The multivariate choreography of the pointless FEI noseband check

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FEI stewards are on an impossible mission. They have to be of service to the riders but they also have the job of protecting the horses against abuse from those same riders. As scientific evidence has emerged that competition horses are suffering from excessively tight nosebands, a new and thankless job has been added to the list for the stewards. They now have to be seen to perform noseband checks on nosebands which we all know are too tight to pass. And the stewards have to do this without embarrassing the riders or - Heaven forbid - give out any yellow cards for abuse. In 2016, photographer Crispin Parelius Johannessen decided to document the elaborate theater that is the mandatory noseband check. Here is what he found.