May/June 2021
Official Publication of the United States Dressage Federation
SHOW-SEASON STRATEGIES • Master the Half-Halt (p. 22) • Be Supportive (p. 28) • Beat the Heat (p. 38) • Psych Yourself Up (p. 47)
Anna Buffini and Davinia La Douce FRH
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USDF CONNECTION
The Official Publication of the United States Dressage Federation EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Stephan Hienzsch (859) 271-7887 • stephh1enz@usdf.org EDITOR Jennifer O. Bryant (610) 344-0116 • jbryant@usdf.org CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Hilary M. Clayton, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS EDITORIAL ADVISORS Margaret Freeman (NC), Anne Gribbons (FL), Roberta Williams (FL), Terry Wilson (CA)
An official property of the United States Dressage Federation
TECHNICAL ADVISORS Janine Malone, Lisa Gorretta, Elisabeth Williams SENIOR PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR Emily Koenig (859) 271-7883 • ekoenig@usdf.org
YourDressage delivers exclusive dressage stories, editorial, and education, relevant to ALL dressage enthusiasts and is your daily source for dressage! Look for these featured articles online at YourDressage.org
GRAPHIC & MULTIMEDIA COORDINATOR Katie Lewis (859) 271-7881 • klewis@usdf.org ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVE Danielle Titland (720) 300-2266 • dtitland@usdf.org
USDF OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD PRESIDENT LISA GORRETTA 19 Daisy Lane, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022 (216) 406-5475 • president@usdf.org VICE PRESIDENT KEVIN REINIG, 6907 Lindero Lane, Rancho Murieta, CA 95683 (916) 616-4581 • vicepresident@usdf.org SECRETARY MARGARET FREEMAN 200 Aurora Lane, Tryon, NC 28782 (828) 859-6723 • secretary@usdf.org TREASURER LORRAINE MUSSELMAN 7538 NC 39 Hwy, Zebulon, NC 27497 (919) 218-6802 • treasurer@usdf.org
EDUCATION
REGIONAL DIRECTORS
“Equine Protein: Quality of Quantity”
REGION 1 DC, DE, MD, NC, NJ, PA, VA BETTINA G. LONGAKER 8246 Open Gate Road, Gordonsville, VA 22942 (540) 832-7611 • region1dir@usdf.org
Dr. Caroline Loos, who was a featured speaker at the 2020 Adequan®/USDF Virtual Convention, shares everything you need to know about equine protein.
REGION 2 IL, IN, KY, MI, OH, WV, WI DEBBY SAVAGE 7011 cobblestone Lane, Mentor, OH 44060 (908) 892-5335 • region2dir@usdf.org REGION 3 AL, FL, GA, SC, TN SUSAN BENDER 1024 Grand Prix Drive, Beech Island, SC 29842 (803) 295-2525 • region3dir@usdf.org
COMPETITION
REGION 4 IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD ANNE SUSHKO 1942 Clifford Street, Dubuque, IA 52002 (563) 580-0510 • region4dir@usdf.org
“Tellie’s Tale”
REGION 5 AZ, CO, E. MT, NM, UT, W. TX, WY HEATHER PETERSEN 22750 County Road 37, Elbert, CO 80106 (303) 648-3164 • region5dir@usdf.org
Breeder Kim Korbyn and her homebred Hanoverian have reached great heights together, culminating in an unforgettable trip to the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®.
REGION 6 AK, ID, W. MT, OR, WA PETER ROTHSCHILD 1120 Arcadia Street NW, Olympia, WA 98502 (206) 200-3522 • region6dir@usdf.org REGION 7 CA, HI, NV CAROL TICE 31895 Nicolas Road, Temecula, CA 92591 (714) 514-5606 • region7dir@usdf.org
ACHIEVEMENT
REGION 8 CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT DEBRA REINHARDT 160 Woods Way Drive, Southbury, CT 06488 (203) 264-2148 • region8dir@usdf.org
“What Sculpture and Horses Have in Common”
REGION 9 AR, LA, MS, OK, TX SHERRY GUESS 18216 S. 397th East Avenue, Porter, OK 74454 (918) 640-1204 • region9dir@usdf.org
International dressage coach, trainer, and rider Kathy Connelly describes the similarities between great equestrians & great artists, who have more in common than you might think.
AT-LARGE DIRECTORS ACTIVITIES COUNCIL SUE MANDAS 9508 Bridlewood Trail, Dayton, OH 45458 (937) 272-9068 • ald-activities@usdf.org ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL Barbara Cadwell 324 Benjamin Street, Fernandina Beach, FL (715) 350 1967 • ald-administrative@usdf.org TECHNICAL COUNCIL SUE MCKEOWN 6 Whitehaven Lane, Worcester, MA 01609 (508) 459-9209 • ald-technical@usdf.org
COMMUNITY “My Grand Prix Horse, My Granddaughter’s Best Friend”
In YourDressage’s newest feature, Breed of the Month, we spotlight Hanoverians. In this entry, a Region 8 equestrian writes about how her competition mount doubles as her granddaughter’s lead-line horse.
It’s YourDressage, be a part of it! Visit https://yourdressage.org/ for all these stories & much more!
USDF Connection is published bimonthly by the United States Dressage Federation, 4051 Iron Works Parkway, Lexington, KY 40511. Phone: 859/971-2277. Fax: 859/971-7722. E-mail: usdressage@ usdf.org, Web site: www.usdf.org. USDF members receive USDF Connection as a membership benefit, paid by membership dues. Copyright © 2021 USDF. All rights reserved. USDF reserves the right to refuse any advertising or copy that is deemed unsuitable for USDF and its policies. Excluding advertisements, all photos with mounted riders must have safety head gear or USEF-approved competition hat. USDF assumes no responsibility for the claims made in advertisements. Statements of fact and opinion are those of the experts consulted and authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the policy of USDF. The publishers reserve the right to reject any advertising deemed unsuitable for USDF, as well as the right to reject or edit any manuscripts received for publication. USDF assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. All materials must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Questions about your subscription or change in address? Contact USDF Membership Department, 859/971-2277, or usdressage@usdf.org. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: USDF, 4051 IRON WORKS PARKWAY, LEXINGTON, KY 40511. Canadian Agreement No. 1741527. Canada return address: Station A, P.O. Box 54, Windsor, Ontario N9A 6J5.
2 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
USDF Connection
MAY/JUNE 2021
Volume 23, Number 1
Columns
28
4 Inside USDF
Weathering the Storm
By Lorraine Musselman
6 Ringside
14
28
Let’s Talk
By Jennifer Mellace
It’s Hot out Here
New Awards Recognize “Grass Roots” Competition Excellence By Penny Hawes
The Educator
By Katie Navarra
Anhidrosis: A Reason to Sweat
22 Clinic
The travails of dealing with non-sweating horses
By Anne Gribbons
By Colleen Scott
Conversations on Training By Beth Baumert
58 Tack Shop
To Ride Big, Start Small
By Jayne Ayers
20 Salute
How to keep yourself and your horse cool and safe when the heat is on
44 47
The Judge’s Box
Riding the Rein Back
16 GMO
Making the discussion of mental health in the dressage community a priority
38
By Jennifer O. Bryant
Departments
Features
Beneath the Surface
A performance coach explains how inching out of your comfort zone can increase confidence and improve your results in the show ring
By John Haime
50
Smart Summertime Solutions
64 My Dressage
Lightbulb Moment
By Frances Srulowitz
De Better Decanter, De Better De Ride
Dressage horses, they say, are developed like fine wines. Likewise, some wines and spirits are infused with a love of all things equine
By L. A. Sokolowski
54
Basics
Golden (Year) Opportunities
8 Sponsor Spotlight
Two categories of USDF rider awards spotlight competitors for whom age is just a number
9 Collection 60 Rider’s Market
By Amy Swerdlin
62 USDF Connection Submission Guidelines
On Our Cover Yes, you’ll sweat, but careful prep can help you and your horse deal with the heat (p. 38). Anna Buffini thanks her Hanoverian mare Davinia La Douce FRH (Don Frederico x A Jungle Prince) after a Grand Prix-level test during the 2021 Florida winter season. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.
62 USDF Office Contact Directory 63 Advertising Index
USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
3
Inside USDF Weathering the Storm Proactive financial management has kept the USDF afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic
A
lthough many businesses are suffering major financial hardships as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, strong fiscal management has enabled the USDF to carry on in relatively good shape. The USDF came into the pandemic in a very good financial position, with a cash-reserve ratio of 115.79 days. A cash-reserve ratio is a calculation that projects how long an organization can continue operating under normal conditions if the inflow of cash is suddenly cut off. Proactive measures taken early in the pandemic by the USDF staff, supported by the USDF Executive Board, were and continue to be critical. One of the board’s first steps was to do a cash-flow analysis. Determining where an organization’s funding comes from and where it goes shows which revenue sources can be expected to continue and which may slow or even cease. When we analyzed the USDF’s cash flow, we looked at which expenses could be decreased to extend those 115 days of cash reserves as long as possible. We analyzed how we could continue to provide benefits to our members and where funding could be attained. Any expense items that were not deemed essential were cut or reduced. The goals were to maintain our staff and to continue to provide our members with benefits. The pandemic had very little effect on USDF’s 2019 fiscal year (which ended March 31, 2020), but it will impact the organization’s financial statements for FY 2020, which ended March 31, 2021. When those statements come out later this year, there will be significant
variations from what was budgeted. The reason is that the budget for FY 2020 was developed and approved in 2019—at least four months before any of us had heard the term COVID-19, and long before we had any idea of the impact it would have on the dressage world. The financials for the year ending March 31, 2020 came in pretty much as expected. The majority of USDF’s revenue comes from membership dues, followed by competition-related items. Program-services revenue consists of competitions (44%), programs and education (21%), publications (15%), and member services (12%). In the expense category, about two-thirds relate to program services, with the remaining third being administrative costs. The cancellation of the 2020 US Dressage Finals, along with a decrease in participation in other USEF-licensed/USDF-recognized dressage competitions, including the 2020 Great American/USDF Regional Championships, hurt our revenues during the 2020 fiscal year. Another financial blow was the cancellation or postponement
4 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
of many USDF educational events. Although expenses relating to staging these events of course decreased accordingly, the administrative costs of the organization as a whole are pretty much fixed. We tried to cut administrative costs as much as possible, with measures including switching the planned in-person 2020 Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention to a virtual event. The financials for this time period will be finalized and available for USDF members to view later this year. The Executive Board and the USDF staff are hopeful that 2021-2022 will be a better year, but meanwhile the budget for FY 2021—which was approved by the USDF Board of Governors during the 2020 virtual convention in December—has been adjusted to reflect the projected effects of the pandemic. Programs that were postponed from last summer are included. Projected revenues have been decreased across the board, and expenses have been decreased to match. Any discretionary spending has been reduced to a minimum or eliminated if possible. Many line items were adjusted to reflect the actual expenses and trends that we have been seeing over the past year. The USDF has had to remain flexible and willing to make changes as needed to continue to provide the services our members enjoy, while maintaining its responsibility to the health and safety of our staff. As a member of the Executive Board, I have been very proud of the response and attitude of our staff and management.
COURTESY OF LORRAINE MUSSLEMAN
By Lorraine Musselman, USDF Treasurer
Photo: Alden Corrigan
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Ringside Beneath the Surface Equestrian sport is emotional and pressure-filled. Some dressage professionals have become mental-health advocates.
given time, Client 1 is over the moon after a great lesson, while Client 2 remains frustrated by some hurdle. Client 3 is crestfallen because she just got bad news from the vet, while Client 4 is indignant after receiving middling scores at last weekend’s show. Client 5 is battling fear issues in the saddle, and Client 6 is dissatisfied with some aspect of her horse’s care. Horses have a way of exposing both our core values and our weaknesses, and our emotions around both may be on full display at the barn. The neophyte trainer who believes that the horse business is mostly about horses has another think coming! The workload and the pressure can be overwhelming. As FEI-level dressage pro JJ Tate explains in “Let’s Talk,” with success comes the easing of some burdens but the advent of new ones. And if a rider is fortunate enough to ascend to the elite ranks, well, it can be a case of “be careful what you wish for” because the strain of getting a top horse to a major international championship—not to mention the pressures exerted, overtly or
6 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
otherwise, by federations, sponsors, and others—is such that not every competitor is keen to repeat the process. The horse business is tough, physically and psychologically, and people can be cruel, whether it’s making snide remarks about the lower-level competitor at a local show or posting smack about a wellknown rider on social media. We’re all a little emotionally naked when we put ourselves out there, in front of a judge and the railbirds. Most of us are doing our best; trust me, we don’t set out to fail when we go down center line. Be kind.
Jennifer O. Bryant, Editor @JenniferOBryant
MICHAEL BRYANT
A
llison Brock is my new hero. Not because she’s a 2016 US Olympic team dressage bronze medalist (which she is), or a great rider (which she is), or a fantastic instructor/trainer (ditto). It’s because she has taken the lead in speaking out about her own mental-health issues, and about how the pressure-filled equestrian industry can drive a person to the breaking point. Horses bring us, as the saying goes, the highest highs and the lowest lows. They are glorious, giving creatures—but they also take a lot, as in time, effort, money, blood, sweat, and tears. Their care is time-consuming and never-ending, and for all their size and power they are regrettably fragile. They are our partners, friends, athletes, pets, investments, goals, and dreams, all wrapped up in one four-legged package. A rider without a horse is literally grounded, sidelined, unable to participate in that lesson, clinic, show, or Olympic Games. Behind even the most modest dressage action plan are the untold hours and dollars it took the rider to get there, so the derailment of that plan can feel nothing short of catastrophic, as Brock attests in our story, “Let’s Talk” (p. 28). Multiply all those horse-stirred emotions by a barnful of clients, and I suppose that’s what it’s like for a lot of dressage professionals. At any
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Collection Bits and Pieces from USDF and the World of Dressage
SHANON BRINKMAN
EHV-1 Outbreak Cancels World Cup Finals ★ USOPC Honors Para-Dressage Coach ★ Kissing Spines Are Hereditary
A competitor relaxes while leaving the ring after a dressage test. After last year’s pandemic shutdowns, riders are relishing the return of a spring show season. USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
9
Collection HORSE HEALTH
NBCUniversal to Air Record Paralympics Coverage The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games (set for August 24-September 25, 2021) will get the most Paralympics live and streaming coverage ever in the US, NBCUniversal has announced.
NEW WORLD RECORD: #1 world-ranked para-dressage rider Roxanne Trunnell earned an unprecedented score of 83.334% in the FEI Para Grade I Individual test at the Perrigo CPEDI3* during the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (FL) in March. Trunnell’s partner was Dolton, a Hanoverian gelding by Danone I owned by Karin Flint.
NBCUniversal plans to offer a record 1,200 hours of Paralympic programming, including the firstever prime-time TV coverage on NBC. There will be more than 200 hours of TV coverage across NBC, NBCSN, and the Olympic Channel. Coverage will also air on NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock. NBCSN will broadcast live coverage of the Paralympic Games’ opening and closing ceremonies, August 24 and September 5. NBC Sports digital platforms including NBCOlympics. com and the NBC Sports app will offer comprehensive live streaming, with coverage including the para-equestrian dressage competition. Those tuning in to NBC for the prime-time programming can expect lots of human-interest stories about the Paralympic athletes, especially those representing Team USA, along with selected sports coverage. Tokyo Paralympic equestrian competition is scheduled for August 26-30.
EHV-1 Outbreak Forces Cancellation of World Cup Finals, Other European Events Last year the saboteur was the COVID-19 pandemic. This year an outbreak of the neurological form of equine herpes virus (EHV-1) forced the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) to cancel its World Cup Dressage and Jumping Finals for the second consecutive year. The Finals were to have been held in Gothenburg, Sweden, March 31-April 4. The FEI had announced a 28-day shutdown of all FEI events in mainland Europe beginning March 1. On March 12 it imposed a two-week extension, until April 11. According to the FEI’s website, as of March 17 there had been 17 confirmed equine deaths from EHV-1 in Europe. The virus can cause respiratory and neurological disease as well as abortion in pregnant mares. North America was experiencing its own unrelated EHV-1 outbreak in
the same time frame. At press time, confirmed cases had been reported in 13 states and several Canadian provinces. Stay current and learn how to protect your horse with these resources: • The FEI maintains an EHV-1 information hub at inside.fei.org/fei/ ehv-1 • Watch US Equestrian’s EHV-1 informational webinar on the USEF Network: usef.org/networkcoverage /2020webinar/1_8ybpxw7p • The US Department of Agriculture aggregates EHV resources at aphis.usda.gov/ aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/ animal-disease-information/ equine/ehv/equine-herpesvirus • Learn the do’s and don’ts of equine biosecurity at thehorse. com/features/practical-biosecurity-tips-to-protect-your-horse/.
HONORS
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
US Para-Equestrian Coach Honored by USOPC
Tickets on Sale for Herning 2022
Michel Assouline, the US national paraequestrian dressage coach since 2017, was named the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s (USOPC) 2020 Assouline Paralympic Coach of the Year, the USOPC announced in February. During his nearly 12 years as head British para-dressage coach, Assouline coached Team Great Britain to its greatest successes ever. Since becoming the US para coach, he has implemented a Para Coach Certification Program and other strategies that have brought strong results for Team USA, including a current number-one world ranking for paradressage athlete Roxanne Trunnell (see photo at left).
After the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) in North Carolina, the FEI decided not to hold its disciplines’ future world championships under a singleevent umbrella, as the WEG had been since 1990. The 2022 world championships in dressage, paradressage, jumping, and vaulting—officially the 2022 Ecco FEI World Championships— were awarded to Herning, Denmark and will take place August 6-14, 2022. Herning 2022 organizers are planning to hold a trade fair, entertainment and educational events, and more in conjunction with the equestrian competitions. For ticket and other information, visit Herning2022.com.
10 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
SUSANJSTICKLE.COM; TAYLOR PENCE/US EQUESTRIAN
PARALYMPIC GAMES
FINANCIAL AID TDF Awards Grants to Adult Amateurs, Instructors, and Para-Dressage Riders
TERRI MILLER; SHAWN TINKHAM; SHARON PACKER
The Dressage Foundation (TDF), Lincoln, Nebraska, in December announced the 2020 recipients of grants for adult amateurs, dressage instructors, and paraequestrian dressage riders. The Carol Lavell Gifted Memorial Fund Grants for Adult Amateurs provide funding to enable amateur dressage riders to enjoy concentrated training away from the daily pressures of job and family. Up to 11 grants of $1,500 are available per year—one per USDF region plus two wild-card grants. The 2020 recipients are:
Leana Tank, Grand Rapids, Michigan (All Dressage Association), will train with Laurie Moore. Simone Cormier, Ocala, Florida (STRIDE), will work with Megan Fischer Graham. Sally Miller, O’Fallon, Missouri (St. Louis Area Dressage Society), will work with Brianna Zwilling and Betsy Steiner. Michele Barton, Goodyear, Arizona (Tucson Dressage Club), will train with Nathalie Eikel-Baughman. Raena Schraer, Anchorage, Alaska (Alaska Dressage Association), will train with Jessica Wisdom. Kelly Artz, Woodland Hills, California (California Dressage Society), will work with Carly Taylor-Smith. Lily Baker-Lubin, Novato, California (California Dressage Society), will work with Riana Porter. MacKenzie Waro, Mount Vision, New York (Eastern New York Dressage and Combined Training Association; Central New York Dressage and Combined Training Association), will work with Cody Moore. Holly Luke, Guthrie, Oklahoma (Central Plains Dressage Society), will train with Melissa Creswick. Three dressage instructors received grants for continuing education through TDF’s Major
Anders Lindgren Grant program, funded through the Carol Lavell Gifted Memorial Fund. Megan McIsaac will receive a $6,000 grant to train with Kathleen Raine in California. McIsaac, a Fourth Level USDF-certified instructor/ trainer, owns and operates Lindinhof Equine Sports Zentrum in Wisconsin. Heidi Hauri-Gill will receive a $6,000 grant to work with Kathy Connelly in Florida. A USDF-certified instructor/trainer through Second Level, Hauri-Gill teaches and trains at First Choice Riding Academy in New Hampshire. Siobhan Byrne of Maryland will receive a $2,000 grant to work with JJ Tate. TDF’s Para-Equestrian Dressage Fund was established in 2018 to provide financial support for paradressage riders to attend educational events. Two riders have each received a $1,000 grant: Charlotte Merle-Smith, Ocala, Florida, will work with Ruth HoganPoulsen to develop a freestyle.
GIFTED FUND RECIPIENT: Kelly Artz of California
Scnobia Stewart, Cedar Grove, North Carolina, a member of the North Carolina Dressage and Combined Training Association, will train with Ali Perkins in collaboration with Three Wishes Freestyles and musician Taylor Stewart. Melissa Jamison, Hayes, Virginia (Southeast Virginia Dressage Association), will work with Lehua Custer.
PARA GRANT RECIPIENT: Alanna Flax-Clark
LINDGREN GRANT RECIPIENT: New Hampshire-based dressage instructor Heidi Hauri-Gill
Alanna Flax-Clark, Glen Gardner, New Jersey, will train with Sara Schmitt in Florida for a month. To donate or to learn more about TDF’s entire slate of grant programs, visit DressageFoundation.org or call (402) 434-8585. USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
11
Collection USDF BULLETINS GMO Members: Are You Eligible for a Refund?
If you are a member of a USDF group-member organization (GMO), you may request a refund of the USDF portion of the membership fee for any additional GMOs you join (limit three), less a small processing fee. Requests must be submitted in writing between April 1 and August 1 of the current membership year using the Multiple GMO Dues Refund Request form, which is available on the USDF website. For voting purposes, a primary GMO must be declared. Send e-mail to gmo@usdf.org with any questions.
Is Your Horse Declared for the All-Breeds Awards Program?
Declaring a horse for the 2021 USDF All-Breeds Awards is easy! Simply submit a copy of your horse’s breed- or performance-registry papers along with a completed All-Breeds Awards Declaration Form with fee to USDF no later than August 1. Find the declaration form on the USDF website under Awards.
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR Cathy Zappe, Harvest, Alabama Cathy Zappe is a USDF bronze, silver, and gold medalist who has also earned the USDF gold freestyle bar. She is a USDF-certified instructor/ trainer through Fourth Level and a faculty member of the USDF Instructor/ Trainer Program. She has competed in jumping, eventing, games, and dressage for 53 years and has been teaching for more than 40 years.
Applying for USDF Rider Medals Is Simple
After all award requirements are met for the USDF bronze, silver, or gold medals or freestyle bars, complete the online USDF Rider Performance Awards Application (under Awards on the USDF website). Applications must be received by September 30 for the award to be recognized in the 2021 competition year. USDF offers Master’s Challenge awards for members age 60 and older. Recognition is offered at six different levels, and scores do not expire. For complete award requirements, see the USDF Member Guide. And check out “Golden (Year) Opportunities” on page 54 of this issue for more on USDF awards programs for mature riders.
Annual Change-of-Region Requests Due
Riders wishing to compete at a Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championship in a region other than the region of residence associated with their membership information on file as of July 1 must submit a Change of Region Form and fee. The form is available for online submission via the Great American/USDF Regional Championship Competitors page on the USDF website.
Regional Championships Program Rules Update
To qualify for a Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championship during the 2021 USDF Regional Championships program year, a horse/rider combination must earn a total of two qualifying scores, at two different USEF-licensed/ USDF-recognized dressage competitions, from two different judges or combinations of judges.
USDF Regional Adult Amateur Equitation Program Prizes
The 2021 USDF Adult Amateur Equitation Regional Finals presented by Big Dee’s Tack & Vet Supply will be held in conjunction with each of the nine Great American/USDF Regional Championship competitions. Big Dee’s will provide each champion with a $100 gift certificate; reserve champions, with a $75 gift certificate; and third-place finishers, with a $50 gift certificate. See the USDF website for dates, locations, and qualifying requirements.
12 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
CERTIFICATION FACULTY MEMBER: Zappe
How I got started in dressage: I started riding at age six in South Africa. My first experience of pure dressage was lessons from a German ex-cavalry officer as a teenager, and then as a young adult when I worked with a Polish trainer who had studied with members of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. I wanted to get certified because: I moved to the USA in 1999 and wanted to continue working as a dressage instructor. The USDF Instructor/Trainer Program offered a wonderful opportunity to improve my knowledge and teaching skills, as well as providing me with credentials pertinent to the US. Riding tip: Imagine that you are pushing a full wheelbarrow. Your hands have to stay level and even, or else the wheelbarrow will tip over and dump the load. Engaged core muscles backed up by the driving leg push the load—in this case, the horse—forward in the direction the rider wishes to go. Contact me: cathy.zappe@gmail. com or (256) 604-9400. —Alexandria Belton
BEATA KUSKA PHOTOGRAPHY
Master’s Challenge Award Available for Senior Competitors
YOUTH US Equestrian Offers Scholarships to College-Bound HS Seniors Are you a US Equestrian active competing or fan member and a high-school senior who wants to continue your equestrian involvement? If so, then you may be eligible to apply for one of USEF’s five $1,000 Higher Education Equestrian Scholarships. Applicants must be planning to enter college full-time in fall 2021. They must provide evidence that they intend to continue their equine activities, either through equine-related college course work or equestrian-team involvement, or through an outside equine-related job, internship, volunteer position, or other commitment. Applications are due July 31. Learn more at usef.org/ learning-center/youth-programs/grants-scholarships/ high-school-scholarship.
THE NEAR SIDE
RESEARCH Kissing Spines Determined to Be Hereditary As reported at the 2020 American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Convention, two US researchers have identified two—and possibly three— chromosomes that are linked to the condition known as kissing spines, in which two spinous processes are too close together, potentially causing pain and even ending an affected horse’s career. Dr. Samantha A. Brooks of the University of Florida, Gainesville; and Dr. Beau Whitaker of the Brazos Valley Equine Hospital in Salado, Texas, presented their preliminary findings at the AAEP convention. They found that two equine chromosomes play a role in the severity of the condition in warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, and stock-horse breeds, while a third chromosome was associated with whether or not a horse developed kissing spines at all. A horse’s sex and age did not appear to be strong factors in the development of kissing spines, but height is, according to the researchers. The apparent genetic component means that stallions and mares with kissing spines—especially those for which the condition was career-ending—probably should not be bred, Brooks and Whitaker said.
SPORT-HORSE BREEDING WFFS Also Affects Non-Warmblood Breeds The severe, recessive genetic disorder warmblood fragile-foal syndrome (WFFS) primarily affects the warmblood breeds, as the name suggests. But the results of a recent study indicate that non-warmbloods also can carry the WFFS allele. As published in the journal Genes in December 2020, WFFS carriers have been identified in the Thoroughbred, Haflinger, American Sport Pony, and Knabstrupper breeds, although Hanoverians, Danish Warmbloods, Oldenburgs, and other warmblood breeds predominate. The WFFS allele has been found in a total of 21 breeds to date. The 12 international researchers who conducted the study—including three from the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California, Davis—also debunked the hypothesis that a 19th-century Arabian stallion called Bairactar Or. Ar. originated the genetic defect. The stallion’s skeleton is preserved in a museum in Germany, and a tooth was used for DNA analysis. Furthermore, none of the 300 present-day Arabians tested as part of the study were WFFS carriers. For more on WFFS, see “Genetic Disease Strikes the Warmblood Breeds,” December 2018/January 2019. USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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The Judge’s Box Riding the Rein Back With correct practice, any horse can earn high scores for this fundamental movement By Jayne Ayers
sizes willing cooperation with the rider, but by including the rein back in so many of our levels, we might suspect that there is more to it. Why are judges concerned with the way the horse carries himself while taking those steps back? It first tells a lot about the degree of cooperation. A horse that hesitates when asked, or that backs up with its neck braced and its mouth open, is complaining or protesting. That is easy to see. But what about the other things that might keep the score for the rein back below 10?
A Stepping Stone to Collection In dressage training, rein back is about more than obedience. It is about the horse’s willingness and ability to lower its croup, to engage its hindquarters, to increase the flexion of the joints in its hind legs, and to take more weight behind during those steps back. An ongoing objective in the progressive development of the
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dressage horse through the levels is to increase engagement and uphill balance. The rein back can help the horse to understand how to use its body in response to increasingly complex requests from the rider. In the early work, pushing forward after stepping back helps teach the use of the hind legs to produce the thrust needed for lengthenings. The shortening of the frame with the hind legs brought further under the horse’s body, followed by the pushing off into a forward gait, helps the horse gain an understanding of the half-halt aids. At Second Level, the horse moves forward from rein back into medium walk. As collection increases, transition to collected trot is required. In training, the rein back can be used to help the horse understand how to use its body when much collection is requested. For instance, I have seen it used successfully in conjunction with piaffe half-steps to help the horse learn to balance onto the hindquarters.
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A TEST AND A TRAINING TOOL: Rein back teaches and tests the horse’s obedience, helps in developing half-halts and collection, and is a practical skill in any discipline. Silver medalist Laura Graves on Verdades shows the rein back in the Grand Prix test at the 2017 FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Omaha. She starts with a square, straight, balanced halt (photo 1). The horse should step back with diagonal pairs of legs (2). Verdades takes weight behind, lowering his croup to give good push into the forward transition (3).
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JENNIFER BRYANT
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he rein back is included in dressage tests from Second Level through Grand Prix. Why is this movement considered so important? First and foremost, the rein back is a test of obedience and of the horse’s cooperation with the rider. As a flight animal, the horse’s instinct is to run forward. Stepping backward acknowledges his acceptance of the rider’s will. This is recognized across all types of horse training. Reining back is a test used in the group classes for many breeds, from Arabian show hack to Morgan Western pleasure. It is commonly accepted as a training tool for the horse that wants to run through the bridle. It is used both to elicit and to test compliance. The rein back is also a necessary practical element of any riding horse’s training, so that the rider can maneuver the horse safely and conveniently both in the arena and outside. We know that dressage empha-
The US Equestrian Rule Book description of the rein back states that “deviation of the hindquarters from the straight line, spreading or inactive hind legs, and dragging forefeet are serious faults.” All of these are clearly ways of trying to avoid engagement in the rein back. They are ways that the horse can “cheat,” even while seeming to be perfectly compliant. This is why the judge must consider both the obedience and the correct engagement. Not only must the horse stay on the bit while backing, but it must keep its back up and round and lift its legs clearly, not drag its toes. In order to accomplish this, the horse must use the muscles on the underside of its body—the same muscles that contribute to throughness, roundness of frame, and uphill balance.
Two Beats vs. Four The Rule Book also specifies that the rhythm of the rein back should be two-beat, but that a four-beat effort performed without resistance could also be scored as marginal (5) or better. Here’s why. In both training and judging, I have noted that there are horses that usually produce a textbook two-beat rein back but that occasionally do it in four beats. The difference seems to be in the horse’s back. When some tension there prevents adequate lowering of the croup, the rhythm is compromised. In both versions, the horse may have the same lovely head and neck carriage and be very willing. It is for these positive elements that a four-beat rein back can still get a score of 5 or better. But it will not earn the highest scores.
No Brilliance Required: How to Ride a High-Scoring Rein Back The rein back is not about flashy gaits. Any horse can earn a high score when the exercise is performed well. The judge looks for a prompt, smooth transition into a square, balanced halt, with the rider positioned
exactly at the prescribed letter. The horse should show a clear, recognizable moment of immobility, but it does not have to stand still for three seconds as it does for the entry or final halt. The steps back should be active, fluent, and controlled, in a two-beat rhythm with even steps. The number of steps—counted as each foreleg moves back—should be correct. For a higher score, the diagonal pairs of legs should be well raised and the horse’s croup slightly lowered, clearly taking more weight behind. The horse should be straight, both in the alignment of its body and the direction of travel. The transition forward out of the rein back should be immediate and fluent, directly into the gait required. Throughout the movement, the contact should be light and elastic with the horse stretching forward to the bit, with its poll the highest point. All of this is not easy, which is why the rein back is tested all the way up through the Grand Prix level. At any level, a horse may be simply obedient and earn a sufficient mark. To demonstrate all the elements necessary to earn a 10 takes correct, fine-tuned training and a great deal of tact and finesse on the part of the rider. When done to a high standard, the rein back can be truly a display of perfect harmony between horse and rider.
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USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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GMO New Awards Recognize ‘Grass Roots’ Competition Excellence Despite the pandemic, riders embraced the new USDF Regional Schooling Show Awards Program
were no USDF awards for riders who competed at schooling shows. Given the statistics, it was a significant gap. Although more than 80 percent of USDF members say they compete in dressage, thousands of riders do not participate in licensed competitions. Previously, schoolingshow participants could earn awards only through a USDF group-member organization’s (GMO) year-end awards program or other local clublevel program. Another barrier to entry was
EARLY ADOPTER: Georgia Dressage and Combined Training Association member Kim Abernathy rode her Connemara, Foxberry’s Infinite Wisdom, to the inaugural Region 3 Training Level Open Schooling Show championship title in 2020
The program is a new twist on USDF’s robust array of awards programs, most of which are based on scores earned at US Equestrianlicensed/USDF-recognized dressage competitions. Prior to 2020, there
finances. To participate in a licensed dressage show, there are higher-tier membership and horse-registration requirements for both USDF and US Equestrian. But to earn USDF Regional Schooling Show awards,
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the rider need only be a USDF group member, with a USDF Horse ID number for the horse and a USDF nonmember number for the owner. Let’s take a look at how the schooling-show awards program came to be, and how it’s progressed to date.
A Strategic Move The USDF Regional Schooling Show Awards Program grew out of the organization’s long-range strategic plan developed in 2017. The strategic plan centered around three core values: welfare of the horse, quality education, and fair play. Goals, objectives, and strategies were created to move the USDF forward in each of these areas. Understanding the need for growth in all segments of membership, the organization made it a high priority to “explore expanding yearend award and recognition opportunities at the USDF regional level, including schooling shows.” Then-USDF vice president Lisa Gorretta, who became president in 2019, was involved in the project from the outset. She led the USDF Regional Recognition Task Force and personally recruited many of the members of the group, which she continues to oversee. As USDF senior competitions coordinator Cristen Brown explains, “The USDF Regional Schooling Show Awards Program was developed to supplement existing schooling-show awards programs and connect with our ‘grass roots’ membership. Within the structured program, USDF offers the opportunity for regional recognition for those
COURTESY OF GDCTA
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y anyone’s standards, 2020 probably wasn’t the best year to launch a new program; however, the USDF rolled out its new Regional Schooling Show Awards Program as scheduled on December 1, 2019. Those involved with unrecognized (schooling) dressage shows had eagerly awaited this new awards program; and despite ever-increasing COVID-19 restrictions, more than 150 shows were able to proceed as planned in 2020.
By Penny Hawes
who choose to participate while offering a fair and level playing field across all nine USDF regions.” To further the program’s reach, any type of dressage schooling show, even if it’s not hosted by a USDF GMO, is eligible to participate. This opened up the opportunity for shows hosted by farms or other types of equine associations to be a
Quick Look: How the Awards Program Works
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o participate in the USDF Regional Schooling Show Awards Program, competition management enrolls the schooling show by submitting an online application and a fee. Riders submit a yearly nomination form and fee for each horse/rider combination, which is good for the entire program year. Seven levels are recognized within four award divisions (open, adult amateur, junior/young rider, and non-professional) per USDF region. Competitors can qualify for awards (ribbons and certificates) at Introductory through Fourth Levels and at FEI levels (any combination of Prix St. Georges, Intermediate I, Intermediate II, and Grand Prix scores). The open division is not available at Introductory Level. To earn awards, eligible competitors submit scores from the required number of shows and judges (which may vary by level) via the USDF website. For division definitions, score requirements by level, eligibility requirements, and other details, see the 2021 program rules on the USDF website (from usdf. org, navigate to Awards / Performance / Regional Schooling Show Awards).
USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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GMO How’s It Going So Far? The first competition to participate in the new awards program was a show in the Mitchell Dressage Series in Virginia, which was held on the first day of the program’s introduction. Reception to the new awards program has exceeded expectations, says Brown. A total of 308 competitions applied to participate during the 2020 program year, but the coronavirus pandemic took its toll and only 187 of those were actually held. By the end of the 2020 competition year, the USDF had received 161 nominations from riders wanting eligibility for the new awards.
the new awards program as both a GMO official and a competitor. She contacted several schooling-show managers in her area to encourage them to register. “As the most visible voice of GDCTA,” Brewer says, “I was promoting for them and also did a little prompting of my own!” Although only three organizations ended up participating as a result of her invitation, Brewer notes that “there were plenty of their shows available to easily fulfill the five-score requirement.” As a competitor, Brewer signed up to participate last year to give her a goal to work toward, explaining that “I find setting goals with tangible results helpful. I zeroed in on this program as a way to work on Fourth Level without all the costs
in,” so the LVDA registered all of its shows. LVDA members “get quite a bit of benefit” from the program, Koch says. “The GMO invests in it for the sake of their members. Our riders did participate, and we’re going to register all our shows again this year. It can get expensive for riders with horse ID [fees], entry fees, and registration fees, but it gave locals a different way to gain points and win.”
Gaining Traction
INVOLVED ON BOTH SIDES: GDCTA official June Brewer helped to administrate the awards program with area schooling shows and also worked to qualify for an award at Fourth Level with her pony, Roo
“There are a few other organizations in the area now offering the program, so it’s starting to develop some momentum,” says Koch. When the schooling-show awards program was announced, some wondered whether it would siphon attendance away from smaller licensed competitions. Brewer says she hasn’t seen that happening so far. For the 2021 competition year, no changes have been made to the program, says the USDF’s Cristen Brown. She notes that “the USDF Regional Recognition Task Force will meet as needed to evaluate the program and consider any future changes.” With luck, the biggest change will be that restrictions mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic will no longer be necessary, the program will get a wider rollout, and more competitions and competitors will experience the benefits of a program designed to recognize the dressage achievements of the USDF’s many “grass roots” members.
We asked schooling-show competitors and GMO representatives to share their thoughts on the new program. June Brewer, the Georgia Dressage and Combined Training Association’s (GDCTA) webmaster, Facebook-page manager, and newsletter co-editor, was looking forward to
Penny Hawes is a coach, writer, and experienced GMO board member. She lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and a plethora of cats, dogs, and horses.
of going to the [USEF/]USDF open shows.” In 2020, Jennifer Koch managed five schooling shows for the Pennsylvania-based Lehigh Valley Dressage Association (LVDA). The GMO didn’t originally intend to participate in the new awards program, she says, but “our members were all
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COURTESY OF JUNE BREWER
part of the program, which in turn gives competitors more options for earning qualifying scores.
American Connemara Pony Society American Dutch Harness Horse Association American Hackney Horse Society American Haflinger Registry American Hanoverian Society American Morgan Horse Association *American Mustang & Burro Association American Paint Horse Association American Quarter Horse Association American Rhineland Studbook American Saddlebred Horse and Breeders Association American Shire Horse Association American Trakehner Association American Warmblood Registry American Warmblood Society & Sporthorse Registry Appaloosa Horse Club Arabian Horse Association Belgian Warmblood Breeding Association- North American District Canadian Horse Breeders Association Canadian Warmblood Horse Breeders Association Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North America Clydesdale Breeders of the U.S.A. Curly Sporthorse International Draft Cross Breeders & Owners Association Fell Pony Society of North America Friesian Heritage Horse & Sporthorse International Friesian Horse Association of North America Friesian Horse Society Friesian Sport Horse Registry Friesian Sporthorse Association German Sport Horse Association Gypsy Horse Registry of America
Gypsy Vanner Horse Society Holsteiner Verband - North American Breeding District Hungarian Horse Association of America International Andalusian & Lusitano Horse Association International Drum Horse Association International Georgian Grande Horse Registry International Rescue Horse Registry International Sporthorse Registry/Oldenburg NA Irish Draught Horse Society of North America Knabstrupperforeningen for Danmark (KNN) KWPN of North America New Forest Pony Society of North America North American Danish Warmblood Association North American Shagya-Arabian Society NorthAmerican Sportpony Registry Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry Oldenburg Horse Breeders Society/German Oldenburg Verband *Percheron Horse Association of America Performance Horse Registry Performance Shagya-Arabian Registry Rheinland Pfalz-Saar International Swedish Warmblood Association of North America The Jockey Club Trakehner Association of North America *United States Icelandic Horse Congress United States Lipizzan Federation United States P.R.E. Association *US Lusitano Association Welsh Pony and Cob Society of America *Weser-Em Ponies & Small Horse Registry of the GOV Westfalen Verband NA *Denotes a new Participating Organization for 2021.
A complete listing of the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards Participating Organizations, program rules, and award standings are available on the USDF website at www.usdf.org. For questions e-mail allbreeds@usdf.org.
2021 All-Breeds Participating Organizations
These organizations, in partnership with USDF, promote and recognize a high standard of accomplishment within their breed, through their participation in the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards Program.
Salute The Educator 2020 USDF Volunteer of the Year Jean Kraus is a teacher, first and foremost By Colleen Scott
SERVICE WITH A SMILE: FEI dressage steward and problem-solver extraordinaire Jean Kraus at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in North Carolina
With a curriculum vitae that runs to four single-spaced pages, that’s not an exaggeration. For decades Kraus has devoted time, energy, and expertise to the USDF, which made her a natural choice for the 2020 USDF Volunteer of the Year Award.
A Teacher at Heart If you’ve had any involvement with USDF or US Equestrian TD training or dressage-related governance, you probably know Kraus. She’s a longtime leader of USDF TD forums and apprentice-TD clinics. She has developed education programs for TDs, including course curricula for TD and pony-measurement clinics, and online learning modules and resources. She’s the current chair of the USDF Technical Delegates Committee.
She’s a member of the USDF Licensed Officials Education Task Force and the USDF Regional Championships Committee. For US Equestrian, she chairs the Dressage Competitions Working Group and is a member of the Dressage Rules Working Group. “If we can make their [TDs’ and stewards’] jobs easier because they are more knowledgeable, that makes me happy,” Kraus says. Kraus has built her entire career around education. She started teaching at William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri, in 1974, and nearly 50 years later she’s still there, now as a tenured full professor of equestrian studies in the Department of Equestrian Science. With a BA in anthropological linguistics, an MS in information science, and an MA in counseling psychology, education—especially equine-related education—might not have seemed the obvious career path, but “I knew it was the right choice, period,” she says. “Teaching has always been my first love and still is.” Kraus chaired WWU’s Equestrian Science department for a total of 15 years, with an additional year as interim chair. She’s taught more than 20 courses at WWU, which offers such equine-related areas of study as teaching theory, stable management, equestrian communications, and smallbusiness practices. She has served on a dozen university committees over the course of her career (no surprise there). Today she continues to manage the overall health care of 157 horses on campus and an additional 20 horses in annex locations. She has received research grants for study in numerous foreign countries and has led three student riding instructional tours of England and France. Somehow she
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has also found the time to complete additional course work in education, in quantitative methods in educational research, and in Mandarin Chinese. One of Kraus’s most notable contributions to WWU was the development of a promotional program highlighting her department. The fiveyear PR and recruitment plan helped elevate the university’s equestrian-science program to one of the strongest in the country and garnered national television coverage. It also resulted in WWU-owned horses’ winning such prestigious honors as US Equestrian Horse of the Year awards and American Quarter Horse Association World Championship titles. Kraus’s contributions to her profession have not gone unnoticed. She received the Louis D. Beaumont Dad’s Association Distinguished Professor Award, a WWU year-end faculty award for excellence in teaching, in 2001; and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Missouri statewide higher-education honor, in 2004. “I’m an educator to the tips of my toes,” Kraus says. “I live and breathe education and horses.”
From “Dabbling” to Dressage Kraus started what would become a lifelong affair with horses when she was just seven. Her family had recently moved to Columbia, South Carolina, and her parents bought a Saddlebred mare for her older brothers. When the boys lost interest in the horse, Kraus took over, commencing the journey that would ultimately define her personal, professional, and volunteer life. “If it had four legs and a tail, I wanted to ride it,” Kraus recalls. Besides riding the Saddlebred, she
JENNIFER BRYANT
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hen US Equestrian dressage technical delegate (TD) and FEI dressage steward Kaye Phaneuf recognized her colleague Jean Kraus during the virtual 2020 Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention, she quipped, “I’m pretty sure no one of us could actually compile a list of everything that she does.”
“dabbled in a lot of other things,” including jumping, dressage, Western pleasure, and driving. She was an eventing enthusiast during her college and graduate-school years in the early 1970s, a time when dressage was largely in its infancy in the US. By the time Kraus began teaching at WWU, “we had students who wanted to event at the lower levels, and I started the dressage classes here.” Her own interest in dressage “grew from there.” Unfortunately, degenerated spinal discs eventually forced Kraus to hang up her own spurs. It was then that she took up flying, earning her private pilot’s license in what she calls a “lateral shift.” It’s not the same as riding, of course, but some of the thrills are similar. “Nailing a landing on a runway with a plane was identical to nailing that square, balanced halt in a dressage test,” she says. “Flying was as close as I could get to what it is to ride a horse.”
On the (Other) Job Kraus holds a slew of equestrianrelated licenses, and as a result she’s in demand as an official at some of the most prestigious national and international competitions. She is a US Equestrian (USEF) “R” C1 and C2 steward and an “R” dressage TD; a Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) Level 3 dressage chief steward; and an Arabian Horse Association steward. She has officiated at US Equestrian Team selection trials; Pan American Games; the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Kentucky and the 2018 WEG in North Carolina; three FEI World Cup Finals; and the WEG test event in multiple locations. Her officiating duties occur primarily during the summer, which she considers her “vacation.”
A Gifted Problem-Solver Kraus’s career and her equestrian activities are so intermeshed that it can hard to tell where her “official
duties end and volunteering begins,” says her former student turned WWU colleague Karen Pautz, who’s now the director of education at the American Association of Equine Practitioners in Lexington, Kentucky. According to Pautz, Kraus has the unique gift of being able to solve problems and having people walk away happy—a particularly valuable attribute in a licensed official, she notes. Kraus is “really smart, but she’s humble about it,” Pautz says. “She doesn’t steamroll people. She’s able to work very well with other people and not be overbearing.” With all of her university obligations, officiating, and volunteering, it’s hard to imagine Kraus having any free time, but she does. Besides her aviation activities, she became certified as a Professional Association of Diving Instructors rescue diver, and she learned how to design and cast gold and silver jewelry. Does she have a secret to time management? “No, not really,” Kraus says. “I just keep moving forward and keep projects and activities going. All of the efforts I make, all of the work I do, makes for a better, stronger equestrian system. And that makes me happy.” According to USDF president (and fellow TD and FEI chief steward) Lisa Gorretta, Kraus is one of those people who always says yes when asked. “Jean brings energy and enthusiasm to every challenge she takes on,” Gorretta stated in the press release announcing Kraus’s selection as the 2020 USDF Volunteer of the Year, “and encourages both new and seasoned volunteers to work with her in accomplishing the tasks. She seamlessly transitions between her professional life as a college professor and an educator in the field for us, and we are very lucky to have her.”
2 DIVISIONS Art and Photography
3 AGE GROUPS 15 and under, 16 to 21, and Adult
ENTRY DEADLINE
J U LY 1 The grand prize winning entry will be used as the cover art for the USDF Member Guide.
www.usdf.org (awards/other awards)
for complete contest rules and entry form
Colleen Scott lives in Kansas City, Missouri. She is fortunate to be the human for Kiss a Girl LOA, a halfArabian, half-Saddlebred mare. USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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Clinic NEW SERIES
Conversations on Training
Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall when top trainers get together to talk about dressage? Now you can. In the first installment of this new series, Canadian Olympian Christilot Boylen shares her insights on the half-halt. By Beth Baumert e gave author, USDF-certified instructor/trainer, and The Dressage Foundation CEO Beth Baumert a new, wide-ranging assignment: have freewheeling conversations with some of the world’s most renowned dressage trainers. Chat about their stories, their methods, their successes and challenges—and report back on their observations, favorite gymnastic exercises, and more. To kick off this new series, “Conversations on Training,” Beth talked with Canadian dressage legend Christilot Boylen. The Indonesia-born Boylen, 74, grew up in Toronto, the daughter of a dancer. She showed riding talent from a young age, and at only 14 she and her $800 off-the-track Thoroughbred, Bonheur, went to Germany to train. At 15 she was back in Canada, competing at Prix St. Georges. The pair returned to Germany to study at the famed Reitinstitut von Neindorff, and at 17 Boylen became the youngestever Olympic dressage competitor, at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Boylen went on to ride for Canada on five more Olympic dressage teams, and she won individual gold medals at the 1971, 1975, and 1987 Pan American Games. She founded CADORA, the Canadian Dressage Owners and Riders Association. She’s trained and coached at the top international levels, with students including Canadian Olympians Megan Lane and Belinda Trussell. She’s the author of Basic Dressage for North America and other books. And she is a breast-cancer survivor who rode, trained, and competed at the Grand Prix level until her retirement from international competition in 2020.
Beth Baumert: You’re in high demand as a clinician, and you have the opportunity to see many riders around this country and other countries, too. What are common problems that you see? Christilot Boylen: The most common training issues that I see involve half-halts, and I think many of the issues are directly caused by incorrect hand position. The classic hand position is with the thumbs
on top and in the shape of a roof (see photo on the facing page). That thumb holds the rein and prevents it from getting too long. When the hand position is correct, it sets the rider up for success. The use of the legs is very important and must complement whatever is done with the hands. Without the leg, there can be no hand. The effect of no leg is that the horse will shorten his neck because there’s
LIVING LEGEND: Olympian and breast-cancer survivor Christilot Boylen is still going strong at age 74. She’s pictured winning an open Grand Prix class aboard the 2006 Westfalen mare Rockylane (Rock Forever x Rombach) during the 2019 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival. (USDF recommends that all riders wear protective headgear.)
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SUSANJSTICKLE.COM
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PERFECT HAND POSITION: Boylen demonstrates the correct way to hold the reins
nothing behind to connect to. The legs keep the horse where he was. How much or how little leg depends on whether the horse is inclined to get behind you or if he’s a horse that is inclined to go forward. Just as our arms frame the horse on two sides, our legs also frame the horse on two sides. That forms the channel that enables the half-halt-
ing connection between the hand and the leg via the horse’s mouth. In the rising (posting) trot the rider stands in the stirrups for a moment, and when she sits down her lower legs close quietly and rhythmically around the horse before the next upward motion. The legs shouldn’t “bounce” off the horse’s sides during the rising trot. In the sitting trot, the rider’s legs maintain a light and “breathing” contact with the horse’s sides. In a half-
halt, the rider’s leg creates a touch of momentum, and then the legs keep the horse’s balance and equilibrium from falling back as the rider locks the core and applies the balancing rein aids—and then releases the hand for a split second. This cycle repeats itself as the rider continues to monitor the horse’s balance and pace. What are common problems you see with riders’ use of the leg? I often see leg issues in the posting
Convenience doesn’t always equal results.
MAYBE IT’S TIME TO KICK THE CUP!
RESULTS FOR YOUR HORSE
BETH BAUMERT
from our research and experience. WHAT THE HORSE FEELS: Boylen’s daughter Billie Boylen demonstrates how a student can hold the bit to show the instructor (who’s holding the reins) the feel her horse gives in the contact. The instructor can then demonstrate her idea of “light.” Billie can mimic a horse trying to escape the contact, and the instructor can show her how to have a conversation with that horse. She can use her fingers by doing a “sponge squeeze” with both hands, or she can use a stronger wrist vibration, or she can tighten her elbows and connect to her core. All of these rein aids are applied with the hands in “neutral.” None of them involves any “backward” hand action.
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USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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Clinic Four Common Problems with Hand Position
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FLAT HANDS: “Piano hands” give the rider no leverage against the horse if he snatches at the bit
OPEN FINGERS: When the fingers are not closed, the reins will constantly slip and become too long
ELBOW PROBLEMS: If the elbow is too tight or too loose, this important joint will not act in the correct elastic way to maintain the connection with the horse’s mouth
24 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
BETH BAUMERT
ere are the most common faults Canadian Olympian Christilot Boylen sees in dressage riders: 1. Flat hands. The pinkies point sideways, and the rider’s knuckles are on top (see photo at right). Often, one hand is flat and the other one carries itself correctly. If your hands are flat and the horse yanks on you, your elbows will fly out because you have no strength against a horse when you’re in that position. On the other hand, if your thumbs are on top and your horse gets strong, you can lock your elbows to your body and you have all your core strength to hold the horse for that split second of the half-halt. The correct position makes you extremely strong. Then you can easily lighten up. 2. Open fingers. When the fingers are open (see photo at right), the reins are constantly slipping, getting too long and needing to be shortened. It makes for a very unquiet conversation. (As an aside, learning to shorten the reins smoothly is an important skill to learn. The “drop and grab” method makes for a very disturbing connection.) 3. Tight, tense wrists. The wrist is a joint that can work incredibly effectively within itself and to the horse’s mouth. The wrist can increase your vocabulary with your horse if used correctly. When the wrist is in a tight, tense mode, it “blocks” and doesn’t allow the horse’s feel to reach the rider. The tight wrist is difficult or impossible to see, so the rider should monitor this quality. 4. Elbows that are too tight or too loose. The elbow is another joint in the arm that is often not allowed to do its job when riding (see photos below). The job of the elbow is to keep the arm elastic in the connection to the horse’s mouth. It can be very elastic, as in extended walk, and it can be far less elastic when the rider stops the elbow motion with her core arm position attached to the body.
trot. The rider rises and the legs come off, and then when the rider sits, the legs hug the horse. It’s ineffective. The rider who has good control of her hand, arm, and leg positions can develop horses with an even contact on both reins, rather than a half-pound in one hand and two pounds in the other. Utilizing the correct technique paves the way toward developing a horse that can take an even, light contact and sustain it through various transitions. As the late General Albert Stecken said: “A rider who has a good lower-leg position can feel the horse’s hair.” Stecken would then point to an area above the ankle and slightly below the calf. The exact place of contact depends on the conformation of the horse as well as the conformation of the rider.
BETH BAUMERT
Why is the ideal connection difficult to produce in riders? Because it’s a matter of feel. Feel is often thought to be an innate ability that’s impossible to teach, but you have a method for helping the rider learn “feel” that works very well. Can you explain it in words and then show us? When I give symposiums or clinics, I’m not a fan of giving long explanations while the horse is waiting around, so I often give theory lectures before the lessons begin so the riders are better prepared once they’re in the saddle. During the theory lesson, I use a snaffle bit with only the reins attached to show riders how the horse experiences different scenarios. I show riders how they can increase their vocabulary when talking to the horse through the reins. First, I ask a student to hold onto the snaffle bit with two hands, as if she were the horse (see photo on page 23). Next, I ask them to show me how much contact they usually have, and then I show them what I’m striving for. After all, “light contact” to me might not be light to someone else.
How light is light? It depends the rider’s background, their strength, and the type of horse they ride. Next, I show them what it feels like for the horse when, for example, their fingers are open. They can see how different it feels to the horse when one hand is flat and one is upright. I show them how it feels when the wrists are tense. I show them how quickly and accurately they can use their hands to make their problems easier to solve. For example, if my horse’s ears go up and he wants to look to the left, in three seconds the wrist of my right hand can bend inward and say, “Pay attention. Come here” (see photo above). It takes up an inch of rein, making it unnecessary for the rider to pull back (the final no-no), and the motion is invisible to the onlooker. Every good rider gets to the point of being this sophisticated with the rein aids, but right now I’m talking about how to teach it. This exercise gives the rider a very good understanding of what your rein aids should and should not feel like to the horse. It also gives the rider an understanding of how the horse should feel after a successful half-halt. Can you talk a bit about the purpose of a half-halt? What does the half-halt accomplish? It’s a rebalancing of the horse’s walk, trot, or canter—whatever pace you happen to be in. It’s a reconnecting, or stronger connecting for a moment in time. Collection itself involves riding a horse in a better balance, with weight being taken in the hind end, thus lightening the shoulders and the forehand. A light half-halt is a call to attention for the horse, both physically and mentally. It puts the horse in a better position to do what he’s going to do. For example, I remember being told in Germany that very few horses can go through corners unassisted, so it’s common technique to give a light half-halt before and after
CALL TO ATTENTION: If a horse becomes distracted by something to his left, Boylen bends the wrist of her right hand to ask him to refocus on her. It’s a quick motion that’s nearly invisible to an onlooker.
each corner. These half-halts are, in most cases, invisible to the average person watching, but they create that incredibly beautiful, steady contact of top horses. Can you give us a description of the aids for a half-halt? Before the rider can carry out good half-halts, she must have control of the leg mechanism and the hand mechanism as we discussed earlier. Next, there must be forward momentum in whatever pace you’re riding in, and then the rider rebalances with a half-halt by sitting deeper, tightening the core—especially the elbows—and perhaps closing your fingers. A half-halt that is too strong in front or that is insufficient or too late with the leg will dump the horse on his chest. A half-halt that is held on the leg too long with the hand could make the horse too high. How long does a half-halt take? A split second. Very successful riders often use three or four half-halts in a sequence over a few strides, but never without a release. How do you know that the halfhalts are working? There are two tests that you can use: 1. Überstreichen. After a good half-halt, you can give up one rein (a technique called Überstreichen) and the horse maintains his head carriage (see photo on the next page). If
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Clinic Half-Halt Exercise
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the horse runs through your hands, the half-halt was not successful. If the horse is still pulling, it wasn’t successful. There are a thousand reasons why the half-halt might not have worked. It could be the timing,
ÜBERSTREICHEN: To test your horse’s self-carriage and the effectiveness of your half-halts, momentarily give with one rein to see if he maintains his balance and frame
insufficient leg, rough hands—there are endless reasons. 2. Walk to halt. From a medium walk, I ask the rider to come to a full halt at a specific spot. If the horse dumps on his forehand, the halfhalts have achieved the opposite effect of what they should do. Again, there are many reasons why that might be so; but when the half-halts dump the horse on the forehand, they were technically bad. If the rider says, “I can’t keep my horse’s head up” or “He’s collapsing on his chest” or “How do I collect him without him getting behind me?”, these are issues caused by technically bad half-halts. Learning to half-halt is a skill like anything else, and half-halts are perhaps one of the most difficult technical skills to do correctly, which is why difficult horses belong with professionals. Dressage is a sport with learned technical skills, and the half-halt can be learned. A good half-halt rebalances the horse so he becomes lighter, more beautiful in the movement, and prepared for anything else you want to do afterward.
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Beth Baumert is a USDF-certified instructor through Fourth Level and a USDF L program graduate with distinction. She is the author of When Two Spines Align: Dressage Dynamics and of How Two Minds Meet: The Mental Dynamics of Dressage. She currently serves as president and CEO of The Dressage Foundation. For many years she owned and operated Cloverlea Dressage in Connecticut and served as the technical editor of Dressage Today magazine.
IN THE NEXT ISSUE • Prepurchase exams: Which diagnostics are worth paying for? • Conflict resolution for GMO boards • Behind the research: Meet equine-biomechanics expert Dr. Hilary Clayton
BETH BAUMERT
hristilot Boylen shares two exercises that increase the rider’s ability to half-halt. Exercise 1: Five-and-seven. Horses love this exercise, which helps the rider work within the rhythm of the canter. Every horse goes up and down in the canter, and you can feel that there’s only one moment to execute the halfhalt. I ask the rider: “Over three half-halts, go to seven miles per hour.” Next, “over three half-halts, go to five miles per hour.” Horse and rider need to be able to go up and down like playing a scale. This exercise teaches the rider to do those three half-halts to regulate the canter between five and seven miles per hour. Exercise 2: Count the strides through the short side. Just as a jumper needs to learn to regulate the strides through an in-and-out, a dressage rider should know how many strides the horse needs to go through the short side in collection. Can you ride through the short side in nine strides instead of six? It’s a simple matter of awareness. This exercise makes the rider concentrate on the short side instead of on the diagonal line where the next movement— the four-tempis or the medium trot—is coming up. When the rider is aware of the striding on the short side, she will automatically do those half-halts before and after the corner, and the movement on the diagonal will be improved. That awareness can be taught.
USDF DRESSAGE SEAT MEDAL SEMI-FINALS POSITION YOURSELF FOR SUCCESS For information on qualifying and locations, visit
www.usdf.org For rider divisions 13 and under, and 14 to 18.
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YOUR CONNECTION TO DRESSAGE EDUCATION • COMPETITION • ACHIEVEMENT
Let’s Talk
Making the discussion of mental health in the dressage community a priority BY JENNIFER MELLACE
YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Many people struggle with mental-health issues, and help is available. Don’t suffer in silence.
28 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
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t was 2010, and FEI-level dressage rider/ trainer Allison Brock was having a banner year. Aboard the Hanoverian stallion Rosevelt, owned by Brock’s sponsors Claudine and Fritz Kundrun, she was earning top scores and placings, culminating with a fourth-place finish at that year’s Markel/US Equestrian Developing Prix St. Georges Championship. What few people knew, however, was that Brock was also suffering from depression—and that her success was actually making things worse. “I remember thinking to myself, How could I be in the position I am in and still suffer from depression?” says Brock. “I know full well how hard [the dressage] business is without a sponsor, and I felt guilty because I knew I had all the opportunity in the world. I carried such heaviness about this. It was oppressive.” It’s something that Brock speaks openly about in the hope of helping other dressage professionals who are struggling with similar issues. Talking about mental illness is slowly becoming more accepted in society, but it’s still not widely discussed, even though the numbers show that mental illness is prevalent. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, one in five US adults—about 20 percent in any given year—experiences mental illness. And anyone who loves sports, including equestrian sports, should be concerned about the results of a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine: 34 percent of current elite athletes, and 26 percent of former elite athletes, suffer from anxiety or depression. No studies to date have focused solely on equestrians, but it is becoming increasingly clear that riders are not immune to mental-health issues. In addition to Brock, other high-performance riders have begun to speak out about their own issues. In 2019, four-time US dressage Olympian Steffen Peters opened up about his debilitating battle with depression. At events such as the USDF/ USEF Young Rider Graduate Program, Brock and other high-profile dressage riders have shared their struggles with young, eager professionals looking to make their way in the demanding equine industry. By speaking candidly about their issues, they hope to help destigmatize mental illness, including the persistent misperceptions that you’re alone in feeling this way, that there is no one to turn to for help, and that you’ll be seen as weak if you admit to feeling anxious or depressed. Sadly, and too often, the topic of mental illness comes up only after tragedy strikes. FEI-level rider/ USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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“I didn’t know that there are so many people struggling with anxiety and depression,” she admits. “I’m very optimistic and mentally strong, and I thought that was normal. I’ve since challenged myself to understand depression because I literally wake up on the right side of the bed every day. I find beauty and joy very easily in my life, and I’m grateful for that.”
FIGHTER: Allison Brock battled depression and medication detox on the way to team bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics aboard Rosevelt, a Hanoverian stallion (Rotspon x Lauries Crusador xx) owned by Fritz and Claudine Kundrun
trainer Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate experienced this realization firsthand after the loss of a friend, the fellow dressage pro Teresa Butta-Stanton, on New Year’s Eve 2019. “I couldn’t believe it when I got the news that she was gone,” Tate says. “She sounded so upbeat just
two weeks before we lost her. We were always very close, and it came as such a shock that she was suffering and struggling so much.” After her anguished Facebook post about Butta-Stanton’s death elicited hundreds of comments, Tate realized that she had hit a nerve in the sport.
Don’t Forget to Have a Life
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he horse business is all-consuming, but dressage professionals counsel against allowing it to take over your entire existence. “It’s important to know yourself and know what recharges your battery,” says FEI-level trainer and competitor Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate. “Self-care is very important. If you need two days a week off, take it! Do what makes you happy and recharge. Watch movies, go for a massage, go for a hike, go to the beach. Allow yourself that balance.” To those who swear they don’t have the time, Tate challenges: “Figure it out! Working 80-hour weeks shouldn’t be a badge of honor. Figure out how to work smarter and not harder. Be creative and look outside the box.” Overwork can lead to burnout, which ultimately sinks many careers, Tate cautions. “We are in a service business: We serve our horses, our clients, our students. There is only so much we can give, and we must protect that. You have to be full in order to give to others.”
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Although the discussion around mental health has opened the door for people in recent years, it’s still a difficult concept for many to grasp. The notion persists that depressed or anxious people are somehow weaker than those who don’t suffer from these issues, and the associated shame can become a barrier to seeking help. In general, equestrians are known to be a tough crew. As Tate puts it, “We’re the last to see a doctor because we’re too busy—we have to feed the horses. Our backs hurt, but we have to ride.” “Athletes don’t want to admit physical weakness,” says sport psychologist Jenny Susser, PhD, “so why would they admit mental weakness? I think it’s important to have more people who have suffered or who are suffering come forward and talk about it. We need to change the New Yorker ‘couch cartoon’ perception that there’s something wrong with you. It’s so important that we support one another and talk about it like it’s not taboo.” The same person who’s happy to chat about the orthopedist who repaired her busted ankle may be loath to say, “I have a great therapist you can call,” Susser says. “We need to recognize that our mental health is important,” she
SHANNON BRINKMAN
It’s Not a Weakness
STACYLYNNEPHOTO.COM
continues. “You may think it sounds weak to admit it, but think about what you lose as you lose your mental health. It’s harder to get it back once you’ve lost it than it is to fight to keep it. It’s like our physical health: The longer you wait to address it, the longer it takes to recover it.” Now 41, Brock has dealt with some form of depression since childhood. “I do not suffer from bipolar disorder or other severe mental illness, just underlying depression,” she says. “I’m a functionally depressed person; it was ongoing through my youth and my twenties, and I was in and out of counseling and on meds, trying to cope with it all. I was someone who would start feeling better and then quit, which is not useful. I never acquired any skills to deal with my depression.” The fact that someone can be living their best life and still succumb to depression was something Brock is very aware of, given her career trajectory. “I was 30 years old and had just come back from Europe, and two of my three horses were lame. I nearly had a nervous breakdown. All I could think was that I did all this work and almost have nothing to show for it.” Back in Wellington, Florida, Brock called her friend and mentor, the late dressage pro and author Jane Savoie, for advice. “I talked to Jane about what was happening, and she said, ‘You need to see someone who is really good—someone who deals with this.’” Savoie gave Brock the name of John McCauley, PhD, a licensed clinical and sport psychologist based in Boca Raton, Florida, who worked with Savoie for years and whose clients have included other Olympians
WHAT’S NEXT? Even self-described optimists like JJ Tate can experience a letdown after achieving a longtime goal. She’s shown attaining one of hers—winning the Grand Prix Freestyle at Dressage at Devon 2018, aboard the Westfalen gelding Faberge, owned by Elizabeth Guarisco.
in various sports. “I started working with Dr. John,” Brock says, “and still talk to him today—11 years later.” After years of on-again, off-again medication, Brock had gained weight but no coping skills. McCauley recognized the issue and was able to get her off the medications, which resulted in a dramatic weight loss. “It was a difficult detox for me, but I had to do it,” she says. “I went through the shakes, stomach issues; I was drooling—and this was all while I was competing heavily.” Brock’s work with McCauley coincided with the beginning of her rise to the top of the dressage sport with Rosevelt, and she credits not only her therapist but the Kundruns, the horse’s owners, who were aware of everything that was going on in her personal life. “I think that is the reason my relationship is so strong with the Kundruns—because of the honest and open communication about things, both ways,” Brock says. “From the
beginning, I have had their full support. It’s been amazing.”
Pressure from Top to Bottom For those involved at the elite levels of the sport, the stress is magnified, with training and competition becoming an all-encompassing effort aimed at reaching lofty goals. “You don’t have to look very far to see how many top athletes—in all sports—are not that great at functioning in real life,” says Tate, “because we’re uber-focused on what we’re doing. For dressage riders, we’re training in this subculture that allows us to be obsessed. It makes us successful, but then all of sudden, after you reach that goal you say, Now what? For me, I haven’t made it to the Olympics—yet—I’ll add that in there,” she says with a smile. “But I wanted to win at Dressage at Devon [Pennsylvania], and I did, and then, Wow! I dreamed of this forever, but now what?” Brock says she experienced
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Offering nearly $200,000 in prize money, the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Dressage Championships provide a showcase for achievement and feature qualified riders competing in open, adult amateur, and junior/young rider divisions for regional honors. These championships also serve as the qualifiers for the 2021 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®.
www.usdf.org
Great American Insurance Group/USDF
Regional Dressage Championships © SusanJStickle
2021 DATES AND LOCATIONS Region 1
Region 4
Region 7
October 14-17, 2021 Lexington, VA
September 23-26, 2021 Cumming, IA
September 23-26, 2021 Rancho Murieta, CA
Region 2
Region 5
Region 8
October 7-10, 2021 Lexington, KY
September 16-19, 2021 Santa Fe, NM
September 23-26, 2021 Saugerties, NY
Region 3
Region 6
Region 9
October 8-10, 2021 Conyers, GA
September 23-26, 2021 Sherwood, OR
October 7-10, 2021 Katy, TX
Regional Championships are qualifying competitions for the US Dressage Finals See the calendar at www.usdf.org for the most current dates, locations, and competition contact information.
Title Sponsor of the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Championships Great American is one of the world’s leading providers of equine mortality insurance and related coverages in addition to offering a full line of property and casualty products for the equestrian community through its equine farm center. To learn more about Great American Insurance, visit www.greatamericaninsurancegroup.com. Presenting Sponsor of the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Championships The patented SmartPak supplement feeding system gives horse owners peace of mind with its premeasured dosages for each horse. To learn more about SmartPak or to shop their products, visit www.smartpak.com. Supporting Sponsor of the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Championships Since 1996 the team at Platinum Performance has been focused on researching the role of nutrition in equine health and developing formulas to help improve the health and performance of the horse. To learn more about Platinum Performance visit www.platinumperformance.com.
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n The Weight of Gold, an HBO sports documentary released last August, several gold-medal-winning Olympians discuss mental-health issues among elite athletes, including the film’s narrator, the legendary swimmer Michael Phelps. The athletes interviewed shared the difficulties they faced in the allencompassing pursuit of Olympic gold. The demands of the sports themselves are easy targets for blame, but the real problems lie elsewhere, says clinical and sport psychologist John McCauley, PhD. “The sport becomes irrelevant,” McCauley says. “I don’t think the sports create any mental illness. These are the endeavors that people get into, and they just bring their neurosis along into the sport, which magnifies whatever mental problems they’re struggling with.” Most of the athletes McCauley sees view their performance as the source of their problems, “but within a month or two it shifts to their clinical issues, their life history, their developmental stuff. In the end, it’s 80 percent psychotherapy and 20 percent about their sport. This is where I’ll help them make sense of the issues GOLD ISN’T A SHIELD: The legendary US Olympic they’re struggling with, and swimmer Michael Phelps (with one of his 23 gold [show them] how to improve medals), who narrates the documentary The Weight of their performance via their Gold, has himself struggled with mental-health issues increased awareness of their own mental-health issues.” Sport may not spark mental illness per se, but it can be argued that certain sports tend to attract personalities more prone to mental-health issues. Dressage, unfortunately, may be one of them. “A brain attracted to dressage is a persnickety brain,” says sport psychologist Jenny Susser, PhD, a former elite swimmer who’s now an amateur dressage rider. “You have to be addicted to perfection and execution and precision and exactness in this sport, and it can sometimes be unforgiving.” Caring for your own mental health takes time and TLC, McCauley and Susser stress. No dressage rider would expect a green horse to get to Grand Prix after a few months of sporadic training, but we can be that irrationally demanding when it comes to our own issues. “People don’t often have the patience to put in the work,” says Susser. “Services and interventions in wellness take work, and it’s different to measure mental improvements. For instance, knee surgery is measurable. Mental health isn’t. Tracking improvement and changes is slippery and much more challenging and keeps people from engaging. But once you put the work in, it’s awesome because you can feel yourself gaining control and getting better. Your mood and physiology change, and who doesn’t want that?”
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what’s known as “post-Games depression” (yes, the phenomenon is so common that it has a name) for the first time when she groomed for US dressage Olympian Sue Blinks at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain. “It was so exciting—the US claimed silver with a team of really fantastic people,” Brock recalls. “I was 22, and it was a life-changing experience for me. But when we were done, I felt like someone had popped my balloon. After months and months of gearing up for one moment, and then it’s over so quickly. I experienced this again after competing in Rio for the 2016 Olympics. There was a level of fallout. I was still functional, but it took the air out of me.” Everyone who deals with horses eventually learns about disappointment, but when all of your hopes and dreams are wrapped up in one horse, an injury or an illness can be a truly devastating blow. “For riders who may only have one horse and that horse becomes unsound, all your plans have to change,” says Brock. “You deal with it and go on and find new goals and new challenges. But in the initial moment, you think, I’ve spent two years gearing up for this, and now it’s done. It’s different if you have a string of horses; you can go on. But most Americans don’t have those horses waiting.” This here-today/gone-tomorrow type of anxiety is what Brock and many other riders admit that they fear the most. “I think the scariest thing for equestrians is that so much of our sport is out of our control,” says Brock. “The health and happiness of our horses is the primary focus of our lives. If our horse is unhappy,
SHUTTERSTOCK
Is the Sport to Blame?
Mental-Health Resources he won’t perform well and may become unsound. We have a very short window when competing at the elite levels. You qualify; then you go on this big trip to Europe, where you and your horse have to prove it again. Then your horse has to be vetted, and then you’re named to the team. It’s all these milestones where you have to keep both you and your horse physically and mentally sound leading up to the Games, and then land and still be in one piece at the Games.” Brock herself saw things take a turn for the worse at the eleventh hour when she and Rosevelt arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics. “He stopped sweating; he’d never done that before,” she says. “There was a moment that I wasn’t sure I would start. The team vet, Dr. [Rick] Mitchell, and everyone else involved did everything they could to kick-start my horse, and he ended up being OK. But for a moment, when I was unsure, [Finnish Olympian] Kyra Kyrklund, who I trained with in 2011 and 2012, said to me, ‘Consider this, Ali: He’ll fire up and you’ll have a fresh horse out there.’ She helped me reframe the situation and gave me a different perspective and a positive way to look at it. And that’s exactly what happened.” Even success itself can lead to new stresses, as Tate learned. Many riders dream of attracting deep-pocketed sponsors, but “to spend someone else’s money on a horse is a lot of pressure. That added responsibility of choosing the right horse is huge. Sometimes having that backing can be worse. Spending another person’s $1.5 million on a horse—put that on your shoulders!” she says. Of course, that burden still looks
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f you are feeling depressed or anxious, you’re not alone, and confidential help is available. You don’t have to suffer in silence. US Equestrian Federation members are entitled to free mental-health counseling services. Learn more at usef. org/join-usef/health-insurance/mental-health. The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee has a Team USA Mental Health Support Line and other resources for Team USA athletes. Learn more at TeamUSA.org/ mentalhealth. In conjunction with its documentary film The Weight of Gold, HBO maintains a resource page on its website with links to US organizations that offer mental-health support to all persons. Visit WeightOfGoldResources.com. If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call 911, phone the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at (800) 273-8255, or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor.
pretty sweet to a lot of dressage pros in the trenches—the ones trying to make ends meet, cleaning stalls, teaching lessons, riding umpteen horses a day, hoping for a break. “I run my own business, and I had to figure that out,” says Tate. “Finding the skills to manage that can be learned, but the only way is through the school of hard knocks. It’s really hard. A lot of people struggle physically and then can’t quite get out of that cycle.” Tate recalls a time when she was starting out in the horse business; she was cleaning stalls and had nine horses in training. “I remember asking myself, Is this the best use of my time? I recognized that if I could pay someone to do stalls, then I could teach lessons, which is where my skill was. But that’s hard, too. How do I get those students? It’s a hard paradigm shift. Self-promotion is hard for people. And this starts this cycle of exhaustion, where you can’t get ahead and you can’t get better horses. It can all lead to physical pain and mental pain.” Her awareness of the issue, Tate says, is why she thinks it’s important to recognize that lower-level professionals need support, too.
“The people who are struggling and hurting aren’t the first to admit that they are struggling and hurting. What can we do to get ahead of this? How can we discuss coping skills before they’re needed? How do we help people with self-growth and the ability to be open?” One potential avenue, Tate hopes, may be through her recent venture, the currently online-only education and community portal Team Tate Academy. She aspires eventually to host in-person workshop retreats for equestrian professionals, who can come together for a couple of days to discuss such topics as lack of purpose, the desire to be liked, and the fear of being embarrassed—not as a replacement for professional therapy, but in a supportive and nonjudgmental way.
The Way Forward Here is what Brock hopes that readers will take away from this article: “If you think you need to speak with someone, then you probably need to. Even if you’re dealing with something small, the first step to helping yourself is to look at yourself and within yourself. The ability to do this will impact every facet of your life. [
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Veterinarians: Another Group in Crisis
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mid startling research by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that veterinarians are more likely than those in the general population to die by suicide— with the suicide rate for women vets, who make up more than 60 percent of the profession, even higher than that of men—a California small-animal veterinarian founded an organization called Not One More Vet. NOMV offers access to a private Facebook group, links to mentalhealth resources, and others, including emergency grants for veterinarians in crisis. Learn more at nomv.org.
“Not everyone is wired like me,” Brock continues. “Some people just have really good coping skills from the start. But not everyone is like that, and for those who aren’t, they need to explore help. It’s super-easy to think that all of us who are successful are ironmen. Some athletes are, but then you have top athletes like [swimming great] Michael Phelps come out and talk about
[mental illness], and you recognize you’re not alone. Just because you’re really successful doesn’t mean you don’t have other things to deal with.” Sports, including equestrian sports, are realizing that they need to encourage ongoing, open, nonjudgmental discussions about mental health and the pressures athletes face. At the elite level, the 13-member US Olympic and Para-
lympic Committee Mental Health Task Force, of which Brock was an original member, was established in 2020 to help develop ways of supporting Team USA athletes and support staffs as they navigate the stresses of competition. Individual sport governing bodies may also be developing resources, such as those offered by US Equestrian (see “Mental-Health Resources” on page 35). But the biggest question is: How do we continue this conversation? According to McCauley, it’s through people like Brock and articles like this one. “Ali is very open with her experience and will talk about it,” he says. “That helps others recognize that it’s OK to talk about mental health. The more we talk about it and write about it, the less taboo the topic will become.” Tate admits that she can’t help wondering whether it would have made a difference to her friend in crisis if she’d had the Team Tate Academy to turn to. She can’t change the past, of course, so instead Tate is trying to shed light on the issue for others who are suffering. “We need to ask for help and not feel bad about it,” she says. “Everyone’s circumstance is different, and we all need to find our own way. But people need to know that there is help out there. We need to band together and support each other.”
Jennifer Mellace is a published author who writes about topics ranging from health and wellness to lifestyle and business. She lives in Frederick, Maryland, with her husband, two children, and three dogs. Visit her website at MellaceWrites.com.
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It’s Hot out Here How to keep yourself and your horse cool and safe when the heat is on BY KATIE NAVARRA
SHANNON BRINKMAN
BEAT THE HEAT: Cooling and hydration help keep horses and riders performing comfortably when the mercury rises. Florida-based dressage pro Jodie KellyBaxley takes a swig of water aboard her KWPN gelding, Grayton Beach (Negro x UB 40).
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isa Wilcox loves the scorching-hot sun. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, and nicknamed “Lizard,” Wilcox thrives when temperatures soar. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the US dressage team bronze medalist had no trouble acclimating to the weather in Greece: 95 degrees with 50% humidity. Wilcox had a harder time adapting to the cold and damp of western Europe, where she lived and worked for nearly a decade, earning her Bereiter (rider) and Reitlehrer (trainer) licenses in Germany and later working as a trainer at a private facility in Switzerland. “I lived in layers and was miserable,” she says with a laugh. When she returned to the United States in 2006, Wilcox was eager to settle in an area with plenty of heat and humidity. Wellington, Florida offered the perfect combination of climate and—as the epicenter of the winter dressage circuit in this country—access to top competitions and training facilities. With many riders rushing to change out of sweaty clothes multiple times a day, Wilcox is content to use her sweat-soaked shirt as a cooling device, a tactic she uses at home daily. “When a breeze comes through the covered arena, my sweat-drenched shirt cools my upper body perfectly,” she says happily. Not every rider shares Wilcox’s love of tropical conditions. To some equestrians’ dismay, climate change is resulting in more-extreme heat waves and prolonged summertime conditions in many parts of the country, along with other severe-weather events. Although in some USDF regions there are fewer dressage shows in the hottest months, chances are that you’ll have to deal with heat if you compete in dressage—and, of course, even if you don’t show, you’ll have to find ways to cope in your daily riding and training. Heat stress in equestrians isn’t a widely studied topic. Research to date has largely focused on heat’s effects on other types of athletes (of the sports studied, American-football players are at highest risk), as well as on firefighters and laborers. A 2013 study found that heat stroke was the thirdleading cause of death among college and high-school football players, says Margaret Morrissey, the director of occupational safety at the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute. The Institute was founded in 2001 after Stringer, a Minnesota Vikings offensive line-
man, died of exertional heat stroke. Stringer Institute researchers aim to identify ways to maximize performance and safety in order to avoid sudden deaths from heat exertion. “Our changing climate has resulted in higher ambient temperatures and humidities occurring at higher frequencies,” says Morrissey. “When ambient temperature and humidity increase, people are subjected to more days per year of extremely dangerous heat, which can increase risk of exertional heat stroke.” In short, excessive heat can be life-threatening, even if you’re not wearing a stock tie and a long-sleeved coat (many dressage shows today are quick to waive the jacket requirement when the mercury climbs, and some summertime shows waive jackets in advance in their prize lists). To help riders, trainers, parents, and others learn how to spot the danger signs and take steps to alleviate heat stress, read on. We’ll also review the best advice on staying as cool as possible during your rides, and we’ll also discuss ways to keep your equine partner cool and healthy when the heat is on.
Recognizing Heat Stress: Myths and Truths There are some persistent misconceptions about exertional heat stroke—which may cause people to miss critical early-warning signs. One common myth, says Morrissey, is that people suffering from exertional heat stroke stop sweating altogether and have dry, hot skin. In fact, she says, “individuals suffering an exertional heat stroke can have dry, hot skin or sweat on their skin.” Another myth is that heat stress is always progressive, beginning with a milder form and potentially worsening if not treated. “Many people think that one exertional heat illness progresses into another—for example, going from heat syncope [fainting], to heat exhaustion, to heat stroke,” Morrissey says. “Individuals can actually suffer an exertional heat stroke without experiencing any other exertional heat illness beforehand.” The range of exertional heat illnesses includes: Exercise-induced muscle cramps, experienced as painful, involuntary muscle contractions • Heat syncope: a fainting episode caused by blood pooling in the extremities • Exertional heat exhaustion, with symptoms including nausea, fatigue, weakness, tachycardia (a heart rate of over 100 beats per minute), and loss of concentration [ USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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• Exertional heat stroke, a serious, life-threatening condition that presents as centralnervous-system dysfunction, with symptoms such as confusion, irritability, and aggressive behavior. Heat exhaustion can look a lot like heat stroke, says Morrissey. The key distinguishing factor is body temperature. In heat exhaustion, the
Stay Safe in the Heat: Resources for Athletes & Organizers
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he University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute has online resources to help athletes and sport organizers learn how to assess hydration levels, recognize and treat heatrelated illnesses, and more. “I highly recommend checking them out and putting a heatsafety plan in place,” says Margaret Morrissey, the Institute’s director of occupational safety. Learn more at ksi.uconn.edu.
patient’s temperature remains below 104 degrees F (40 degrees C), which is “not immediately life-threatening.” A person suffering from heat stroke has a body temp of over 104 degrees, which is a medical emergency.
Plan Your Beatthe-Heat Strategy
If you want to ride in the hot weather—and especially if you plan to compete, when you can’t choose your ride times—preparation is key to staying as safe and comfortable as possible. You already know some of the main strategies, such as riding during the coolest part of the day (often the early morning), wearing light-colored and moisture-wicking clothing, and staying hydrated (Lisa Wilcox downs a liter of water before she leaves the house in the morning and another in the car on her way to the barn). But there are some additional important ways to prepare your body to perform in the heat. Get fit. You may not relish the thought of sweating even more, but physical inactivity is strongly associated with increased thermal strain during exercise in the heat,
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SUSANJSTICKLE.COM
THE HOTTER, THE BETTER: Olympian Lisa Wilcox (with Gallant Reflection HU, bred by Horses Unlimited, at the 2015 Markel/USEF National Young and Developing Horse Championships) is happiest when temps soar
which ups the risk of exertional heat illness, says Morrissey. If you stay active out of the saddle, you’ll be better prepared to function in the heat. (Get your doctor’s OK before starting any exercise program.) Acclimate to the conditions. Heat acclimatization is a broad term used to define the series of physical adaptations that occur in response to heat stress. The process takes seven to 14 days to reduce the chances of harmful effects of heat stress. Experts caution that it’s important to strike a careful balance between preparing in harsh weather and zapping energy needlessly; but if you’re going to have to perform in extreme conditions, you must gradually accustom your body to those conditions beforehand or you’ll run the very real risk of experiencing a heat-related illness. “Exercise heat acclimation has been shown to reduce risk of exertional heat illness and also to improve aerobic performance,” Morrissey says. (In 2018, Wired magazine reported that marathon runners training for the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar used this approach to prepare for the expected triple-digit temperatures. Some athletes placed space heaters next to a treadmill and cranked them up to 90 degrees, while others trained under UV lights to mimic the effects of the sun.) Pre-cool. To increase their bodies’ capacity to store heat, some athletes cool their bodies in advance of activity. Called pre-cooling, this approach is designed to limit the increase in the body’s core temperature during work, Morrissey explains. Pre-cooling methods include everything from using fans and donning cooling vests or other cooling
garments, to whole-body immersion in ice or cold water. US Equestrian dressage rules permit the wearing of cooling vests, either beneath a jacket or over a riding shirt when jackets are waived, in USEF-licensed/USDF-recognized dressage competition (DR 120.14). Some competitors opt for such “hidden” cooling devices as cooling inserts in helmets or cooling neck wraps under stock ties.
AKDRAGOOPHOTO.COM
Horses Need Cooling, Too In the runup to the 1996 Olympic Games in notoriously hot and sticky Atlanta, Georgia, equine veterinarian Catherine Kohn, VMD, participated in a multi-institutional series of research projects focused on helping riders prepare their horses for competition in extreme climates. The studies were prompted after stifling conditions at the 1994 FEI World Equestrian Games in The Hague, Netherlands, exposed how heat stress can negatively impact a horse’s performance, says Kohn, who is now a professor emerita in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University. As veterinarians, trainers, and riders brainstormed strategies, the British researchers Drs. David Marlin and Robert Schroter published a paper on the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index. They concluded that the WBGT is a more accurate way of estimating the environmental thermal load imposed on exercising horses and riders than the traditional heat index, which is the sum of the ambient temperature and the relative humidity. The WBGT, by contrast, is an index of heat load in direct sunlight. Expressed in temperatures Celsius, it incorporates not only ambient
POUR IT ON: Liberal hosing or sponging with cool or cold water is one of the best ways of cooling a hot horse
temperature and relative humidity, but also the effects of wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover (solar radiation). “In general, WBGT indices of 29 to 30 [84.2 to 86° F] should prompt concern about ambient conditions,” says Kohn. “As noted by Marlin and Schroter, a WBGT index of 32.5 degrees Celsius [90.5° F] would likely indicate that ambient conditions pose such a high risk of heat stress or heat stroke that the competition should be rescheduled.” (In fact, that is more or less what happened during the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina. The late-summer temperatures and an unexpectedly heavy rainstorm combined to produce jungle-like conditions, and the resulting high WBGT led officials to cancel the remaining portion of the
endurance competition.) Horses are naturally welldesigned to handle heat through evaporative cooling. But the presence of sweat alone is not an accurate way to determine the heat’s impact on a horse. In hot and dry conditions, sweat evaporates rapidly, leaving a salty residue on the skin and haircoat. Although the horse may not appear to be sweating copiously, rapid evaporation results in large fluid and electrolyte losses, which can lead to dehydration and heat-related distress. Unfortunately, when the ambient humidity is high, sweat does not evaporate efficiently. Despite intense sweating, there is little evaporative cooling. Horses that are unable to sweat normally, a condition called anhidrosis, are especially susceptible to heat stress and are poor candi-
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dates for intense exercise in hot conditions unless the problem can be addressed successfully. (For more on anhidrosis, see “Anhidrosis: A Reason to Sweat” on page 44.) Heat-stress symptoms in horses include fatigue, labored breathing, reduced sweating, high rectal temperatures, or a high heart rate, according to equine sports-medicine veterinarian and current US Equestrian dressage team vet Christina “Cricket” Russillo, DVM. “Their gums may also become a dark-red color and appear tacky or dry.”
Cooling techniques. One of the old horseman’s myths that Kohn and her fellow Atlanta Olympics researchers debunked is the notion that putting ice or cold water on a hot horse may cause it to “tie up.” Hosing or bathing with cold water is an effective and safe way of cooling, Kohn says—but don’t cover a hot horse with a wet towel or blanket, she cautions, as these layers rapidly heat up and prevent evaporation from the skin they cover. Standing a hot horse in the cool, damp breeze of a misting fan is
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AKDRAGOOPHOTO.COM
WELCOME BREEZE: Your horse will appreciate a fan after a hot-weather workout
also effective, and misting-fan tents were used in Atlanta (on spectators as well as horses!) and have been fixtures at high-profile hot-weather equestrian competitions ever since. During breaks and after a workout in the heat, loosen the girth and move your horse into a shaded area, ideally in front of a fan or a misting fan. Hose or bathe him with cool or cold water, repeatedly if necessary. Particularly if it’s humid, take a tip from Lisa Wilcox and add a splash of rubbing alcohol to buckets of ice water; the alcohol will speed evaporation. At the 2004 Athens Games, “we kept buckets of ice water with rubbing alcohol mixed in it to sponge off periodically, and it worked very well,” Wilcox says. At shows, cooling isn’t just for after you’ve finished your test. As Kohn points out, a dressage warmup can be lengthy, and a horse can get quite hot before it even enters the ring. She recommends getting the horse into the shade and sponging with cool water to promote some cooling before competing. Acclimate your horse to the heat. A horse can find itself transported in a matter of days or even hours from a cold climate to a hot one. A rule of thumb Russillo uses for southbound “snowbirds” is to give a horse a week to 10 days after arriving in the warmer climate to adjust to the sudden change. “Try to arrive at the show at least a few days to a week prior to allow your horse to adapt to the new environment,” Russillo says. “Once at the show, start working your horse slowly at first, and then gradually build upon the work. It can be helpful to add supplemental electrolytes to help replenish the mineral losses in his sweat.”
Kohn recalls one Northeastern rider’s strategy: To get ready to ship to Florida, the rider left the horse’s winter coat intact and rode with a blanket to help get the horse accustomed to warmer temperatures during exercise. The horse was clipped and appropriately blanketed just before it headed south. Anecdotally, Kohn says, this procedure seemed to help the horse acclimate. (Consult your veterinarian before you try this with your own horse!) Know your horse’s norms. Kohn suggests establishing your horse’s baseline range of normal rectal temperatures. Take his temp every morning and evening at home for a few days to learn what’s normal for him. “Normal” in an adult horse at rest is under 101 degrees F, usually in the range of 99.5 to 100.5, she says. Moderate exercise in temperate conditions may induce a rectal temperature of around 103, but intense exercise can spike it even higher. The temperature of a horse not suffering from heat stress should return to the normal range within about 45 minutes after stopping exercise.
Be aware that horses can suffer from heat stress even in conditions considered moderate or cool. One year at the Bramham International Horse Trials, held in cool, wet weather in northern England, a British veterinarian questioned Kohn’s practice of taking horses’ temperatures immediately after they competed. “I happened to record the postcompetition temperature of one of his clients’ horses,” Kohn recalls. “He was very surprised to learn that the horse’s rectal temperature was 107. He rushed off to look after the horse. “It is important to remember that horses generate a great deal of internal heat when exercising, even in cool conditions,” Kohn continues. “Hand-walking and repeated bathing with cool water will help such a horse to dissipate its heat load.” If an equine scale is available, weighing your horse pre- and postexercise is another way to monitor the impact of heat stress. About 90% of acute weight loss is water. “Body fluid and salt losses during intense exercise can be substantial,” Kohn says. “If your horse does not
rehydrate before the next bout of exercise, it will be more susceptible to heat stress and other complications of dehydration.”
A Matter of Health Heat isn’t just a nuisance; it can be dangerous, to both horse and rider. An unfit pair—particularly if one or both is older or has other health concerns—can get in trouble fast in extreme conditions. For your own sake and that of your horse, plan and prepare carefully to help mitigate the chance of heat-related illness. Remember that you are your horse’s advocate. If the conditions are more than he can handle safely, no ride is worth the risk.
Katie Navarra is an award-winning writer based in upstate New York. In addition to writing for multiple publications, she helps individuals and corporate leaders find greater clarity and purpose through life and leadership coaching sessions.
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Anhidrosis:
A Reason to Sweat The travails of dealing with non-sweating horses BY ANNE GRIBBONS
WNC PHOTOGRAPHY
SUCCESS STORY: Owner/rider Michelle Sheridan, a longtime student of Anne Gribbons’, has managed her anhidrotic horse, Rouxletto, now 23, since she bought him as a five-yearold. Sheridan’s arsenal includes seasonal supplements, acupuncture, electro-acuscope therapy, lots of cold-water hosing and sponging with alcohol-laced water—and dark beer!
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any years ago, when we lived in New York, my husband bought me a beautiful Thoroughbred off the track for me to train and show as a working hunter (which is what the four-foot division was called at the time). The horse arrived in the late fall and made great strides over the winter, looking as if he could start the 3' 6" division in the early spring. In April we had a couple of hot and humid days, and when I finished riding my horse was breathing hard and acting lethargic, which was not his normal M.O. He jumped around nicely, but when I brought him back to the barn I noticed that his respiration was rapid and his coat, bonedry. In the cross-ties he continued to pant, almost like a dog, and his heart rate was much too high. It took him a long time to return to a normal respiratory rate. As a native of Scandinavia, I had no experience with the problem of non-sweating horses, and until my veterinarian explained it to me, I thought that my horse was about to have a heart attack. At that time, over 40 years ago, very little was known about anhidrosis, which is the name given the syndrome I describe above. Even today, this disease is still a bit of a mystery. I certainly became more familiar with the problem after moving to Florida. While my horse’s dilemma back then was solved by sending him to Canada to become a field hunter, this solution is not always feasible for horses that live and work in hot, humid climates.
COURTESY OF ANNE GRIBBONS
What Is Anhidrosis? Anhidrosis is a decreased ability to sweat in response to increased body temperature. In the horse, 65 to 70% of body heat is lost via the evaporation of sweat. Sweat glands are densely packed in the horse’s skin, primarily at the hair follicle. The tubular, coiled glands have a rich blood supply and numerous nerves surrounding them. The sweat produced contains mainly proteins, electrolytes, and water. Electrolytes have a high concentration of sodium, potassium, and chloride, all of which need to be replaced, which is why we, for example, give the horses Gatorade or some other type of electrolyte supplement to help them out in the heat. My equine veterinarian, Christina Ellis, compares the sweat glands in chronically affected horses to little fountains that, when overloaded with work, burn out and atrophy, and consequently cease to function. There have been various theories offered over the years to explain the cause of anhidrosis, including hypo-
ELITE SUFFERER: Metallic, who won team silver at the 1995 Pan American Games with rider/then co-owner Anne Gribbons and went on to win team bronze under Robert Dover at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, disliked the heat and at times did not sweat properly, Gribbons says. She’s pictured with her husband, David Gribbons, during a visit to see Metallic shortly before the horse’s death in 2015 at the age of 31.
thyroidism, low chloride concentration, and abnormally elevated epinephrine levels. Epinephrine is a chemical that narrows blood vessels and opens airways in the lungs. Researchers have not so far been able to identify any age, sex, color, or breed of horse as having a predisposition toward developing anhidrosis. It does not protect horses to raise them in hot and humid climates, for both locally bred and imported horses may be affected. In a recent study of non-racetrack Florida farms, 1.8% of horses were anhidrotic, and 11.2% of the farms reported at least one case of anhidrosis.
Diagnosis and EFFects Anhidrosis is often diagnosed based on the following clinical signs: Patients show signs of failure to cool down after exercise within a reasonable period of time, and continue with increased respiration long after they stop working. In situations in which the horse ought to sweat copiously, he shows minimal or no signs of sweating. On occasion, some areas of the body will be wet while others remain dry. Over time, a horse with anhidrosis may develop flaky skin, especially on the forehead; hair loss; fatigue; anorexia; and decreased water consumption.
Managing the Anhidrotic Horse The “cure” for anhidrosis is to relocate the horse to a generally cooler climate with less humidity. Although this usually solves the problem, it is obviously not practical for show horses, which have to compete and work in the heat and sun. For those animals, it is essential that their major training occurs during the coolest time of day, preferably in a shady environment or, if possible, in an area under cover. It is advisable to have cool water, a big sponge, and a sweat scraper at the ready for frequent cooling breaks during the work, with a helper sponging the horse’s neck and chest as USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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well as between his hind legs. With event horses going cross-country, we would also use ice water or ice cubes under the horse’s chin and tail. In the stable, a fan or two—or, even better, a misting fan—will help keep the nonsweating horse comfortable. So, what is the treatment? There is no surefire method that works on all horses. In addition to careful management, as mentioned above, owners have tried supplementing anhidrotic horses’ diets with salt, electrolytes, vitamins, and thyroid additives. Several companies make products designed to encourage sweating, such as One AC, Platinum Refresh, and the Equiwinner patch, which appear to relieve symptoms in some animals. Veterinarians have tried treating non-sweating horses with ACTH, alpha-2 agonists, prostaglandins, antihistamines, and methyldopa (used in humans to treat
high blood pressure), all of which have proven generally unsuccessful. Acupuncture is another possible way to keep the sweat glands operational. It seems to work as a kick-start in some horses but mostly offers only a short period of keeping the sweat glands doing their job. In some horses, a regular routine of acupuncture every couple of weeks will keep the sweat coming during the hottest part of the year. In others, the relief works only on occasion or not at all. Then there is the good old standby: dark beer. I tend to get an interesting reaction in the supermarket when asking for several cases of the “cheapest dark beer you have.” The attendant does not necessarily look more confident when I tell him it is for my horse! (Sure, lady….) Although I have no real proof that the beer works, my horses seem to enjoy the taste and look forward to their afternoon drink.
I have tried all of the above “natural” methods of keeping my affected horses comfortable. Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In general, you have to watch out, keep your work periods in sections to prevent overheating, monitor your horse’s respiratory rate, and supply plenty of cool water during and after the training session. And if your horse is a great sweater, thank your lucky stars. It is a blessing for any horse owner.
Anne Gribbons, a native of Sweden, is an FEI 5* dressage judge and a former US dressage national technical advisor. A longtime trainer, international competitor, and clinician, she operates Knoll Dressage in Chuluota, Florida, with her husband, David Gribbons.
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Exclusive Book Excerpt
To Ride Big, Start Small A performance coach explains how inching out of your comfort zone can increase confidence and improve your results in the show ring
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BY JOHN HAIME
iding Big,” as the title of my new book suggests, has nothing to do with riding a small pony or a big warmblood. And no, it’s not about a long or short ride, a long or short stride, or competing in a big or small competition. When I watch a horse-show class, I quickly assess all the riders by their body language: how they enter the ring, their body posture and how it changes during the class, how they seem to handle any difficulties, and my evaluation of their general intent to win. It is often clear to me that riders enter the ring looking “big” or “small” and can either grow—or shrink—in the saddle from the time they enter to the time they depart. They are either riding confidently, maximizing their abilities and training, and trying to win the class; or they are tentative, minimizing their abilities and training, and trying not to lose the class. An equestrian who is Riding Big is riding with confidence, while one who is riding small lacks that self-assurance in the saddle.
When Comfortable Doesn’t Equal Confident Among the steps you may need to take in order to learn to Ride Big is to get out of your comfort zone—the space where your activities and behaviors fit a routine and pattern that minimize stress and risk. It’s a comfortable place where people aren’t threatened and things stay the same, and that offers mental security. If you want to Ride Big, you’ll have to slowly loosen your hold on your security blanket. After all, while a basic level of safety and comfort is important, I think you’ll agree that missing your riding potential is not necessarily comforting!
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xcerpt adapted from Ride Big: The Ultimate Guide to Building Equestrian Confidence by John Haime. Published in 2021 by Trafalgar Square Books, HorseAndRiderBooks.com.
“Why would I want to feel uncomfortable? Don’t I want to be comfortable to ride well?” This is a question I’m asked often, and it makes sense to ask it. Chances are you are in the habit of being comfortable when you are in the ring. It just feels good, so you stay there. This false feeling of comfort is short-term thinking driven by a natural instinct to feel safe, secure, and relaxed. But if you want to break out of confined perimeter of your current comfort zone, you must take a longer-term approach, test the limits, challenge yourself in a practical, step-by-step way, and build a new habit of feeling uncomfortable. [ USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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Shape Your Self-Talk
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our own voice—your inner self-talk—is the voice that’s with you 24/7, being fed by things you’ve done, people who have influenced you, and things that have happened to you. It provides commentary, opinions, and general narration about your life and experiences. It emerges out of your thoughts and emotions and can stir both. These are the stories you tell yourself, and the narrative that is guiding you will be a major influence on your confidence, often determining whether you Ride Big or ride small. What is your voice telling you? Is it positive or negative? Is it understanding and supportive, or judgmental and impatient? Many of the stories riders tell themselves are fictional: They are not the real truth, do not reflect their reality, and therefore are unproductive. Your search for the truth in your narrative is the important thing. What is truth and what is fiction in your equestrian narrative? Everyone has similar challenges to yours. Even the leading riders and coaches in the world must address their voices, find the truth, and not allow the voice to limit them. Their stories, like yours, result from a variety of circumstances, experiences, and perceptions. British Olympic dressage gold medalist Laura Bechtolsheimer Tomlinson had challenges with her voice, but she overcame the stories that she told herself in order to rise to the top of the sport. “Early in my career—growing up—the story in my thoughts was that I was privileged and blessed, so my voice was repeatedly telling me two stories, based on my results,” says Laura, who was born into a very wealthy family. “The first was that if I didn’t do well, it was a massive failure. And the second was that if I did do well, I couldn’t really be happy and pleased with it because I felt like I should have done it anyway. I felt like I didn’t have the right not to do well. So, growing up I’ve battled with this judgmental voice. I did well in Young Riders, but never as well as I thought I should have.” Things changed for Laura with a new partner: the Danish Warmblood Mistral Hojris. “The story in my head shifted when I got ‘Alf,’” she explains. “He had a reputation for being a difficult horse, and I worked very hard to build a partnership with him. When I eventually started doing well with him, I felt more confident, and I felt I earned the respect of my peers because of the progress I made with him. That’s when the voice started to change from ‘I should be doing well because I’m blessed with things given to me’ to ‘I’ve worked hard, overcome a difficult challenge, and I know I can ride because I’ve done some great work with a difficult horse.’” For Laura, that shift in her voice changed the game in her riding. She went on to win a team silver and two individual silver medals with Alf at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, followed by team gold and individual bronze at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The confidence and trust she had built with her horse elevated her to the top of the sport. The shift from a judgmental voice, creating unrealistic expectations and intolerance, to a more liberating, tolerant voice, creating confidence, was a turning point in her dressage career.
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Learn from the Golfers I was introduced to the idea of the comfort zone when I was 14 years old. Each year, my dad, who was a golf professional, would ask me to record the scores for the members of the golf club in the club championship—the season-ending event. The golfers were separated into four categories (A, B, C, D) according to their abilities, with A being the highest level and D the lowest. When players finished a round, they would come and see me, give me their score, and I would record it. To make it easier to find their names, I would ask them if they were an A, B, C, or D player. “I’m in the A group” or “I’m a D,” they would tell me. Over the next five years of recording their scores every September, I got to know all the players, and they no longer had to tell me what category they were in; it was easy to find them each year in exactly the same category. And that got me thinking: Why were they in the same group every year? Don’t they change categories? Don’t they get better? How was it possible that a golfer could play and practice the game for 10, 20, 30 years, and stay in the same division all that time without any real shift in improvement? Could it be a lack of talent that was keeping them in the same division year after year? Maybe some players were just better, and others couldn’t get it? To a degree, that’s part of it, but it doesn’t fully explain how someone can do something for three decades without any definable spikes in consistent improvement. The real reason is that these golfers, over time, become comfortable with where they are and never address how they might grow, improve, and move up to the next level by becoming uncomfortable. They become comfortable in one area—and that’s who they are. It is my experience that the longer you stay in the same comfort zone, the more your zone shrinks and the harder it is to expand it. And the more you continue to do the same things, make the same mistakes, and ingrain the same habits, the more your comfort zone shrinks—
and you become that athlete. Metaphorically, you become the A, B, C, or D golfer.
Get in the Habit of Being Uncomfortable Let’s be clear: I am not asking you to “smash” your zone of comfort or to make a huge jump outside of what you’re familiar with. That would be stressful and too much. We know through psychological models like Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and other theories of motivation that safety, security, and comfort are fundamental human needs. In fact, after food, water, and shelter, safety and security are next in line. Human beings want to feel safe and secure, and to have some level of comfort. What I am asking you to do is to expand your area of comfort in calculated ways so that you can more fully express yourself, enhance your riding capabilities...and grow. Your job as a rider when it comes to increasing your performance and exploring your abilities is finding your own balance between a passive state of seeking safety and comfort, which is normal (and a primary human need), and an active state of seeking growth and Riding Big.
What Are Some of Your Equestrian Habits? Let’s start by looking at your habits as a rider. What would you want to change? What is something you repeat over and over again that may be holding you back from being a better equestrian athlete? Does it have to do with one of your technical fundamentals, such as your seat, your balance, or your hand position? Do you have great training habits? Do you “go around” problems instead of “going through” them? I suggest you pause right here and think about a habit or habits you might like to change that could lead you to becoming a better rider. Start with one that won’t be too difficult. It’s always easier to start small and then move on to one that may be more of a challenge and difficult for you. I also recommend that you pick one thing in your equestrian life and test your limits. As a suggestion, why not try a little challenge at the end of each training session, just to test the limits and make yourself feel slightly uncomfortable? For example, if you have a big-strided horse that you feel is always on the
edge of control, you may tend to ride conservatively (small). This can be intimidating in dressage, where some tests require the horse to perform a powerful extended trot or canter. If you’re only comfortable riding a working trot or canter and are practicing that, end by applying a little more pressure with your aids so that your horse moves smoothly into a lengthened gait. Pushing the edges here, occasionally extending the gait, and getting the feeling of riding a little less conservatively will help you gradually stretch your area of comfort. There is no “one size fits all” here. Some habits are easier to form than others. Invest the time, be patient with yourself, and do it step by step. Starting small and slowly is the best way to break old habits and develop new ones.
John Haime is a human-performance coach and the president of New Edge Performance, Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of You Are a Contender! Build Emotional Muscle to Perform Better and Achieve More…in Business, Sports and Life.
USDF Virtual Education Series These webinars will be open to all members at no charge and after completion, will be converted into virtual courses hosted through USDF University.
UNIVERSITY
For more information on USDF University, the new virtual education series, or other USDF educational offerings, visit www.usdf.org/education/university/
UNIVERSITY
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VINE-TUNING: Dressage trainer Alex Greer and Greer Ventures LLC’s 2013 Hanoverian, First Wonder Ymas (Fürstenball x Londonderry) amidst the grapevines at Shadybrook Estate Winery in Napa, California
De Better Decanter, De Better De Ride Dressage horses, they say, are developed like fine wines. Likewise, some wines and spirits are infused with a love of all things equine.
n the 4th century BCE, the Greek poet and statesman Eubulus advised fellow symposia revelers that, after three kraters of wine, wise guests go home. A fifth, he warned, leads to yelling; a sixth to “prancing about”; and after seven kraters, “black eyes, insanity, and hurling furniture.” Modern dressage symposiums are staid affairs in comparison, but convivial appreciation for a good libation has withstood the test of time. Meet some wines and whiskeys—and a selection of artful labels, stoppers, and decanters—created by, for, or about lovers of horses, dressage, and the equestrian lifestyle.
Wines, Vines, and Equines Hacking out in a vineyard? It’s all in a day’s work for Alex Greer, resident dressage trainer at Alko Equestrian Center, located on the Shadybrook Estate Winery at Rapp Ranch in Napa, California. After graduating from Cornell University in 2012, Greer trained in Wellington, Florida, under the tutelage of interna-
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tionally renowned coaches and fine-tuned her “horses first, always” focus on boutique training, sales, and imports. “It is truly incredible to call such a beautiful facility home,” Greer says. “My clients and I love riding the estate’s groomed vineyard trails and hills. The horses are so happy. Our indoor arena has a vineyard view, and it’s a lovely backdrop to our dressage training. “Horses and wine are a perfect blend,” Greer continues. “The wines from Rapp Ranch/Shadybrook Estate are bold and full of flavor, much like our dressage horses! It’s really special to drink wine made from the grapes you ride past every day. Their cabernet sauvignon is a barn favorite.” The estate’s winemaker, Rudy Zuidema, suggests that the 2017 vintage will age gracefully or, with proper decanting, can be enjoyed now: “The Shadybrook Estate Cabernet Sauvignon showcases aromatics of lilac, blackberries, and mocha powder. The palette starts out rich and juicy, with notes of boysenberry preserves, hazelnut, and chocolate, transitioning into long, balanced tannins of exquisite texture.”
LISA HERMES
I
BY L.A. SOKOLOWSKI
COURTESY OF WILD HORSE WINERY; COURTESY OF BLOOMER CREEK VINEYARD; COURTESY OF BAYER FAMILY ESTATE
If you’re a horse lover, then you’re bound to be drawn to wines with equine-themed names. Laura Graves is no exception. “Most wine appeals to me,” says the Florida-based 2016 US Olympic dressage team bronze medalist, “but I have been a fan of Wild Horse Cabernet Sauvignon.” And what’s not to love? Wild Horse Winery, San Miguel, California, describes its 2018 cab as having “aromas of blue fruit, candied currants, bramble fruits, forest floor, and oak spice” and a rich mouthfeel of “red velvet cake.” It’s also hard not to like a bottle if your horse is on it. When Graves’ friend the Scottish dressage rider Katie Paulin shared a LAURA’S CHOICE: “personalized” bottle of 90-proof Dressage Olympian Laura Graves enjoys Wild Horse whiskey produced by a friend, its Cabernet Sauvignon from label sporting a picture of Graves’ Wild Horse Winery in San legendary mount, Verdades, Miguel, California Graves loved it. “It was her horse’s name (Belisario),” Graves enthused, “but a photo of ‘Diddy.’ It was epic!” Horses and artwork make fine company at Bloomer Creek Vineyard in New York’s Finger Lakes, and a “favorite stop” on the Conde Nast Traveler Destination Guide. The label of its White Horse Cabernet Franc/Merlot red blend sports the colorful art of friend and wine collector C. James “Jimmy” Wright, a Kentucky native whose work hangs in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as well as in museums in Chicago and Los Angeles. Vines and equines grow well together in Oregon, at Pheasantbrook Vineyards and Bayer Family Estate, the equestrian dream facility of the late reined-cow-horse champion Toni Isola-Bayer. Today the winery is known for its award-winning Brook Horse Zinfandels and Rosés. “My wife,” says Jim Bayer, “got her first horse from [entertainer and Arabian-horse enthusiast] Wayne Newton in Las Vegas. She was an incredible equestrian, with US and Canadian national championships.” After Bayer’s enterprise transitioned from equestrian facility
FINE ART: Renowned artist C. James “Jimmy” Wright’s work graces the label of Bloomer Creek Vineyard’s White Horse red wine
to vineyard, he maintained the horse-centric theme: “If you look on our wine label, it’s got a horse coming out of water and lilies. That’s the legend of the brook horse.” The Scandinavian folk tale of the bäckahäst (“brook horse”) intertwines horses, love, and water, and reflects Bayer’s passion for the wine, equines, and vines that flourish along the Rogue River. On any given wine-shop shelf it’s hard to miss Cynthia Sampson’s brightly-colored horses galloping across the labels of Washington state’s 14 Hands Winery, whose selections include a Unicorn Rosé and a Hot to Trot White. Or, for a choice of sparkling wine, layered with fresh apples and toasted oak, a Dark Horse Brut out of Modesto, California, is always ready to show off. [
HORSE OF LEGEND: A Scandinavian folk-tale equine lends its name and image to the Brook Horse wines of Oregon’s Bayer Family Estate, a former equestrian facility
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Whiskey: OFF to the Races GoogleTrends has tracked bourbon whiskey’s rising popularity since 2004, and the number of craft distilleries has risen 250% in the last decade. According to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, nearly 95% of all bourbon is produced in Kentucky, where the influence of the Bluegrass State on inspiring creative and collectible horse-themed bottles
PONY POWER: Non-horse folk may not know that the 14 Hands Winery name refers to an equine’s height! The Prosser, Washington, winery’s labels all feature equine art, including the colorful pastel-and-acrylic “Wild Horses” by Colorado artist Cynthia Sampson. 14 Hands is named for the wild horses that once roamed eastern Washington state.
and stoppers is undeniable. Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey representative Aaron Lawrence explains how the heritage of horses parallels that of bourbon. “At the turn of the 18th century, the most efficient way to ship whiskey from Kentucky was on flatbed boats down the Mississippi to New Orleans,” Lawrence says. “After unloading, they needed a fast way back to keep turning around shipments, so, while down South, they would take some of the money from selling bourbon and ride home on the fastest Thoroughbreds they could buy.” Thanks to some savvy horsedealing, Kentucky built a racehorse industry while expanding bourbon sales. Blanton’s founder, Elmer T. Lee, “knew Kentucky had two international assets: horses and bourbon. This is our way of paying homage to that heritage,” says Lawrence, referring to the collector’s set of eight stoppers depicting a horse and jockey in the strides and poses of a race from starting gate to finish line. Each stopper is marked with a single letter, and the complete set spells Blanton’s. On the final stopper, marked with an S, “the jockey’s arm is raised in victory.” According to Lawrence, the provenance of the artist who created the stoppers remains a mystery, although “the legend is that it was inspired by a Triple Crown champion.” In 1999, the distillery noted that its bottle’s eight-paneled design lent itself to the eight letters in the Blanton’s name and thought: Why not eight stoppers, each with their own horseand-jockey figure corresponding to a letter? The venture was a success, with
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the stoppers soon becoming collectors’ items. “Today the thrill of the hunt is as cool as the bourbon,” Lawrence says. “It’s one thing to see a single stopper, but all of them together are really something.” In addition to proudly displaying their complete sets, collectors also use the stoppers for horse-racing board games played with cards and dice, he adds. Blanton’s artist may remain unknown, but there is no such question about the image on Horse Soldier Bourbon Whiskey, distilled in St. Petersburg, Florida. The bottles are formed in molds made from steel recovered from the World Trade Center after 9/11 and donated to the distillery by the New York City Port Authority. The bourbon is named for the Special Operations team inserted into northern Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The only way over the mountainous terrain was on horseback, and it marked the first time that US troops had used horses in combat since 1942. “One of the soldiers grew up on a ranch and worked as rodeo cowboy,” says Horse Soldier Bourbon representative Bryan Avery. “He called them [the mounts in Afghanistan] crossbred with a werewolf. They were angry horses.” Those who did their duty while outriding their angry crossbreds were honored by the America’s Response Monument, which overlooks Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. That statue, De Oppresso Liber, America’s Response, graces the Horse Soldier Bourbon label. The life-and-a-half-sized bronze was sculpted by Douwe Blumberg, who was a professional horse trainer
COURTESY OF 14 HANDS WINERY; COURTESY OF BLANTON’S
THEY’RE OFF: Collectors vie to acquire the entire set of Blanton’s bourbon stoppers. The eight stoppers depict a Thoroughbred winning a race, and each bears a letter (near the horse’s right hind foot) spelling out the Blanton’s name
COURTESY OF HORSE SOLDIER BOURBON WHISKEY; BUMBLE DEE/SHUTTERSTOCK; COURTESY OF RIEDEL CRYSTAL
DRINK TO REMEMBER: Named in honor of the horseback-riding US Special Ops team in Afghanistan post-9/11, Horse Soldier Bourbon Whiskey features an image of the America’s Response Monument (inset) on its label, and its bottle molds are made from steel recovered from the World Trade Center towers
for 18 years before he turned to art full-time in 2001. “My mother rode dressage in Holland before the war [World War II],” says the Los Angeles-born Blumberg of his Dutch-born parents. “My parents were amateur artists. I began sculpting for fun while I trained horses. But after the art business outgrew the horse business, I closed the barn and changed careers.” Blumberg relocated from California to Kentucky, where he built a studio north of Lexington. “Horses allowed me to find a niche that I was very good at, with a financially solid clientele, which allowed me to get my foot in the door of the art world. Most of my early works were equine-related,” he says.
The Fine Art of the Decanter If a mold can make the bottle, then a decanter can make the wine. Decanting refers to the slow pouring of a wine from its bottle into a
different container (decanter) without disturbing whatever sediment has formed at the bottom, and oxygenating the compounds within to elevate the drinker’s perception of its flavor, texture, and aroma. The most inviting decanters are glass vessels with elongated, easy-to-pour necks in standard shapes and sizes. More creative shapes, such as swans or horses, have also earned appeal. For nearly three centuries, family-owned Riedel Crystal has been respected among wine connoisseurs, hospitality professionals, and drink specialists. Founded in 1756, the Austrian company was the first in history to recognize how the shape of a vessel affects the taste and aroma of the beverage within. Shape matters, say these renowned glassblowers (whose work is in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art) in delivering the four sensations—bouquet, texture, flavor, and finish—inherent to a wine’s “message.” “On the palate, decanted wine expresses higher levels of fruit in red wines, and tends to integrate and smooth out tannins,” says Maximilian Josef Riedel, the eleventh generation to be appointed CEO and president, and principal designer of the company’s decanters. An award-winning craftsman best known for his revolutionary stemless “O” glassware series, before his current role Riedel earned 2011 Grand Prix Table & Gift awards for design, innovation, and technicality; and a Wine Enthusiast Wine Star Special Award for Generations of Innovation. At nearly two feet tall, the handmade, hand-finished crystal Riedel Horse Decanter honors good wine with the treatment it deserves, its elegant lines reminiscent of Austria’s haute école equestrian legacy. A sec-
ELEGANT LINES: Just like a dressage horse, Riedel Crystal’s Horse Decanter is graceful and arresting
ond decanter, the Horn—reminiscent of a hunting horn—pays homage to the family’s own Austrian and Bohemian heritage, with a coiled design that “double-decants,” via technology developed by Riedel to accelerate wine aeration by creating a natural vacuum within the vessel.
A Satisfying Pairing The similarities between riding and winemaking may not be apparent at first blush, but dressage trainer and wine connoisseur Greer says that both pursuits require passion and dedication to produce a result that is pure harmony. “You can look back on a great ride the way you look back at a great bottle,” Greer says. “It stays with you and makes you want to come back for more.”
L.A. Sokolowski is an award-winning, multi-platform journalist and image consultant based in New York. She has covered equestrian sport, welfare, lifestyle, and culture at the highest international levels since 1992.
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Golden (Year) Opportunities Two categories of USDF rider awards spotlight competitors for whom age is just a number BY AMY SWERDLIN
COURTESY OF RUTH SHIRKEY
STILL WINNING: Adult-amateur rider Ruth Shirkey earned the first championship titles of her dressage career when she won two Adequan®/ USDF Vintage Cup awards aboard her Hanoverian mare, Wyleigh Princess
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L
COURTESY OF DEBBIE BANAS
ike fine wines, many USDF members get better with age. Two prestigious categories of USDF year-end awards for competitors over 50 celebrate these riders’ commitment to never stop improving in dressage. In 2020 Ruth Shirkey and her Hanoverian mare, Wyleigh Princess, topped a large field of adult-amateur competitors to claim the Adequan®/USDF Vintage Cup championship titles in both the Prix St. Georges and Intermediate I divisions, with median scores well over the 70% mark. “Thrilling. I have got to say it is very thrilling,” says Shirkey, 60, of Livermore, California. “I’ve had some wonderful competition years, but this is the first time we have ever been champion.” Vintage Cup award rankings are determined using the same process as Adequan®/USDF Horse of the Year standings, and scores must be earned within one competition year. (For details about the Vintage Cup awards program, see “Vintage Cup Award Fast Facts” on page 56.) Shirkey began riding at a young age, but there were periods of time in her life that she didn’t ride at all. At 44, while working full-time as a tax accountant, she began to focus on dressage. In 2010, she purchased a foal in utero. That foal was Wyleigh Princess. Along the way, Shirkey realized that it’s not just younger riders who can be competitive in dressage. “Earlier, when I was coming up in the sport, it always seemed like there were a lot of folks my age and younger coming along,” she says. “I think that sometimes we have a preconceived idea that this is a sport for young people, but then I started noticing the [riders’] ages. When you watch the CDIs or a competition on live stream, you see on the screen the country that they are riding for, but you also see their age.” Shirkey is right: Older enthusiasts make up a significant portion of the USDF membership demographic. In 2019, approximately 27% of those USDF members with birth dates on file were over 50.
Recognition and Goals Are Important “It is nice to have recognition for the seniors,” Shirkey says. The awards, she feels, are the USDF’s way of saying: “We recognize that it is a lot more effort for you to get out there and put yourself out there, especially for competition. …It gives you an opportunity to look at the riders in your peer group that are still out there working hard to achieve their goals. It gives you a nice understanding of where you fall in
SOMETHING TO STRIVE FOR: Master’s Challenge award winner Debbie Banas on Magritzza
the group. I am a competitor at heart, too, so to me this is relevant and important to our sport.” Another strong supporter of recognition for dressage riders in higher age brackets is Debbie Banas. Banas, 67, of Lexington, Kentucky, co-wrote a proposal to create a senior adult-amateur division that was discussed during the USDF Board of Governors assembly at the 2019 Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention. Banas is a USDF bronze and silver medalist who also has her USDF bronze and silver freestyle bars. Most recently, she added USDF Master’s Challenge awards at Third, Fourth, and FEI levels to her trophy wall. For the Master’s Challenge Award, available at Training through Fourth Levels and at FEI level, scores can be earned over time and are cumulative—but all scores must be earned after the rider turns 60. (See “Master’s Challenge Award Fast Facts” on page 57 for details.) “It is especially important to riders and competitors like me,” says Banas, “that USDF has these awards that recognize the efforts of its senior members. Riding keeps me going both mentally and especially physically. Some days, even getting on a horse is a challenge! It’s like, wow, there are so many things that affect you after a certain age.” USDF began offering Vintage Cup awards in 1986. In 2016, the awards were split into professional and adult-amateur divisions. Master’s Challenge awards were introduced in 1991. “I was one of the first ones to sign up for the Vintage Cup!” claims adult-amateur dressage icon Janne Rumbough, 77, of Wellington, Florida. “I think it was a wonderful addition, and at that time the professionals and the amateurs were together. Many times an amateur would beat the professionals, which was fun. Now the amateurs and professionals are separate, which is really nice because there are a lot of people who are riding and competing over the age of 50.” [ USDF CONNECTION | May/June 2021
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and I encourage my students to do the same,” says USEF “S” judge and dressage instructor/trainer Judy Downer, 65, of Ocala, Florida, who was the 2020 Adequan®/USDF Vintage Cup Training Level Professional reserve champion with her Lipizzan gelding, Favory Vereina. “In my opinion, year-end awards are important for goal-setting.” Downer points out that USDF’s awards program recognizes and encourages the longevity of participants in dressage: “Younger riders who are highly goal-oriented need to know that an awards program will support them as they age and will keep them engaged in our sport.”
Vintage Cup Awards Fast Facts
A
dequan®/USDF Vintage Cup awards are offered in two divisions: adult amateur and professional. Scores for these year-end awards must be earned within one competition year (October 1-September 30). Eligibility:
Rider must be 50 years of age or older
Rider must have a USDF participating membership when scores are earned
Horse must have a USDF lifetime registration when scores are earned
Riders must declare their intent to participate in this program, either via the USDF website (navigate to Awards / Year End Awards) or by contacting USDF senior competitions coordinator Cristen Brown at (859) 971-7361 or cbrown@usdf.org.
Prizes:
Champions in each level and division receive an engraved plaque and a Dressage Extensions gift certificate.
Levels:
Training Level through Grand Prix
Scores:
Training-Fourth Levels: Minimum of eight scores from four different judges and four different USEF-licensed/USDFrecognized dressage competitions. Two scores must be 60% or higher, and from the highest test of the level. A median score of 60% or higher is required to qualify for an award.
Adequan®/USDF Vintage Cup Award
Prix St. Georges-Grand Prix: Minimum of four scores from four different judges and four different USEF-licensed/USDFrecognized dressage competitions. A median score of 60% or higher is required to qualify for an award.
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INCENTIVE: Dressage pro Judy Downer (aboard her Lipizzan gelding, Favory Vereina) uses awards as goal-setting motivation
At a time in life when some people’s idea of recreation is relaxing on the couch, many dressage riders are working harder than ever, doubling down on their own fitness in order to stay competitive in the saddle. Shirkey, for one, appreciates the recognition that the Vintage Cup and Master’s Challenge awards give to riders over a certain age for keeping their skill sets at a high level. “This is a younger person’s sport in a lot of ways,” Shirkey says, “and the younger riders can make it look like it’s easy at the higher levels. The transitions and increased collected work really require a certain level of physical fitness that can be very hard to achieve and maintain as a 50-plus rider. I must tell you, even if you ride for a living, you have to make an extra effort [to stay fit]. I think it is wonderful that our effort is being acknowledged and rewarded.” Equestrians tend to be “more fit than our peers,” says Downer, “and being able to show people that concept is important to society. We need to be examples of the importance of taking care of our health. Be responsible for your own health and wellbeing, and proud that you can do things that peers your age cannot!”
Defying Ageism Like other USDF awards, Vintage Cup and Master’s Challenge awards are recognized at the USDF Salute Gala and Annual Awards Banquet,
LORETTA LUCAS
Rumbough’s illustrious riding career has had numerous highlights, from winning the 2018 US Dressage Finals Adult Amateur Grand Prix Freestyle Championship on her PRE, Armas Zumbel, to being named the inaugural USDF Member of Distinction in 2016. But she says that her USDF Vintage Cup and Master’s Challenge awards hold a special place in her heart. “I think these programs are wonderful. It is great to have something to work toward. To get the scores for the Master’s Challenge or to get a ranking in the Vintage Cup—it is just wonderful,” Rumbough says. “I need to set goals for myself,
SUSANJSTICKLE.COM
NOT SLOWING DOWN: Janne Rumbough was in her seventies when she won the 2018 US Dressage Finals Adult Amateur Grand Prix Freestyle Championship on her PRE, Armas Zumbel
yet participation in these programs is lacking in comparison to the popular USDF rider medals and Adequan®/USDF Horse of the Year awards and others. Perhaps some competitors are reluctant to make their ages public? Shirkey urges mature riders to rethink their perceptions of age. “Obviously, we are going to get older, and in some respects that is not a bad thing,” she says. “Ideally, what we do is to try to improve with age, right? We know a bit more. For me, [earning a] Vintage Cup award represents that I am ranked with a group of riders who want people to know that they are dedicated to the sport, and age is not the issue. Age becomes a merit instead of something that is negative.” Shirkey encourages older riders “to celebrate that they have made it this far, number one, because there are a lot of odds against human beings as they go along! Celebrate that they are still riding and to not be afraid of an age on a piece of paper. These awards allow them a unique opportunity to be in a group of peers that they don’t otherwise get.” Experience, Rumbough agrees, is “definitely an advantage” in dres-
sage. “I am proud of being the age I am. This year I don’t have an FEI horse to ride in the CDIs—but if I did, I would go out and do it. I would ride, and I would go for it at 77 years old! Be proud to be 50 or 65 and to be able to ride well and have nice scores. This is a sport that we can stay active in for a long time, and you stay fit.” Banas urges USDF members “to take advantage of the special awards that have been created for seniors. There needs to be a strong interest in the current programs to show that there may be a need in the future for additional programs that benefit this group of competitors.” For more information about
USDF awards, refer to the 2021 USDF Member Guide or visit usdf. org. Track your progress toward rider awards by logging into USDFScores. com and checking your personal Rider Award Eligibility page.
USDF Awards Committee chair Amy Swerdlin is a USDF bronze, silver, and gold medalist and a USEF “r” judge. She is part-owner and manager of the Palm Beach Equine Sport Complex, a 320-stall facility in Wellington, Florida. An avid adult-amateur dressage competitor, she enjoys training her Oldenburg horses up the levels.
Master’s Challenge Award Fast Facts
U
SDF Master’s Challenge awards, like USDF rider medals, may be earned over more than one competition year.
Eligibility: Rider must be 60 years of age or older when scores are earned
Rider’s birth date must be on file with USDF before September 30 of the award year
Rider must have a USDF participating or group membership when scores are earned
Horse must have a USDF horse ID number or USDF lifetime registration when scores are earned
Prizes:
Award presented at the USDF Salute Gala and Annual Awards Banquet
Levels:
Training, First, Second, Third and Fourth Levels; FEI level (any combination of Prix St. Georges, Intermediate I, Intermediate II, and Grand Prix)
Scores:
Scores are cumulative and may be earned over time. Scores must have been earned after January 1, 1990.
Training-Second Levels: Four scores of 60% or higher from four different judges and four different rides at USEF-licensed/USDF-recognized dressage competitions
Third–FEI levels: Three scores of 55% or higher from three different judges and three different rides at USEF-licensed/USDF-recognized dressage competitions. For the FEI-level award, scores may be earned from one level or any combination thereof.
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Tack Shop Smart Summertime Solutions New products to help you and your horse live smarter and healthier
Kerrits Introduces Lifestyle Apparel Brand Fans of Kerrits riding wear and equestrian apparel will want to check out EQL by Kerrits. The company’s new line of equestrian-influenced lifestyle apparel is created from responsibly sourced fabrics, and 1% of the proceeds are donated to support equine causes.
EQL by Kerrits collections include pieces for casual, work, and active wear (pictured: the Organic Cotton Tank in Black Wild Horse print). For hot-weather workouts, try the new Ice Fil Active Tank and Ice Fil Active Capri, made from the same cooling fabric that equestrians have long enjoyed in Kerrits Ice Fil riding apparel items. Learn more: Kerrits.com/pages/eql.
Help for Headshakers Equine idiopathic headshaking is a perplexing disorder in which an aggravated, hypersensitive trigeminal nerve causes the horse to exhibit behaviors such as persistent
up-and-down headshaking and muzzle-rubbing. In addition to such measures as outfitting affected horses with nose nets and avoiding exposure to sunlight, dietary supplementation with magnesium may help to reduce sensitivity of the trigeminal nerve. Platinum Steady from Platinum Performance combines magnesium with boron, which enhances magnesium absorption, to help support horses that display headshaking behavior. Learn more: PlatinumPerformance.com.
Visual Dressage History Author and classical-dressage trainer Paul Belasik (Riding Towards the Light; Dressage for the 21st Century) has produced a poster depicting the origins and development of the major schools of dressage training. “The History of Classical Dressage” poster shows the “family trees” of the French, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Iberian schools, noting major contributors and milestones. The poster also shows a pyramid of classical
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dressage—not USDF’s pyramid of dressage training, but Belasik’s depiction of the progression to haute école dressage. Learn more: PaulBelasik.com.
Eco-Friendly Footing Reducing water use is becoming increasingly essential, especially in drought-prone areas. But typical riding arenas need regular watering in the fight against unhealthful dust.
Enter ArenaGreen Footing, a new material from ArenaMend LLC. ArenaGreen uses a natural binding agent that’s 99% bio-renewable and that makes the footing material waterless and dust-free. The highperformance footing has no wax, polymers, or petroleum-based ingredients. It works well in both indoor and outdoor arenas, and in both arid and humid climates. Learn more: ArenaMend.com.
Italian Flair Prestige Italia has updated its X-D2 dressage saddle with features including eye-catching stitching and patent-leather accents. The “unisex” saddle tree is designed to be comfortable for both male and female riders, and the new blocks are anatomically shaped for the horse.
Self-Feeding Solution for Pastured Horses Your mature horse kept on pasture or a dry lot can get nutrition, gastric support, and even fly control with a new prepackaged free-choice product.
The Purina EquiTub with ClariFly is designed to allow freechoice feeding for one to five horses, as a supplement to quality hay or pasture forage. Ingredients include alfalfa, rice bran, flaxseed, Purina Outlast gastric-support supplement, and Purina Amplify high-fat supplement. Purina’s ClariFly is a feed-through additive that, when expelled in manure, helps to control house- and stable-fly populations by interrupting their life cycle. Purina EquiTub with ClariFly is available in 55-pound and 125-pound sizes. Learn more: PurinaMills.com.
Shaped front panels allow maximum shoulder freedom, and the saddle is flocked with Prestige Italia’s X-Tech material. Choose between the X-D2, with a double-flap design (pictured); or the monoflap X-D2 K. Both models come in a selection of colors, widths, seat sizes, and flap lengths. Learn more: US.PrestigeItaly. com.
to relax and rest. The amber lenses are shatter- and scratch-resistant. A patched-style model (above) can help horses with eye injuries and can ease anxiety during travel and other stressful situations. The masks come in four sizes. Learn more: XpertEquine.com.
Sleep Masks for Horses Just like humans, horses need sleep to be at their best—but at horse shows and other settings, lights may be left on all night, disrupting the animals’ ability to rest. Developed and tested by veterinarians, the XpertEquine REM mask has a fly-mask-like design whose eye coverings are made of a special material that blocks UV light and wakefulness-inducing blue light, thereby helping anxious horses
“Tack Shop” contains notices of new products judged to be of potential interest to USDF members. Information and images are supplied by manufacturers. Inclusion of an item does not constitute an endorsement or a product review.
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awssr.org for more information
T ay l o r S e l e c T
HorSe Bedding
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63
My Dressage Lightbulb Moment Amid an adult-amateur rider’s struggles to learn dressage, an “aha moment”
THE TEACHER: The writer’s schoolmaster, Maestro, shows off his improved neck musculature
this horse, with his “in your pocket” disposition, would tolerate my heavy hands. His easygoing temperament masked a taskmaster personality that didn’t brook incompetence! When I got Maestro, the most noticeable muscle on his body bulged at the base of his short, scrawny neck. Quickly my new horse had my number. He refused to go in front of my leg, to lower his head and become round, or to bend
through the rib cage. My progress was further impeded by a knee replacement and several other nonhorse-related surgeries that sidelined me for many months. Some rides, I felt as if I was doing all the work. I was exhausted by the end of each lesson. My trainer suggested cantering early to encourage Maestro’s impulsion. The problem was that I had lost my confidence as a result of asking for the canter incorrectly. In my nervousness, I leaned forward and pumped my upper body, which only encouraged Maestro to trot faster or to break into an unbalanced canter. Finally my trainer commanded me to sit up straight and just apply my leg aid. It worked! But it took time before I could consistently do this well. I still had trouble maintaining the canter because I relied on the reins instead of my seat for balance. After my trainer lent me a betterfitting saddle, I developed a more independent seat, which enabled me to relinquish my choke hold on the reins so that Maestro could canter more freely. Another issue was that I sat the trot with flapping elbows, frequently resembling a fledgling learning to fly instead of a dressage rider. Once this issue was addressed, my elbows behaved themselves. Getting my horse to stretch his short, incorrectly developed neck was a pipe dream for a long time. But as Maestro’s neck muscles were reformed through proper training, he became willing to stretch out and down. On a loose rein, he no longer carried his head in the air. Before I bought Maestro, I knew nothing about keeping a horse straight. It took me years to learn to do this properly. Maestro
64 May/June 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
objected, especially going to the right, by sticking his head in the air. Eventually, although he still resisted, using the correct aids made it easier for me to get his body aligned. One day in our journey together stands out vividly in my memory. I was riding at a walk when I felt a gentle pulling on the reins. My trainer explained that Maestro was reaching for the bit—an aha moment! In the past, not understanding how to develop a correct connection, I would pull on the reins, riding “front to back,” not realizing that I needed to use my legs to engage my horse’s hind end in order for him to reach for the bit. Gradually I got him through at the trot and sometimes even at the canter. What an incredible feeling—Maestro, between my legs and hands, moving forward, his hind legs propelling him into the bit. Recently I’ve become a more mindful rider. When a movement is incorrect, I consider what should be done differently next time to improve my horse’s performance. Best of all, I can really feel when Maestro is through. Maestro continues to test me every time we ride. However, as my riding has improved, so has my ability to get him to listen to my aids. My best rides occur when I mentally prepare with a you-will-listen-to-me attitude.
Frances Srulowitz is an amateur dressage rider living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She wishes to thank all the instructors who have helped her on her journey to become a better rider.
COURTESY OF FRANCES SRULOWITZ
R
ejoice in small victories. Over time, they become cumulative. Progress may seem elusive until, one day, something clicks—the “aha moment,” like when my horse lowered his head and became round. Six years ago, my trainer found me Maestro, a sixteen-year-old Andalusian gelding trained to Grand Prix level. Safety was a top priority because I’m an older, lowerlevel rider. My trainer thought that
By Frances Srulowitz
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