EQUESTRIAN SPORTS PERFORMANCE METRICS:

PER (Performance Efficiency Rating) is a simple metric formula to recognize a different dimension of success in equestrian sport: performance efficiency. Designed to work alongside existing ranking systems, PER helps create a more complete view of equestrian performance.

Traditional rankings tell us who earned the most points and celebrate cumulative achievement throughout a season. By measuring average points per show, PER complements those rankings by highlighting riders who consistently maximize their opportunities and earn the highest average return on each competition appearance. Recognizing competitive efficiency, consistency, and achievement per opportunity!

This simple PER ranking formula and new metrics can be applied to ALL official ranking systems and organizations! Your local State wide points collection or USHJA and USEF's standings!!

Who accumulated the most points in a season, CONGRATULATIONS!

+  Who earned the most points per opportunity in a season, CONGRATULATIONS!

Because Efficiency is a form of Excellence. In a sport where opportunities vary greatly based on geography, time, and resources, PER provides an additional lens through which performance efficiency can be recognized and celebrated.

PER is about recognizing Excellence when opportunity is unequal. 

Travel budget, trainer schedule, school commitments, horse health, family obligations, and geography all affect how many opportunities a rider has to collect points over one season. A performance-efficiency ranking doesn’t erase those realities, limitations or commitments made—it simply shines a light on competitive results independent of the volume of shows competed and total points accumulated over an unlimited amount of shows competed over the entire season.

It does not diminish participation. It helps measure excellence with a different set of metrics.

It’s a performance measurement.

This way: Traditional rankings recognize accumulated achievement through total points earned & PER complements those rankings by measuring competitive performance relative to opportunities competed, providing a clearer view of efficiency, consistency, and results throughout a season.

Both Points Total & PER Ratings coexist with their own set of Champions and Awards, making the Sport more accessible and competitive.

PER requires a minimum amount of 8 A rated shows attended per rider, per division in a season in order to collect a solid baseline of metrics that can produce a telling average per show (PER Performance Efficiency Ranking,) this while keeping the goal obtainable to a much greater pool of riders. All additional shows performed beyond the minimum required 8 are recorded as part of the PER ranking.  These combined metrics will determine:

- PER's Champion in each division,

- PER's Reserve Champion in each division,

- PER's TOP 10 riders.

This rating system processes official USHJA/USEF show rankings per rider and horse combination, per division, per show season - providing a parallel ranking that offers an average per show points system that rewards maximizing performance opportunities (when unable to attend 20 shows a year to accumulate participation and sustained success.)

- Tie-breaker #1  Fewest shows attended 

- Tie-breaker #2  Higher total ranking points 

- Tie-breaker #3  Greater number of wins 

- Tie-breaker #4  Greater number of top-3 finishes

As a family with a young competitive rider, that emerged from the USHJA OUTREACH program in 2021 as a high point rider; we noticed overtime that the established rankings measure one thing very well—accumulated achievement—but they do not measure performance efficiency. That is why we started calculating her per show averages over the years in order to better understand her performance. A rider accomplishing the same amount of points in double the amounts of shows- does NOT give a complete understanding of performance efficiency.

For instance: True story, consider 2 riders tied on total points in 17th place in their division, nationally. One has accumulated these points over 5 shows, the other rider- over 17 shows. Traditional rankings view them equally. PER recognizes that their performance efficiency differs. And this of course, is just one example of many... We believe this is a metric that would benefit MANY other competitive riders that want to better understand where they are at with regards to their performance and help them thrive.  

PER is a valuable added metric to existing rankings that sums up an average per show- in order to highlight Performance Efficiency aside from Accumulated Achievement. 

PER complements the rankings with extra fascinating data, as accumulated points do not necessarily reflect competitive performance efficiency, as illustrated above.