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The recent Global Forum was held as usual at the Bartels’s Academy in Holland. Having left Tucker’s house at ‘silly’ o’clock, we arrived in good time, despite the Sat Nav trying to direct us into a canal!
During the opening address, David Hunt reported that Windsor had been fantastic and a real leap forward in both test riding and judging. In answer to questions from the floor, David Holmes, FEI Executive Director of Sport, reported that the FEI would be investigating the “blue tongue” controversy involving Patrick Kittel, which arose over the preceding weekend.
The first presentation of the Forum was by Eckert Meyners, professor at Luneberg University, and Heike Kemmer, German team rider, and was “about sitting”. They have worked together for five years on improving the rider’s seat. This was a fascinating and entertaining session focusing on rider biomechanics and showing some solutions for tense, tight bodies.
Following on was Rachel Murray, a Vet from the Animal Horse Trust in Newmarket. She gave a gallop-through the “Diagnosis of Injury in Dressage Horses”. It was a useful summary of recent research into the subject and, although much of the material would not come as a surprise to many, it was helpful to have it packaged together and with the scientific evidence to support the findings. Not surprisingly, suspensory and back injuries are the most common for Dressage horses. Rachel discussed at length the contributory factors and then went through ways to minimise the problems, from correct training and working practices to the quality of the surfaces they work on, saddle fitting and correct foot balance.
The next speaker was Katrina Wurst, FEI judge, who made proposals for alterations to freestyle judging. Essentially this would involve standardising the bonus marks for degrees of difficulty (such as tempi changes on a curve rather than a straight line) and also for combinations of difficult movements. She proposed the choreography would be handed in with the CD before the test, so that its Degree of Difficulty could be analysed. This was an interesting idea, although the system seemed rather complex to many in the room. Katrina did allow that this is still work in progress.
After the dinner break (Adam will be pleased to hear that the catering was its usual high standard!), the evening was given over to Steffen Peters. He worked with experienced horses and showed how he encourages a relaxed way of going. Despite only having 20 minutes per rider, he was very clear in what he wanted, i.e. that the horses were in front of the leg into quiet hands, ensuring straightness. In his coaching, Steffen always showed respect to both horse and rider. He stated that his was a positive approach: “Help riders and horses find how to be better”.
Day Two offered a choice of two seminars. Vet Frits Sluyter spoke on “Doping in Dressage”, and gave an excellent report on the latest moves to keep the sport clean. Whilst being very clear on the need to combat drug cheats, he was also very sensible on the need to medicate legitimately for genuine injury.
The other seminar was given by Dutch farrier Rob Renirie on “The Role of the Specialist Farrier”. Rob works all over the world, including the U.K. He admitted that the extreme movement of today’s Dressage horses gives the farrier a big job to keep them in balance and sound. He emphasized the need to look after the whole leg – tendons, ligaments and blood supply – while attending to the foot. His premise is to keep things as simple as possible, concentrating on the balance of the horse. The aim is not to correct so much as protect. He wants the horse to be confident when he moves. This seminar was fascinating and very informative.
The remainder of the morning was given to Steffen Peters. This time he worked with different riders on younger horses. He reiterated the need for consistency and a basic acceptance of the aids so that the horse could move forward to the hand. He rode a 3-year old by his own stallion, Ravel. She was a stunning mare that Steffen worked with great softness and sensitivity. By the end, she had settled nicely and was accepting any corrections he made. It was a good reminder that when we talk of getting the basics right with our young horses, we should perhaps raise our sights a little and not merely pay lip service to the old maxim of “Ride them forward and make them straight”! It was a real pleasure to watch Steffen working horses in such a sympathetic, yet productive, way.
The afternoon commenced with Particle Physicist David Stickland making a statistical evaluation of International judging at recent competitions. This was both exhaustive and exhausting! The basic premise was that the average differential in marks between top and bottom judges in a test was +/- 1.5%. Very good, one might think, but clearly unsatisfactory for the statistician. Amongst his ideas for improvement, one was to introduce an automatic correction to any mark that showed more than a differential of 2 compared to the average given for that movement; or there could be a second panel of judges, a supervisory panel, to correct obvious discrepancies made by the usual panel. It must be said that his proposals did not find much support in the room…. The use of half-points is favoured by many judges and David Stickland feels its time has come. However, he did report that, based on his findings, there is no evidence of national bias in judging at International competitions, which is very encour aging.
The final presentation was from Ton de Ridder, a Dutch trainer who has worked in Germany for many years. His topic was “Presentation for a Dressage Test”. He began with thoughts on what it takes to be a good trainer and on the responsibilities of the rider, emphasizing commitment. He went on to work with two Dutch riders, showing elements of the PSG tests. He was uncompromising in his demands and left his riders in no doubt when he was not satisfied!
During the final discussion session, the question of “hyperflexion” was raised once again, being a popular topic outside the conference room during the breaks. This was allowed only a limited hearing, with the audience told that it had been covered many times before. Totillas was also discussed, with divided opinions over the merits of his extraordinary movement. When asked by Richard Davidson, Arthur Kottas likened the extended trot to a Tennessee Walking Horse. Others praised the horse as taking the sport to a new standard and bringing in new spectators….
Overall it was a very interesting Forum and a fantastic chance to stay in touch with the latest thinking and ideas in Dressage.
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