Janet MFS

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Janet Brown Chat
November 16, 1999

<Mike Matson> Janet, what is your position regarding freestyles and what would you do as the USDF President to support them?

Janet: Freestyles are the future of the sport. When the Olympic committee told the FEI they had to do something because no one was watching dressage, they added freestyles and that was a very unpopular position at the time. Now freestyles are being added to the Pan Am Games and the Junior / Young Rider programs. Musical Freestyles have proved they can draw spectators which draws sponsorship, and then television and then more money.

USDF can say they are doing well financially but we need more money. The freestyle is a wonderful way to bring dressage to the public. I just ran my Regional Championship and I got a trailer donated. To win the trailer, the rules were that you had to ride a regular test and a freestyle at whatever level you were whether it was first or FEI level. Next year I have 2 horse trailers as prizes.

I am also on the AHSA dressage committee and we argued over the requirement that there be a qualifying rule before a competitor could show a freestyle. The rule was that you had to ride a test, any test, from the level you wanted to show freestyle, with no percentage requirement. I voted against it. I don't think it is really needed right now. I judged many really big shows this year and there were only two horses in freestyles -- one GP and one I1 -- that I have absolutely no idea how she qualified to get there. But none in the lower level. One horse ended up with very low scores -- 40s from two I judges but since there was only one horse in the class - she wound up being the Regional Champion. I saw some fabulous freestyles this year -- I gave an 85% once for a 2nd level freestyle. Most of them have been really good this year. Whether we need the % rule or not, only time will tell. I think we really need to support freestyles.

One of the best concepts would be to have the riders, choreographers, judges, and musicians discuss freestyles together. Many times the riders don't understand what the judges' want and creativity gets in the way of technical proficiency. Whether it's a seminar at the Convention or elsewhere, I think it's a must.

<Mike> Janet, Region 1 and Region 8 have endorsed the establishing of a USDF Freestyle Committee which would include musicians, choreographers, riders, and judges. The proposal will be brought up at the USDF convention. Would you support the establishment of this MFS committee?

Janet: As long as the committee deals with the larger issues of educating judges on how to judge a freestyle, teaching riders how to ride a freestyle, and the Freestyle Committee doesn't become another committee just to get more awards or write another freestyle test, then I'm for it. The committee should become very involved in setting up exhibitions at non-dressage events. We started with Denny Callin on Zorn at the National Stock Show doing a freestyle demo and now we have two evenings, only freestyles sold out to 5,000 each evening during the National Western Livestock Show.

<Mike> Janet, your freestyle answers are 'music' to my ears! You have my vote and I intend on recommending that if GMOs believe freestyles are important to our sport then they should vote for you!

Janet. Thank you, Mike. Part of this whole thing is we will have more influence if we share our knowledge. There are lots of ideas around the country but there is no place that everyone gets together to share the ideas. USDF doesn't have to sit in the office and generate new programs. The committees are very important and everyone who is interested in a topics needs to go to the committee meeting because that's where it happens.

<Ky> That's the entire purpose of Dressage un Ltd -- to create a place online where people can discuss dressage and share their experiences and expertise.

Janet Brown Chat

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