The American System in Action

I had hoped that my flight home would be equipped with WiFi, so that I could upload this blog post while airborne; and laptop power ports, so that I could start going through the thousands of images USDF photographer Bruce Lawrie and I took at this weekend’s Adequan/USDF National Symposium. Alas, neither option was available, so I’m composing this post on battery power and will upload it as soon as I get home. The photos will have to wait until tomorrow.

In a word, the symposium was spectacular. USDF pulled out all the stops to ensure a memorable event, and symposium organizer Kathie Robertson did a masterful job of wrangling the 29 (!) demonstration horses, their entourages, and the riders.

“The American program” was the theme, and the fact that a symposium could be thus titled is in itself quite a statement. For decades there has been no American dressage program at all, really, save for drop-in visits by foreign coaches. The USDF has tried to facilitate the development of horses and riders through its Junior/Young Rider program and others, and the US Equestrian Federation started its Young Horse program about a decade ago; but there was no system for the discovery and nurturing of promising human and equine dressage talent.

That has all changed. Within the past few years, the USEF has hired a national dressage youth coach (Jeremy Steinberg), a developing coach (Debbie McDonald), and a technical advisor/high-performance coach (Anne Gribbons) to work alongside young-horse coach Scott Hassler. They travel around the country giving clinics and playing talent scout. A gifted young horse, for example, might begin under Scott’s program, later move on to Debbie’s realm, and (ideally) finally ascend the ranks to work with Anne in making the transition to representing the United States in international competition.

The 2011 USDF symposium brought the coaching quartet together for the first time. Together and separately, they worked with horses and riders who fall under their various domains. Beginning with a junior rider working on her seat in a lunge lesson and concluding with Grand Prix test tweaks with 2012 Olympic hopefuls Adrienne Lyle and Wizard, the event was a live demonstration of the new American dressage pipeline in action.

From Correctness, Competitiveness

Although the four coaches hail from different backgrounds, there was a remarkable similarity to their training approaches. For each coach, with each horse and rider, the work is all about correct—truly correct—basics. The horse must learn to respond properly to the forward driving aids and, through tactful riding, to accept a correct and consistent connection to the bit. The gymnastic development of the dressage horse, and particularly of a supple and swinging back, is an incremental process that cannot be rushed or forced. Riders must develop their own fitness and suppleness with as much dedication as they do their horses’. There is no point in working on higher-level movements during a training session until the basics have been established. (Gribbons had Lyle ride a tense Wizard through an extended series of Gribbons’ so-called Prozac exercise—ten-meter half-circle “teardrops” in opposite directions—until the big gelding got sufficiently bored that he relaxed in mind and body.)

The other area of similarity was the coaches’ insistence on attention to detail. “Have a purpose in your riding,” Hassler said. No meandering on the buckle during walk breaks: Horses must continue to stretch and march, even on a long rein. No corners ridden without taking full advantage of the time to prepare the horse for what comes next. Most important, no tolerance for failure to respond promptly to a leg aid. If the horse doesn’t react to a leg aid, he’s behind the leg; it’s that simple. And a horse that is behind the leg cannot be connected, engaged, or properly influenced. Fixing inattentiveness to the driving aids requires hawklike attention to every step of every ride, from the moment you get on to the moment you dismount. Most riders don’t do it. The few who do—well, those are probably the ones at or near the top.

As Gribbons pointed out, her job as the elite coach is to use her FEI 5* judge’s eye to help riders prepare for competition. And riding a test, she emphasized, is different from riding for schooling purposes. This does not mean, however, that the two are mutually exclusive.

“Without correct training,” Gribbons said, “there can be no success in competition.”

Dressage Biz

To the uninitiated, an Adequan/USDF National Convention is a bit of a mysterious affair. I frequently get asked what takes place at convention and how it differs from the business that takes place at United States Equestrian Federation conventions.

With the annual USDF Board of Governors assembly -- USDF's major governance meeting -- set to begin this afternoon, I thought it would be timely to offer this quick convention rundown.

The US Dressage Federation comprises affiliated dressage and dressage/eventing clubs (group-member organizations, or GMOs), "direct" USDF members (participating members, or PMs), and business members. GMOs and PMs elect delegates to represent their interests and cast votes at the Board of Governors (BOG) assembly, which is sort of like Congress convening once a year for two days.

The BOG delegates and the USDF Executive Board (the officers and regional directors) convene in a big ballroom, where they hear reports from the USDF officers, executive director, USEF VIPs, and USDF committee chairs.

When a proposed USDF program or policy change is put forward, the BOG votes yea or nay. The process is strictly democratic and also wide open to debate. Any USDF member who wishes to voice an opinion pertaining to the issue on the floor may queue at one of several microphones and address the BOG. As you can imagine, the more contentious the issue, the longer the queues.

Although there can be times when one wonders whether agreement will ever be reached, all in all, the process is distinctly more civilized than that of today's Congress. It helps that the delegates, despite their differing backgrounds and interests, are united by a love of the sport and the horse.

Up the Chain


The USDF is an affiliate organization of the USEF, the US national governing body for equestrian sport. USEF makes the rules for national-level dressage competition, but there is overlap between the two organizations. Several people who serve on USDF committees also hold USEF committee positions, such as on the USEF Dressage Committee. Therefore, the USEF dressage folks hold their own meetings during the USDF convention, and USEF open forums are part of the USDF convention agenda.

USEF's affiliate organizations must meet and formulate any rule-change proposals before the Big Daddy convention, the USEF annual convention, held in January. That's largely the reason USDF's convention falls, somewhat awkwardly, after Thanksgiving and during the busy holiday season. The other reason is that the USDF convention also features an annual awards banquet. USDF's competition year ends Sept. 30, so there's a narrow window of opportunity during which awards standings must be finalized, awards produced, and recipients given sufficient time to plan their trips to the convention.

That's a summary of the business end of a USDF convention. I'll be bringing you BOG updates over the next couple of days. But rest assured, a convention is not all meetings and voting. There are many educational and fun shopping opportunities, culminating with this weekend's Adequan/USDF National Dressage Symposium featuring Anne Gribbons, Scott Hassler, Debbie McDonald, and Jeremy Steinberg. Stay tuned!