I Wish We’d Had These Programs For My Generation

We’ve known for many years that we have some substantial gaps in our national dressage programs that needed to be filled, but neither Rome nor our dressage infrastructure could be built overnight.

During the USEF Dressage Committee meetings last Decem-ber, Marilyn Adams, the USEF high-performance dressage director, and Jennifer Keeler, the USEF national programs dressage director, presented us with an agenda that they had compiled by working together. (That scenario alone is worth applauding, looking back on the situation a few short years ago.)

And we sent forward for approval, by the technical and high-performance committees and the USEF Board of Directors, an outline that, for the first time, covers the whole spectrum, from grassroots to the top of high performance.

The agenda starts with the USEF Dressage Medal Program, designed to promote and award excellence in the correct seat, position and use of aids for juniors age 18 and under from all regions of the country. In the finals, juniors can ride their own horse or pony but may also ride a borrowed horse. This enables everyone to take part, never mind where they live or if their horse or pony is out of commission. (Note that ponies are welcome and encouraged to participate.)

Next is the USEF Junior Dressage Team Championship, which recognizes the country’s top 12 juniors in a unique team competition. This program is now in its eighth year, and the finals have moved from the East to the West each year.

In 2001, when Paxton Farms hosted the first FEI North American Junior Champion-ships, we used this program to select the competitors, and the U.S. team won the gold. In the future, this program will be considered the “elite” junior program to dovetail with the elite high-performance program.

A new junior division has been added to parallel the present young riders program, where the juniors will qualify by regions in the same way the young riders do. The two programs will contribute to produce riders for the combined North American Junior and Young Riders Championships in August.

The young riders championship program has been successfully administered by the U.S. Dressage Federation for many years, and although it’s been a tremendous goal for them, so far we’ve had nowhere for the program’s graduates to go. Well, there’s good news for our 18-to-26 age group, a group that’s sometimes fallen between the cracks, finding it difficult to take the step into Grand Prix against the old foxes already playing there.

To bridge that gap, we’ve created the Brentina Cup, modeled after the Piaffe Cup in Germany and sponsored by Parry and Peggy Thomas, who own the great mare. It’s brand new for 2006, and its purpose is to assist our young riders in making the transition to senior Grand Prix. For this year, we’re using the Intermediaire II test, since the riders are familiar with it. But by 2007, we plan to design a special test for this division, one that will include all the Grand Prix requirements, but be a bit less demanding. The inaugural championships are to be in Gladstone, N.J., next month.

The USEF Young Horse Program, sponsored by Markel Insurance Co., which has been in place for only a couple of years, provides recognition for young dressage prospects from 4 to 6, promotes the correct development of future FEI-level horses, and offers a showcase for our breeders. There are selection trials scheduled across the country, leading to the FEI World Breeding Championships in Europe, as well as our own national championships.

Earlier this year, the USEF chose Scott Hassler of Hilltop Farm in Maryland to be our national young horse coach. His duties will be to conduct training sessions for young horses, attend selection trials and championships to observe them, and to work closely with high-performance coach Klaus Balkenhol to
identify promising prospects.

In this vein, we’ve also developed criteria for a developing riders coach to serve as an assistant to Mr. Balkenhol. This person’s
duties will be similar to Scott’s, involving teaching, training and evaluating the up-and-coming FEI-level horses and riders who look promising for the high-performance division.

And that, of course, is the top of the ladder. If a horse-rider combination is successful in the qualifying competitions, they could be included on the USEF long list or developing riders list and be invited to the high-performance training sessions conducted by Mr. Balkenhol, our coach for the last five years.

Under Mr. Balkenhol’s guidance, the riders at the top have become consolidated as a group like we haven’t been since the days, 30 years ago, when we had Bengt Ljungquist as our coach. Mr. Balkenhol has a gift for teaching, is an outstanding horseman, and is capable of dealing with the various strong-minded and oftentimes capricious personalities he has to work with. And I’m not referring to the horses.

During the last Dressage Committee meetings in January, we also talked about the last “missing link” in our pyramid of developing programs–the pony division. There is a definite void here, and that in a country that’s bursting with talented ponies in the equitation and pony hunter divisions. Somehow, dressage has missed the pony express so far, but we intend to catch up with it.

To that purpose, we have put Lendon Gray (who else?) in charge of creating a program to promote more ponies in dressage and capture this neglected part of our education. The question, as always, is what comes first, the chicken or the egg? But it appears we need to create a chicken first to attract some pony eggs.

Perhaps if we have an attractive enough venue, they will come.

Looking back in time to the programs my generation of riders did not have, I have mixed emotions of pride in our progress and a tad of jealousy, because I would have loved to have all this available when I started out. I hope the up-and-coming riders of today will glance back at the comparatively short history of dressage in this country and come to the realization that they have it pretty good. They can get all the help they need at home, without being forced to travel abroad, until it’s time to show internationally.

And for any kind of help, all they have to do is dial the USEF and ask for either Jennifer Keeler, if they wish to know more about our national programs, or Marilyn Adams, if their concerns are international. “Now THAT is progress!”