and most consistent, combination.

But the result was effectively decided by just one of the three phases - the dressage.

Whereas the cross-country and show-jumping sections are assessed by jumping and time penalties, the dressage score is decided by the opinion of three judges - who rate each movement with a mark between zero and ten.

Independent judges

They are highly skilled in their observations, and act independently of one another, but a point or two here or there can make all the difference.

This is particularly obvious when, as was the case at the Olympic event, the top riders and horses are unlikely to acquire too many penalties during the cross-country and show-jumping.

The cross-country course presented a stiff challenge of a horse's jumping ability, but it was being completed by many of them well within the allotted time.

And, on the final day, the show-jumping circuit was the sort where they were more likely to knock down just the odd fence rather than three or four.

Incredible

This weighted the competition in favour of the dressage test, in which O'Connor posted an incredible score of 29 penalty points. Forty is normally considered a good mark, and no-one at Horsley Park could ever remember a score in the twenties.

By the end of the first day, he already had a huge lead over all his rivals and from then on was clear favourite to win.

Of course, there was always a chance he could pick up extra penalty points during the cross-country or show-jumping. But most of the top combinations coped well with both those phases, and the American always had too much in hand.

He even managed to lose his way during the show-jumping and still complete the course without time penalties!

Perfect test

The three-day event is a perfect all-round test of horse and rider, employing all the disciplines required to demonstrate perfect horsemanship.

O'Connor and Custom Made deserved to win, but on this occasion the dressage seemed to have too much influence on the result.