Our Haflinger Adventure with Dressage FEI 5* Judge Janet Foy By Lindy Thompson & Suzanne Morisse
This May Lindy Thompson and Suzanne Morisse were fortunate enough to be able to ride with the FEI 5* dressage judge, Janet Foy, at Barbra & Brian Reis’ Brilliant Reflection Farm (Ortonville, MI). These clinics generally have limited space and that weekend our 2 Haflingers made up a quarter of the participation! Lindy rode her 9 year old gelding, N’tempo SSH1 (“Beau”) at 3rd/4th level Classical Dressage and Sue rode her 13 year old mare, Sabreena Sue CRHF, at 4th level Western Dressage. Janet is a wonderful, entertaining, thorough and effective teacher who has appropriately high expectations for all of her students. Not only did everyone come away better riders and partners to their horses, but all of the participants agreed that much was learned from every single ride over the weekend. The participants ranged from young/green horses to the higher levels of dressage and over the chilly weekend, Beau and Sabrina proved they could not only do the work, they can do it quite well.
24 Summer 2018 • Haflinger Horse
A little background on Janet is that she started as a western rider in Colorado as a young woman. She spent her years finding education all over the world and when she settled into the sport of dressage, she continued to surround herself with the best teachers she could find. Janet has trained many horses through the levels and eventually wrote a book titled Dressage for the Not So Perfect Horse. If you haven’t read this book, it’s highly recommended. Janet’s philosophy is deeply rooted in the idea that great training should always win, no matter the breed. She discusses this theory as it applies to various breeds, personality and conformational situations throughout her book. This philosophy is also the foundation of her teaching in a clinic setting. She expects work and movements to be started, practiced and finished correctly to improve the horses understanding, fitness and, ultimately, way of going. Last year Janet was promoted from an FEI 4* judge to an FEI 5* judge. This means we
