Dressage in Self-Destruct Mode?

A Letter to the Editor:

In 1983 I saw my first Dressage Competition in Australia as an observer and a rider. It was held at Toowoomba and was the Australian Nationals.

The latest Dressage Competition I saw last weekend, as an observer only, and it was the Qld State Championships at Caboolture. Looking back 28 years I have to congratulate the riders, trainers and owners on their fantastic achievement!

At the first competition in 1983 there was hardly a horse on the bit or resembling the same and most horses were hacks with very limited movements, who filled quite big fields of competitors. 

Now we have pretty much all the horses on the bit, good positioned riders on purpose bred dressage horses, which some owners imported from overseas at great expense. To say in short, some of these tests I saw also would be able to win in Europe, which does not necessarily mean they win here.

But there is still a lot of difference between an average competition in Europe and the Qld State Championships like:

1.      Organisation: long gaps and breaks, not making full use of the indoor, no contingency plan for bad weather, lack of catering, seating and facilities for spectators, owners and riders.

2.      Small field in young horse classes: Only five horses in the four and six year old classes and about ten for the five year olds. Maybe the riders and owners are getting sick of the negative judging here in Australia?

3.      The scoring: In contrast to the strongly improved performance of our dressage test over the last 28 years the judges are still on the same scores as in 1983 or even may be worse. To bring your horse on to the bit and ride a reasonable test, I won the lower Grades on the four year old Stallion “Herr Dominator” owned by Celia Zastrow, with Scores in the high seventies at the 1983 Nationals in Toowoomba. That test would have got at the Caboolture States last weekend 63% with the comment: “well ridden needs to be more balanced!”

The Organisers of competitions (except for a few very well run shows) have managed to get rid of the spectators and now the judges are getting rid of the riders and owners as their achievements are not being rewarded fairly and their confidence is being slammed.

At the end of the day we have to remember that sport should be fun for all involved, organisers, riders, spectators, volunteers and judges. It seems to me that the only ones who are smiling are the judges, or is that also as artificial as that of the rider who tries to get the best possible score?

Please all you Judges stop nit-picking and recognise the good (8) and very good (9) in every performance or take some responsibility if there is nobody left for you to Judge.

Ulrich Klatte