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Compete Easy Comes to Maryland Paperless Event Scoring Debuts at the Maryland Horse Trials’ MDHT II
O
n July 10 & 11, the Maryland Horse Trials entered a new realm by going paperless in its scoring for all three phases of its event, the fi rst time for a horse trial in the United
States. Not only was scoring paperless, it was also truly live, al- lowing competitors, families and fans to follow along up to the minute, rather than waiting for a website to be updated at random. Australia’s beloved compe- tition management system, Nominate, had come to Maryland as Compete Easy. When Maryland’s Governor Hogan be-
gan relaxing COVID-19 restrictions on outdoor sports such as horseback riding, Carolyn Mackin- tosh, owner and organizer of the Maryland Horse Trials, began looking for ways to keep interaction between people to a minimum. Competitors were thrilled with the opportunity to compete again, but Carolyn realized the same was not true for the volunteers, many of whom were hesitant to work in close contact with others. An article by Captain Mark Phillips in a British eventing maga- zine about a popular paperless entry and compe- tition management system in Australia caught her attention, and Carolyn contacted the company to learn more.
In the early 2000s, one of the founders
of the results are paramount. The FEI has a list of certifi ed system and IT providers (
https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/it-services/ it-providers/list) and Compete Easy is one of only three providers certifi ed for eventing. Certifi cation is not a simple process.
Trying It Out Always the innovator, Carolyn liked what she
of Compete Easy, a long-time eventer, admitted that he had a problem... he was terrible at get- ting in his entries to competitions on time and properly. He also realized that events had a similar problem... letting competitors know their times and other information in a timely fashion. It re- ally hit home when he sent off his entry to the Melbourne Three- Day Event and he did not hear back to fi nd out if his entry was accepted. Three days before the jog, he still hadn’t heard. It was a two-day drive from his home in Queensland to Melbourne, so he called the show secretary who confessed that she was a little backed up, but he had been ac- cepted. Widespread use of internet was still na- scent, but he saw its potential and started asking event secretaries if they would mind if he tried a new way to send in entries using the internet, and thus began what is known as Nominate in Austra- lia (Compete Easy in North America). Eventers in Australia don’t send in their entries to a competi- tion, they Nominate them.
Security Matters Entering competitions online is nothing
new. Competitors love the ease of having their information stored in one place. For competi- tion management, online entries still have to be checked for completeness and accuracy, which requires a lot of staff hours. One of the features that Carolyn really appreciated about Compete Easy was that “a competitor can’t complete sending an entry until all the paperwork is up- loaded.” In other words, no signature pages? A competitor’s entry is not yet in. Carolyn added that “the staff can focus on other things when they are not spending their time checking to make sure that a competitor has all the paperwork complete.” No more posting on the website lists of missing items from each competitor. While the convenience factor makes online entry systems popular, the security of competitors’ information and the integrity
From the Jumping app, Jump judges can quickly record a competitor’s score. Offi cials can even request that certain fences be captured on video
for later review.
With the Compete Easy app, you can manage your entries and see the results.
heard from the staff at Compete Easy and de- cided to try the system at her winter derbies. Competitors would enter the derbies through Compete Easy. They could check into the show upon arrival through the Compete Easy app on their phones, which helped reduce contact with the offi ce staff, a necessity during the pre-vaccine days of COVID-19. Because the derbies are a hy- brid competition, Compete Easy programmers worked to adapt the scoring system to the derby requirements. Volunteer jump judges download- ed the Compete Easy app onto their phones or tablets and scored riders electronically. To see how regular volunteer scribes and judges would adapt to the electronic scoring, Loch Moy hosted pop-up schooling shows. Local riders had the chance to ride in an easy-going show, while judges and scribes practiced the new system. Translating the time-honored role of the dressage scribe from ink and paper to computer sounds
complicated, but the Compete Easy system opted for writing on a tablet, rather than typing on a computer. For the scribe, it’s a more familiar method, and Compete Easy even lets the scribe choose for left or right handed and fi ne tune the stylus control. Because of the time difference, the staff in Aus-
tralia connected Carolyn to Helen Richardson of Oakhurst Farm in Canada. Helen had used Com- pete Easy for her shows and liked it so much that she was hired to become the North American representative. “Helen was great!” said Carolyn “She could walk us through the system and she understood the issues our competitors had when using the app. She could look at our classes in real time and help us correct any problems.” Once everyone was comfortable, Carolyn be- gan using the Compete Easy system at other Loch Moy events, like the PYTPYT Dressage and Jumper shows, as well as the starter horse trials.
There’s An App For That
Anyone who has ever competed or worked at a horse trial with “live scoring” knows that “live” is a relative term. Scores are entered on to paper sheets in all phases and then brought back to the
offi ce periodically and entered in to a scoring pro- gram and then - fi nally - uploaded to a website. The Compete Easy app removes all of the paper handling and the scores are entered directly in to an app at the source, meaning that scores can be actually live. Movement by movement, and jump
by jump. This type of “live scoring” is something we have never had before.
No Internet - No Problem. Other systems rely on a permanent internet connection
in order to process scores. The Compete Easy system is based on apps, so if the internet drops out or the user is in a spot where
36 | AUGUST 2021 | THE EQUIERY YOUR MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL PUBLICATION 800-244-9580 |
www.equiery.com
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