Ronan Murphy, Brand New FEI Dressage Director, Reflects on Riesenbeck and the State of the Sport

Dressage

FEI

Ronan Murphy, the brand new FEI Dressage Director, attended his first major continental FEI Dressage Championship in his new role in Riesenbeck. In a press conference held on the concluding day of competition, 10 September, the Irishman shared his thoughts on the show and the future of dressage.

Murphy started his new job on 1 July 2023 and came to Riesenbeck to meet all stakeholders in dressage and para dressage.

On the European Championships

"It’s been fantastic Championships here in Riesenbeck and more than that: It’s been the people, Karsten and Ludger and the team, but also all of our staff, the collaborators, the volunteers, our athletes. It’s been a really fantastic Championship. You know, like all things you meet challenges, but it’s about how you deal with them and solve them. And this week, I have to say, no matter what has come to us, it’s been possible with this ‘can-do-attitude’. And I think it’s actually a changing point for our sport, to have such a level and we need to move the bar higher. And that’s what we want to aim for the future.”

On the FN Info-Stewards

The concept of FN info stewards was first established at the CDIO Aachen in 2019 and repeated every year since. Experts in the sport are available to answer questions from spectators about the training in the warm-up

"When you look at the athletes across all of the disciplines, the dressage, the para, the different grades – the big thing is the bond between those athletes and their horse. It doesn’t matter which competition, there is such a bond there and sometimes we get so up on an outside perception that maybe someone genuinely feels inside but we need to explain and communicate them what is actually happening and allow them to see inside of our sport a little bit. In think that’s really important. This initial from the German Federation I think is to be recommended and the more we can do of that the better for educating everybody of our sport.”

About AI in Judging in the Future

“I think that AI and technology are always really interesting and developing fast. And I think it would be wrong to say that it’s either-or, but these technologies we continue to review them and to enhance and assist. Our sport relies very strongly on our judges and I think the judging here this week has been absolutely fantastic and that’s really a key thing to ensure that it’s good sport. These technologies are there to assist, we use them in veterinary inspections, we use them in all sorts of ways, and I think if they add something to our sport, of cause we will look to that. But at the moment we are completely relying on the knowledge and expertise of our fabulous judging panels.”

Isabell Werth Rings In

German Olympian attended the press conference where Ronan uttered these words and she rung in on AI for judging

“It’s very interesting to see how it improves and how we can use it as a tool and as an assistant for our judging system," said Werth. "There’s always something to get better at, there’s always something to discuss. And I think whatever we can use to make it more objective, to make it more transparent, that helps and would be a good idea.”