| A long, long way. That's how far
dressage in the United States has come since the country's first riding school dedicated
solely to dressage was established in 1996. Since then, our skill has evolved
steadily through the dedicated work of the people who love the
horses and the sport.
Dr. Gail Hoff-Carmona and Heather Bender-both respected trainers, competitive riders,
instructors and judges-take a look at the work that has brought us so far, and at what
lies ahead. Gail Hoff-Carmona: Tremendous Improvement
"The whole sport has evolved as a
unit - horses, riders,
trainers, judges," Dr. Gail Hoff-Carmona says. "And the quality of the
horses and rides has improved tremendously over the last 20 years! I know,
because it was my late husband, Hector, who established Los Alamos Dressage Center in New
Jersey - the first dressage school in the U.S. in 1966. Hector came to the U.S. from
Chile as a military liaison. He ended up staying in the U.S. to coach Lazelle Knocke
and her two daughters, one of whom became an international competitor in Europe and won the
Junior Medal Championship. In the 60's, Hector coached the U.S. Dressage Team and
also helped the U.S. Eventing Team with its dressage. Both teams took medals-the
Gold for Eventing Team and the Silver for Dressage Team-in the 1967 Pan Am Games.
"You're looking at a very short history for
dressage in this country. Our horse sports have been English babies, born of the
horse sports in the British Isles. So many of our riders came
from the
hunter/jumper background. Now, in Europe and in South America, everybody had always
done dressage, and then maybe jumping also. That's a huge difference."
Gail Hoff-Carmona: Past View From The Judge's Box
"Way back when, we did not have many educated dressage judges
or trainers except the ones who came from other countries. Now we do, but back
then ... how did our horses become educated? How did our judges learn? If a
dressage judge has never seen a Rembrandt or a Gigolo, has never seen the very best
quality of a horse of movement, how does that judge know what that would look like?
He didn't! I learned to judge from Hector, an International judge. I used to
sit and scribe for him. I remember (long before getting my judge's license) hearing
Hector say, "That horse is uncoordinated. He's not pushing himself forward to
the bit at all." And I couldn't see a thing! Now I can see it.
"So, 20 years ago, if you were a judge and you saw a horse that
was really on the aids... going forward on the bit... coming through his back correctly
... you wanted to stand up and cheer! That one won. You saw very,
very few of them; they were rare. The scale has always been zero to ten... but, to
keep riders from getting unbelievably low scores, judges may have awarded a five in those
days to a movement that would be more of a four (or less) today. The quality of
horses and riders and trainers is so much better now.
"Understand that there was a different set of circumstances and
problems 20 years ago. But we have made a huge improvement in educating our judges.
Most of the judges I run into are doing very fair jobs; they're not politicians at
all. Maybe a new judge is not seeing or appreciating something as an older judge
would, or might be overwhelmed when someone like Robert Dover is the rider in the arena.
But you still cannot say that a judge is being political when a 'Robert Dover' is
the winner of the class, because that person always has a very good chance of doing a
better job than the other riders! And he or she will probably be sitting on a very
good horse. You'll have to give it the better ride if you want to beat a top
competitor... but, if you do, you'll win."
Gail Hoff-Carmona: Pride In Our Horses
"All over the world, breeders are breeding better quality horses.
A huge infusion of European dressage bloodlines has been bred into our U.S. sport
horses over the last 10 or 15 years. The Warmbloods have been bred to possess the
talent, the elasticity; they're born for dressage. You don't have
to
have a Warmblood to win in dressage... but it would probably help. Recent preference
has been for the 'modern' Warmblood that is more like a heavy Thoroughbred than the
old-style Warmblood... but dressage riders seem to want the Thoroughbred blood in our
horses to be two generations back.
"The Thoroughbred was bred to be a racing machine. Yes, he can
do dressage, but it might be more of a struggle. Want a prediction for the future?
I think you'll see fewer Thoroughbreds in the dressage arena as we produce more and
more Warmbloods beautifully suited to dressage. In terms of endurance and heart,
Thoroughbreds have a lot to offer, and you'll always see them in jumping and eventing.
The performance Horse Registry and Sport Horse Owners & Breeders Association
are helping to identify Thoroughbred lines that carry talent for jumping and, yes
movement for dressage; that kind of knowledge will help a lot as we breed sport
horses
for the future." |
