In recent months dressage has faced increased scrutiny, both from within and from outside of the horse world, and the Fédération Equestre Internationale recently held a special meeting to kick off in-depth discussions about the challenges currently impacting the discipline. We asked three participants about the biggest change they’d like to see in the sport.
Sabine Schut-Kery
The development of the horse is an art that is achieved through proper education and perspective. Our educational system should teach us to preserve our passion and compassion for the horse, regardless of our competitive goals. My hope is that we can encourage people to keep education in the forefront of their minds in order to improve our relationship with our horses.
I always say, if you love money, don’t work with horses. It’s an ongoing responsibility, that I have to work hard every day to preserve my passion. That means not overbooking myself, not putting my own interest of being in the show ring before what I know is best for my horse, and not putting my horse in a place where he’s overfaced. These are all horsemanship decisions I’m working very hard on. I think we all need to get together and keep working on that.
We always have to be looking in the mirror to be sure that we keep educating ourselves. I think there is a lot of riding that is produced by shortcuts that are driven by desire for fame or pressure to sell rather than informed decisions. I always must make sure the horse is in a test that’s not over-facing him but is appropriate for him, and not just saying, “I want to ride Grand Prix.”
I’m coming from Germany, where the educational system is very structured. Even if you want to become a house painter, you have to go with a certified teacher that trains you to do that for three years. For me to become a professional dressage trainer, I did a three-year apprenticeship with Jean Bemelmans in Germany, who was specifically educated to train a future trainer. That tells you how strict it is; I am not even qualified for that position. In addition to riding, I had to go once a week to school to learn the theoretical information, everything about horsemanship, feeding, how to manage a barn, medicine, everything. After one-and-a-half years, you have an interim test to see if you’re on track with your learning. If you pass that, you go on to the second half of your apprenticeship and then have three weeks of testing. So that’s your baseline.
I can count on one hand the number of coaches that I’ve had in my life. Yes, I’ve cliniced, of course, but I’ve only had a few regular coaches. You have to stick with it. It’s important because dressage is so complex, [and] it takes a while until everything sinks in, and the horse understands technically what we’re asking. Then the horse has to build the strength by us just doing it and seeing it through. I always say it’s like planting a seed and nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, and that’s when you can’t just give up and jump to your next trainer, because it’s then, suddenly, the flower is starting to bloom.
I lived in Texas for seven years, and my coach came once a year for 10 to 14 days, but there was a point where I felt like I needed more. I moved to California for my education, not because I wanted to be on a sunny beach. I wish we would educate more and remember that the horse is a living being, and there comes a major responsibility with that. We have to be advocates for our horses.
We need education for the riders, trainers and judges, and also the fans and critics.
Sabine Schut-Kery, 56, grew up in Krefeld, Germany, moving to the United States in 1998. She rode Alice Womble’s Sanceo to team gold at the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games, then to team silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. She lives in San Diego, where she continues to advance her own education under Christine Traurig.
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George Williams
What I think is good about the current situation, where dressage is under a microscope, is that it’s making us look at and reevaluate our sport. One of the things I’d like to really look at is our score system. I get the feeling that a 10 is considered excellent, and a 10 is considered almost too sacred to use.
After watching the Grand Prix Special at the Paris Olympic Games, someone said that out of all the rides, only one was considered “good” by our scoring system, because only one was over 80%, with 8 of course being “good” in our terminology.
Some of the others were right under the 80% mark, in the high 70s. You watch the riders first, and you think, “That was a good ride.” Certainly, there were a few problems, a few mistakes or things that could be better, but thinking of it in the simplest terms, it didn’t reach “good” according to our score system. I started thinking more and more about the implications of that. The question becomes: Do we expect too much from horses we’re training?
If you look at young horse classes, it’s possible for horses to score 10s; the winning ones are usually 9 or better in a lot of their scores. Then you look at the freestyles on the artistic side, and they can hit a 9, that is, 90%, or better on the artistic; on the technical side, generally they don’t hit as high. Then you get into the Grand Prix, and somehow it’s not possible to reach the same height in the scores.
Are we asking the impossible or too much of our horses? In doing that are we then putting a certain pressure on riders, trainers, coaches to keep getting better and better in the training and presentation, and is that realistic? Or do we have an unrealistic expectation of what a horse can do?
This isn’t a criticism of the judges or judging, per se, just of the scale that’s been developed over the years. I think in a lot of ways, the quality of judging and the quality of horse and rider performances have gotten better over the years, especially the quality of the top ones.
What we need to do is evaluate what really makes an 8, and what really makes a 9, relative to the natural ability of horses. In a judges’ forum years and years ago, which was held at Tempel Farms when I was there, one of the riders came in and rode a pirouette. The lead judge asked the group, “What word would you use to describe that pirouette?” The majority said, “Good,” but I don’t think there was a single 8 when they held up their numbers. I think we should try to keep it a little simpler in that sense, that the number and the words reflect one another in each movement.
George Williams, 69, serves as the president of the U.S. Dressage Federation as well as the U.S. Equestrian Federation Dressage Youth Coach and the High Performance and Pathway Development Advisor. Williams, Wellington, Florida, represented the United States internationally during his riding career, finishing fifth at the 2003 FEI Dressage World Cup Final (Sweden), and he was a member of the bronze medal team at the 2005 CHIO Aachen (Germany) with Rocher.
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JJ Tate
I think it’s a such a great thing to just stop and assess where we are and ask: Is this where we want to be going? If this isn’t where we want to be going, what could we change? How can we bring the people in dressage together and continue to make it the sport we all love?
I wish people would recognize the importance of a correct education versus just success in the show ring. I think true merit lies in good horsemanship and wonderful stewardship of the horse. When we keep the horse as our No. 1 focus—the horse is always first, and we serve the horse, and we do it because we love horses—I don’t think you can ever go down a wrong road. So that solves the other things.
I’ve been very lucky to have had the same mentor for 35 years, Charles de Kunffy, who is just an incredible influence in my life. I’m just so blessed to have had someone in my life who absolutely always puts the horse first. He always emphasizes the importance of the human becoming a rider, which always comes from a place of, “A horse knows how to be a horse, how can we change ourselves to serve the horse better, to help him understand what we want and our aids?” We have to learn the vocabulary of the horse.
We need to come from this place of saying, “We are the custodians of the horse because they have no voice.” It’s through our correct equitation, which takes many, many years to learn, and through the understanding of a horse’s anatomy, that we can help the horse live and perform for us for many years in a sound, happy way. There is a science of riding. The focus has gotten away from that harmony and how to truly train ourselves to train the horse better.
I was always taught that through a very gradual and thoughtful system we develop the horse into his best self, and as a byproduct then we grow into our best selves as well. I worry now everything is about winning and scores, and people think if you win you must be great, and you must love horses.
When you become educated, it brings you more confidence to speak up for your horse. There are a lot of people that don’t show or haven’t been super successful for whatever reason, but they’re well read and well educated and care about teaching. That person can be really important to a lot of people. To me it seems like the education piece has gone down in priority, and scores and winning have become the only ways you judge the quality of a trainer, and I don’t think that’s actually true.
There are a lot of people who can help you with your riding, but you have to be educated to know the difference. It gives responsibility back to the rider to decide the right path for their horse. I’m sure there are people out here who want to win at all costs, who want to go to the trainer who will win at all costs. Most people want to ride better and develop a better relationship with their horse and to feel like they’re getting better while their horse’s well-being is respected. That doesn’t always come in the package of someone who is showing and winning all the time. When you know the difference then you can make better choices.
Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate, 46, lives in Landrum, South Carolina. She is an international Grand Prix dressage rider and trainer who has taken more than 30 horses to the Fédération Equestre Internationale levels. She also runs Team Tate Academy, an online training module, at teamtateacademy.com.
A version of this article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.
