Now that the Federation Equestre Internationale offers contests for 5- and 6-year-old horses and the Young Horse Championships, the interest in the
training and progress of our young horses has increased tremendously.

Europe has always had a showcase available for horses almost from the day they’re foaled. Each country and most breed registries arrange inspections and auctions for all ages that have become a tradition for every horseman to attend and to follow. Almost every weekend all over Europe, but especially in Ger-many, you can enjoy a “horse event” ranging from foal sales to stud farm exhibits to stallion approvals. The distances are short from farm to event, so those “ponies” certainly get out and about to be seen and talked about.

Few such advantages are afforded to our American breeders, and consequently the new FEI tests for young horses are a welcome addition for breeders and owners of good young stock. But, since the Young Horse Championships are open to imports, it doesn’t really provide a true platform from which our dressage horse breeders can boast about their homebred stock.

Until now.

For more almost two decades, the breeders of jumping horses have had available to them the International Jumper Futurity, which not only brings their young horses into the public arena, but can also deliver a sizeable amount of cash back to the owner, breeder and stallion owner. And it’s open exclusively to horses foaled in the United States and Canada.

The IJF is a very successful program for young jumpers age 4 to 8, and the Futurity Committee decided recently to expand their program to include young dressage horses. Scott Hassler and I were invited to serve on a steering committee, and we had our first conference call in March to map out our initial effort to bring dressage into the fold.

A new feature adds 4-year-old dressage horses into the futurity program. The requirements for the 4-year-olds will be quite mild; nothing is going to be asked from these babies that will stress them physically or mentally. The point of having a futurity for horses so young is to encourage breeders to “get them off the farm,” to let the colts and fillies learn some basic skills a show horse has to know, and to create a system where people who want to buy young horses can view them all together.

The dressage horses have the advantage of joining an already existing and successful program, and the beauty of it all is that this is an all-North American
deal. Owners who nominate their stallions will enjoy a considerable amount of attention paid to their stallions as their get make their way through the ranks and end up at one of the three regional competitions. Stallions already nominated to the IJF can now add offspring concentrating on a dressage career to their laurels.

In the end, everyone wins with this system: The young horses get backed and started in a timely fashion, people looking for a good young horse have a place to find them, and the owners and breeders stand a chance to make a bit of money back for all their efforts. Sounds good? Go to www.breedersfuturity.com and find out more.

Another advantage the Europeans enjoy is the never-ending supply of well-trained younger riders who are capable of breaking and starting young stock. We’re way behind in this area. In fact, few of all the riders out there showing and winning have a clue about the right way to train a horse “from scratch.”
Like many of us, Scott Hassler has come to realize that we are in bad need of a system to develop and encourage competent riders who can and want to concentrate on starting and bringing along the “raw” horse material. To get the ball rolling, Hilltop Farm, where Scott heads the training program, hosted a seminar for just that purpose the last weekend in April.

In their first-ever Young Dressage Horse Trainers Symposium, Hilltop Farm and Harmony Sporthorses created and completely sponsored a three-day educational program for 40 young professionals selected from more than 200 applicants. Joining Scott as directors of this pioneering effort were Dr. Ulf Moeller and Ingo Pape from Germany. Each has oceans of experience in all facets of breeding and developing young dressage horses. (Unfortunately, a death in the family forced Pape to leave and miss two days.)

On the first day, the trainers listened to lectures and watched demonstrations, during which they were encouraged to communicate with each other. The importance of creating a network and support group among the young trainers, rather than isolating themselves, was strongly emphasized. Scott and Ulf demonstrated the benefits of cooperating through the 18 years of friendship and mutual support that was evident between them.

Another important topic discussed was how to deal with clients in a professional and fruitful way, while schooling their horses. Sometimes a trainer will evaluate a young horse differently than the owner, and it may take both diplomacy and strength of character for the trainer to explain his or her way of thinking to an owner, so they can work toward a common goal.

The real issues of training young horses were then addressed over the next two days with a large variety of demonstration horses, some of the young professionals riding and all of them actively participating. No questions went unanswered, the problems in each horse were identified and dealt with honestly and proactively.

At times the clinicians would have a slightly different approach to solving a problem, and sometimes another trainer would suggest an alternate approach. As we all know, every horse is an individual, and although the basic method should be universal, there are many small deviations that can make all the difference between a horse gained and a horse lost.

One of the participants, Sharon Jerdeman from Florida, told me that of the many things she learned, the part she appreciated most was getting advice with the question of when to move on with the training of a particular horse. It’s far from self-explanatory when the next step ought to be introduced, since each animal has its own pace of physical growth and mental development.

Sharon said she arrived home feeling “braver” about trying new things on horses who appear to be able to absorb the information. She also really enjoyed meeting and working closely with people her own age and sharing their experiences.

This summer, Hilltop will offer three short courses designed to detail the training and development of the young horse to a public audience. These courses will be offered in June, August and October with Scott, his staff and guest trainers from America and Europe conducting the seminars. The courses will be designed to progress from dealing with the 2- and 3-year-old horse to preparing the 7-year-old for FEI-level competition.

Next year, Scott and his staff are planning to repeat their Young Dressage Horse Trainers Symposium, and I’ve been invited to be one of the people in-volved. I am really looking forward to that!

So, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the American sport horse breeders. They now have the futurity programs to showcase both the sires and their American progeny. They will have a possibility of being able to select riders for their horses who will be educated and motivated, and who are making this their life’s work. And they can finally compete with the European currency, since the strong Euro has now made importing horses a
financial disadvantage. Not only are the overseas horses about 30 percent more expensive than before, but you then also have to add the ever-increasing shipping fee, now $5,000 to $8,000!

We have good horses being foaled and raised on this continent. What they need now is to be trained and noticed!