Every year the Global Dressage Forum provides a time and place to reflect on the state of dressage and also to discuss the future of the sport.
The seventh GDF, held at the Academy Bartels in Hooge Mierde, the Netherlands, Oct. 27-28, mixed in serious analysis of dressage judging with training techniques for horse and rider and also allowed the Dutch a chance to show off the building blocks of their successful dressage program.
The GDF began with a presentation by the Dutch Warmblood Studbook (KWPN) and the Dutch National Federation.
These groups presented the breeding strategies and scouting system to find talented young riders.
But much of the meat of the GDF was on the second day when the much-discussed judging from the Olympic Games came under scrutiny and discussion.
Analyze My Ride
One of the traditions of the GDF is to analyze a few rides from the major cham-pionship of the current year. This year, participants got the chance to compare Steffen Peters’ Grand Prix Special ride aboard Ravel at the Olympic Games with Russia’s Alexandra Korelova and Balagur.
These particular tests highlighted how two horses with very different strengths and weaknesses could attain a similar score. Additionally, it became obvious in the video that some mistakes can’t be seen from every judge’s box.
For example, in Balagur’s top-scored passage, which took place in the second corner on the short side where the judges sit, he showed some uneven steps with his hind legs. This mistake could only be seen in its full extent by the judge in the middle of the opposite long side. Thus, that judge gave a lower mark for this movement than his colleagues.
Another judging conversation focused on how dressage judging might improve by examining the systems of other objective sports like gymnastics and ice-skating.
Hans van Zetten, the former team coach of the Dutch gymnastics team and TV commentator, led the discussion. He analyzed the judging systems for gymnastics and ice-skating. In both sports the judging system changed after scandals. Those changes meant 66 judges were required for gymnastics at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Van Zetten suggested two ways to change the scoring. The first was based on a code of points in which the scoring
is exactly regulated, as is the judging system itself. But dressage judging shouldn’t be just looking for mistakes instead of considering basic qualities like the horse’s relaxation and swing through the back, so a strictly regulated point system would be hard to adjust for dressage.
Van Zetten said this only works for the technical mark anyway. He admitted that the artistic mark still isn’t really regulated. In any case, in dressage, the judges are already working on more exact guidelines, such as which mark to give depending on the execution of the movement.
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Judges discussed letting artists assign points for the artistic marks at the FEI Freestyle Forum in Portugal earlier this fall. But the members of the seminar came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work for dressage.
“We are convinced that too many dressage-specific criteria also have an effect on the artistic marks, so they can’t be evaluated by persons without knowledge about dressage riding and judging,” said Germany’s Dieter Schüle, a member of the FEI Dressage Committee and O-rated judge. “But, we realized at the Portugal forum that dressage judges must receive a better education to evaluate the music and the artistic parts.”
Another suggestion from van Zetten was to increase the number of judges. But more judges around the ring would restrict the view for the spectators. In some sports the highest and lowest scores are dropped, but in dressage, that might cause the only correct mark to be erased as mentioned above. It would also lead to judges using even less of the entire scale of scores and just giving marks in the middle region.
In gymnastics there’s a superior judge who may replace a judge during an international competition, but the dressage judges considered this change too dangerous, as it would give too much power to one person and would open the door for arbitrary decisions.
Change Is In The Works
One change that will definitely happen in the future is that international judges will have to take an examination every two or three years and record and report their judging activities.
After the 2008 Olympic Games, FEI officials commissioned British statistics expert David Stickland to analyze the
scoring of the Olympic dressage judges.
He came to the conclusion that the dressage judging at the Hong Kong Olympic took place on a very high level, was correct and was, in fact, the second-best dressage judging ever at an Olympic Games. And, most important, no one judge determined the rankings.
But Schüle did have words of admonishment for the judges and those who want to become an international judge.
“The judge has a decisive influence on the sport. What can be seen in the dressage at shows reflects on the training at home,” he said. “Let us take the bad example of necks that are too short. If they receive high marks, all riders will ride with short necks. Unfortunately, many judges aren’t conscious of their decisive role, that what they decide will also affect the training, and the responsibility they have for direction of the sport. If the line of judging is clear, all riders and trainers have to follow it. On the other side, if all judges clearly agree on what they request to see, it helps riders and trainers.
“Considering the big efforts riders take participating in horse shows, especially if it means going to foreign countries, then every judge has the moral obligation to deliver a high-quality performance at the judge’s table and to do justice to the riders with his scoring,” he added.
Hubertus Schmidt Is A Hit
In the educational portion of the program, Germany’s Hubertus Schmidt highlighted the afternoon with his demonstration of how to encourage a horse to be supple and relaxed.
Schmidt emphasized making the horse loose as well as confidently searching for contact with the rider’s hand. He rode the 10-year-old Grand Prix horse Franziskus while his Finnish working student Emma Kaneva performed ground exercises with 5-year-old Fuerst Piccolo. Schmidt demonstrated making the horse supple in the
longitudinal axis through different movements that require bending and flexion.
“The warm-up period is very important for me,” said Schmidt. “The horse has to become supple in the body and relaxed in the head. I want it to stretch its neck forward and down and keep a steady, smooth contact to the rider’s hand. It’s important that the horse keep swinging through the body in the trot. The movement has to go through the whole body, and it’s especially important that this ‘schwung,’ this swinging, is kept for the collected trot and later for piaffe and passage.”
Schmidt repeatedly emphasized that the horse must be framed by the inside leg, the outside rein and the outside leg. The inside rein just gives the flexion, and the rider has to be very easy with the inside rein so that the inside hind leg may swing forward. Although basic, this concept is one that’s easy to forget.
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In the beginning of the warm-up, Schmidt wasn’t satisfied with his contact with Franziskus. “Too light is also incorrect,” he said. “The horse must have an honest contract to the bit and the rider’s hand.”
Core Strength For Horse And Rider
It’s not news that physical fitness is important for dressage, but this year’s GDF attendees got a special treat when two different experts addressed developing abdominal core strength and stability for horse and rider.
British musculoskeletal physiotherapist Andrew Thomas spoke about specific exercises to build strength and control around the spine and pelvis to help avoid imbalance and uncontrolled movements of the rider.
Weaknesses and blocks in the hips and legs of the rider can lead to imbalance, which results in uncontrolled movements, especially with the hands, and difficulty developing an independent seat. These rider deficits then create uneven steps and physical blocks in the horse.
Two British Olympic dressage team members, Emma Hindle and Laura Bechtolsheimer, demonstrated the use of an Extreme Balance Board. This board moves in all directions, and skateboarders and surfers use it to improve their balance by standing on it.
But the two riders sat on the board on a table and worked on keeping their balance even as they played with a gymnastic ball. This exercise activated their core muscles, but it took even less vigorous exercise to isolate and strengthen the horse’s abdominal muscles as demonstrated by veterinarian Hilary Clayton, the McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University.
Clayton gave a lecture on the activation and strengthening of the horse’s core to improve its performance abilities and to keep it sound and fit. She demonstrated simple exercises to activate and strengthen the horse’s back, hips, pelvis and belly.
She emphasized performing the exercises in an enclosed area with a wall or in a corner, but in any case on safe footing. She said the exercises could be therapeutic, such as training the muscles of a horse recovering from colic surgery. But the exercises can also be helpful in regular training, whether simply to strengthen the horse’s back to make carrying the rider’s weight easier or to encourage the use of certain muscles for collected movements in general and for canter pirouettes in particular.
Clayton used carrots to encourage the horse to bring its nose to its chest, between its forelegs or even between its fetlocks to stretch its neck and to round its back. But she was quick to insist that, “The horse should move only as far as it appears comfortable, and we have to increase this exercise step by step. It is very important in all these exercises that the horse isn’t forced to do anything. All must happen in a relaxed and playful manner without force. After each exercise the horse must be permitted to stand quietly and to relax before repeating the exercise four to five times.”
Clayton said it was not only important to activate and strengthen the long muscles in the back, but also the short ones, which are responsible for stability. “If a horse cannot use these short back muscles, it uses the long back muscle to stabilize the back, and this produces tension, which makes the rider bump in the saddle, especially in extended trot,” she said.
In the second set of exercises, Clayton used her fingers or a blunt item to apply slight pressure from the middle of the chest between the front legs along the belly to stimulate the horse to lift its back. This exercise should only be done with a little pressure so that the horse reacts slowly and keeps the back in this position for a few seconds.
Another exercise to strengthen the muscles in the shoulder, the back and pelvis is to pull the horse’s tail, which
produces a tensing and relaxing of the muscles. You can also lift one hind leg while another person pushes against the horse’s shoulder so that the horse has to try to get back into balance by using the second hind leg.
Birgit Popp