Equestrian Canada (EC) has announced the launch of a national ranking system for equestrian sport, which shows where athletes and equines fall on a national competition results leaderboard.

“We are very excited to be able to offer athletes and horse owners the opportunity to see where they rank vis-à-vis their equestrian peers across the country. Until now, they had only been able to see results on an event-by-event basis,” said Meg Krueger, EC CEO. “The national rankings are part of EC’s commitment to offer increased value to our community and we look forward to how it will continue to grow in the years to come. It also represents the successful meeting of a key goal for competition development as set out in our 2018-2022 Strategic Initiatives Plan, as well as alignment with the hard work operational committees are doing regarding athlete development pathways and the EC Rules.”

The rankings currently include results for EC Gold sanctioned competitions in the hunter/jumper and dressage disciplines. Formulas for point calculation are outlined in the EC Rules, Section A: General Regulations and discipline-specific sections. Miscellaneous classes and riders/equines competing on Temporary EC Sport Licences will not be counted. Rankings will be continuously updated as the results are submitted by competition organizers. [Ed. note: which divisions will be included within each discipline is still being finalized in consultation with EC’s discipline committee experts.]

“We will be collaborating closely with our competition organizers to ensure the accuracy of the rankings is paramount,” said Rachel Huebert, Director, Sport Operations. “The mechanisms we have developed will ensure that result submission is easy and timely.”

The ranking system will be hosted in the Competitions & Results portal on the EC website and will go live once results from the 2021 season have submitted by competition organizers. The EC team will continue to develop and expand the current system and national recognition strategies. “This is version 1.0,” explained Huebert. “We’ll expand the rankings features every year and roll out new and innovative ways to recognize the achievements of our athletes, horses and owners.”

The rankings launch has been coordinated with the gradual resumption of competition for the 2021 show season, as competitions in many provinces/territories are still awaiting clearance from public health authorities to resume activity due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.