Various authors (Deuel and Russek-Cohen, 1995; Whitaker and Hill, 2005) have highlighted that the locations of competitions run at the same competitive level are exerting a non-random effect on scoring patterns within equine eventing competition. Consequently when mean scores are used as comparative measures between competitions some event locations are observed to result in significantly lower mean penalty scores than other event locations. This differentiation in scoring patterns between event locations may be useful from a sporting perspective. Experienced competitors are able to make informed decisions about the relative ease (when using potential penalty score as a measure) of an event location with regard to the development and experience of the horse they will be riding. A problem however is apparent when the subsequently collated competition data is used to make decisions regarding the relative breeding worth of an animal. Some animals may have been exposed to event locations where mean penalty scoring is lower. An inaccurate comparative analysis may therefore be made between the animals. This study investigates whether event location exerts a significant difference in mean penalty scoring patterns at a specific level of eventing - CCI 4 star.