Am I right when I think she should keep her hands more still? I am no expert, just getting started again, but that is the main thing my trainer says to me
Yes because 7 or8 world class judges would not have noticed if the horse looks off and when you get the highest scores ever in the grand prix im sure people will notice you to. Oh and than beat them again
Judges often over look impurities of the gates and submission type issues if the combination of horse/rider is popular enough. Like Valegro does not use his front legs evenly, one lifts higher and reaches farther than the other. Also it is the same with the hind but there is not mention of that. It can even be compared to Totilas, the difference in leg movement between pairs. Matthias does not get penalized for that nor does he get penalized for the constant gaping mouth. So there are many other countless examples I can think of that the world class, top judges, have swept under the rug because the pair is popular.
Valegro and his rider are very popular en because of that the judges pretend to not see all those errors, or penalize them less then they would do with an unpopular combination. Records don't really mean all that much and every horse can have an off day. This surely was an off day for Valegro, and he deserves way more penalties than the judges gave him. But still, judging is still the work of humans and humans aren't flawless. It's really hard to be a judge on such a competition and everyone wants to see his favorite win. This is not only a shame for dressage, but also makes competitions like this less exciting. Underdogs can't simply set a wonderful performance and win, because every little mistake they makes gets penalized whilst a favorites like Valegro get little to no penalties for the same type of error. Also, dressage is VERY hard. Although this combination doesn't deserve the amount of points given, a horse not lifting his legs to equal heights can be something that the horse's just not good at. This deserves to be penalized but not 'this is a shame for dressage because the horse is not properly trained with the good way' and I don't know what more people often say about this. It's a mistake, a common mistake which deserves attention and training, just like Charlotte might need some work with Valegro on the flying changes.
