Heath Ryan and Emily Bates - excited about
the new Innova Dressage Saddle
The Young Dressage Horse concept was the 'brain child' of the man who is considered by many to be the 'best' rider ever, Germany's Dr Reiner Klimke. I would not care to enter that debate, but he certainly made a very significant impact on equestrian sports in his successful career, which spanned over 3 decades and took in several Olympic disciplines.
Dr. Klimke recognised that the huge Geman industry (where Dressage horses are bred and prepared for sale) needed a more immediate focus than just the bloodlines and number of FEI champions in a pedigree.
'Young Horse Dressage' has created a system of recognition which focusses on the inherent potential and basic training, rather than relying on 'how many Grand Prix horses the stallion has produced. Traditionally the breeders had to wait a long time to prove the worth of their breeding stock and when a stallion's pogeny reached the top, he was more often than not retired or dead.
Young Horse competitions have been a way to involve breeders in the sport and many studs are encouraged to keep good young prospects and put them in the hands of capable professional riders to showcase their bloodlines. In Australia our sport has definately progressed damatically since1998 when we thrilled at the innovation and spectacle of the inaugural AEA Dressage With the Stars, with Anky van Grunsven as the guest riding judge. This competition set a new standard to the quality of events in Australia and a similar highly professional format has been adopted for most of our major events like the National Championships and CDI's.
I feel that Young Horse classes have had a subtle yet profound effect on our overall impovement. By providing a ' benchmark' at measured intervals in the early days of training and having our best riders prepare and present their best young horses we can all see just how horses need to go when they are 4, 5 and 6 if they are considered to be on track for the ultimate goal of reaching Grand Prix!
8 plus years ago, people would compete their 6 and 7 year old horses and be quite pleased with a reasonable Novice perfomance ... on the basis that the horse was 'young and inexpeienced'. We now know that if they fall behind the requirements that are set down for each age group, then they must make up ground somewhere, or there is a serious possibility that the horse will not make it though to the upper levels of competition.
This adjustment to our thinking is the reason that the visiting judges no longer tell us that our basic training is weak and that we have a long way to go! The good riders have taken the Euopean system to heart and they have implemented correct and structured training of the basic work - which is at the heart of success in Young Horse classes and progress which leads to success futher on.
The young horses are assessed in three rounds and the judges sit together noting the movement, supplemess, general impression, training and the future potential as a Dressage horse. They will jointly decide on a mark out of 10 (with decimal points) for the various componants of the test. The mark will be expressed at say 8.57.
The top 10 horses from round one go through to round two where the test is more difficult and they will be assessed by a different judging panel. The marks from each round are added together and the top three horses go through to the final - which is usually a feature event of the show.
The round 3 horses are ridden by their regular rider and then the 'guest riding judge' takes over.
At this event, the riding judge was 3 times Australian Olympian Mary Hanna and her insights were intresting and very educational. She looked for a horse that was 'trainable' and commented on several occasions about the way the horses responded to her aids.
Mary carefully considered things like the 'feel' and whether the horse was prepared to take a 'nice' contact and whether it was even in both reins and supple to both sides. She asked all of the horses she rode to perfom the key elements of the test that they did for their test, leg yield, halts and other transitions. She was keen to see how well trained and obedient they were - she did not ask too much, but they had to do something!
"Movement is not everything, 50% is the trainability! You have to be able to ride and train the horse in order to make pogress!"
The eventual winner of the 4 YO class (TS Schyborne) finished in 5th position after round 1. He showed himself to be a delightfully willing horse to ride and train. He accepted his big adventure in a calm and tusting manner and Mary commented on his apitude for training, in the interesting appaisal following her ride.
I was not able to get to the second round but have covered all of the horses in Round 1 and the final.
The judging panels were as follows:
1st Round 4 YO First Round
Jill Cobcroft (NSW), Trisha Sellers (QLD)
2nd Round 4 YO
Gisela Nilsson-Harding (NSW), Rachel Hunter (NSW)
1st Round 5 YO First Round
Maria Schwennesen (QLD), Pip Longworth
2nd Round 5 YO
Jill Cobcroft (NSW), Trisha Sellers (QLD)
1st Round YO First Round
Maria Schwennesen (QLD), Pip Longworth
2nd Round 6YO
Maria Schwennesen (QLD), Pip Longworth
1st Round 4 YO First Round
Jill Cobcroft (NSW), Trisha Sellers (QLD)
2nd Round 4 YO
Gisela Nilsson-Harding (NSW), Rachel Hunter (NSW)
1st Round 5 YO First Round
Maria Schwennesen (QLD), Pip Longworth
2nd Round 5 YO
Jill Cobcroft (NSW), Trisha Sellers (QLD)
1st Round YO First Round
Maria Schwennesen (QLD), Pip Longworth
2nd Round 6YO
Maria Schwennesen (QLD), Pip Longworth
Round 3 - Mary Hanna
6 YO Winner - Northern Simba
5 YO Winner - Donner Carina
4 YO Winner - Trackstein Schyborne
