Ringside Two Steps Forward, One Step Back Progress in dressage is most decidedly not linear
of battling life-changing or even life-threatening conditions to get back in the saddle are truly profiles in courage. Meet some of them, including cover rider and breastcancer survivor Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate, in our story “Back in the Saddle” on page 40. Reading about what these riders have overcome and what they continue to face each day, you may feel somewhat abashed at your own minor gripes. I know I was. Mostly you may feel the force of their determination to get back to horses and riding, whether as profession or pastime, as the activity that grounds them and makes life more meaningful. Also in this issue, we examine two of the many aspects that can affect the dressage journey. I asked longtime USDF Connection contributing editor and renowned equinebiomechanics expert Dr. Hilary Clayton to write a “Sport Horse” article on the subject of equine fitness. She got so enthusiastic about the topic that she asked if she could make it a two-parter. Nobody in their right mind says no when Hilary offers to share her knowledge,
6 May/June 2022 | USDF CONNECTION
so enjoy part 1 of “Is Your Horse Fit to Compete?” on page 34. We can’t easily equip our horses with heart monitors to evaluate their fitness (I asked), so Hilary delves into how best to ensure that our mounts are conditioned to meet the physical demands of dressage, for optimum performance and career longevity. Another aspect of dressage that can significantly derail saddle time is one that many riders are embarrassed to bring up: rubbing and chafing in the area where the, ahem, rubber meets the road. Search online and you’ll find voluminous threads devoted to the topic of how to alleviate pain in the nether regions while riding. A few discreet inquiries to instructors and fellow riders will almost certainly reveal sufferers in your midst. I myself have been plagued by rubbing and chafing for years, and it has taken much trial-and-error experimentation to (mostly) solve the problem. Let’s get this issue out in the open, I decided, when I asked freelance writer Jennifer Mellace to tackle it for her “Rider” column. To find out what she learned about causes and solutions, turn to page 26. May your own dressage journey be less pain and more gain!
Jennifer O. Bryant, Editor @JenniferOBryant
MICHAEL BRYANT
E
njoy the journey”—that’s the clichéd phrase all dressage riders hear in reference to the long, winding, sometimes frustrating road up the levels. There have been times during my own dressage career when I would have liked to tell someone where they could stuff their “journey” advice. Having just been grounded for the better part of a year following a colic surgery, for one. After a grim lameness diagnosis, for another. Or at a show at which my scores were lower than the prices in a bargain bin, confidence went out the window, and that damned pyramid of training suddenly seemed as eternal and impossible to scale as the pyramids at Giza. These and other setbacks, including the day-in, day-out hiccups—lost shoes, saddle-fit problems, equitation struggles, training plateaus—are all part of “the journey.” As a one-dressagehorse owner, I don’t take setbacks well—as Olympian Carol Lavell once told me, “When all of your eggs are in one basket, you live in fear,” and boy, was she right—and so I will never “enjoy” these twists of fate but have learned to try to at least accept them, as in, “This too shall pass.” In one aspect of the journey, however, I have been fortunate: I have not (yet, anyway) sustained an injury or illness serious enough to sideline me for a significant period of time. But there are plenty of dressage riders who have, and their stories
