Sport Horse

Is Your Horse Fit to Compete?

Ensure that your horse is physically prepped to handle the demands of dressage. First of two parts.

By Hilary M. Clayton, BVMS, PhD, Dipl. ACVSMR, FRCVS

The concept of “fit to compete” embraces many aspects of equine management, from nutrition to farriery to training. As a dressage rider, you know that to be successful your horse needs to be competent in the movements of the level—but how much thought do you give to other aspects of managing his fitness?

Fitness has many benefits. A fit horse: • Performs the movements with better quality and enthusiasm (impulsion) • Is at lower risk of fatigue and injury • Has an expectation of greater longevity as an athlete.

In this two-part series, I’ll describe exercises to address training issues that are related to insufficient fitness or strength at each competition level. In this issue, I’ll focus on the lower levels (Training through Second): I’ll look at how to develop and maintain the horse’s core strength, cardiovascular fitness, and correct neck posture. Part 2 will address strengthening the “dressage muscles” for the higher levels of competition, with the goals of making the movements easier and addressing specific performance problems. Fitness Requirements for Dressage Horses Every equestrian sport requires the horse to perform a set of skills that have specific requirements for cardiovascular fitness, strength, agility, and balance. If you were training an event horse, for example, the focus would be on cardiovascular fitness, with the objective of being able to gallop at high speed continuously

for several minutes. Galloping for long periods is not in the dressage repertoire, but dressage horses do need sufficient cardiovascular fitness to perform at their level of training without becoming fatigued. However, getting a horse overly fit for lower-level dressage may not be desirable, either, because fit horses can get a bit too frisky for our purposes! Conditioning for Training and First Levels Training and First Level dressage focuses on developing correct basics that will serve as the foundation of future work. The horse’s hind limbs develop more thrust—a prerequisite to achieving better balance and thoroughness—and the horse learns to seek a consistent contact with the bit in a long and rounded neck posture.

The types of conditioning that are beneficial at this stage of training are: • Core training, to activate and strengthen the muscles that move and stabilize the neck and back • Cardiovascular conditioning for horses that are easily fatigued or that have trouble tolerating heat in spite of sweating normally (Note: this does not include horses with anhidrosis, meaning that they are unable to sweat) • Neck-posture control, to teach the horse to support his own neck from above in the so-called falling-down neck posture.

Let’s look at each of these three types of conditioning in more detail.

FITNESS TRAINING: Dressage trainer Nancy Later rides over cavalletti. Trotting over a grid of poles is an excellent way of strengthening the horse’s core muscles.

Core training. The value of core training lies in improving the horse’s ability to round and stabilize its back, which is highly relevant throughout the life of a dressage horse. Core training from the ground should ideally be started in the young horse before ridden exercise begins. When the horse is in ridden work, the best time to do core training is immediately before tacking up, to “wake up” the core muscles in preparation for exercise.

ENTICEMENT: Baited stretches are a fun and easy method of core strengthening ENGAGE THE SLING: Pressure under the girth line stimulates the horse to contract his sling muscles to lift his withers

Many core-training exercises are performed from the ground because the horse’s spine is a lot more mobile when he is standing as opposed to during locomotion, when the goal is to stabilize the spine. Therefore, we can move the joints and work the muscles through a larger range of motion in the standing horse than is possible when the horse is in motion.

Baited stretches (“carrot stretches”) are simple exercises that anyone can do, and their beneficial effects have been proven in several research studies. Baited stretches activate and strengthen the large muscles that control movements of the horse’s neck and back; they also target the small muscles that stabilize the spine. When the spine is stabilized, it is more effective in transmitting propulsion from the hind limbs forward. From a soundness perspective, a stable spine reduces a horse’s risk of developing facet arthritis by preventing micromotion of the joint surfaces during movement.

As the name suggests, baited stretches involve using a bait, such as a small piece of carrot, which the horse follows with his muzzle to various positions that involve rounding and bending the neck. As the neck moves through its full range of motion, the horse activates his core muscles not only to round and bend his spine, but also to control his balance—a skill that becomes important at the higher levels of dressage. Each exercise can be done three to five times daily. Doing baited stretches every day is one of the best investments of time that you can make in your horse’s future.

After a horse has been performing the baited stretches regularly for two or three months, you can introduce the stimulated core-strengthening exercises, in which pressure applied to certain areas of the horse’s body stimulates a muscular contraction that rounds or bends the back and strengthens the muscles responsible for these movements.

Scratching under the girth line with your fingers or a stiff brush stimulates the horse to lift the base of his neck and his withers. Steady pressure applied about six inches around from the girth line by reaching underneath the horse stimulates both rounding and bending away from the pressure. Applying pressure in a sliding motion down the intermuscular groove on each side of the haunches stimulates the horse to tuck his pelvis and flex his lumbar spine. Instead of standing directly behind your horse, stand beside him and stimulate the groove on one side at a time. Do three to five repetitions of each exercise on both sides daily.

For more details on baited stretches and stimulated corestrengthening exercises, see the twopart series, “Sport Horse: Strengthen the Sling,” January/February 2021 and September/October 2021. And to learn more about conditioning the dressage horse, see “Some Thoughts on Conditioning Dressage Horses,” December 2018/January 2019.

Gymnastic exercises that strengthen the core muscles can be performed in hand, under saddle, or both. Exercises that have been associated with improvements in core strength include walking with bend in very small circles, such as around a pylon; turns on the forehand; circles and spirals at all gaits; walking and trotting over a grid of poles, either on the ground or raised; and walking multiple times over a single high pole, set just below the horse’s knee height.

Cardiovascular conditioning.

From a fitness standpoint, the physiological requirements at Train-

CRESTY BY NATURE: An Iberian horse with cresty-neck syndrome, a genetic condition that causes the early development of a very large and heavy crest. Heavy-necked horses may need to be ridden with shorter-than-ideal necks until their topline muscles become strong enough to support their necks in a more correct position.

ing and First Levels are moderate. Horses should be able to work for 40 to 60 minutes per day, five or six days per week and, if possible, be ridden outside of the arena two or three days per week. They should be able to trot and canter continuously without a walk break for five to 10 minutes and recover rapidly.

Cardiovascular fitness enables the horse to perform a specific amount of work with a lower heart rate, to recover more rapidly after exercise, and to dissipate heat from its muscles more effectively in hot weather. The cardiovascular requirements for dressage are not great compared with many other sports, and most horses develop sufficient fitness by “doing dressage.” However, there are a few horses that would benefit from achieving a higher level of fitness, and the best time to do this is in the early stages of the horse’s career.

Horses of the hot-blooded breeds—such as Thoroughbreds, Arabians, Iberians, and, to a lesser extent, warmbloods—become fit relatively easily. If you have an offthe-track Thoroughbred, he will already have developed a high level of cardiovascular fitness that returns rapidly when he enters a regular work program. Even after a layoff, these horses regain fitness quickly. Cold-blooded breeds or horses with a lazy disposition are the ones most likely to benefit from cardiovascular conditioning.

The key to improving fitness lies in increasing the horse’s heart rate on a regular basis. Interval training is the most effective means of doing this. The principle is to alternate between working hard enough to raise the heart rate and easing off enough to allow partial recovery at a walk or slow trot, then raising the heart rate again. Interval training should be done two to three days per week in addition to the regular training.

As with any new fitness program, start small and build up gradually over time. In the beginning, you might trot briskly for five minutes, walk for five minutes, and trot for five minutes. After practicing this regimen two to three days a week for two weeks, increase the intensity, duration, or number of the work periods. Here are examples of how to accomplish this: • Intensity: Increase trotting speed. Alternate between trotting and cantering. Increase the time spent cantering. Increase the frequency of transitions between trot and canter. Work with more impulsion. Ride on an uphill gradient. • Duration: Lengthen the work periods by adding 30 seconds to the trot work every two weeks. • Number of work periods: Add an extra work period but cut back a little on the work durations. Example: Go from two repetitions of five minutes trotting to three repetitions of four minutes trotting. After two weeks, increase the duration incrementally.

Cardiovascular workouts are best done outside the arena in an area with safe, consistent footing. It’s a good idea to shorten your stirrups a couple of holes and get off your horse’s back so he can use his back muscles more freely. An incline is a great addition because the effect of gravity puts more load on the hind limbs, which helps to develop the propulsive muscles, while the forelimbs are relatively unloaded, with less risk of concussive injuries.

Note that a horse’s respiratory rate is not an indication of fitness. If your horse still has a high respiratory rate after you’ve cooled down with a period of walking, it’s a sign that he’s still hot and will benefit from additional cooling, such as cold-hosing.

Neck posture. One of the training challenges at the lower levels of dressage is to teach the horse to reach to the bit and to take a correct contact, supporting its neck from above with the elastic nuchal ligament and the muscles on top of the neck while the “under neck” muscles remain relaxed.

The head and neck account for about 10% of the horse’s weight, which equates to 100-150 pounds in the average dressage horse. When a forelimb is grounded, the head and neck fall, thereby stretching the nuchal ligament and the muscles around it. The ligaments and muscles contain elastic tissue that stretches as the neck falls and then recoils to raise the head and neck. The goal is for the head and neck to be supported by this natural elasticity, reinforced as needed by the topline muscles of the neck.

It requires considerable muscular strength to support the neck in this manner, especially if the neck is stretched forward. When a horse begins dressage training, its upper neck muscles may not be strong enough to hold the neck in an elongated position for long periods of time. It may take several weeks or even months of training for a young horse to gain sufficient strength to support its neck comfortably and easily in an elongated position.

Iberian horses with a genetic condition known as cresty-neck syn-

drome develop exceptionally large and heavy crests early in life (see “All About the Neck,” October 2017). These and other heavy-necked horses may need to be ridden initially with a shorter neck, gradually lengthening it as the topline muscles become strong enough to support their heavy necks in a more correct position.

Simple management changes, such as feeding from the ground or using a ground-based slow feeder rather than a hay net, can help to develop the neck musculature correctly. Ground-feeding requires the horse to lower and raise its neck multiple times while eating.

Baited stretches in which the horse reaches forward and downward are useful, too, especially if the stretched-neck position is maintained for several seconds or the treat is moved from side to side with the neck lengthened.

An exercise under saddle to strengthen the neck muscles is to trot on a 20-meter circle with changes of direction and neck position. Circle left in a working neck position, followed by a circle left in a stretchy neck position; then change directions and circle right in a stretchy neck position, followed by a circle right in a working neck position. Repeat several times, paying particular attention to the smoothness of the transitions between the working and lowered neck postures. These postural transitions teach the horse to use its neck muscles correctly to support and move the neck, and they strengthen the muscles involved. The changes of direction add the challenge of shortening and lengthening the neck muscles on the inside and outside of the turn. Trotting over poles can also be useful if the horse is willing to round and lower his neck as he navigates the poles.

Development of correct neck posture and mechanics is crucially important in the dressage horse and should not be rushed in early training. Be aware that, for some young horses, neck support can be difficult. Second Level Second Level requires the horse to demonstrate correct basics, to be reliably on the bit, and to begin moving in an “uphill” balance. At this level of training, the horse attains an uphill balance primarily by raising its forehand using its thoracic-sling and forelimb-extensor muscles. Failure to achieve this will be reflected in judges’ comments indicating that the horse is on the forehand.

Developing balance and agility.

Second Level introduces shoulder-in, travers (haunches-in), and turn on the haunches. For a horse to perform these movements correctly, it needs to have good control of its balance— the ability to control its body position over the grounded limbs. It also needs to be able to use both forelimbs equally to raise the shoulders. The primary function of the muscles that connect the limbs to the body is to transfer forces from the limbs to the body during locomotion. The same muscles are also responsible for controlling the body’s position over the grounded limbs, which becomes increasingly important as the horse moves up the levels.

Unmounted exercises: As I discussed in last year’s two-part series, “Sport Horse: The Thoracic Sling” (January/February and September/ October), we can use balancing exercises to teach the horse to activate and strengthen the sling muscles by requiring him to move and control the position of his body relative to his grounded limbs. Several unmounted exercises are useful in this regard, especially the core-training exercises to raise the withers that I described on page 35. When a horse reaches Second Level, you can increase the number of repetitions.

Exercises under saddle: Teach your horse to take short, wellcontrolled walk steps in forward, backward, and sideways directions. Stepping sideways along the length of a pole is a good way to develop the coordination pattern for the full pass. Now try these exercises: • 10-meter square: Walk forward for 10 meters; step sideways to the left for 10 meters; rein back for 10 meters; and complete the square by stepping sideways to the right for 10 meters (see diagram above). The steps should be slow and well controlled.

Keep your horse’s body fairly straight and centered over his

SQUARE FOR BALANCE: Asking the horse to step forward, backward, and sideways in both directions in a square pattern helps to develop coordination, balance, and thoracicsling muscle strength

limbs throughout the exercise.

Repeat the exercise in the opposite direction. • Position changes on a circle:

Walk on a 15-meter circle. Every half circle, change your horse’s bend and positioning, varying among shoulder-in, shoulderout, haunches-in, and haunchesout. Then make the exercise more challenging by changing the positioning every quarter circle. Ride the exercise equally on both reins, or make a figureeight pattern. Include transitions between walk and halt while maintaining the bend. When you and your horse are comfortable performing the exercise at a walk, try it in a slow trot.

Your horse should be able to stop at any time without falling to one side to keep his balance. • Turns on the forehand and on the haunches: Ride turns on the forehand in both directions, sometimes bending away from the direction of movement and sometimes deliberately bending into the direction of movement. Similarly, ride turns on the haunches with inside bend and with outside bend.

All of these exercises improve the horse’s agility and balance. When you ride them, think about bending correctly, asking your horse to push up equally through both shoulders, maintaining control of every step, and keeping his body vertical and balanced over his legs.

By teaching the exercises at the walk, the horse has more time to figure out what is required and to develop the correct coordination patterns. If this type of work is introduced at Second Level, it will be well established by the time the horse reaches the FEI levels, when the ability to control the body’s position over the limbs becomes even more important. The exercises used to develop this skill can be part of the daily warmup.

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Developing thrust and power.

Medium trot and canter, which are introduced at Second Level, require the horse’s hind limbs to generate greater forward and upward thrust while the forelimbs act as struts to elevate the forehand. The horse must push off the ground into a suspension phase (with all four feet airborne) in order for the hind hooves to overtrack the fore hooves. Signs that the horse is not yet strong enough to do this are forging (the fore hoof remains grounded too long, and the toe of the advancing hind hoof clips the underside of the fore hoof) and stepping wide behind (the fore hoof remains grounded for too long, so the horse places its hind limbs to the outside to avoid stepping on itself).

Exercises to strengthen the propulsive muscles to prevent forging and going wide behind in medium trot include hill work, long periods of trotting actively forward on straight lines, frequent transitions within the trot, and jumping grids. Fitness Is the Foundation The lower levels are the time when the horse learns correct dressage basics and develops the physiological fitness to execute the requirements of a five- to six-minute Training, First, or Second Level test. These important fundamentals must be established correctly in order to prepare the horse for the demands of the higher levels to come, which I’ll cover in the next issue in part 2 of this series.

Meet the Expert

Dr. Hilary Clayton is the professor and Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair emerita. She was the original holder of the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, East Lansing, from 1997 to 2014.

A world-renowned expert on equine biomechanics and conditioning, Dr. Clayton is president of Sport Horse Science, LC, which is dedicated to translating research data into practical advice for riders, trainers, and veterinarians through lectures, articles, and private consultations. A USDF gold, silver, and bronze medalist, she is a longtime USDF Connection contributing editor and a past member of US Equestrian’s Dressage Committee. In 2020 she was inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame.

How some USDF members have overcome major physical or psychological setbacks to get back to their beloved horses and dressage

BY AMBER HEINTZBERGER

SWEET RIDE: Two months after undergoing a double mastectomy, breast-cancer survivor JJ Tate won the 2021 Great American/USDF Region 1 Grand Prix Freestyle championship aboard Derby, an Oldenburg gelding (Donnerwerth – Pastora, Pointmaker) owned by Cackie Vroom RBM PHOTOGRAPHY

hen horses get injured, we dressage riders typically pull out all the stops to make sure our mounts are 100% sound and healthy W before they return to work. But riders who get hurt or sick tend to suffer in silence, toughing it out through the pain. It’s almost considered a badge of courage for horse people to just “kick on”—until they can’t any longer.

Some physical and psychological problems are severe enough to sideline even the most determined equestrian, who then faces a twofold battle: first to beat the issue, and then to return to riding. In this article, USDF members fueled by a desire to return to riding share stories of the obstacles they surmounted.

Comeback Story: Joint Replacement

Equestrians of a certain age may have parted ways with their mounts enough times that they have the aching hips to show for it. So it’s no surprise that hipreplacement surgery is a fairly common procedure for older riders.

FEI-level dressage competitor and small-animal veterinarian Kristy Lund, DVM, has had both hips replaced—but in her case, the source of the pain was genetic, not horse-related.

Lund, 56, of Wellington, Florida, was born with hip dysplasia and developed bone-marrow edema syndrome, which caused aching in all of her bones. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic thought she had bone cancer; but Lund’s friend Dr. Heather Boo, who is a radiologist and a dressage rider, diagnosed the actual problem.

Told that no treatment currently exists for her condition, Lund decided to wait and see if the pain would go away on its own. After two years of constant pain, she consulted an orthopedist, who recommended hip replacements. (In a side note, according to Lund, her orthopedist told her that riding actually relieves stress on the hip joint as long as you sit correctly in the saddle.) Lund had both hips done, one at a time to prevent spending an extensive amount of time in the hospital.

“It’s been very successful,” she says of the surgeries. “I walked around crippled for two years. I’ve broken nearly every bone in my body, and this was probably the easiest procedure I’ve had.”

Lund had her first hip replaced in 2015. In 2016, riding Blue Marlin Farms’ Spanish Warmblood, Akvavit, she racked up several top finishes, including the Great American/USDF Region 3 Intermediate II Adult Amateur championship and the Grand Prix Adult Amateur reserve championship at the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. The following year, she had her other hip replaced.

Some people expressed surprise that Lund underwent hip-replacement surgery at a relatively young age, but “I knew injections would just be putting a Band-Aid on it,” she explains. “They’re titanium hips and should last at least 30 years. In hindsight, I would have done it sooner. After surgery, I literally woke up and got out of bed. I was on the phone in a conference call two hours after surgery; that’s how good I felt.”

Lund knows, however, that not every patient’s experience is as smooth.

“I would stress that it’s worth talking to people and listening to references,” she says, “because I definitely know people that didn’t have it go well—things like one leg shorter than the other, or infection.”

For now, when she’s not seeing patients of her own at Lund Animal Hospital, the practice she co-owns with her husband, Scott Lund, in Boca Raton, Florida, Lund is in the saddle as much as ever. She’s hoping to do a CDI with Akvavit, and she’s bringing two other horses up to the Intermediate II level. She also just purchased a four-year-old—but she’s having someone else ride that one for now.

“I really don’t want to take a fall and have to go back in for revision,” she says. “I don’t get on the crazies!” [

BIONIC WOMAN: Adult-amateur rider Kristy Lund has had both hips replaced. After the first procedure, she won the 2016 US Dressage Finals Grand Prix AA reserve championship aboard Akvavit.

DETERMINED: FEI-level rider/trainer Silva Martin (pictured schooling the Oldenburg gelding Belrano Gold [Bellissimo M x Serano Gold, owned by Joan Owen] at home in Pennsylvania) has lasting effects from a TBI, but she has adapted and is “back in full work”

Comeback Story: Traumatic Brain Injury

In February 2014, Silva Martin won a gold medal on the US Nations Cup dressage team in Wellington, Florida. The German-born rider had recently become a US citizen and was excited to represent her new country in competition.

Just two weeks later, a young horse Martin was schooling stumbled. Martin, who was wearing a helmet, fell and was knocked unconscious. She suffered a mid-brain bleed and was in a coma following the injury. Early in her recovery, she was unable to walk or talk, and the inflammation in her brain damaged the optic nerve to her right eye. It took months of rehab for Martin to regain some normalcy, and her vision is permanently impaired.

“The talking came back right away, and I was bilingual right away,” Martin recalls, “but I was in a wheelchair for probably four months, and then I walked with someone holding me with a belt.” It was a long road back: Martin did inpatient rehabilitation for about five months at a facility in Delray Beach, Florida, followed by seven months of outpatient rehab in Malvern, Pennsylvania, near Martin’s home base of Cochranville, Pennsylvania, where she teaches and trains alongside her husband, Olympic eventer Boyd Martin, at their Windurra USA facility.

“Funny enough, I was riding before I was walking, I guess because I’d ridden all my life,” Martin says. “At first I had side walkers and someone leading the horse. For a while I’d have someone help me get off and lead me to a chair because riding was easier than walking. There was no question in my mind that I would come back to what I’d always done; it was only a matter of how long it would take.”

Martin’s determination paid off when she went down center line at Dressage at Devon (Pennsylvania) in September 2014, less than seven months after the accident, riding Rosa Cha W to two third-place finishes in the small tour. She’s resumed her career as a dressage professional, although the accident has left her with lasting effects. She still has double vision in her right eye even after multiple surgeries, and she wears a lens that blocks her vision on that side. Her left eye, which is constantly dilated (she wears sunglasses most of the time), can only look straight ahead, so she has to turn her head to look up, down, and sideways—not ideal for riding and teaching.

But “you can get used to just about anything,” Martin says. “At first, the hardest thing was going down the center line: When you have only one eye, your depth perception is really off. What I struggle with, and really hate, is that I have to look down so much [while riding]. I can’t see the horse’s neck or where I’m going if I don’t look down. The only thing I can’t really do comfortably is lunge a horse, and sometimes when I put my head down to put my spurs on, I might fall over!” she adds with a laugh.

The Martins’ first child, son Nox, born in September 2015, was delivered via Caesarian section because pushing would have risked putting pressure on Silva’s brain. The couple welcomed little brother Leo in July 2018.

Comeback Story: PTSD

Not every injury is visible from the outside. Psychological trauma can be every bit as crippling as a physical problem.

During her US Army career, now-retired Marci Drewry, 66, of Wakefield, Virginia, “was a high-lev-

el criminal investigator—a special agent—and I was in charge of some very large projects, to include massgrave projects.”

Drewry served during the post9/11 “war on terror” years and says she “was one of the first persons to see photos of the Abu Ghraib atrocities. I drove my Humvee over the berm and into Baghdad, and I was up close and personal with the war. I also spent 24 years in law enforcement in the US Army, in charge of homicide investigations and other felony crimes. I was the first woman to have an office in the demilitarized zone in South Korea, and later at Fort Bragg [North Carolina]. We worked at a very highpressure, high-stress level, in wartime and in peace time, as well.”

The experiences and the stress “have a tendency to impact you,” says Drewry, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She tried therapy at a veterans center, but “because of what I did in the military, I didn’t get a lot out of it.”

Horse people are fond of saying that horses and riding are good for the soul, but in Drewry’s case, her dressage instructor, Marie Taylor, has played a key role in her recovery.

“Marie has been an instructor and a trainer for 60-some years, and before she decided to dedicate her life to dressage, she worked for the US military police as a Department of Defense civilian,” Drewry says. The job taught Taylor about what Drewry calls “the military mindset,” explaining, “When I was looking for an instructor, I needed someone who would ‘get’ that part of me. If you’ve never dealt with the military, we think differently and take a lot of things very literally.”

With her Corolla mustang/ Tennessee Walker/Paint cross, The Ice Man, Drewry began dressage lessons with Taylor at Dabney Mill Equestrian Center in Dinwiddie, Virginia. Both women soon found that their sessions were tapping into issues more profound than circles and half-halts.

“When she started working with me,” Drewry says, “it was as a coach and a mentor, and she understood what PTSD was all about. She was able to connect with me by giving me limitation parameters, as far as my thought process. She knew I could grasp a lot of things at the same time, but she backed that off because you tend to get overloaded and go into combat mode.” She adds that Taylor can even read her body language as she rides, and she helps to ease Drewry off the proverbial ledge if she senses Drewry’s anxiety mounting.

Her dressage lessons are “unique and very rewarding for me,” Drewry says. Taylor “can bring me back to the ‘Zen moment’ and help me breathe and focus on the now. That’s pretty special and has helped me immensely with riding and in life in general….Marie took me from a ‘stress junkie monkey” to ‘life is good and let’s focus on the here and now’ and enjoy the dressage journey of learning new things and applying knowledge, which has nothing to do with anything I did in the US military at all. I feel like I have a safe zone.”

Two years ago, Drewry was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. She continues to ride as she’s able, and when she can’t she goes to the barn and takes unmounted lessons. She also recently underwent a hip replacement and says she plans to do more unmounted dressagetheory work during her rehab. She also enjoys helping riders with their musical freestyles.

THE BEST THERAPY: Marci Drewry and friend. Dressage lessons with a sympathetic instructor help Drewry, an Army veteran, deal with PTSD.

Comeback Story: Cancer

Breast cancer has a genetic component, and some people with a family history of breast cancer undergo genetic testing to learn whether they’ve inherited a gene change that increases their own risk.

Because her mother was diagnosed with ductal breast cancer 25 years ago, FEI-level trainer and competitor Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate, of Landrum, South Carolina, and Wellington, Florida, got the genetic testing and was negative. Tate, 44, has also been getting regular mammograms since she was in her early 30s. So it came as a shock when in July 2021 a routine mammogram revealed that she had developed invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), the second most common form of breast cancer diagnosed in the US.

“You take it for granted that they’re going to call and tell you everything is normal, but I could tell by the tone of [the doctor’s] voice

that it wasn’t,” Tate recalls. “I was teaching a lesson and really went into shock. The first thing I did was make an action plan to bring me out of that place of panic. I couldn’t even believe it because I felt pretty healthy.”

Following Tate’s diagnosis, things proceeded quickly. “The Greenville [South Carolina] Prisma Health System was amazing,” she says. “August 18 I had a double mastectomy. [I had] a 3.7-centimeter tumor, so fairly big. That’s pretty typical; [ILC is] slow-growing but tends to get bigger before you find it. I was Grade 1 Stage IIB, and they got really clean margins, and it was slow-growing and nonaggressive.”

As an elite dressage competitor, Tate understands the attention to detail required to manage her mounts’ health and care. She decided to apply the same rigor to her own recovery.

“I made an action plan: To come back to high performance, what would I have to do? If it were my horse, I would read books, go online, so I became an expert on things I never wanted to know about.”

Tate was on a horse at the walk two weeks post-surgery, still with a drain in. “That’s where I find my joy, my purpose. Lying in bed wasn’t great; I needed to get back in the saddle and stretch my hips out. It was emotional and joyful to be with the horses again. For the first time, you really think about death and don’t feel invincible. Health isn’t something to be taken for granted.”

By week three, Tate rode at the walk for 20 minutes and then tried a little canter, just to make sure she could. But that was about it: “I really put myself on ‘stall rest,’ even though it’s in my nature to do too much.”

As part of Tate’s action plan, she made some radical changes to her health and wellness regimen, explaining, “I felt that I needed to change the environment for something like this to grow.” She swore off sugar, meat, alcohol, and dairy and “went plant-based and started meditating. I’m on a full, encompassing wellness path, which feels totally amazing.”

Tate was able to opt out of chemotherapy and radiation, but “I went really aggressive with the hormones. I get the Lupron shot every three months to medically put me into menopause and suppress hormones because the cancer was hormone-fueled. I also take anastrozole every night in pill form, to help not feed the hormone-fueled cancer type. Every night I bless my pill and meditate into bringing the cancer out of my body.”

Two months out from surgery, Tate made a triumphant return to dressage competition. Aboard Cackie Vroom’s Oldenburg gelding, Derby, she won the 2021 Great American/USDF Region 1 Grand Prix Freestyle championship with a score of almost 75%, and was reserve Grand Prix Open champion the following day.

“That was a really amazing, spiritual experience,” Tate says of that freestyle ride, “because of the love I felt from everybody for my comeback. Even before they rang the bell, people were cheering. Derby didn’t put a foot wrong. We were transcended to a different existence.”

Tate capped her comeback at the US Dressage Finals that November, placing fourth with Derby in the GP Open championship and eighth in the GP Freestyle Open championship.

When USDF Connection caught up with Tate, she was in Florida for the 2022 winter season, as busy as ever competing three FEI horses and running her online Team Tate Academy.

In a way, Tate says, her cancer diagnosis has brought a new richness to her life.

“I’m enjoying every day on a deeper level,” she says, “and feel like every day I have an opportunity to make my life better. It’s really recalibrated my system. I’m in a better mindset, too. Releasing control has been a good exercise for me.”

Tate credits the equestrian ethos and the dressage community with helping her through the tough times.

“Ashley Perkins and Jessica Davis are my assistant riders and really helped with keeping the horses in shape. I couldn’t have bounced back without their help, and I’m really grateful,” she says. “You need grit and resilience, and I think all my experience with horses has helped me come through this with grace and strength.”

Comeback Story: Spinal Injury and a Heart Attack

Dressage wunderkind Todd Flettrich grabbed headlines when he won individual gold and team silver medals at the 1991 FEI North American Young Riders Championships (now NAYC). A protégé of Olympian Jessica Ransehousen, Flettrich went on to coach Mary Alice Malone Jr. and Catherine Malone to their own slew of NAYRC medals in the early 2000s. He reached the international spotlight when he rode Cherry Knoll Farm’s Otto for Team USA at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky. In

2012, Flettrich and Otto qualified as alternates for the London Olympic US dressage team. Now based in Florida, he is the longtime coach of Cherry Knoll Farm owner and Grand Prix-level rider Margaret Duprey, and he also coached champion US para-dressage competitor Rebecca Hart at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.

His star seemed securely on the rise when in 2015 Flettrich, now 52, broke his back in a fall from a young horse. He fractured two vertebrae, and doctors injected a cement-type material to strengthen the weakened area. He says the procedure was nearly as painful as the original injury, but the recovery was quicker than surgery, so he was able to return to riding just six weeks later, after some lingering nerve pain subsided.

“For the first couple of weeks, I was in a body brace,” Flettrich recalls. “I couldn’t get out of bed without help; going to the toilet was a job!” Now, he says, “I have a better understanding of people who have fear in the saddle. I started in the gym and working out in the pool, but my body really hurt. When I started riding [again], I wasn’t afraid, but I was stiff as a board, not flexible, and it was difficult.”

Flettrich was still working to regain his previous level of fitness when in 2017 he suffered another serious health setback. He recounts the sequence of events:

“I’d just come back from Germany, where I’d been riding and showing. We had a horrendous trip home, with bad weather and issues with the paperwork. I flew home with the horses and my groom on Thursday, and that Sunday I had a heart attack. I’d been having cramps, maybe from dehydration, and was a little dizzy and clammy, and had a pain in my arm. I went to the barn and rode six horses anyway, and I was supposed to have a late lunch in West Palm [Beach, Florida]. I called the people I was meeting and asked them to take me to the hospital instead. I was dizzy and clammy, and my stomach was extremely upset. I had no idea it was a heart attack.”

His friends drove Flettrich to the ER, where the results of an EKG and some tests led doctors to believe that he was not experiencing a cardiac event. But blood work revealed that he had, in fact, suffered a heart attack that morning, and needed surgery right away to insert a stent in his artery.

“The reason my stomach was so upset was that it was the artery closest to the stomach,” Flettrich says. “If you’re going to have a heart attack, that’s a good place to have one. It was caused by a buildup of iron in my system: I have hemochromatosis, which is basically a disorder where your body doesn’t get rid of iron. My iron levels were 1350 and should be around 150. I had to do a treatment where they removed blood every week to normalize my iron levels. Now they check my blood regularly. Heart problems run in my family, but nobody had an iron problem. My dad had a heart attack in his sixties due to sleep apnea, and my sister at 37. My grandfather had one in his eighties.”

By the fall of 2017, Flettrich was back to riding, competing, and teaching. He said his experience has made him sympathetic to people with medical setbacks.

“It takes a lot out of you, but you have to get back on and ride again,” he says. “That’s healthy for you. And it makes you appreciate life.”

Dressage may appear tamer as compared to some other equestrian sports, but any equine activity carries a certain amount of risk and puts wear and tear on the rider’s body. Dressage also requires discipline and perseverance, so it’s no surprise that the riders in this story—and countless others like them—have utilized that determination to get them back in the saddle and enjoying life with horses.

STILL TICKING: Successfully recovered from a broken back and a heart attack, 2010 World Equestrian Games Team USA dressage competitor Todd Flettrich rides Dancing Girl B (Dancier x Rubin Royal), owned by Cherry Knoll Farm, at the October 2021 World Equestrian Center Dressage IV show in Ocala, Florida

Amber Heintzberger grew up riding and competing and has traveled the world thanks to horses and equine journalism. She works as a freelance writer, photographer, and author and lives in South Orange, New Jersey, with her family.

Fashion Forward

With the attire rules busted wide open, we wondered what dressage competitors are doing with their newfound freedom. Enjoy this “look book” and get inspired.

BY JENNIFER O. BRYANT PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSANJSTICKLE.COM

STUDY IN CONTRAST: Farao Santana’s striking coat color is set off by rider Bethany Buchanan’s dark palette: jacket with understated bling accents, gloves, and breeches

Dressage competitors have been edging away from the black-and-white “uniform” for some time. Muted hues—think navy blues, hunter greens, and burgundies—have been creeping onto the scene, sometimes with boots and helmets to match. But until US Equestrian overhauled the attire rule for national-level competition (“Collection,” January/February), there was no getting away from the light-colored breeches and the limited color choices.

The new rule (USEF DR 120) isn’t entirely “anything goes,” but the options are now a whole lot broader— permitted colors, certain patterns in jackets, and even breeches, which are now OK in almost any color not deemed “bright.” Competitors have been clamoring for a less-restrictive attire rule for years, so naturally we wondered whether there’s been a retail stampede to overhaul those show-clothes wardrobes.

The answer thus far appears to be: Not entirely. Judging by what went down center line in Florida this past winter season, the majority of riders appear to be sticking with their perfectly good existing show attire, white breeches and all, at least for now. We suspect that may change over time, as items wear out and trends and technologies evolve. But the lens of well-known dressage photographer Sue Stickle still managed to capture a number of fashion-forward competitors who are embracing the new leeway and creating a show-ring look that’s distinctly individual. Here are some of the combinations that caught our eye. Enjoy this “look book,” and use it to jump-start ideas about your own show-ring presentation, this season or down the road. [

MANY COLORS OF COATS: Rebecca Lord changes up her look on Demetrius, going from a magenta shadbelly with black collar and points to a mid-toned green with navy collar accented with metallic braid. She complements each look with matching accents: for the magenta coat, a black helmet, magenta-and-white stock tie, and maroon croco-leather boot tops and piping; and for the green coat, a navy helmet, navy-and-white stock tie, and green croco-leather boot tops and piping.

SHADES OF GRAY: Amina Bursese on C Discreto keeps it fairly traditional, but her flattering gray shadbelly and her horse’s matching gray fly bonnet still stand out from the black and navy majority. COLOR CONTRAST: Melanie Cerny goes head-to-toe navy with helmet, jacket, breeches, and boots, while mount Scaramouche sports a matching cranberry saddle pad and fly bonnet. The rider’s boots tie the look together with their cordovan tops and navy shafts of textured leather.

STANDOUT: Jana Reich on Florida DN tops an otherwise classic ensemble with a striking teal short jacket with burnt-orange collar, piping, buttons, and lining. B&W WITH A DIFFERENCE: Deann Hammer on Jota inverts the traditional black-on-top, white-on-the-bottom dressage silhouette with a jackets-waived outfit of white shirt and black breeches. Silver accents on her helmet, belt, and boot tops elevate the presentation from “everyday schooling” to show-ring special.

POP OF COLORS: Another teal jacket, but the effect is quite different with this horse’s palomino coat color. Maya Ilada rides Golden Surprise. Maya’s jacket features white piping and collar trim, and large “bling” buttons. She pairs the look with an understated black helmet and black boots with croco-print tops and a row of bling.

The Ultimate Rider Award

Meet a few of the riders who have earned USDF’s new Diamond Achievement Recognition

BY AMY SWERDLIN

Rider awards—the bronze, silver, and gold medals and freestyle bars—are USDF’s most popular awards and among its best known. In 2021 alone, 1,045 medals and bars were awarded—the highest number ever in a single competition year.

The rider medals are the oldest awards program in USDF history, with the first ones distributed in 1974, just one year after the organization’s founding. Reflecting the growing popularity of dressage freestyle, freestyle bars were added to the awards roster in 2002. Both rider medals and freestyle bars recognize achievement “through the levels” (see the 2022 USDF Member Guide or visit usdf.org for details, rules, and requirements).

Two keys to these awards’ popularity and longevity: Scores earned never expire, and a competitor can earn scores aboard multiple horses. Many riders take pride in earning multiple medals and freestyle bars over the years, and some competitors have amassed the entire set of six medals and bars.

To honor those riders who have earned their bronze, silver, and gold rider medals and their bronze, silver, and gold freestyle bars, the USDF Awards Committee created the Diamond Achievement Recognition. At the end of the 2021 competition year, the inaugural group of 67 riders was recognized for this achievement.

Let’s meet a few members of the first crop of Diamond Achievement Recognition recipients and learn about their journeys to this crowning USDF rider award.

Goals and Aspirations

“For me, the medals were benchmarks,” says adult-amateur competitor Johnny Robb, of Wellington, Florida, a USDF member since 1992 and owner of the equestrianfocused marketing and PR firm JRPR. “Having the medal goals helps riders gauge their journey.”

“What’s special about the medals journey,” Robb adds, “is that you are in it with so many others. To this day, I enjoy hearing that someone got their final score for their medal.”

Some competitors find the rider medals a moreattainable goal because “you do not have a time limit on the achievement, and you can ride any horse,” Robb says. “As amateurs, most of us have careers, families, and other things in our lives that may stall the journey, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come back to it. In addition, if a horse gets hurt, you can pursue the medal and freestyle-bar goal on an alternate horse, or wait until your horse is well to continue your quest.”

Among the first riders to be awarded all the medals and bars needed for the Diamond Achievement Recognition is Heather Mason. The dressage pro from Lebanon, New Jersey, had earned all of the necessary scores by the early 1990s, long before the freestyle bars were even created. Although she estimates that she’s re-earned all of the scores aboard the 14 horses that she’s trained to the Grand Prix level (including Lincoln RTF, with whom she won the Intermediate II Open and Grand Prix Open championships at the 2021 USDF Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®), her first medals partner was Limerick, a Polish Trakehner mare purchased for her as a two-and-a-half-year-old by her parents when she was just 13.

“I started competing Limerick as a four-year-old and had the Grand Prix and freestyle scores completed when she was 12,” Mason recalls. “Limerick was a real ‘chestnut mare.’ She taught me patience and perseverance. At most levels with her, I was struggling to just break 55%! At first, she was very tense and unpredictable at the shows. Achieving a 60% was always a big deal.”

CELEBRATION RIDE: Johnny Robb aboard her Zerbino Interagro after receiving her USDF gold medal

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

Diamond Achievement Recognition recipient Olivia Chapeski had to climb mountains—literally—to achieve her dressage goals.

Chapeski’s home base of Missoula, Montana, is surrounded by five mountain ranges, and “the primary obstacle was, and still is, traveling long distances to shows,” she says. In recent years, the closest USEFlicensed/USDF-recognized dressage competition has been 130 miles away, but usually Chapeski has to traverse at least two states, two mountain passes, and about 200 miles to reach a show grounds. [

FIRST OF MANY: The first time Heather Mason cantered down center line for the Grand Prix was aboard her Polish Trakehner mare, Limerick. They’re pictured at the FEI North American Young Riders Championships (now NAYC) in 1988.

TREASURED PARTNER: Olivia Chapeski and her first Grand Prix horse, Joust, in 2008. It was aboard Joust that she earned the scores for her silver and gold medals.

“The show season in Montana is awfully short, and the shows that aren’t ten hours away are limited,” Chapeski says. “You’ve got to make the hay while the sun shines.”

Chapeski viewed earning her USDF rider medals and freestyle bars as “icing on the cake” and realized that the process couldn’t be rushed.

“Given the scope of it all, it seemed like something that couldn’t be accomplished with anything but patience and time,” she says. It ended up taking her 15 years and four horses to complete the Diamond Achievement, beginning with a Quarter Horse mare, Blac Harmonee, and finishing with an Azteca gelding, Indro, that she still owns and rides today.

“The only real disappointment” in Chapeski’s medal and bar quest, she says, “was not being able to finish my gold bar on my first Grand Prix horse, Joust, who earned me my silver and gold medals. I recently lost him at the grand old age of 30, and one of the many things I thanked him for was helping me earn those medals. I only managed to get one of my gold-bar scores with him. He was never quite competitive enough to get that 65 percent, though not for lack of trying. So despite earning my first gold-bar score in 2004, it wasn’t until 2017, when the next Grand Prix horse was into his second year at the level, that I finished getting all the scores. It was a long wait!”

It Takes a Village

For some riders, the list of horses that helped them earn their medals and bars traces the arc of their dressage careers from youth to the open ranks.

Reese Koffler (now KofflerStanfield), of Georgetown, Kentucky, was just 15 when she earned her USDF bronze medal aboard “my childhood horse, Vivat. My silver medal I earned during my youngrider career with my schoolmaster, Leraar, and with Joery, who was the first horse I trained to Grand Prix.

“Earning my gold medal was extremely special,” she continues. “I had lost a young horse, and I felt that my career was over until my friend Jennifer Conour let me ride her wonderful horse, Fascination. He showed me that I could be an FEI rider, and that was a turning point in my career,” says KofflerStanfield, who is now a USDF-certified instructor/trainer through the FEI levels and a successful FEI-level competitor.

Many supporters may play a role in helping riders to reach their goals. Another who contributed to KofflerStanfield’s success is her “amazing client, Pam McKee, who allowed me

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK: Reese Koffler-Stanfield riding Marques WEC, her partner for the USDF bronze freestyle bar; and horse owner Pam McKee

to ride her horse, Marques WEC, to my First and Second Level scores” for the bronze freestyle bar. “She embraced my goal, and we worked together on those freestyles. It was lots of fun for both of us.”

“When I started riding, the rider medals were my ultimate goal,” Koffler-Stanfield says. “The Diamond Achievement Recognition truly illustrates my entire career as a rider.”

In Johnny Robb’s case, it took a coach who was willing to let her take risks, a bit of a push from a legendary dressage master, and a little sport psychology to get her to the finish line.

Robb had earned her bronze and silver medals by 1999 and her bronze and silver freestyle bars by 2004. She knew that “going for the gold was the biggest hump” and quips: “I asked myself: Will I live long enough to get this done?”

Robb’s horse Zerbino Interagro had competed at Intermediate level and “had a lovely piaffe and passage,” she says, but “I never felt ready to do the Grand Prix with him, especially without confirmed one-tempis.” But in a lesson, the late German-born master Walter Zettl “told me to start showing in the Grand Prix. He told me that neither I nor my horse would be getting any younger, and the time was now! ‘You have enough of the Grand Prix movements with this lovely horse, dear. Don’t worry; you will learn more in the ring,” Robb recalls Zettl saying.

Spurred by Zettl’s encouragement, “I came home and announced to my trainer, John Zopatti, that I would now be entering the Grand Prix and going for my gold medal. He looked shocked and joked that we weren’t doing my first Grand Prix in Wellington!” Robb says. After earning an eligible score, “my goal of a gold medal was so close, I knew what I had to do next. I visited my go-to hypnosis performance coach, Laura King. In a single session, she helped me realize and overcome my block. Two weeks later, I laid down my first perfect sequence of 15 onetempis ever in the show ring.”

Chapeski also has supporters to thank. One is Washington state-based trainer Kari McClain, Chapeski’s instructor for 30 years.

“Kari has been coming to clinic at our barn on a regular basis since I was eight,” Chapeski says, “and she ultimately was the force who gave me the knowledge and resources to pursue everything dressage-related in my career.” Chapeski is also grateful for her father, fellow USDF bronze, silver, and gold medalist Robert Chapeski, “who schlepped me around to shows for so many years.”

Class of 2021 Diamond Achievement Recognition recipients, we salute you! For more information about this new USDF awards program, see “Diamond Achievement Recognition Fast Facts” above.

Diamond Achievement Recognition Fast Facts

USDF Diamond Achievement Recognition celebrates the achievements of those dressage competitors who have been awarded their USDF bronze, silver, and gold rider medals and their USDF bronze, silver, and gold freestyle bars.

USDF tracks this accomplishment, so there’s no paperwork required! If you are eligible, you will receive an e-mail notifying you of your status at the conclusion of the competition year. There is no cost to receive Diamond Achievement Recognition.

Diamond Achievement Recognition consists of a certificate of achievement, a letter of recognition, a special lapel pin, listing in the yearbook issue of USDF Connection and on the USDF website, the rider’s name engraved on a plaque that is housed at the USDF National Education Center, and an icon on the rider’s dashboard on the USDF website.

To learn more about this and other USDF awards programs, including rider medals and freestyle bars, see the USDF website or the current USDF Member Guide.

USDF Awards Committee chair and avid adult-amateur competitor Amy Swerdlin is a USDF bronze, silver, and gold medalist and a USEF “r” dressage judge. She is part-owner and manager of the 320-stall Palm Beach Equine Sport Complex in Wellington, Florida.