Liesbeth Jorna is a dressage judge in The Netherlands, is a student of Dressage, Naturally, a coach inside the Dressage Naturally Virtual Arena and a teacher of Sport and Horsemanship United. Below she shares some thoughts after her recent experience assisting a judge at an International dressage competition. I believe her words are important not just because of what they say but because she is able to live in the middle, as I like to... looking to learn and ask questions and find ways to improve the horse world instead of just... well... judging or dismissing it! Enjoy. It is translated from her original Dutch version. You can find Liesbeth helping students inside my Virtual Arena (do.dressagenaturally.net/) as well as at her: sporthorsemanshipunited.nl/ ================= Accept it? Change it? Or leave it? On the bridge between two worlds: natural horsemanship and dressage competitions. By Liesbeth Jorna Hi all, I promised to tell you about my experiences with being a dressage judges assistant at the international dressage competition during the event of ICNN Drachten. For those who know me a little it will not come as a surprise when I say that for me this is a place where an important dilemma always shows up: accept it, change it or leave it? And by it I mean the world of dressage competitions. Why did I want to be a judges assistant at such an event? Primarily in order to learn... About dressage, and about the way in which I can and cannot appreciate it. I want to learn about judging, because I am also dressage judge and I want to have a realistic impression of judging in the higher levels of dressage. Secondly, because I dont like to be judgmental or have an opinion based on nothing but assumptions or what other people say. Prejudice is not my thing. I hoped to enjoy beautiful sport, wanted to be there, see it, talk about it with experts. Everyone knows that dressage as a sport is under fire. And I also know from experience that competition riders usually think natural horsemanship is a bit odd. I arrived at the venue early in the morning and there were about 15 combinations warming up and training their horses in the arena. I was early so I had some time left to watch ... and after a while I thought Why am I here?. Apart from a maybe one or two of them that were walking around relaxed, I could not find any rider that looked happy, not one rider that rewarded his horse in a friendly way, not one horse that was not in a deep and round, often extremely round, position. A lot of pulling, jostling. Horses offering a little and riders requiring it all, without saying thank you for what the horse offered. Sometimes a short moment of release in a nice round trot, but overall I felt disappointed by what I saw. I stayed. I reported at the volunteers office and made acquaintance with the very nice judge that I would assist during 3 of the 5 classes that I was assigned to. The first class was the international test for ponies. I have seen a few spectacular tests and also I some very athletic ponies. With the judge I had an open conversation about the terribly tight and low nosebands. She said she found it a very bad tendency in the pony competition and said she struggled with the fact that it is still not made clear in the regulations when a noseband is considered too tight. And really, when I say tight I mean so tight that it looks like you could not even put your nail between the nasal bone and the noseband, and one could clearly see that the nosebands were often so low that it formed an obstruction for breathing freely. She was of the opinion that there should be some official in the warming-up arena checking on this. Because of these nosebands being so tight we saw several ponies with withdrawn lips and showing their teeth, trying to move their jaws. In such a situation it is also very difficult to judge whether the contact is good or not, and as far as I am concerned this should lower every score with at least one point. In my opinion tight nosebands are really very unfriendly and ineffective (you will receive no feedback from your horse and it shuts his mouth literally and figuratively speaking; a nice and light contact and open communication is never possible that way) and in addition, contrary to the purpose of the dressage as it is described by the FEI (a description with which I agree). I know that as a dressage judge you should never let yourself be influenced by others. This is why I kept my opinion to myself, but when a judge asked for my opinion or looked for a confirmation of what he or she saw, I honestly said what I thought. What they do with that information is their own responsibility. So I dont know if that changed their scores but the fact is that quite often I had to write down open mouth and tense in the comments. At one point during the competition a horse startled from something at the far end of the arena. The judge told me to write down that the horse was naughty. I put my pen on the paper but I just could not write that. Horses always have a reason for what they do. The word naughty would indicate the horse would be blamed and that seemed really unfair. I replaced it with spooky, which was a clear fact. Fortunately, there were several riders that elegantly solved the spookyness (is that a word??) by calmly keeping their focus on the exercise instead of fighting. The judges told me that, while in regional competition a 6 means that you pretty much show what is being asked, in international competition the score then will be a 7. That explains why the scores seem a bit high as compared to what many of us are used too. As the competitions proceeded it became clear to me that scores went up when exercises went more smooth, light, rhythmic, etc. but scores were not always lower when basic qualities were lost. They judge by the official training scale: rhythm, suppleness, contact, impulsion, straightness and collection. There is nothing wrong with that basically but I would rather think of the meaningful qualities that lie beneath: throughness, let loose, freedom of movement, confidence, trust, balance, self-carriage, leadership, cooperation, etc. For example, a wide open mouth or clearly visible tension lowered the score sometimes by a half or maybe a whole point but often not at all. The same goes for a tight top-line or not being able to stand still (a mental-emotional thing!). I have only had to write down the comment lack of self carriage once in all 5 classes, from ponies to grand prix freestyle, but I have seen it perhaps a hundred times. The horses were definitely all athletes, but at least half of them seemed not happy at all. These are things that really give information about the basic quality of the riding, but apparently at this level the physical execution of the exercises is considered more important than the quality they are performed with. That seems contrary to how we are taught to judge at the regional and national levels in recent years. I have seen some really nice rides, with nice postures of both rider and horse and with only small irregularities in their test. Those irregularities are fine with me, we all have to challenge ourselves and our horses during training to get to a higher level. So I will never generalize and say that all competition riders treat their horses bad or dont ride according to the FEI principles. Tribute to the good and friendly riders! I have also seen a lot of riders though, with a stiff and tense posture, horses with contracted necks (control! control!), riders that push and pull at the same time, and horses with their mouths wide open. I watched a horse with its tongue visibly withdrawn and totally blue win a 4th prize. I guess I shocked the judge a bit with my comment on that test. I watched a horse bleeding out of his mouth and his rider making a gesture like thats just bad luck, while the announcer suggested the same by telling the audience that the horse probably accidentally bit his tongue. My judge dryly commented that it was a consequence of too much force in the hand of the rider and she was undoubtedly right. I have met many people this weekend who really are fond of this sport and I do understand that: dressage done well can be Poetry in Motion! Most of these people are not aware of the potential of Natural Horsemanship for the mental and emotional development of horses and their riders, maybe as much as an average NHer does not know very much about physical training. Some people can already make a huge change when given only a few new ideas, but some could really use a big wake-up call, and that goes for both the dressage riders and the NHers :o). That still leaves me with the question: accept it, change it or leave it? Accept it? No! I do not appreciate the general tendencies I have seen during this dressage event. I admire the ones that are exceptions to these tendencies, for their horsemanship and love for their horse. Also for their courage to stay true to their principles and putting the relationship with their horse in the first place. These riders inspire me. On the other hand, the people that cheer at spectacular but unfriendly riding or that blindly follow the crowd without forming their own opinion, those I cannot admire. Change it? I would love to! I have talked to many people I know from the time I competed, whom I met at the judges training or in the Rider fitness course etc. and I could not help noticing that most of them start to have a more or less clear picture of my values. I also observed how some of them change the way they talk to me despite the fact that they have competed on much higher level than I did. I like even more that it seems to trigger a change in how they think. Dont get me wrong: I am not happy for me, because I do not consider myself that special or important, but I am happy for the horses. In equestrian media we can also slowly see a change to a more natural and friendly approach of equestrian sports. So yes, if we can change it little by little, then I would like to help making dressage competitions more kind and happy. Leave it? No. I know that as a rider, instructor and judge, I am continuously walking across the bridge between classical dressage and NH on one side and equestrian competitions on the other. As long as I have a feeling that I can contribute to the sport in a positive way, I want to stay connected. By visiting competition, by teaching, by talking to all those highly motivated people and by continuing my role as a dressage judge. Critical, but definitely connected, because what I do or say may be a drop in the ocean, but it helps. If we would disconnect it would mean we could not help making the dressage competitions more friendly, our equine athletes more happy, and truely develop dressage according to the principles the FEI intended. We need to keep the pressure on, otherwise the powerful forces of personal gain, money and fame will not make things better. Competitive dressage already has such a bad reputation that riders of classical dressage and NH riders stay away. I think that is a pity. Because whatever background you come from: you can always take part in competitions for yourself, with your own values and standards. To simply enjoy the game or to test your riding skills. A few of my students successfully compete and the fun thing is: whether theyre winning or not, they are always admired for the relationship they have with their horse, the relaxed attitude and the smile on their face. So: NHers and competition riders: lets keep moving forward! Please do not stay away from each other but find the connection. Stay away from bias or silence and show the world competitive dressage can be friendly and beautiful. Lets share the knowledge and skills of NH and dressage so every horse and rider benefits. Because who would not want to ride well on a happy horse? Because of the love and admiration we all feel for these beautiful creatures. Happy trails, L* © Liesbeth Jorna - Sport & Horsemanship United, january 2015
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 23:48:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015