FEI on defensive over scoring of Werth in freestyle dressage

International Equestrian Federation (FEI) officials have defended their decision to award Germany's Isabell Werth a high score, despite a major mistake by her horse, Satchmo, during the final round of the individual dressage competition on Tuesday.

Werth (pictured) won the silver medal with a score of 76.650, although at one stage it looked as if she would get lower marks from the five judges on the ground jury after Satchmo spooked early in the 10-minute freestyle routine.

Mystified media, especially those from the US, who had watched American Steffen Peters finish an almost faultless display on Ravel and score 74.150, demanded an explanation as to how a rider who had almost made a 'catastrophic mistake' got a better score than someone who had no errors.

'Her [Werth's] degree of difficulty was much higher than Peters,' explained Gotthilf Riexinger, the jury president. 'Yes, she made a big mistake, but her routine was much harder.'

Werth, who had won team gold with Germany, was almost unseated when Satchmo 'got scared' while doing a piaffe pirouette. But luckily for Werth it didn't matter in the final analysis.

'The piaffe only counted for one point,' said Riexinger. 'Her passage and transitions were also much better than Peters'.'

Peters was edged out of the medal tables by German Heike Kemmer by 0.305 per cent.