Is U.S. Dressage Following The Correct Path?
By: George Williams for The Chronicle of the Horse
With a plethora of championships just concluded and others on the horizon, our columnist wonders if dressage is taking the right course.
For dressage, this has been the summer of championships. Fully one third of the season has been taken up by championships of one sort or another.
Some of us have been running from one to the next in a non-stop marathon. It raises questions: Where are we going? Where exactly is the finish line? Short term, for this year at least, the goal is the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games this fall, but after that what are our long-term goals?
The Markel/USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championships and the USEF National Developing Horse Dressage Championship, along with the USEF Dressage Seat Medal Finals in Illinois kicked off the championship season.
The following week the Adequan FEI North American Junior And Young Rider Championships started in Kentucky and then immediately the big one for us, the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of Champions in New Jersey, which features national championships for juniors, young riders, the Brentina Cup, the national Intermediaire championships and Grand Prix held in conjunction with the USEF Selection Trials for the WEG.
The dates of the WEG, Olympic Games and Pan Am Games always affect the timing of the selection trials. One reason is the deadline for the Nominated Entry form. Each country has a deadline to inform the Fédération Equestre Internationale of the initial list of horse/rider combinations they are considering entering. The final list, or Definite Entry, isn’t due until a little later.
Other factors determining the dates of the selection trials include how far out we want the horses competing as well as the timeframe for travel from the United States to Europe and back again so they’re well rested and prepared. Of course, everyone has opinions on what the ideal time frame should be, and that’s where we have to let experience be our guide.
The State Of Dressage
One of the reasons behind tying the championships into the selection trials is very simple—by having all age groups competing at their respective international levels together in one place, we have the opportunity to observe the state of dressage from budding to accomplished international riders.
Current, and possibly future, team riders have a chance to meet while the younger riders can watch and learn from the older, more seasoned ones.
There’s no doubt the Festival of Champions is a special event, which more often than not is held at a special venue, the USET Foundation headquarters in Gladstone, N.J. The U.S. Equestrian Team history practically oozes out of every crevice of the historic building.
While watching the schooling this year, I sat beside a trainer from Europe. He mentioned it was his first time to Gladstone, and he commented on the atmosphere of camaraderie and team spirit surrounding the competition. Having competed in these championships over the years, it was heart warming to hear others recognize the spirit that I always felt permeated throughout the landmark
One shouldn’t be fooled and think it’s all chumminess and smiles, however; for when it gets right down to it, the riders are serious and are there to give it their all. The stakes are high. Every rider, owner and groom has strived hard to earn the right to be here. Sometimes in the heat of it, it’s difficult to remember they’re all champions for making it, and that, after all, it really is about the journey.
For some people the journey begins with a young horse. The USEF National Young Horse Championships have been held each summer since 2002. This year I had the opportunity to compete in them for the first time. It was an enlightening experience.
Like all endeavors of this kind, it was a bit of a roller coaster. Compared to the Grand Prix, though, I must say it’s a shorter ride. For me, it was a very short ride because I was on a 4-year-old. You just don’t have many years to prepare your horse.
To be successful, the 4-year-olds need to have good minds. You don’t want to show them into the ground and use them up. Especially if you’re in it for the long term and you hope that someday they’ll be a good Grand Prix horse.
In my mind the program’s strength lies in the interest created in young horses of quality, which are being brought along in a correct manner. A weakness is the potential of forcing a horse into a mold.
For instance, the horse must have the strength and balance to carry itself to do 10-meter half circles at the trot by 4, do simple changes by 5 and flying changes by 6. While the introduction of movements for the training and the development required by these tests may be a good guideline for how a horse should advance through the years, not all horses progress the same way. Some may require extra time to develop strength or to learn a flying change. So this program may not be for every horse.
Increasing Benefits
A specialized program like this requires an educational side for the judges as well. Due to a qualifying process that utilizes numerous shows throughout the country, there’s a demand for judges trained in analyzing the faults, determining the overall quality and predicting the potential of young horses. This is no easy task.
The qualifying process seeks to make qualifying shows accessible to competitors throughout our large country. The short six-month time frame for qualification and to gain a spot on the final ranking list (based on scores) requires a large number of experienced judges. Consistency in the judging is needed to enable us to fairly compare scores and to give beneficial feedback to the competitors. Even though the qualifying classes may be held at smaller shows, it’s part of a championship program where there’s a lot at stake for owners, riders and breeders.
It would be nice if over time the program could more directly benefit the U.S. breeders. From the start I think it’s helped our breeders indirectly by creating a more knowledgeable market, providing incentives to continue to improve the quality of breeding and it’s sparked interest in the starting of young horses. A side benefit has been the growth in the numbers of young horse riders and trainers.
I don’t keep track of the numbers, and I’m certainly not a statistician, but a quick glance at the program in 2010 revealed some interesting information. The number of horses in each division listing the United States as the “country of birth” were as follows:
- 4-year-olds—8 out of 15 competing
- 5-year-olds—4 out of 14 competing
- 6-year-olds—5 out of 14 competing
My hope and guess is that over time we’ll see these numbers become even higher. In 2010, German-bred horses dominated the numbers with 21 out of 43 horses competing in the three divisions. There’s no doubt we still have a ways to go.
The Developing Horse Championships are held alongside the Young Horse Championships. The inaugural championship was in 2007 and is for 7- to 9-year-old horses competing at the Prix St. Georges level.
The weekend of championships held this year at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, Ill., is similar to the championships held at the Festival of Champions. The difference is at this event one can see the promising and future equine dressage stars from 4 years through Prix St. Georges all in one place.
Last year I had the honor of competing two horses in the Developing Horse Championships. Once again, it was a positive experience and a stepping stone, or perhaps better for me, a launching pad to the Intermediaire I Championships.
Although they have a similar qualifying process, I don’t have the same concerns. What we do very well in this country is implementing a program for training and promoting judges. It’s a flagship program for both the USEF and the U.S. Dressage Federation.
It’s exemplary in the educational materials presented and in the cooperative efforts between the USDF L program and the USEF judges’ program. Most of our judges are well trained and experienced with judging the more traditional tests.
In the past, the Festival of Champions has usually been held in June, but this year for the reasons stated above, they were held in August and thank goodness, the final competition of our 2010 championship marathon.
The NAJYRC is the odd man out of these championships in that this competition is an FEI multi-discipline continental championship, and as such it’s not my real focus in this article. For the sake of discussion, I wanted to concentrate on the championships that are part of our national dressage program. These are the championships we control and the ones we need to study to determine if we’re on track with our initiatives to improve dressage in this country.
In my mind these are some of the questions we have to ask: Are there too many championships? Are they serving their purpose? Do the numbers and quality of our horses and riders get better over the years? Do they continue to spur interest in dressage?
Some of these questions will be answered over time. I think it’s safe to say that the quality of dressage in the United States is improving. There are more promising horses and riders coming along.
Still, we need to continue to assess, re-evaluate, refine and improve. The time and money expended by all involved is enormous. The rewards of these efforts must be there, whether those rewards are better international results, more lucrative incentives for our breeders or just increasing our collective enjoyment of dressage.
George Wlliams is the president of the U.S. Dressage Federation and has served on and chaired numerous committees for the USDF and the U.S. Equestrian Federation. A rider, trainer and coach, training for Havensafe Farm in Middlefield, Ohio, and Wellington, Fla., Williams earned national and international fame with several Grand Prix mounts, including the Chronicle’s 2003 Dressage Horse of the Year, Rocher. He began writing Between Rounds columns in 2010.
