A 360 degree approach to the training and education we offer our riders is absolutely paramount to enabling The Windrush Equestrian Foundation to offer the level of support we feel is necessary to enable our scholars to have long and successful eventing careers.
As part of this we have joined forces with leaders in Equestrian Sports Data Analysis, EquiRatings to offer each of our riders a tangible method of measuring their performance improvement over the seasons that they are actively part of our programme.
The first thing EquiRatings looked at for our 2019 Windrush Athletes’, Alex Kennedy, Mary Edmondson and Susie Berry, was their international performances compared to their peers (by age group and competition level). We are thrilled to say that all of them had a bigger OBP (opposition beaten percentage) than they had at the end of the preceding two seasons. Each rider and each horse also saw their performance improve (using Simple Metrics as a guide) in at least one of the three eventing phases.
SUSIE BERRY
Susie Berry increased the number of total runs she had in a season as well as at the higher levels (CCI3*-L, CCI4*-S & CCI4*-L). While increasing this number she also improved her average show jumping faults from 4.0 to 2.2 and her OBP at higher levels by 11% (this means she finished ahead of more people). Susie kept the XC Jumping clear rate of all her top horses the same, as well as improving the speed and show jumping metrics of John the Bull and Ringwood LB.
For the rider report, the metrics were defined as follows:
o Runs: All of your international starts in the timeframe/level.
o DR Avg: Your average dressage score in the timeframe/level. Retirements or eliminations were not counted in the average.
o XCJ Clear Rate: Your percentage of clear cross country jumping rounds out of all your cross-country starts during the timeframe/level. Any jumping penalty (e.g runout, flag, etc), retirement, or elimination was counted as an unclear round but time penalties were not considered.
o Avg. XC Time: The average number of time penalties from all your clear cross country completions in the timeframe/level. A clear cross country completion is any round which incurred zero jumping penalties.
o SJJ Avg: The average number of jumping faults from all your international show jumping completions in the timeframe/level. Only jumping faults were counted, time penalties were not considered. Retirements or eliminations were not counted in the calculation.
o OBP: Opponents Beaten Percentage; the total number of opponents you finished ahead of in the timeframe/level, divided by the total number of opponents you faced across all competitions in that timeframe/level. This number is expressed as a percentage. Only competitions where you started the cross-country phase were included, even if the phase or the competition was not completed (in which case, the number of opponents beaten at that competition was zero). The total number of opponents you faced at a competition included all combinations who started the dressage phase of the competition.
For the horse reports, the EquiRatings Simple Metrics were defined as:
o 6RA: Six Run Average; the average of the horse’s six most-recent dressage scores. Retirements or eliminations are not counted in the average.
o XCJ10: The number of clear cross country jumping rounds out of the horse’s 10 most-recent cross-country starts. This number is expressed as a percentage. Any jumping penalty (e.g runout, flag, etc), retirement, or elimination counts as an unclear round but times penalties are not considered.
o TSR: True Speed Rating; the average of the horse’s six lowest cross-country time penalty values from his last 10 cross-country completions. If the horse has fewer than 10 previous cross country completions but more than six, only the six lowest time penalty values are averaged. If the horse has three to six completions, the time penalties from all completions are averaged.
o SJ6: The average number of jumping faults from the horse’s six most-recent show jumping completions. Only jumping faults are counted, time penalties are not considered. Retirements and eliminations are not included in the average.
o OBP6: Opponents Beaten Percentage; the total number of opponents a horse placed ahead of in his last six competitions, divided by the total number of opponents the horse faced at those six competitions. This number is expressed as a percentage. Only competitions where the horse started the cross country phase are included, even if the phase or the competition was not completed (in which case, the number of opponents beaten at that competition was zero). The total number of opponents faced includes all combinations who started the dressage phase of the competition.
The EquiRatings Simple Metrics provide a clear and objective overview of performance. The phase-by-phase breakdown allows our riders, together with mentors Pippa Funnell and Yogi Breisner, to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and the overall performance metric (OBP) allows us to evaluate how well they’ve managed to put all the pieces together.
