REPORT28 - 29 October 2013

Hooge Mierde - the Netherlands - www.globaldressageforum.com

Global Dressage Foundationproudly presents

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Opening Page 4

Welcome – HRH Pirincess BenediktePage 4

FEI update – Trond AsmyrPage 6

Mental aspetcs of dressage - Jan DierensPage 11

Training of the horse upto Grand Prix – Isabell WerthPage 15

New system for judging Freestyle to Music – Katrina WüstPage 19

Preview of the World Equestrian Games - Laurent CellierPage 24

Interview & demonstration – Isabell WerthPage 25

Emerging Equine Diseases – Marianne SloetPage 32

From foal to Grand Prix – Wim Ernes, Tim Coomans, Nico Witte, Joop van UytertPage 36

Understanding Prix St George judging and helping the Prix St George rider – David Stickland

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Helping talents to help themselves – Kyra Kyrklund, Liane Wachtmeister, Jan BrinkPage 46

Press releases international magazines

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OPENING

Before the start of the Forum, there was a brief ceremony to open the new permanent extension to Academy Bartels and the new arena. Princess Benedikte of Denmark, the President of the Global Dressage Foundation, started the inaugural proceedings followed by Brigitte van Haeften, the Deputee of North Brabant, who also holds the Portfolio for Sport in the region, responsible for some of the investment in the new facilities. Over 50,000 people ride in North Brabant and there are lots of Olympians within the region, notably Anky van Grunsven and the Bartels. The Governor thanked the Bartels for their tremendous commitment to the sport and also to all those who make each year’s Forum possible.

Then, amazingly, the frame of the commemorative plaque was surrounded fizzing fireworks and the building was declared to be ‘open’!

WELCOME Sit back and enjoy

In the beautifully decorated riding hall, the usual welcome was extended to all delegates by the Forum’s regular Moderator, Richard Davison, who introduced the President of the Global Dressage Foundation, HRH Princess Benedikte. This Forum is the 13th annual gathering of top riders, trainers, judges and other interested parties (375 in total) from 24 countries, held by kind permission of the Academy Bartels, and with heartfelt thanks to the board and program committee of the Global Dressage Foundation and all the partners and sponsors.

The Forum is supported by the International Dressage Trainers Club; the Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation; the International Dressage Riders Club, the FEI, the International Society for Equitation Sciences, the Province of North Brabant, Mrs L Sonnenberg (Switzerland), Mrs K Kuistila (Finland), Tschuggen Hotel Group (Switzerland), Blue Hors Stud (Denmark), Mr & Mrs Bartels (Netherlands), Mrs A K

HRH Princess Benedikte of Denmark

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Linsenhoff (Germany), Toosbuy Foundation (Denmark) Mrs A Lefler (Russia), and the Altez Group[ (Belgium).

Delegates are offered a fascinating and diverse programme over two days, together with the hospitality and amazing catering we have come to expect and, for those new to the Forum, a very pleasant surprise awaits! Regular Forum presenters such as Kyra Kyrklund, Katrina Wüst, David Stickland and others will be introduced, and, after several years of hoping, the Forum will finally welcome Isabell Werth. As moderator Richard Davison says: Dressage is close to all our hearts – sit back and enjoy.

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FEI UPDATETrond Asmyr, FEI Director of Dressage

This is my annual pleasurable experience to present FEI’s new plans and rules to you all at this Forum – I also receive much feedback to take back to the FEI; it is always good to get all the differing viewpoints and opinions.

The action plan for 2014 includes three main points; first, rule changes and amendments; secondly, the development of the Freestyle will be presented later on but it gets closer and closer to what riders, trainers and judges need in terms of clear criteria and, thirdly, the criteria for Rio 2016 – the first and last of these three items will be proposed to the FEI General Assembly for approval in November this year.

Rule changes with regard to judgingWe are continually looking at ways to improve the quality of judging. E-learning and the process by which we can utilise this tool is at the forefront of current thinking.It has the potential to reach judges in countries that struggle to attend judge training in person, reduce costs and give more meaningful education to keep the standards up and also level throughout judging worldwide.

Judges are the last amateurs, effectively volunteers who give up massive amounts of their time and expertise for minimal expenses. The FEI is looking into more appropriate per diem reimbursement for judges which takes account of their commitment.

The rule regarding the limit of rotation of judges over a three year period has been found to be impractical – organisers have found it very difficult to administer as the pool of judges is quite small and so this rule has been rescinded.

London 2012 delivered a much higher potential for our sport than we could have envisaged or gained in any other way; it showed how fantastic our sport can be, which was undoubtedly an eye opener for the media and the public. Judging is, therefore, a very important issue and we must look at any and all ways to reduce the subjectivity and increase, even more, the transparency and clarity for the sport and

Trond Asmyr

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for public perception. Of course, we must not lose sight of the classic principles of training and riding but we can’t, and must not, have a sport only for insiders.

At the Sports Forum in April 2013, there was debate about a level between small and big tour which would facilitate the jump between the two levels. Two new tests have been developed, Inter A and Inter B; we don’t like the names but hope to find better ones in due course! The introduction of these tests would obviously mean that more people and their horses could have the possibility of competing and it would be a good stepping stone for young riders as well. There will be some piaffe and passage, but less than in Inter II and Grand Prix and also placed in easier settings.

Amateur classes, such as they already have in show jumping, are another route to encourage inclusivity at the higher levels and pilot classes will be introduced in 2014.

An extensive conference call was set up for organisers this year to talk about putting on Nations Cup classes in 2014; it may be that the NC will be held outside Europe in future, perhaps in the US, to be more inclusive of countries outside Europe.

The FEI scene has not been much concerned with competitions for children, whether on ponies or horses, but this is changing – there are already rules in place and there has been an application for a children’s European in 2014 and this will be looked at closely. Parents, trainers, riders and organisers are all in favour of such competitions.

The Olympic Games in Rio 2016The rider quota is now reinstated at 60. So teams of 4 are, once again, possible but the number of teams has been reduced to 10 (from 11). Brazil, the host country, automatically qualifies for one team place but if this is not taken up, then that slot reverts to a successful team from the Pan Am Games, making up to two the places reserved for Groups D & E (the Americas).

Groups F & G (Africa, the Middle East, SEA, Oceania) can submit one team from WEG 2014 and another from a further qualifying event.

There is less focus on the ranking list as it became apparent that this was a problem; so the two best individuals each from EU-CH, the PanAm Games and the qualifying event mentioned above for F & G will qualify.

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More rule changesRule changes regarding participation in all phases of the competition, including the Freestyle, protect the riders, the organisers and the media – a valid reason must be presented for missing the freestyle. The minimum percentage has been increased from 58% to 60%.

Fly hoods must be worn only to protect from insects and not from noise.

The warm-up arena/s setup must be as close as possible to the competition arenas so that problems are not caused by a change in surface. Also, stewards need to be able to see all warm-ups for all classes at all shows.

Elimination due to fresh blood seen during the test by the judge at C is immediate; fresh blood in the mouth or on spur sites seen by stewards at the end of the test is reported to the judge at C and elimination follows; if there is some blood elsewhere on the horse seen by stewards after the event, this will be subject to a vet check to decide if the horse is fit to continue in the competition.

Everything just mentioned is now covered by the rule book. Equally, the rules regarding deadlines for entries and substitutions are clarified in the rules – Chefs d’Equipe want the deadlines as late as possible, organisers want them as early as possible – balance, again, is the key. There have been tough discussions and the rules are now clear.

Prize money – if above € 24,000 then the competition is automatically a 4*; if above € 90,000, it is automatically a 5*.

WelfareThis is not number four in terms of importance, in fact it is at the top of the list. We are always looking into small changes to keep welfare at the forefront of everything we do – prize givings and drug checks are two of our current preoccupations.

When I started my job, the issues of rollkur and blue tongue were very prominent. They are still very much on the agenda and there is more to do as the public image of the sport is so important, especially in these days of social media with instant images that can be sent globally at the touch of a button.

At the Europeans at Herning earlier this year, we met with riders before the first warm-up to make sure that rules and stewarding were in place, and well understood,

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and to reiterate that riders and trainers have an independent responsibility for themselves and the sport – being caught on camera is a reality so all must be aware of what goes on, when and where.

Most months bring new equipment to be evaluated, assessed and approved – or not. The balance between welfare, classic principles and up-to-date thinking can be a delicate one due to the widely differing views – from an extreme ‘anything goes’ to the view that horses shouldn’t be ridden as it is not what nature intended.

The best one can do is to keep it simple but also listen to the market.

The international calendar becomes more and more full and clashes of dates are inevitable – it is good that there are so many competitions but, as ever, balance is required. There are now too many shows to protect every show and there are some rules in place to keep the clashes to a minimum – it’s difficult to accommodate everyone.

Prize givings – attendance is compulsory and all involved should ensure responsible behaviour as horses can become very excitable; exceptions are only allowed by consultation with the President of the Ground Jury, the TD, or the judge at C.

In total, there are 128 pages of rule changes, available on request!

FreestyleThis element of the competition was started in1986 and Joep Bartels was instrumental in the introduction of the FEI Dressage World Cup series. Initially, it was viewed with suspicion and more than one top rider swore never to have anything to do with it! It became part of the competition at WEG at the Hague in 1994 and then part of the Olympic competition in Atlanta,1996. These days we can’t image Olympic dressage without it and it is a very big ‘selling’ point for interest in dressage for spectators, the media and broadcasters.

Objectivity in the freestyle, on the artistic side, is probably the biggest issue – it is a difficult format for judges and any changes must not impact unduly on making the judging more complicated or time consuming. There was a test event in Warendorf in 2013 which had great support and various methods of judging the freestyle were tried out. The results are still being evaluated and it is yet to be decided what will be implemented, with especial regard for making the degree of difficulty easier to mark. It will be good to see what comes out of all this in 2014 and I look forward to the

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presentation later on this subject.

DiscussionOutstanding progress from the FEI, the freestyle day was very useful, if things continue in this vein then that can only be good for the sport.

It was felt that countries in the Americas were being dealt the short straw with regard to team qualification – no other region has been affected this negatively by the rules and continental qualifications have never been brought into this equation before and it is a big problem, especially for North Americans.

FEI – the discussions are ongoing with regard to team qualification – what has been done in the past should not necessarily be a pattern for the future; the FEI thinks that the current situation is fair; the Americas still have two team slots, one for Brazil of course but if they can’t manage a team, then the slot would revert to Pan Am results.

It was pointed out that the Pan Am Games only go to PSG level.

FEI – the Pan Am Games in Toronto in 2015 will be a mix of small and big tour and, in the future classes up to the full Grand Prix will be introduced.

It can only be good to have tests in between small and big tour for riders coming through the grades.

FEI – In Trond’s personal opinion, he doesn’t like the Inter II test and thinks it could be removed without a problem; there are better tests.

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MENTAL ASPECTS OF DRESSAGEJan Dierens

Jan is Belgian, a European Master in Sport & Exercise Psychology; he specialises in sports psychology at Amsterdam University and, since 2012, is the official Belgian dressage team psychologist. His sporting interests include football, swimming, athletics, ten pin bowling, gymnastics and, of course, dressage. He works with able bodied and para athletes across various sports; he uses psycho-diagnostic assessments to make mental profiles of top sportsmen and women; he also specialises in trauma treatments.

To cover this subject in a 30 minute presentation is a challenge but one to relish as it presents the opportunity to talk about the subject with passion as it is such a valuable tool for athletes. It is important to have practical applications to add to the academic and educational processes so that it becomes relevant to athletes’ everyday life.

What is sports psychology? It’s the scientific study of people in sport. In one simple sentence, it is using the mind to improve outcomes; it’s the ability to perform at your best without being influenced by anything outside.

In this semi-agricultural environment, it seems easy to illustrate this subject as planting seeds to trigger interest and ways of thinking, like watching seedling plants grow to maturity; sports psychology gives the seeds sunshine and rain so they can grow.

Mental dexterity is something to be learnt – the audience was given an exercise to hold up one hand with four fingers and the other with two; then change hands, change back, keep the synchronicity going. One becomes totally consumed by the task in the moment, concentrating on the performance in the here and now.Systematic training makes a habit rather than an act; training keeps the habit fresh. Top performances need physique, technique, mental strength, tactics – all these need training and all need to be equally developed. Motivation and discipline are central to performance and, in general, training shouldn’t be problem orientated – specifics

Jan Dierens

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can be included but shouldn’t point the way.

The process to get to the ideal performance state (IPS) with everything in place requires motivation and discipline; the work and conditions need to be dealt with well before a performance to enhance the chance of getting into this state – it doesn’t happen overnight or without commitment. Trying to concentrate, relax, and focus doesn’t work in the conscious state; it needs to be a habitual process that becomes automatic.

The IPS is achieved with commitment, belief and devotion, allied to individual characteristics and experience which lead to improved self-knowledge which, in turn, facilitate the learning of positive mental skills, personal control and application, all of which processes feed into IPS.

Many riders, not only amateurs, find that adverse physical symptoms of anxiety – muscles tension, increased heart and respiratory rates, often influence and interfere with successful competition (and the list of complaints and/or reasons why test performances are below par can be lengthy). Professionals who use sports psychology to their advantage welcome such symptoms and interpret them to facilitate performance as ‘ready to compete’.

Mental skills training enhances self-confidence and teaches coping skills and resources. Imagery and relaxation – breathing techniques and body scanning to improve awareness of tension and relaxation in muscles – can be carried out on or off a horse so that these resources are available to the rider whenever and wherever they are needed. This can be during the warmup and/or after it and just before going into the arena so that, in the test, the only thing that matters is to stay in the here and now.

Each member of the audience was supplied with a balloon, which they blew up and knotted; then the idea was to sit on the balloon very gently, focussing on scanning muscle tension from head to foot (the body scan) and consciously releasing tension – lots of balloons popped but the point was to carry on the scan and find out, and relax, any tension. Relaxation through laughing is certainly one way to get rid of tension!

The next audience participation exercise was to take the supplied bolt on a thread with the writing hand, between index finger and thumb, with the elbow close to the body for stability, and concentrate on the bolt without doing anything consciously

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but listening to Jan’s voice. First the bolt should move left and right like a pendulum with no conscious impulses from the body and then into clockwise circles, both possible by just focussing and using imagination or visualisation.

Imagery is stronger than will power; for instance, the minute someone says ‘don’t think about a pink elephant’, the brain immediately comes up with the image of a pink elephant! Similarly, saying ‘don’t bite on a lemon slice’ immediately makes saliva run in the mouth! The brain translates the images of the mind into action and fires up the appropriate muscles – the brain doesn’t know the difference between the mind images and reality.

This can become such a strong mental skill for riders in conjunction with technique; the two are much stronger than technique alone.

Think about an activity that makes you feel rested and relaxed – a situation where these qualities are to the fore. What you would see, feel, hear, smell – using all your senses – becomes another coping strategy as your body goes into a calmer state, with lower heart and respiratory rates. Repeating such an exercise until it is automatic means that it can be retrieved when necessary to quieten anxiety and put the body into IPS.

The audience was shown footage of two athletes, a high speed skater imagining a 500m sprint, and a pommel specialist visualising his routine. They were ‘in the moment’, with tension and anticipation turning into as real and vivid a situation as they could envisage. They were installing a memory, training systematically and continuously via imagery, in addition to their physical training.

If training stops, whether physical or mental, improvement and performance deteriorate – it is a continuous process. Imagery is beneficial even when an athlete isn’t, or can’t, train physically for some reason.

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Q & AAre there possibilities for combining these techniques on the horse?

Of course, body position, tension and relaxation, together with focus, will transmit to the horse and can be beneficial for both; if the rider is comfortable, and relaxed, this will be picked up by the horse.

The rider’s state impacts on the horse.

Bodily tension, if too low, will produce a lower level performance, and the reverse is also true; optimal performance happens when there is a good balance; each rider is different and also there will be differences within each sport; each athlete needs to find his or her own balance.

What might have been the reason for four of the best riders in the world going wrong in their final tests at Herning?

Momentarily lost their focus, perhaps, too consciously thinking about what is coming next, hearing that others had gone wrong?

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TRAINING OF THE HORSE UP TO GRAND PRIxIsabell Werth, Beatrice Buchwald, Niklaas Feilzer and José Antonio Garcia Mena

Isabell, at the age, of 44, is one of dressage’s ‘legends’ but very much a living one and still with lots of ambition and competitive spirit. She ‘only’ has five gold medals and is looking towards a sixth with pleasure.

Submission is not Isabell’s favourite word – she thinks that horses need, at the start of their careers, to be allowed to look around, to be ‘naughty’, to have their own character and opinions so that they develop self-confidence – she prefers ‘control’.

She likes three good gaits, rather than one spectacular one, then ride ability, flexibility and elasticity; she starts with these and, as they get better, the bigger things also improve. It takes time for horses to get used to different environments and atmospheres and the first horse into the arena – Sorento, Sandro Bedo x Florestan I, with Niklaas Feilzer, a six year old gelding, owned by Madeleine Winter-Schultze, had only been to one show and so no-one was sure how he would deal with the new experience, although the partnership has been together for a while.

The first lot of droppings can be done at halt - after that, the horse must keep moving! Some tension meant that the horse was holding himself in the body and Niklaas needed to find a way to open up the body and back more, by using flexion, and going on and back within the pace, without too much speed.

Sorento’s attitude was good, with a quiet mouth, so his rider needed to flex him more with the inside rein and then be soft. Lots of transitions improved the self-carriage in trot and canter, with shoulder-in and then half-passes. In the canter, transitions on and back, prepared Sorento for pirouette work; lower in front made the rhythm and balance easier to maintain, so that the pirouette canter could be developed, together with some single changes – the horse needed to jump into the rein with a positive contact from the rider who should always be seeking a secure connection forwards, keeping the neck steady, with the horse always working from behind to the rein.

To bring on the trot, again using transitions and thinking about a very small passage

Isabell Werth

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when the horse is brought back and then sent on again to keep the forward thinking and to keep the horse in front of the rider’s leg.

Isabell had had trouble with El Santo in the piaffe and thought it would be good to explore some new ideas and find some outside help. Her groom was friends with José Antonio Garcia Mena, from Spain; the two were introduced and have worked together now for two years. Jose works from the ground and starts the young horses in walk whereas Isabell always used to use trot; he walks next to the horse so that horse, rider and trainer become relaxed and confident with each other, while he accustoms the horse to the whip he is holding to find the best reaction to a light touch, in conjunction with a calm, quiet voice, clicking or praising as appropriate. The work is done on both reins and just a couple of steps, with a calm reaction, are all that he expects initially.

It’s important that the horse keeps thinking forwards and offers a reaction; it’s not about showing piaffe but finding a way for the horse to stay in balance, flexed to the inside, and collecting himself from behind to the rein, staying in front of the rider’s leg. The rider is very much part of the process so that the horse continues to show the correct reaction away from the trainer on the ground but remains calm and confident.

Isabell enjoys seeing the team grow in confidence and improvement and the build up of young horses and riders. Sorento finished his work with a few rounds of stretching trot to show that he had fun with the work, relaxed and calm with not tension, which is so important for the future.

Beatrice Buchwald brought Weihegold OLD, an 8 year old mare by Don Schufro x Sandro Hit, into the arena. This mare, owned by Christine Arms-Krogmann, has been in Isabell’s stable for about a year and she is going in a good way towards Grand Prix, with basically three correct gaits. The rider is not experienced at the level and this does cause twice the difficulty in achieving the end result of forming both horse and rider to Grand Prix level.

Beatrice Buchwald & Jose Garcia Mena

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The first look at the mare in trot reveals, as Isabell commented, that she needs to have less stomach and more muscles on top and it’s important to have a vision of how she will look in two years’ time with the correct training. Isabell is looking for an elegant picture, so improving the neck and the connection with flexion and a consistent rhythm, will allow the rider to sit quietly and let the mare work without interference. Shoulder-in is an important part of this.

Using pirouette canter, it’s better to think big and correct rather than too small, with the neck not too high, keeping the jump and the canter quality, controlling the steps – when this is all in place it’s easy to make the pirouette smaller.

Cantering on and back, making the mare supple, with a good reaction to the aids and keeping the jump, with the same canter before and after the pirouette and also before and after the changes. The quality of the canter must be maintained. The rider’s leg aids need to be clear so that the horse is kept awake and energetic then the horse should seek the contact forwards with a longer neck.

It doesn’t matter if the horse comes against the rein from time to time; it’s more important to keep her coming from behind and reacting to the aids; stretching within the paces and keeping the reins lower and allowing the longer neck so that the mare again seeks the connection which will, eventually, become secure.

Jose has worked with Weihegold for a while and she has more experience and training than Sorento; she is easy, very sensitive, with a lot of quality, and she’s comfortable with collection. It’s important to keep the control while she stays forward to the contact without becoming closed in front. Confidence is everything and she needs to work without tension when Jose is close to her, with a few shoulder-in steps into piaffe and out again; just a few steps at first, and maintaining the control so that the neck can be up, down, open, closed, whatever is required, without tension.

The problem with a mare of this calibre is not the piaffe, it’s the control of the contact and the tension; Jose doesn’t touch her with the whip, he just points it as she very well knows what to do – in fact, she already understood after just two days. All the work is done on both reins, with praise and relaxation in between, so that the mare gains trust and confidence in her own ability so that she can also work in piaffe and passage with her rider, without the trainer on the ground.

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Q & A

What is your preference for the order in which you work a horse, trot and canter before walk?

All three, it depends on the horse, but the basics are always the most important thing and, hopefully, this is coming more and more.

Don Schufro is the father of the mare; he deserves support as he has produced a lot of good horses.

Does the use of shoulder-in kill the forward energy?

No, we use it to correct the connection from behind to the contact and it influences flexion and bend; the challenge is come back into shoulder-in after another exercise.

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NEW SySTEM FOR JUDGING FREESTyLE TO MUSIC Katrina Wüst & Stephen Clarke

Katrina Wüst is a former Grand Prix rider for Germany and has been an FEI judge since 1994; Stephen Clarke from the UK is also an FEI judge at the top level and a former Grand Prix rider. A presentation was made by Katrina Wüst at a recent FEI meeting in Warendorf to show a new judging system for freestyle which was very well received by riders, trainers and judges and, together with IT specialist Daniel Göhlen, these two highly respected judges are offering this new system for consideration.

Stephen Clarke introduced Katrina and Daniel. Judging is very difficult at the best of times and, in general, judges, whether five or seven in number, are not going to agree totally. In fact, five or seven people doing almost anything together are unlikely to agree! The point is to see the good in each performance in conjunction with the technical and artistic aspects of freestyle to music.

Tremendous efforts have been made to spread and improve knowledge worldwide so that criteria and conclusions can be more level and more often closer in thinking and this is part of an ongoing process in the dressage world. It should, in theory, lead to closer scoring and thus allow riders and trainers to receive realistic and logical marks for their tests.

It is so important to keep an open mind to new and modern ideas; a huge amount of work has gone into this new way of judging freestyle and, initially, it was thought that it would be too complicated to be practical. However, even to a non-technical brain, it is easy to understand and should make a big difference to how freestyle is viewed and ridden. t may be that further adjustments will be made and pilot testing will be very important but it is, at the very least, thought provoking and should go a long way to reducing subjectivity.

Katrina Wüst – the technical side of the freestyle is straightforward but where it becomes more complicated is on the artistic side and spectators and riders sometimes don’t understand how the marks are allocated. This means that more transparency is needed. What can be done? There are five components to be considered – two technical and three artistic – and also the degree of difficulty.

Daniel Göhlen, Stephen Clarke, Katrina Wüst

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What is a difficulty? Opinions vary and each argument is a bit right and a bit wrong so the first thing is to get a consensus. Everyone involved needs to think big, with homogeneous thinking that catalogues as many difficulties as possible, so that riders can make clear choices for their individual horses rather than a cooking recipe where everyone has to do the same thing. The compilation of a catalogue of difficulties must be linked with a code of points that is the same for all riders, regardless of any other considerations, a consistent relation for each rider.

The minimum requirements are set out in the test, like a car with no extra features. Riders need to show difficulties beyond the basics to accumulate extra marks, without exceeding their own and their horses’ limitations of experience and athletic ability.

First of all, the quality of the basic movements, the transitions, the lines, the repetitions, the paces must all be maintained, prompt and smooth.

What is the description of difficult? (Needing much effort or skill to accomplish – Oxford English Dictionary). Combinations of movements, extreme transitions, changes on a circle, riding with reins in one hand through piaffe, passage or changes, a double piaffe pirouette on the spot, and so on, are good examples.

For maximum consideration, the more difficult transitions and combinations need to be done where the judges can clearly see them otherwise the advantage is reduced. In the proposed system, bonus marks for every well performed difficulty will be added to a technical mark of 7 or above; equally, minus points would be awarded for anything done badly. Only well performed difficulties would thus make a positive difference to the marks; riders can’t perform difficulties badly and still get marks for them. Good repetitions would attract a slight bonus.

How would the system work for the rider?

Daniel has written the computer application so that what the rider needs to show in the freestyle – paces, movements, transitions, particles (movements that don’t attract marks), combinations – are saved electronically but can always be changed with a few clicks. Individual floorplans are printed out for the judges before the class.

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A safety line can be added to make time for a correction for any failed movements.

Much has been done to make this as intuitive as possible; with a large font and a format that looks like a normal test sheet; everything is shown, combinations are highlighted, it’s possible for a rider to make the best choices and the judges can mark the difficulties as they happen because they are already detailed on the individual test sheet.

What is the value of the system for the rider, what are the advantages?The choreography is defined in detail; creativity is not curtailed; judges will be aware beforehand of the difficulties, hidden and otherwise; more accurate marking; more transparency; equal treatment. The music and choreography can be sent in online or on a USB stick.

What are the advantages for judges?

The floorplan is known in advance; there is no need to try to remember all the difficulties or to compare them; the assessment becomes more standardised; more accurate marking and transparency; clarity of assessment of difficulties, good or bad; judging should be easier and faster as the system becomes familiar; there is still the possibility to make slight changes to the final degree of difficulty mark.

What might the advantages be for organisers?

Faster results; commentators can mention movements in advance because floorplans are available; bonus points are flagged up; running scores should be easier; marketing strategies can be applied.

Basically, a lot of the guess work is taken away for everyone and the playing field is more obviously level. Brett Parbury from Australia agreed to allow his Aachen 2010 test to be used as a demonstration model for the system.

As the test progressed, the computer system generated all the scored marks, immediately averaged the technical marks and, before the rider had left the arena, the final marks were available and posted up.

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PANEL DISCUSSIONKyra Kyrklund; Maarten van der Heijden (Dutch Federation Sports Director & Judge); David Hunt

KK – one of the biggest steps forward, very brave and a big challenge against quite a lot of continued resistance to change; more work to do and more tweeks to make.Where does resistance come from? Change is always difficult and usually resisted; not only judges but also riders resist

DH – good to have a clear line forward with less guess work involved; riders can have a better idea of the likely outcome of their tests; still some subjectivity so seven judges will still not always agree.

M v d H – big improvement, will help to sell the sport to spectators and into peoples’ houses via social media; easier to make the freestyle more spectacular and easier to understand. Dutch Federation very willing to help in any way. The rider interface looks easy to use and understand. The system recommends a mark at the end of the test, for the degree of difficulty, but there is some freedom for the judge to alter it slightly as the system can’t cover everything.

What was learnt via ice skating and gymnastics? There are some comparisons possible, we tried hard to keep transparency and the ability to sell the sport while making the system as user friendly as possible

KK – riders wouldn’t be able to pull something out of the bag that isn’t in their protocol

KW – it would be impossible to put literally everything, and every conceivable idea, into the system so that’s why not everything is set out and there is, therefore, the ability to slightly alter the degree of difficulty mark to coincide with the judge’s opinion

Trond Asmyr (FEI) – extremely impressed and always wanted the freestyle judging to become more objective. Definitely a step forward and was also impressed with the testing in Warendorf. The next step is to decide to go for this system and also a

Kyra Kyrklund, David Hunt, Maarten van der Heijden

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there will be a question of rights so FEI would need to deal with this, especially from the commercial side, but as a judge and FEI staff member, a real and welcome step forward.

Noting the Dutch Federations offer, it would have to be an all or nothing take up; however, it should be possible to reach universal agreement so 2014 could be a test year to find the bugs and decide if it can be completely objective or whether a degree of flexibility should be in place.

KW – would riders be prepared to use this system?

Patrik Kittel said he would be very happy to do this as it can only be of benefit; many hours are already spent in the saddle so any help he could offer would be willingly given

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A PREvIEW OF THE WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES Laurent Cellier, WEG Sports Director and Didier Ferrer, Manager Dressage

Laurent Cellier has worked for the French Federation and the Sports Ministry; he’s a qualified sports coach and has been in his current role for two years. Didier Ferrer is the Discipline Manager for Dressage.

WEG will run from Saturday 23 August to 7th September 2014 and will include 8 disciplines (Dressage, Driving, Endurance, Eventing, Para, Reining, Show Jumping, Vaulting); in addition, Polo and Horse Volleyball will be demonstration disciplines. Comprehensive testing was carried out in June 2013 and included venues, footings, stable management, veterinary processes, organisational procedures and volunteers.

Caen, in Normandy, is the main equestrian centre in France, with 406 equestrian centres, 21 racecourses, approximately 93,000 horses, and two National studs. The budget for the Games is 72 million Euros, with over 80% already secured, with a more or less even mixture of private and public funding. The main focus of the Games will be the D’Ornano Stadium in Caen which can accommodate 22,000 spectators for the opening and closing ceremonies and then the dressage, show jumping & the show jumping element of eventing; the region around Caen will host the other disciplines at the indoor arena at the Zenith Stadium, on the Prairie Racecourse and at the Orne River Valley.

The human element of the Games is huge; 1000 horses and competitors from 60 nations; and over 3000 volunteers to make the Games possible. There are 12 founder members; together with private sponsors and media partners. A video showed the progress of the immense building, site development and organisational undertakings of these Games.

The values of WEG 2014 are Achievement; Transmission; Respect; Openness. This is the 7th WEG, returning to the European mainland after Kentucky, and over 500,000 visitors are expected; as well as the major equestrian events, there are non-sporting activities including concerts and other entertainment. Gastronomy is a major factor in France; Caen and the wider Normandy region will not disappoint.Ticket sales commence in mid-November 2013.

Laurant Cellier

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THE RICHARD DAvISON INTERvIEW – with ISABELL WERTH

This is one of the many highlights of the GDF where Richard finds about the person behind the name, the more informal life of his guest.

Isabell was brought up on a farm with her sister and parents – the whole family was interested in breeding and ponies were available to the two girls. As a young girl, Isabell rode on and in everything, whatever came along – jumping, some ‘military’ (eventing), fun riding. She thinks that these days of early specialisation are a shame as a background such as hers gives a broad equestrian experience. Dr Schulten Baumer, ‘her long time mentor and friend’, brought his children to various events and one day, when she was 17, he asked her to help out as his rider was sick; she went with a friend and he subsequently offered her a place in his yard. To begin with, it was just an idea rather than a big plan and she didn’t expect it lead to what it did but, in such a stable, she started to dream!

Dr S-B was an established dressage trainer with Grand Prix horses competing at the top level; he had a son and a daughter, both of whom rode. Nicole Uphoff was also a rider at the yard, so Isabell started with a young horse that no-one else wanted to ride, as well as other young horses. Eventually, both son and daughter stopped riding, and so Isabell rode Madras at her first S level competition (she had recently fallen off a young auction horse and was severely bruised but didn’t tell anyone because of the upcoming competition); it went well, they were just out of the placings and it was a great experience. Then came Weingart , whom they initially saw at Herr Kasselman’s stable, and he became the first horse that Isabell qualified at Juniors and then the Seniors at Mondorf. After that came Gigolo and step by step came success and recognition. Isabell was with Dr S-B for more than 16 years and learnt everything from him, for which she is very grateful.

When Gigolo retired, and after long consideration, the natural progression was to move on and she established herself at her parent’s farm – a family and emotional decision. She wondered if she could make a career in dressage and decided to take a law degree so that she had a backup plan if necessary. She intended to combine law and horses, working in the Marketing department of a large German store but, with

Isabell Werth

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her parent’s farm to manage and a wonderful sponsor, Madeleine Winter-Schulze, horses won out.

However, while at Karstadt, she met her partner Wolfgang (the boss!), and their son, Frederic, now 4 years old, has changed her life extremely; she now has a different perception of what’s important in life and what isn’t; she loves being a mother and would have given up some medals for more children!

Isabell is a very passionate person and wears her heart on her sleeve; dressage is such a special sport because no other sport combines the closeness to another living creature – the best rider is nothing without a top horse which makes the partnership exciting and emotional. Negative and positive emotions interweave and there are plenty of knocks in dressage but she has the ability to come from behind. In this particular instance, the horse was not given medication directly but obviously Isabell has to take responsibility although she doesn’t know how this could have happened; a lot of time and money has been spent to find out and the conclusion is that there was some contamination in the water system; the outcome is, as yet, uncertain which, given the current ongoing doping issue, is as well. (At the time of writing, the German Federation has placed a ban of 6 months on her but she intends to appeal). Not her strongest partner, you would have to ask them why they seem to be less than helpful especially since the medication in question is not performance enhancing and, as such, the FEI has not banned her.

She didn’t make the German team in 2012 but this is not a new scenario for her; she has been in the sport for many years and it was the same in 2004 but, by 2006, she was on the team again; she really believes in her horses and has a couple of ‘Ferraris’ at the moment, she just has to find the right way forward for each of them.

Isabell is still ambitious and hasn’t lost her competitive spirit or her joy of riding and producing horses; in fact, this is more important to her than anything else; she doesn’t want to buy, or have bought, a ready-made top horse, she prefers to earn the medal by bringing the horse through the levels.

Madeleine Winter-Schulze probably owns more championship level horses in dressage, show jumping and eventing than almost anyone else. She show jumped herself in the 1950’s and had a dressage horse called Coca Cola on whom she won the German championship, beating several top German riders. She and her husband both rode but when they stopped, in the late 1990’s, they needed to find some

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riders to carry on with their horses. Built up over several years, the family had a very successful car business which enables the horses to be funded. Her riders include Ludger Beerbaum, who rides the show jumpers, Ingrid Klimke who has the eventers and Isabell who has the dressage horses.

With Isabell, they choose the horses together and, in spite of the fact that she would buy a top horse for Isabell, that isn’t how it is and so they have young horses to bring through. This is the way that Isabell prefers to do things and it’s not about the gold medal at the end but having a vision, getting goosepimples when you see a young horse and then producing it as far as possible. Isabell lives near Duisburg and Madeleine in Hanover, which is quite a long way apart, so trust is essential; Isabell loves the freedom that Madeleine gives her, with no time or competition pressure, but she feels that this also gives her an added responsibility to do the very best she can.

Madeleine’s riders and horses give her such pleasure; she is close to all her riders and would never sell a horse unless the rider was in agreement. Every experience that the riders have with the horses is a joint effort and when a problem appears it is solved by discussion and forward thinking.

When her husband died, she was much helped by Isabell who was with her at the time, and her riders are very much part of her family as she is part of theirs. Asked if she had a favourite moment as an owner, Madeleine couldn’t choose although Herning was amazing with medals in all three disciplines for her horses and riders.With the interview over, Isabell brought Don Johnson (Johnny) into the arena. Here is the next dream!

Monica Theodorescu, the German national trainer, commented from the side that Isabell’s strong points include how curious she is about every horse and how much she believes in each one of them. The relationship between Monica and Isabell goes back many years, as team mates on the German team, and they have been working

Isabell Werth, Madeleine Winter Schulze, Richard Davison

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together again for about a year, not really as trainer and pupil but more to help with how things look from the ground.

Johnny is very self-confident, one of his big characteristics, he’s quite opinionated and will play around at the start; Isabell allows this but tells him off if it starts to get dangerous. She thinks it’s important that he can do this so that his expression and freedom are not curtailed but he also needs to learn to stop when told. When he is fresh, the transitions are a compromise and especially into canter where he’s likely to buck so it’s an achievement to get into canter safely.

The warmup is also a compromise where Johnny is still thinking of things to do but she is used to this and it’s the same at home and at competitions. Meanwhile, she’s thinking about a good connection to the mouth from behind, with a steady contact, using loads of transitions within the paces, together with flexion, shoulder-in and keeping him on the aids and engaged, both physically and mentally. The more he works, the more supple and expressive he becomes with the emphasis on a good, easy rhythm and balance. Isabell really likes shoulder-in, as she feels it produces a good connection and, with a really top shoulder-in confirmed, it’s easy to show a really good half-pass – the shoulder-in keeps him in front of the leg and to the bit in a consistent way so that other movements are no problem. However, she doesn’t continue a movement if the start is not good, she turns away and goes again; she’s not satisfied with second best.

Isabell uses flexing, praise, stretching, her voice speaking or clicking, patting – she is always communicating with her horse – he has lots of ability and expression, and the freedom of his shoulder is exceptional, the challenge is to get him to concentrate and work with her. Giving him a free rein can be a bit of a problem with Johnny as he thinks he’s finished and might start to buck when the work resumes again!Into canter, showing a good basic jump and movement forwards; transitions in the pace towards bringing him back into pirouette canter on the seat and, when he is really on the hindleg, then the pirouette is easy – although, as Monica said, the pirouette was a bit small, followed by a s**t change and a s**t place to do the change!!!

On the right rein, the pirouette canter is not as safe as on the left side as he is less inclined to sit so the pirouette was repeated, and again, as he was against her inside leg – no drama just repetition. On each horse, the partnership learns month by month and year by year, the aim is to make the horse flexible, settled, constant and consistent (the German term ‘konsequent’ sums this up).

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From a good elastic trot, through a smooth transition, into passage – then forward into a stronger trot as he comes behind her leg and then try again. He has a lot of power so keeping the connection so that he uses the power through his body rather than just his legs is the constant challenge; sideways steps encourage the rhythm and the connection. Then he needs to go for himself, staying in the frame and the connection, which he needs to do in competition.

Isabell is honest with her horses, and about her horses, and knows that this level of work requires more time with Johnny to be totally ‘konsequent’. She knows that Johnny is much better than his public image and believes in him; he will go in competitions like he can at home when everything is more established.

Monica said what a really good competition rider Isabell is; she is so focussed and concentrated that she gets even more out of her horses in the arena; she rides the corners and sets them up, she checks that all is well and then goes out for more, taking risks and producing amazing transitions, and keeps her nerve. That’s what makes her the one to beat.

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PANEL DISCUSSIONPrincess Natalie zu Sayn Wittgenstein; Michael Klimke; Bernard Maurel

NW – I am always impressed with whatever horse you bring; they start out looking gawky and lanky and we all wonder what you see in them and then they come out winning at Grand Prix!

Isabell – I am a rider not an artist. I take them on because of the feeling and connection they give me in the first five minutes. Looking for Gigolo, we tested two horses, his walk was awful, he had no neck but in first two minutes he was my horse. Also the same with Warum Nicht, Hannes, he gave me the same feeling; it all takes time and it’s not possible to change the world in two years, so my big advantage is that Madeleine also allows me to take the time.

MK – you are always impressive. A lot of people including me thought you were drunk when you bought Johnny and now look at him; he’s unrecognisable from a couple of years ago; he looks an amazing prospect. What is the main exercise you favour?

Isabell – With young horses, trot and canter transitions; then shoulder-in, in different gaits. I don’t train so much exact exercises, when I have good transitions everything else comes. When you can bring the horse from a strong canter back into pirouette canter, you don’t need to ride lots of pirouettes; training them too much in the exercises can lose too much substance, they need to be trained to be stronger.

BM – you are a living legend. I have given you the full range of marks as a judge over the years. In the 2008 Olympics people watched the TV and saw the problems you had with Satchmo and wondered how the horse still got a medal – what is your comment?

Isabell – the judges gave me ones and twos, and also a zero, for his mistake; Satchmo deserved his medal, the judges gave low marks for the bad things and good marks for good things. I don’t think his performance was the reason for all the subsequent changes in dressage, like the Judges Supervisory Panel, and so on. The connection between Satchmo and the task force is a bit nebulous.

Bernard Maurel, Princess Natalie Zu Sayn Wittgenstein, Michael Klimke

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In Aachen 2006 when Satchmo won the championship in front of the home crowd, that was a highlight in my career and the sport. The changes in the sport started after that competition.

Katrina Wüst – together on task force with Bernard; philosophy of dressage is a sport where you can compensate for earlier mistakes, a bit like football, as there are 40 plus movements, so two or three bad ones don’t have the same result as you proved.

A question from the audience - Can you say where you ride the young horses?Isabell - outside we can ride on the track and in the fields but there’s no possibility to ride through the forest but we use what we have. I would ride out in the forest if I could. We have a horsewalker, and they are led out in hand; in my opinion the most important point is to spend time with the horses.

The audience: Wondering what will be your future, with a young child?

Isabell - no plans to retire in the next few years but depends on the horses and my own fitness; difficult to find the right time to stop the competition as I want to stay with the potential and prospect to be winning in due time; I like to build up my team and I’m proud of them when they’re successful.

My schedule is relentless and more like that of a show jumper – I would like to cut down a bit as I have a few grand prix horses now and also, of course, Frederic.

I don’t like to be positive too early but, of course, I believe in my horses and Bellarose is 9 and has done a few Grand Prix tests with good results. Champions are made at competitions so there is an interesting future for her; and then there is Johnny and my other Ferraris at home.

Isabell takes her own risks and her own line – she is her own person and she is not finished yet by a long way.

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EMERGING EQUINE DISEASESProf. Dr. Marianne Sloet van Oldruiterborgh - Oosterbaan

Prof. Dr. Sloet graduated in 1982 and, since then, has gained huge experience in clinical matters relating to equines; she is currently Professor of equine internal medicine at Utrecht University and her specialisations include equine exercise physiology, equine dermatology, forensic medicine and emerging diseases. Her mantra ‘pole pole’ comes from the African expression for ‘do not hurry’ - something she uses every day to take time to do a proper job!

This presentation is not about the equine diseases with which we are all already familiar, strangles, herpes and so on. There’s no doubt that, as the FEI calendar gets busier and busier, and as more horses travel more frequently to more countries from an ever increasing number of countries, diseases are more rife than ever and new diseases, previously unknown in Europe, are becoming more commonplace than ever before. Owners, riders, trainers, Federations and Governments need coping strategies in place to combat such diseases.

The focus today is on three definite diseases, vector borne, i.e. airborne via insects, from one horse to another, as distinct from those diseases spread through the air and via direct contact horse to horse.

African Horse Sickness is a very old disease, already known in the 13th century, and centred first in the Middle East, then East Africa and South Africa. It has arrived in Europe, via Africa south of the Sahara by, for instance, zebras imported to Spain.

It’s spread by midges, and has high morbidity and mortality rates. In a new population, it spreads rapidly and about 95% of those equines affected will die; in zebras and donkeys new to the disease, it’s 50% and 5% respectively; donkeys have carried a high immunity to this disease for centuries.

A sister virus to African Horse Sickness, Blue Tongue Disease, which has 40 sub-strains, is prevalent in sheep and goats and also doesn’t spread directly to horses but, again, via insect bites.

Marianne Sloet

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The many different strains of AHS & BTD make the production of a good vaccine almost impossible; warm rainy seasons encourage increased numbers of midges that bite the horses and who are, in turn, infected or re-infected by the horses and so the disease continues to spread. All species can get this disease so an infected insect biting a dog or other creature, or a dog that eats infected horse meat, are other ways for the disease to spread.

It affects all organs in the recipient’s body but it is obviously more serious when it spreads to the brain. There are four distinct areas of concern – the respiratory system, the heart, the organs and the brain. Fluid around the heart, in the lungs or in the brain and/or other sub-clinical complications make euthanasia the only humane solution – there is no therapy or cure.

We have been aware of AHS in Europe for the last 5 years; the protocols around what exactly should be done when the disease hits include the critical importance of a post mortem on the first dead horse (either dead with no obvious reason or with a suspected diagnosis); there is a vaccine available but it is a live virus vaccine and so only marginally less dangerous than the disease itself and, realistically, only useful in Africa. Insects are contagious for 14 so protocols around reducing the level of insects can be vital.

Some research was done on sweet-itch and the differences, or otherwise, that using general rugs or insect resistant rugs could make to equines at risk. The percentages revealed that using a specific insect resistant rug could reduce the impact of sweet-itch by about 20% to around 32%; the point being that anything reduces the incidence of biting insects, particularly midges, can only be useful.

The second disease of note is Equine Infectious Anaemia

This disease is transmitted by infected blood through transfusions or by biting insects from one horse to another; the insects themselves don’t become infected. Infections tend to be local, often when the horse is bitten on the nose by an insect that has travelled some distance so the virus has dried on the proboscis. Again, there is no therapy or vaccine; this disease is a sister disease to AIDS but is not transmitted sexually.

West Nile Fever completes the trio. This time WNF is a problem in Western Europe and not Africa so we need to pay close attention to this disease. It’s becoming more and more serious; birds have died in zoos; there have been some reported human

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deaths; it spread very rapidly across America in just a few years; and there are many viral ‘sisters’ about which we don’t know enough.

There is a good vaccine to counteract the virus; birds and small animals are the reservoirs for this disease, humans and equines are the end hosts. Mosquitoes are the spreaders of this disease and, when it hits the blood brain barrier, there are no good outcomes – nerves are affected, muscles tremble, and so on. The insects themselves are infected and, as they bite both species (equine and human) there is the more than distinct probability of infection in both species.

Unfortunately, the symptoms resemble those of herpes neurology so misdiagnosis can be a problem. Mortality rates tend to be quite high, especially if the horse is already lying down; the prognosis is much better if the horse is still able to stand; one useful pointer is that horses with WNF don’t eat; with herpes they do.

The spraying of poisonous insect repellents is allowed in the USA but not in Europe; so any standing water in ponds, swimming pools, anything that stores water such as old tyres kept for cross country jumps, water in guttering and any still water that animals might be inclined to drink – all should avoided or removed.

The equine vaccine is effective, freely available, has no known side-effects and should be administered twice a year to all horses, especially those with a high financial or emotional value which will be pretty nearly all of them. However, as yet, there is no similar vaccine for humans so the only therapy is support, fluids and care.“Don’t be an ostrich with your head in the sand about the negative potential of disease - look up, take responsibility and deal with it!”

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Q & A

Is there enough awareness in general veterinary practice to recognise exotic diseases?

Yes but only if people are alert and post mortems are done on any and every unexpected mortality.

World Welfare Foundation – the understanding of basic bio-security in the UK is poor; possible equine carriers of unknown diseases are often allowed into the UK without any isolation so, when discovered, euthanasia is often the only possible outcome for equines suffering from such diseases. This is not the case in mainland Europe where bio-security standards are much higher and the basic regulations are often upped to a higher level.

Most national authorities have direct experience with contagious diseases; however, the diseases spoken about today are different because they are insect borne and, thus, more difficult to discover and control. This is why it is so important to know who is in contact with whom, what and where and instigate bio-security measures much more widely.

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From Foal to Grand PrixWim Ernes with Tim Coomans, Nico Witte & Joop van Uytert from Holland

Wim is an FEI Olympic judge, National trainer, stallion selector and breeding expert; his colleagues are breeders, trainers, and dealers, all internationally recognised experts in breeding and young horse production.

The central point of this presentation was to discover what is wanted in a potential dressage horse; to talent spot top level potential in a foal, or young horse, rather than buy a made Grand Prix horse.

Not only is it much cheaper to buy young it is also much more satisfying to produce through the levels; is the potential given by nature or nuture; is natural talent the thing or is it subject to good training?

Pedigrees are key success factors in stallions and also in strong dam lines. Next come conformation, movement, soundness and temperament. Sometimes it is possible to buy a ‘dressage’ pedigree but only in conjunction with excellent conformation; however, it is very difficult to find everything in one horse, whether for a potential stallion or a competition horse. Character and temperament are very important in any buying situation, allied with a forward thinking inclination – often this means having some blood (TB lines) in the horse so that this characteristic comes out. Education, training, and gymnastic development are components that make a difference, together with the consistency of a good rider and trainer, good management, preparation and facilities. All the above contribute to a long term success story.

The FoalsTwo foals (Winston x Fidertanz & Charmeur x Royal) were presented. The comments were that there are no secrets to looking at and choosing foals; three good gaits, a good topline, strong loins, croup and back; good hindlegs; a good foreleg and sloping shoulder; conformation in proportion; functionality. Slight conformation issues such as the angle of the hindleg being too small or too big, (Jazz had turned

Wim Ernes

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out toes; Ampere’s toes turned in), that don’t adversely affect the functionality can be accepted if everything else is in place. Light footedness, easy naturally balanced movement with an uphill tendency, and a walk with quick energy, and not too big, were all factors seen as desirable.

The 2 year OldsThe first one in, Galaxy, is by Apache out of a Jazz mare; he will be presented to the stallion committee and is not for sale; he was bought as a foal, having won the regional championship and placed 6th at the Dutch championships. The pedigree was a major factor in the purchase as Apache’s offspring are well known and Nico’s daughter rides Apache.

Why is this two year old special? He has an excellent hindleg and an uphill tendency. He has ‘normal’ legs, a good sloping shoulder, functionality and shows exceptional suppleness throughout his body. He is a sharp horse, from both sides of his pedigree, which can be a problem initially but eventually useful for Grand Prix, trained in the right way. An elegant, light footed, self-confident horse, unaffected by the applause from the audience, he finally decided to give in and be caught.

The second two year old, Gerhard, by Zhivago out of a Ferro mare, is a heavier, less blood, type on first sight. However, he has a lot of ‘blood’ in his mind, so his type is not as important as his character. This horse had more substance and power, with a strong hindleg, and is probably destined to be a competition horse rather than a stallion. Heavier footed than the first horse, the mechanics and functionality seemed to be good, although the point was made that his neck was much higher and shorter, so it would take an experienced rider to bring him into the correct frame.

Esben Möller commented that this horse wouldn’t be the most popular stallion type as he’s heavier, but thinking about Grand Prix potential, Ferro horses are working machines, with strong backs and legs, so that would be the preference for this horse.

The question was asked, rather tongue in cheek, about how the Dutch managed to miss Valegro (Olympic and European champion for the UK) when he went forward to the stallion grading?

Valegro has rather old fashioned conformation so not really a stallion type, also not

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very fashionably bred but a sport horse. And…it’s not possible to keep them all!

The 3 year OldsFerdeaux, a Bordeaux/Ferro colt, in next, is already approved as a stallion; Bordeaux is a nice stallion by United x Gribaldi, also in Joop’s ownership. Five Bordeaux stallions went to the stallion show, this one was highly placed; he has three good gaits and a lovely uphill canter.

At the Performance test, he was very successful, showed an excellent canter and was very rideable. Ridden by John Tijssen, Ferdeaux behaved well in the strange environment and showed his excellent character, which is an important part of the selection process as it suggests that he will concentrate on his rider at competitions; all positive qualities for the future. He’s only three so not always balanced, although shows a good natural balance overall, and is sometimes crooked, quite normal in a young horse.

There was some discussion about how would he would be after a few years work, as he looked very ‘finished’ at three; obviously important not to over push him until he has grown into his own strength. He has quality and is very willing but has to improve in strength and suppleness; he carries his tail straight, has no stiffness in the back and loins; he’s good looking and soft in the contact, with a willingness to work with his rider. Hopefully he will pass on these qualities to his offspring.

The next horse in the arena is the elite mare, Felegra, by Zhivago out of a Tango mare, ridden by Jessica Buying, who gained 85% in the National Championships. She has a good natural balance, a stable character, is rideable and uphill, with good gaits and front leg movement. She has good conformation, uses her body with suppleness and shows a good active walk, with enough overtrack but not too much, a quality trot and light and uphill canter. She has a good contact but sometimes comes off the aids, hardly unusual for a three year old, and overall shows a natural talent in all three paces – so a super competition and breeding prospect.

It is hoped that this quality can stay in Holland; it’s important that, at this age, horses have a relaxed way of going, coming into the contact, showing forward thinking paces and a willing temperament. No more should be done at this stage, so that three year olds are given time to develop, stretching forwards, downwards, following the rein and seeking contact, and developing their natural balance.

Young horse classes can be detrimental for some horses in the long term but it

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depends on the horse’s degree of maturity and the aims of the owners; there is a difference of opinion about sending young horses forward for these competitions.

The 4 year OldsStephanie Kooijman showed TC Eduard, by Vivaldi x Contango. This gelding is stable in character but can be a little too forward going, he can get strong and it’s difficult to relax him initially. However, after his warmup he relaxes and presents a nice picture, strong but straight in the hindleg; good functionality; liked and chosen because of his natural drive.

The second 4 year old, Eye Catcher, presented by Kim Brouwer, is a Vivaldi x TCN Partout stallion, seen first as a foal, he has quality, a good character, three good gaits, a good front leg (from Vivaldi) and a good hindleg (from Partout).

Both horses were shown in canter, with good rhythm and suppleness through the body; the riders were able to show their horses’ natural balance on a long rein, following the hand forwards downwards, relaxed and taking the contact; both were then worked a little more uphill. Whilst both could produce big movement, they should also be able to do a small, almost pony, trot, thinking ahead to collection as if they can’t take smaller steps the Grand Prix work will be more difficult. It is really important to teach this; the horse needs to learn to wait and stay in balance in a controlled way, not always producing large paces; tempo control and control of the horse’s body, reactive to the aids and following the hand, are all essential. Talent is fine but willingness is everything.

The Older HorsesDreamboy – a five year old stallion, Vivaldi x Ferro, ridden by Gerdien Maree, has three good gaits, works hards for the trainer and rider and shows an excellent character. Bred by Tim, the stallion was born late in the year, so initially small and slow to develop, showed great quality and was bought back in by his breeder and is not for sale.

Easy Game – a ten year old Trakehner stallion, Gribaldi x Schwadroneur, presented by John Tijssen, was bought as a foal by Joop, licensed at three, came home to be trained at 7, and is showing good work and promise. He has lots of power and elasticity; strong in the loins; he shows the same traits as Gribaldi, a good horse for

Dreamboy, Vivaldi x Ferro

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the piaffe. There are currently 38 Gribaldi offspring competing at the higher levels.

Dreamboy reacts well to training, he often tries too hard but likes to work, a trait that is very important especially in stallions. Interval training is part of his routine as he still needs to be built up and allowed to develop strength; he has a quick, active hindleg and steps under well. In the beginning, Dreamboy’s walk was a problem; Tim doesn’t believe that the walk can’t be improved; it can be done via the canter as long as the canter and the power in the hindleg is good enough. Dreamboy had a good enough basic walk but tension spoilt the steps; now he is much better balanced and strong so he can use his body and he has a clear four-beat active walk, so the functionality and the collected walk shouldn’t be a problem.

It is hard for stallions to combine breeding and being ridden, it takes a lot of strength from them and it can be difficult to keep condition on them. Riders and trainers must take care of the limits so that the stallion can manage both jobs, especially when the horse is still young.

In the spring, as a 6 year old, and thinking about the World Championships, (important for showcasing a young stallion), it’s all about a balance between the necessary work, including flying changes, and the maturity of the horse in question. If young horses are forced into work that is beyond their current ability, thus applying too much pressure, this can be detrimental to long term development. To find the individual level that a horse can manage, it’s important to assess this with experts, and employ modern technology such as heart and stress monitoring, so that future progress is not impeded.

This is a universal problem; horses must earn their living but in a way that is correct for each horse.

Easy Game, Gribaldi x Schwadroneur

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Q & AComment - Herning was a super championship, with good riding and horses. Parcival, Damon Hill and Valegro are three totally different types but the total package in each case has produced a good horse. They share quality, good conformation, movement and power, rideability and good management. The whole package is necessary for the final, top, result.

David Hunt congratulated the presenters for a most interesting presentation and wonderful horses, and thanked everyone for their effort and input.

Q - Are the FEI tests right for the young horses?

It depends what we want, do we want to showcase horses, sell horses or produce them to Grand Prix? To a certain extent it is money now versus later, possible, success – and breeding is a business.

Q - Are the world breeding championships for top breeding horses or for top competition horses?

The more laidback, possibly lazier, horses can cope with the pressures, the others exhibit tension and they are the ones who lose out. It depends on the natural ability of each horse at each age level; horses with plenty of natural ability and willingness are the ones likely to succeed. However, different assessments are made for future Grand Prix horses and these are probably not the same horses as the young horse champions.

Some of the horses we’ve seen today will have futures as Grand Prix horses, so the hope is that they will stay with their riders as it is often true that a long term consistent partnership works best; others will, of course, go to the young horse classes and will, possibly, be sold on.

Uwe Mechlem commented that, in Verden, plenty of horses had big trots and canters but the one that won was the one who showed the whole package. The media was a bit disparaging but this horse showed potential for the future and it is to be hoped that this is now the way the judging is going.

Trond Asmyr & Frank Kemperman (FEI) – both agreed that these discussions should be picked up and the various different opinions taken into consideration; perhaps it would be good to organise wider discussions next year round the table - which way

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do we want to go and which are the ways to go? This Forum always makes an impact on future discussion.

Q - from the audience: How frequently would you ride the young horses to develop strength?

Three year olds three times a week for 20 minutes; four and five year olds four times a week for 40/45 minutes; young stallions on the lunge twice, or maybe three times, a week for 15 minutes. Also sufficient handling to have the horse easy to work with; three or four times a week is quite enough but should be done regularly from birth.

GLOBAL DRESSAGE FOUM 2014 HRH Princess BenedikteThe Princess made a special announcement regarding the Global Dressage Forum in 2014 – it will move to the Blue Hors Stud in Denmark on Monday and Tuesday 20th and 21th October. In 2015 the Forum will return to Academy Bartels. It was considered a good idea to change venues every other year, one year away and one year back in Holland, to facilitate more participants and spread the Forum’s message even wider.

Esben Möller, from Blue Hors Stud in Randbal, is very pleased and honoured to host the Forum; the Stud is only ten minutes from the international airport in Billund; Randbøl is a small town but central and with excellent facilities, situated between Billund and Vejle in the middle of Denmark. It is the hometown of Lego and all visitors will be hosted in the Lego Hotel.

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UNDERSTANDING PRIx ST GEORGE JUDGING AND HELPING THE RIDERDavid Stickland

David is a regular presenter at the GDF, known for his in-depth analyses; he is a senior research physicist with Princeton University, based at CERN, where he worked on experiments that led to the discovery of Higgs Boson. He is an FEI dressage judging analyst and uses his data to help the dressage world achieve the best performances.

Archives suggest that the Prix St Georges test was put in place in 1920 and, by 1934, it became the second official FEI test. St George is apparently the patron saint of riders.

The data used for this presentation comes from over 4000 PSG tests over a five year period from 2009 to 2013, courtesy of Mario Cron of www.equi-score.de . The riders, horses and judges remain anonymous and the tests were judged by five, three or occasionally two judges.

A series of graphs showed the data and the first graph showed that the average score was around 64%, two-thirds of scores from 62 – 67%, with 10% at 68% and above.

Subsequent graphs showed the portion of each test in relation to the various movements and paces; canter accounts for 35% of the marks, trot for around 30% of the marks, and the work in walk comes in at 17%. However, if the higher scoring riders nail, for instance, the 3 time changes but have a mistake in the 4 times and the canter half-pirouettes are good, then the walk quality becomes a more significant factor.

The reality is that changes are worth more than anything else, more than twice their weight in the rankings. Contributions to the rankings are different for the higher and lower scores, with the paces mark really important for the higher scores, given that no mistakes are made.

David Stickland

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Collective marks have the highest correlation of all, with canter work and lateral work close together in second place, and the other elements vary in importance depending on the consistency and accuracy within the test. It’s a moot point as to whether or not the collectives are necessary if they match the technical marks and this is something beyond the scope of this presentation.

How does each pace influence the mix? As before, the canter is the biggest single component, then trot, then walk - and then the halts.

The total score is not the same as the ranking; it is the contribution of each figure to the total. Ranking is quite different from scores in terms of separating out the riders.Analysis of test results can show strengths and weaknesses, where scores rise and fall and which figures need more work. Basically, when consistent things are done even more consistently, and more work is done on the weaker figures to make them more consistent, scores will rise; ergo, increased percentages can be achieved with more consistency.

Do the best and most consistent test you can, more frequently, and your scores should increase accordingly. Based on the data shown, if you are regularly scoring above 68%, you are already in the top 10% of riders at PSG.

Knowledge improves performance.

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Q & AWayne Channon – there’s a lot to take in; the big thing seems to be the correlation between the collectives and the test; the collectives should reflect the test. Perhaps you could look at the correlation of consistency of collectives between the various judges? The consistency of judging at PSG relates well to judging at Grand Prix, plus or minus 1.7.When the test is going well, the canter pirouettes exert an influence and extended walk does increase the spread of marks between riders.

Tempi changes and pirouettes are probably based on correct training and the rider’s skill; walk has more to do with the horse’s natural ability.

Kyra Kyrklund – it’s possible to ride a PSG test without too much understanding of collection, so the better the understanding of the rider the more likely it is that the score will be higher.

Q – Did you analyse the results of the UK rider at Herning whose score from one judge affected the medal placings?

DS - Yes I did look at it; I just looked at numbers but didn’t discuss anything with the judges. The score from one judge did put the placing down; 75% score suggests a quite different test from a 65% one - across the whole test sheet that judge was lower.

Q - What is the success of the system if this sort of judgement can happen?Michael Eilberg – I was the rider in question on Half Moon Delphi. I was disappointed to have that one lower score and first wondered if there was a computer generated mistake; it changed everything.

Wayne Channon – If there was a specific code of points for each movement, as we saw in yesterday’s presentation on the freestyle, this would be a short step to transparency; Herning was worth something if we can agree that we don’t have a judging problem but a system problem; the judges do a good job within the present imperfect system. The handbook is very detailed but doesn’t codify the exact amount that should be taken away for a small deviation from the excellent and this is where we should focus our attention; we need a code of points.

DS – there is a limit to the amount of information analysed; not everything has been looked at; food for further thought and analysis.

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HELPING TALENTS TO HELP THEMSELvESKyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink & Liane Wachtmeister

Helping talents to help themselvesKyra Kyrklund - Finnish multiple Olympian, based in the UK; one of the most influential rider/trainers in the world, currently President of the International Dressage Riders Club and Professor of Equitation at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Three life lessons from her father – first, there are things you can’t change so don’t waste your energy; second, there are things you can change so try with all your heart and, third, understand the difference.

Jan Brink – Swedish 3-time Olympian, trained with Kyra for many years, he is now a top trainer and producer of riders and horses, with the objective of bringing Swedish riders to the top of the podium.

Liane Wachtmeister – a long term member of the Swedish team, working with Kyra; she is on the Swedish Dressage Committee and committed to working with riders to the top level.

A meeting of great Scandinavian minds!Kyra Kyrklund made an initial presentation about the Swedish scheme to bring through riders of talent by training, mentoring and self-help. Riders need to learn to help themselves and are responsible for their own future success; however, this requires time, money and facilities and, within a group, the money goes further and can offer regular training where progress and learning can be measured.

Jan’s sponsor, Swedish businessman Ake Bjorsell, wanted to do something for Swedish dressage – between these two and Kyra, ‘Knytkalaset’ (pot luck or Dutch treat) was born in 1998 – an educational system

Kyra Kyrklund

Liane Wachtmeister

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to develop dressage riders to the top level. Everyone who comes to the ‘party’ brings something unique with them which, in turn, contributes to the overall good; the system offers facilities, expertise and finance to its riders.

Ake Bjorsell paid for all trips, stabling, everything for 3 years, from 1998; then he added one more year; he also helped riders to obtain their own sponsorship; every year a sponsors’ day is held so that they can see the progress their sponsorship has provided – along with a great lunch!

There is a big commitment from everyone involved in Knytkalaset – riders, owners, trainers, sponsors, lorry drivers, grooms – so students, that is riders, are closely monitored. Performances are measured by percentages and divided by the number of classes (say, at PSG), to get an average mark. Riders write out and submit short and long term plans; these papers are gathered in once a year and analysed. A short term plan would be to work towards more consistent and higher scores within a given time scale; a longer term plan would be to get to Grand Prix in two or three years – with a detailed progression as to how these aims would come to fruition. Students aren’t over keen on this aspect of the system but it is very educational and underpins their commitment.

Owners/breeders are helped to write contracts to secure horses for the riders; obviously not totally open ended but with a specific goal, within an agreed time span, so that everyone can work towards that achievement. The training is free, because of the sponsors, but the project couldn’t work without the commitment that such contracts ensure.

At the annual lunch, riders do the catering and, in Liane’s case, the EFG Bank became her sponsor in 2008, doubtless as a result of the cooking! The Bank then took this further by making contact with the Management Director and that was the beginning of corporate sponsorship for the scheme.

However, Knytkalaset started off privately and remains private; this allows people to apply and be accepted based on their own ability and that of the horse; when Federations are involved in such projects decisions are generally results based – this is not necessarily a first consideration for a private project.

Jan Brink

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Most of the ten annual training sessions are held in the winter when students bring their young horses as well as their advanced horses – distances travelled can be considerable so the sessions are usually of two or three days duration. This also gives students the opportunity to watch and learn from their associates, which becomes even more useful at competitions as they know each other and can offer support when the trainers aren’t able to be present. Independence is very important so that students learn to rely on themselves and each other.

The EFG Bank wanted to support younger riders and horses to spread the ripples of the system across a wider stretch of water, so to speak; a beginners’ nursery to ensure continuity of supply coming through. Liane’s stable is in the north where she has 8 students and 3 on standby; Jan trains in the south and has a similar number of students working with him. This ‘nursery’ project has so far produced 8 national and 4 international medals.

There are nine regular students and three reserves annually on the project. So far, the project has produced more than 30 Grand Prix combinations, 10 team members, 7 international medals and 10 internationals Grand Prix riders.

“Believe in what you are doing; see what will happen in the future.

The only difference between ‘try’ and ‘triumph’ is ‘umph’!

Emelie Aldenfalk is seventeen, and her 9 year old Swedish Warmblood gelding, Winton, is by Warsteiner x Donnerfly (so Weltmeyer father and Donnerhall mother). She works with Liane and is a bronze medallist from the Swedish Junior Championships 2013, competing at Msv A level. Winton was a riding school horse but had too much character for the school and was unsuited to the work! Along came tiny Emelie whose family bought him for her and, through tact, time and finesse, they have formed a good partnership.

They worked in canter to start with, to make Winton more supple and calmer; they showed a very nice canter with some good changes, thinking always to make him jump through more in a rounder outline. The rider’s position is very important and

Emelie Aldenfalk, Weltmeyer x Donnerhall

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Emelie often rides without stirrups to length her leg and improve her balance.

Winton needs to be supple over his back and also laterally so shoulder-in, inside flexion and use of the rider’s inside leg play important roles in the work to give him more power that can then be controlled by the seat and the outside rein. The challenge is between impulsion and collection; the energy must stay within the horse and this is a lot to do with feel, keeping the horse impulsive yet soft to the contact, using shorter and longer steps within a pace without him running away, and keeping him uphill and balanced. Shoulder-in is one of the best exercises to improve suppleness.

Each lesson is ended by choosing the horse’s ‘best’ rein and then cantering up centre line, halting and moving off into trot, thinking about the activity, roundness, straightness and keeping him in front of the leg. It’s better to think about the collection rather than the halt, storing up the energy; concentrate on the collection and the halt will ‘melt’.

Kyra commented that Liane and Emelie’s work with Winton was a miniature replica of what Isabell had done the previous day; starting this work early gives the rider a huge amount experience and makes the graduation to the senior teams more seamless.

Jan’s student, nineteen year old Anna Zibrandtsen, lives near Copenhagen and has been successful in Danish junior and young rider teams. The project is also about Scandinavian riders as some of the corporate sponsorship comes from Scandinavian companies, not only Swedish. Anna has been with Jan for three years; she came originally from jumping and was based with him for two years; during that time there was a lot of basic work to do to improve the seat, the use of seat and legs to give the correct signals and improve the timing of the aids.

The next step was a horse – Anna has Detroit, an 8 year old Dimaggio stallion, bought from a German jumping stud, so initially behind in his dressage training for his age. They have bigger goals for this horse; not just young riders but Grand Prix; he is a good type with good gaits and finds it easy to collect; however, he can be a

Anna Zibrandtsen, Dimaggio x Lord Liberty

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bit macho and tense.

There are various challenges when making the transition from juniors to young riders and beyond, in general mainly the tempi changes and the pirouettes. So work on lengthening and shortening with a quick rhythm behind, not so much collection as finding longer and shorter strides, perhaps working on a big circle, while keeping a consistent rhythm, is very important.

When the above is established, it’s time to think about work towards pirouettes – working on a smaller circle in a slight travers and then, on the same circle, going for bigger, longer strides, and then smaller again – chose a size of circle that allows the horse to cope and go large to freshen up the canter if it starts to stall.

The next step is to work on the quarter line and do a small working pirouette and then on to next quarter line and so on across the arena. This helps self-confidence in horse and rider and develops gradually into smaller and smaller pirouettes; it’s better not to use the diagonal line as this is the one used in competition but, whatever the line, it’s essential to go into and out of the pirouette on the same line, straightening out and keeping the same canter before and after the exercise. Using the diagonal line to shorten the steps in canter without doing the pirouette is another important step along the way - don’t be too keen to always do pirouettes. Never let the horse take over and, for this reason, it’s important to separate the pirouette work into segments so that each one works before the next is attempted.

Riding specific lines, centre lines, diagonals and so on, without performing an exercise is important so that the horse learns to wait for his rider’s signal – otherwise anticipation and tension creep in, the horse becomes too high in the neck and hollows his back. What applies to pirouette work also applies to changes – it’s more important to develop a good, uphill canter, with shorter and longer strides, and plenty of jump, with a change or changes at different points of the line so that the horse doesn’t take over; for the same reason, it can be good not to count changes but do them only when everything is in place.

In trot, with control points rechecked, on the circle, playing with longer strides, shorter strides, quick and short, then forward again, changing the rein. Always keeping the rhythm so that the power comes up and through, towards passage; putting the horse more up in the neck towards a competition position, then using the legs to put the smaller strides up, after which longer strides and stretching round and deep.

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Less is more to keep the quality. We try to get riders to understand the why and how of what they need to do and the necessity of the three control points - the rhythm, the strides, and the line; if you can control them then you can ride. Luck has nothing to do with anything, correct training and practice is what gains results. Jan wants to be more than a trainer - a coach, a mentor, a lorry driver (if necessary), with the possibility of feedback so it can be important to be with the student at the competition to see how they cope and help with the aftermath. Also, and crucially, to help find the right horse for the rider.

Kyra - you can only learn riding by riding; ride a lot of different horses as much as possible.

Kyra’s student, Marina Mattsson, brought in Cassio, Conteur x Calato, an eight year old Holsteiner, standing at 1m80. They competed at the Scandinavian and European Championships in young rider and U25 classes. Marina has ridden one very difficult horse, and some schoolmasters, so has experience at Grand Prix and the plan with Cassio is to go directly to Grand Prix with Rio in their sights. He shows a lot of talent for piaffe and passage.

Kyra wants to know what the rider would normally do and listens to what the rider wants to train. This has the advantage of teaching riders to know what they want to work in; however, sometimes Kyra will see that the problem is not what the rider thinks it is so then the session gets adapted accordingly; riders don’t always correctly diagnose the problems.

Work usually starts with canter on a circle with this horse, relaxing him, patting him with the outside rein hand and then riding more forward. He needs to collect his body and shorten up his trunk but with a long neck, carrying himself and not depending on the reins for his balance; shortening the steps, slowing the canter so he will look for the contact and take it forwards, downwards; then longer steps keeping the longer neck.

When the aids have been given and he has been asked to work, sit quietly and don’t keep asking all the time; let him carry himself and perhaps make mistakes, don’t over correct, he needs to learn how to do the work himself. When the horse is patted with the outside rein hand, the rein is automatically given forwards and the contact is released, and the horse learns to carry the rider without the hand.

Keep the weight down in the saddle, and don’t use the legs too much as that often

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makes the rider tip forward through the changes, keep the tailbone underneath. Use the quarter lines for changes, especially the one times, but don’t be greedy with them; it’s better to get fewer good ones than more less good ones. Decide on a number beforehand and then add more when the horse is really ready and waiting for the aids. When you add a change, it’s easier to do one more to the inside; make sure that the horse is established with one to the easier side, then do one the other way, then back to the easy side; don’t do more than you can easily do and reward him immediately before worrying about a transition.

Kyra starts Marina and Cassio in work towards piaffe and passage in trot with long and short strides, keeping within a good rhythm and thinking of the trot quality all the time, lower and rounder in the neck, to counteract any hollowness. Think of him shortening up the underneath line and coming longer in the topline because he tries to do the opposite - so lower his neck and the topline will shorten when the underneath line shortens.

Ask yourself how little you can do, often less is more; don’t ask too much.

Keep him equal in both hands, not that you fight him, sit heavy and let him bring his back up to you; don’t find yourself coming forward; if he comes up with the croup, sit back a little to counter that. When he gets nervous and tense in the neck, keep him lower so you don’t ask for more piaffe than he can do; if he comes up in the neck, the tummy goes down, and then he can’t give more collection. Everything doesn’t come at once and he’s not always straight, keep things possible for him.

The canter pirouette requires the same degree of collection as piaffe. Most PSG riders try to ride the pirouettes without the self-carriage that is needed as they haven’t started any piaffe work. So start with a couple of piaffe-like steps into canter and then into pirouette canter, sit heavy, stay behind him, keep the contact, then into piaffe again. This is a really good exercise, although piaffe is not really piaffe at this stage but just short steps, and it’s only possible to go into canter when the inside hindleg is on the ground so it’s also a good exercise for the rider’s feel.

Kyra likes energetic horses but riders have to work for good results, so relaxation is important although, often with new work, one has to go to the border of what the

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combination can do and then back off; push the boundaries but don’t send them over the cliff.

Young people want a lot and they should but they also need to learn patience.

PANEL DISCUSSIONHans Peter Minderhoud; Henk van Bergen; Frank Kemperman (FEI)

HP - did the work himself, his dream was to be a good rider; he worked as a groom to Anky in the holidays and, after many years of hard work, had some success. Swedish scheme is very good for riders to have such training but thinks it would be necessary to check the discipline from the riders that they don’t become spoiled and find it too easy. Everyone needs a plan but not so much help that they don’t have to work for it.

FK - education is critical, very important as future is with the young, they need to have fun and be brought into the sport and stay in it. Going from low level to high level is hard to do, investing time and money into young people and their horses is essential, to bring them through to Grand Prix. To obtain banking sponsorship in 2008, during the banking crisis, the cooking must have been really good!H v B - really impressed; so good to get top class instruction and support for the young; in the end everyone is responsible for their own success. Kyra is around every corner, your influence is very strong and you probably don’t realise just how much you do influence the sport!

With Rabobank’s support in the Netherlands and the lottery funded UK system, the future for younger riders is looking up with more and more similar training, with the same goals and less diverse systems. There should always be why or because and how; no longer is it enough to do it because you are told, there needs to be an explanation to our pupils and what should be achieved for horses and riders.The interesting part is the journey; you know how a millionaire lives but how do you become a millionaire is the interesting question.

Henk van Bergen, Hans Peter Minderhoud, Frank Kemperman

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KK - The riders in the project are not ‘normal’ riders, they are all dedicated and work very hard. A similar scheme exists in Finland; it works because it is regular once a month, riders are given a task, the results are analysed, then they are shown how to continue to the next level; the drip-drip technique works.

Q – from the audience How do the riders apply, how do you pick them?They can send in a video and attend a training session, after which it would be decided if they could join the programme. It’s important that they can fit into the team and, if it doesn’t work, then group members do change – occasionally throwing someone out keeps the others on their toes!

Some riders have sponsored horses, some have their own. Mostly, breeders own the horses and there is an agreement or contract in place so, to be in the programme with free training, the owners have to commit to keeping the horses. This is probably simpler to do in a small country as it’s easy to see where horses and riders are. Richard Davison closed this 13th Global Dressage Forum by thanking everyone who contributed, and hoped to see all back at the occasion of the 14th Forum on 20th -21th October 2014 in Denmark.

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Text: Andrea HessayPictures: Dirk Caremans

A big thank you to the sponsors and partners for their loyal support:

International Dressage Trainer Club (IDTC) International Dressage Riders Club (IDRC)Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation (KNHS) The International Society for Equitation Science (ISES) Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) Province of Noord Brabant (the Netherlands) Mrs. L. Sonnenberg (Switzerland)Blue Hors (Denmark)Tschuggen Hotelgroup (United Kingdom)Mr and Mrs Bartels (the Netherlands) Mrs A.K. Linsenhoff (Germany) Mrs K. Kuistila (Finland)Altez Group (Belgium) Toosbuy Foundation (Denmark)Mrs A. Lefler (Russia)Altez Group (Belgium)

86 The Chronicle of the Horse

DRESSAGE

Sports psychologist Jan Dierens introduced the word that became the central theme of this year’s Global Dressage Forum: self-

confidence. Dierens, who’s been the official sports

psychologist of the Belgian dressage team since 2012, described his work as a tool to “improve self-knowledge and self-confidence,” helping athletes to become aware of “which mental skills am I already good at, and which ones do I need to train?”

Ultimately, if you feel that you have more resources, like breathing tech-niques or progressive muscle relaxation, you interpret symptoms of tension more positively because you have the means to deal with them, according to Dierens.

Practical DemonstrationLeave it to Isabell Werth to follow up this brief theoretical excursion with a practical demonstration of exactly what self-confidence means: Germany’s 44-year-old dressage queen didn’t come to Hooge Mierde, the Netherlands, on Oct. 28-29 to show the sport in perfec-tion, but to give the audience an insight into her daily work with young horses, with her young stable riders, and with her “work in progress,” Don Johnson.

“We’ll show you what he can do already, maybe with a few mistakes,” she said as she introduced the 6-year-old Sorrento, ridden by her stable rider Niklaas Feilzer. “When I look for a dres-sage horse, I look for three really good gaits and for elasticity. It’s our job then to make the little things better and the big things bigger. Also, I like my horses

Self-Confidence Was The Theme Of This Year’s Global Dressage Forum

Whether human or equine, building mental fortitude is an important part of self-improvement.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY BARBARA SCHNELL

“I don’t want to buy a medal,” said Isabell Werth at the Global Dressage Forum. She explained that she wanted to win medals, but only on horses she’s made from scratch.

86 The Chronicle of the Horse

DRESSAGE

Sports psychologist Jan Dierens introduced the word that became the central theme of this year’s Global Dressage Forum: self-

confidence. Dierens, who’s been the official sports

psychologist of the Belgian dressage team since 2012, described his work as a tool to “improve self-knowledge and self-confidence,” helping athletes to become aware of “which mental skills am I already good at, and which ones do I need to train?”

Ultimately, if you feel that you have more resources, like breathing tech-niques or progressive muscle relaxation, you interpret symptoms of tension more positively because you have the means to deal with them, according to Dierens.

Practical DemonstrationLeave it to Isabell Werth to follow up this brief theoretical excursion with a practical demonstration of exactly what self-confidence means: Germany’s 44-year-old dressage queen didn’t come to Hooge Mierde, the Netherlands, on Oct. 28-29 to show the sport in perfec-tion, but to give the audience an insight into her daily work with young horses, with her young stable riders, and with her “work in progress,” Don Johnson.

“We’ll show you what he can do already, maybe with a few mistakes,” she said as she introduced the 6-year-old Sorrento, ridden by her stable rider Niklaas Feilzer. “When I look for a dres-sage horse, I look for three really good gaits and for elasticity. It’s our job then to make the little things better and the big things bigger. Also, I like my horses

Self-Confidence Was The Theme Of This Year’s Global Dressage Forum

Whether human or equine, building mental fortitude is an important part of self-improvement.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY BARBARA SCHNELL

“I don’t want to buy a medal,” said Isabell Werth at the Global Dressage Forum. She explained that she wanted to win medals, but only on horses she’s made from scratch.

November 18 & 25, 2013 • chronofhorse.com 87

Isabell Werth’s demonstration was the main event at this year’s Global Dressage Forum, show-casing her training progression by beginning with her young horses and ending with her Grand Prix partner Don Johnson (pictured).

to show their own opinion—I need my horses to be self-confident, too.”

Taking Sorrento along was Werth’s first risk of the day, since the horse had been to only one small local show before. Undaunted, the chestnut showed off the trot and canter work he’s used to from his warm-ups at home, which soon included little exercises like the leg yield.

Werth said she always has a horse’s present training state and its perspective in mind: “[The leg yield] is the best start for half-passes; it keeps them free in the shoulder, and it’s the key to keeping them in the right rhythm,” she said.

Little transitions within the gaits followed to increase the horse’s elas-ticity. “Once they can canter on the spot, pirouettes are not a problem,” she said.

Two riders from her stable team accompanied Werth as well as Spanish Grand Prix rider Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, who has been working with her for a couple of years, helping out with the piaffe.

“Before I met Jose, I always started the piaffe from the trot,” she said. “His approach is much more to have the piaffe come from the horse, to forget the piaffe when you start that kind of work with a young horse and just be happy when the first reaction to the touch of the whip comes in the right way.”

What followed was a brief demonstra-tion of Mena’s calm approach, at the end of which Sorrento was clearly having fun dancing on his own.

Beatrice Buchwald and Weihegold demonstrated the progression of that work with a small tour horse on its way to Grand Prix. Here Mena showed in an

even more pointed way how he uses the shoulder-in for the piaffe work.

“In the shoulder-in we already have the control of the hind legs,” said Werth. “It helps us to keep control and contact, so that ultimately we can ride the piaffe instead of just hoping that nothing goes wrong.”

“I Don’t Want To Buy A Medal”But it was Werth’s own riding demon-stration on her extravagant European team champion Don Johnson that became the awe-inspiring centerpiece of this year’s GDF. As she talked a bit about herself first in an interview with Richard Davison and her sponsor Madeleine Winter-Schulze, she came across as the up-front person that she is—and as an equestrian whose passion

is, well, it is winning, but she wants to create those victories from scratch.

Winter-Schulze described that passion from her perspective: “Isabell doesn’t want to buy Grand Prix horses; she wants to bring up young horses. I’d buy her a very expensive horse, but she doesn’t want to.

“So whenever we have our eyes on a horse, she decides, and I agree,” Germany’s top horse owner added with a smile.

“I don’t want to buy a medal,” said Werth. “It’s easier for me to sit in front of the TV watching the London Olympics than to ride a competition on a million-euro horse. It’s a great plea-sure to have so much freedom, but I do feel responsible, of course. I don’t want to spend Madeleine’s money on the wrong horse.”

I like my horses

to show their own opinion.”

–ISABELL WERTH

88 The Chronicle of the Horse

(From left) Liane Wachtmeister, Jan Brink and Kyra Kyrklund combined their knowledge and facilities with Ake Björsell’s funding in order to build “Knytkalaset,” a program to help support and train developing Scandinavian riders.

Many dressage fans thought Don Johnson was the wrong horse. The temperamental 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Don Frederico—Werona, Warkant) has a mind of his own, but he also has tremendous elasticity. He has a special place in Werth’s heart, and she wanted to show the audience why.

In the saddle, she picked up on the same elements she’d shown with her team riders, using lots of transitions within the gaits to get “Johnny’s” atten-tion and activate his hind legs, the shoulder-in (“with a top shoulder-in you can prepare a good half pass”), and playing with the length of the canter strides until it was almost on the spot.

“When I’m able to bring a horse to this point, then a pirouette is not a big thing,” said Werth. “When I can ride transitions easily—and we start this by riding lots of canter-trot transitions with our young horses—then it’s not necessary to train movements all the time. We train a horse to make him stronger instead of making him weak, instead of making him lose substance because of all those exercises.”

All the while, she worked with her rambunctious Johnny to get from his

initial playful impulsiveness to the point where there was no denying that he was “one” with his rider, showing his full athleticism in an awesome final passage-piaffe tour.

“I was hoping that I could show you this, but there was no guarantee,” admitted Werth. “But the reason I brought him here was because I wanted to show you what I see in him. Sadly we can’t always show that in competition, but that’s what I’m working toward. I know, of course, that champions aren’t made in the warm-up or at home; we have to show it in competition.”

Asked about her future plans and hopes by Davison, Werth said: “I want to spend as much time as possible on different horses. I do not plan to retire in the next few years. I think it’s difficult to find the right time to end a career, and I certainly don’t want people to say about me, ‘Oh, there comes the legend.’ My perspective has to be interesting and exciting, and as long as that’s there, I’ll go on. But when the time is there, I’ll be just as happy to stand at the sidelines and be proud of my team.”

The Potluck ApproachIn a similar vein, Kyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink and Liane Wachtmeister described their project “Knytkalaset,” which brings together sponsorship, knowledge and talent in order to help rising athletes.

“A few years ago I was approached by Jan’s long-time sponsor Ake Björsell, who wanted to increase his engagement in dressage,” said Kyrklund, a living legend in her own right. “I told him to either sponsor one rider and send him abroad more, or to develop a training program. So we started Knytkalaset, the Swedish equivalent of potluck, a party where everybody brings something: I had the knowledge, Jan the facilities and Ake the money.”

Working in complete independence from their national federation gives them the freedom to focus not only on Swedish riders, but also to take on other Scandinavians, as well, and to operate without having to set an age limit for the riders.

“We organize 10 training sessions a year, each for two or three days,” said Kyrklund. “We think it is important that all students stay there all day, and that they aren’t just interested in their own

lessons. We wanted the students to know each other and each other’s horses well and to be able to help each other out. So we have a real support group there, with us being mentor and coach to the riders.”

The trio then did a demon-stration of their training work with three riders, instilling self-confidence into riders and horses in much the same way Werth had shown it.

“Don’t bother about the move-ments; bother about the jump, the suppleness,” Wachtmeister advised ambitious Danish junior Emelie Aldenfalk.

“I always go with less and go for the quality,” was Brink’s credo for young rider Anna Zibrandtsen of Denmark.

“To do a really good pirouette you need the same degree of collection as in the piaffe,” was Kyrklund’s advice for aspiring under-25 rider Marina Mattson of Sweden.

DRESSAGE

November 18 & 25, 2013 • chronofhorse.com 89

“I always go with less and go for the quality,” was Jan Brink’s advice to young rider Anna Zibrandtsen of Denmark at the Global Dressage Forum.

Planting The SeedBut the GDF, which will move to Denmark’s Blue Hors stud in 2014 before returning to the Netherlands in 2015, isn’t only a place for practical demonstrations and learning. It also tends to leave its mark on international dressage politics.

Not only did Fédération Equestre Internationale Dressage Director Trond Asmyr listen when Tineke Bartels warned horse owners to “look further and not just want their horse to become champion as a 5-year old,” he also suggested a “young horse round table” to discuss whether shows like the FEI World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses are a waste of young horses rather than a stepping stone.

And he certainly was all ears when five-star judge Katrina Wüst presented her take on a new and more objective judging system for the freestyle. Wüst has been advocating a modernization

of the system for years, and now she’s found a computer specialist, young Daniel Göhlen, who created the neces-sary tools to realize this long-overdue step into the 21st century.

Wüst and Göhlen created an elec-tronic catalog of all the required movements and possible difficulties and combinations that the riders may use to design their freestyle. A freestyle created with this tool can be handed to the judges before a show so that diffi-culties would no longer be overlooked because the judge can actually judge the execution of the floorplan instead of concentrating on too many things at once.

Using the method already known from other sports like ice skating or gymnastics, Wüst suggested a default score of 6.0 for each movement, with points being added if it’s done excep-tionally well, and points being deducted if there are mistakes in the execution.

This presentation was received with

tremendous applause from riders and judges alike, and FEI officials will now consider adapting and testing the system.

There were even murmurs demanding a similar system for the technical tests, as well, and in the end it was International Dressage Riders Club Secretary General Wayne Channon, whose relentless commit-ment has already helped implement half marks in dressage judging, who voiced his thoughts on the subject: “We need a system that enables us to judge accurately; we need a code of points. The dressage handbook describes in excruciating detail what to look for in dressage judging; it just doesn’t say what to deduct when it’s not there.”

ridehesteN h 12/13 3

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

Næppe har man betrådt familien Bartels smukke anlæg Academy Bartels i Hooge Mierde i Holland, som lige er blevet udvidet med endnu et pragtfuldt stort ridehus,

førend man betages af stedets smukke rammer, af dets funktio-nalisme og fremsynethed. Her tænkes stort, her foregår store ting. Hele familien, inklusiv svigerbørn, er overalt nærværende for at sikre, at alt forløber gnidningsløst for de 350 deltagere fra 24 lande. Men også genbrug og konservatisme, som ikke skal forstås negativt, prægede dette års seminar. Hvad man derimod manglede, var et indslag som kunne få publikum op af stolene, et indslag som viste en anden form for dressur, end den vi kender fra konkurren-cesporten, et indslag, hvor man bare kunne læne sig tilbage og nyde nogle helt specielle menneskers helt specielle kunnen, som Tristan Tucker fra sidste år, Jean Francois Pignon og Cadre Noir fra Saumur for at nævne nogle af de oplevelser, der står skarpest i hukommelsen.

”Same procedure as last year”Næsten alt var ved det gode gamle. Britiske Richard Davi-son styrede som hvert år slagets gang med sædvanlig humor, myndighed og takt, men undgik måske bevidst konfrontatio-ner, bl.a. ved at ekspertpanelerne, der normalt kommenterer de forskellige indslag, i år var skåret væsentlig ned i antal.

Siden Global Dressage Foundation, som H.K.H. Prinsesse Benedikte er formand for, blev oprettet i 2012, er det hende der officielt åbner forummet, men prinsessen havde også det hverv, sammen med Esben Møller til slut på seminaret, at bekendtgøre, at for første gang siden GDF blev grundlagt for 13 år siden, vil forummet næste år ikke finde sted i Holland, men hos Blue Hors i Randbøl den 20. og 21. oktober. Det er en cadeau til Danmark, og en udfordring, som der er al mulig grund til at tro, at staben på Blue Hors kan leve op til.

Man kan beskrive dette års Global Dressage Forum (GDF) med de to ord; kvalitet og professionalisme

TeksT og foTo: JyTTe Lemkow

Traditionen tro er det en repræsentant fra det internationale rideforbund FEI, der tager ordet først, og som gennem flere år var det direktøren for dressur og paradressur Trond Asmyr, der fortalte om lovændringer og nye tiltag. Som han sagde ind-ledningsvis, så er det gennem kritik, at FEI udvikler sig, men han huskede også rytterne på deres medansvar, når det gælder om at bevare sportens image ved nøje at overveje, hvorledes de rider, når de træner og varmer op ved internationale stævner. Blandt de mange informationer var det nok af størst interesse for Danmark, at ved OL 2016 i Rio, bliver dressurrytternes

kvote forhøjet fra 50 til 60. Det betyder også, at holdene igen må bestå af fire ryttere, og at det for de hold, der kvalificerer sig direkte, er tilladt at medbringe en reserverytter, hvorimod de hold, der er sammensat af individuelt kvalificerede ryttere, ikke har dette privilegium. Som noget nyt indføres der fra 1. januar 2014 to nye Intermediaire-programmer kaldet A og B, som er lettere end det gamle Intermediaire II, der næsten ikke rides mere. Det skulle give en mere glidende overgang mellem lille tur og Grand Prix, og er fx tiltænkt unge ryttere på vej ind i seniorernes klasser eller erfarne ryttere på unge heste.

Tænk jer til at opnå bedre resultaterIngen topsport uden sportspsykologer og ingen GDF uden en sådan. I år var det den unge belgier Jan Dierens, som har en master i sport og bevægelse, og som blandt andre opgaver er

GDF 2013

= kvalitet oG proFessionalisme

som formand for Global dressage Foundation, er det H.K.H. Prinsesse Benedikte, der officielt åbnede det 13. Global dressage Forum. Og sammen med Esben Møller bekendtgjorde h.K.h. Prinsesse Benedikte, at Global dressage Forum i 2014 vil blive afholdt hos Blue hors i randbøl. �

�dressur- og para-dressur direktøren fra Fei, Trond Asmyr, er traditionen tro den første, der får ordet.

Jan Dierens viste med humor og charme, hvor svært det kan være at udføre en simpel øvelse som kræver super koncentration. diagrammet viser, hvordan man bringer sig selv i den ideelle konkurrenceposition.

For første gang siden GDF blev grundlagt for 13 år

siden, vil forummet næste år ikke finde sted i Holland,

men hos Blue Hors i randbøl den 20. og 21. oktober

ridehesteN h 12/132

�danske Anna Zibrandtsen har i to år redet fast hos Jan Brink, og er i dag er del af ”Nursery” -gruppen for unge dressurryttere, som var et af emnerne ved Global dressage Forum.

ridehesteN h 12/13 3

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

Næppe har man betrådt familien Bartels smukke anlæg Academy Bartels i Hooge Mierde i Holland, som lige er blevet udvidet med endnu et pragtfuldt stort ridehus,

førend man betages af stedets smukke rammer, af dets funktio-nalisme og fremsynethed. Her tænkes stort, her foregår store ting. Hele familien, inklusiv svigerbørn, er overalt nærværende for at sikre, at alt forløber gnidningsløst for de 350 deltagere fra 24 lande. Men også genbrug og konservatisme, som ikke skal forstås negativt, prægede dette års seminar. Hvad man derimod manglede, var et indslag som kunne få publikum op af stolene, et indslag som viste en anden form for dressur, end den vi kender fra konkurren-cesporten, et indslag, hvor man bare kunne læne sig tilbage og nyde nogle helt specielle menneskers helt specielle kunnen, som Tristan Tucker fra sidste år, Jean Francois Pignon og Cadre Noir fra Saumur for at nævne nogle af de oplevelser, der står skarpest i hukommelsen.

”Same procedure as last year”Næsten alt var ved det gode gamle. Britiske Richard Davi-son styrede som hvert år slagets gang med sædvanlig humor, myndighed og takt, men undgik måske bevidst konfrontatio-ner, bl.a. ved at ekspertpanelerne, der normalt kommenterer de forskellige indslag, i år var skåret væsentlig ned i antal.

Siden Global Dressage Foundation, som H.K.H. Prinsesse Benedikte er formand for, blev oprettet i 2012, er det hende der officielt åbner forummet, men prinsessen havde også det hverv, sammen med Esben Møller til slut på seminaret, at bekendtgøre, at for første gang siden GDF blev grundlagt for 13 år siden, vil forummet næste år ikke finde sted i Holland, men hos Blue Hors i Randbøl den 20. og 21. oktober. Det er en cadeau til Danmark, og en udfordring, som der er al mulig grund til at tro, at staben på Blue Hors kan leve op til.

Man kan beskrive dette års Global Dressage Forum (GDF) med de to ord; kvalitet og professionalisme

TeksT og foTo: JyTTe Lemkow

Traditionen tro er det en repræsentant fra det internationale rideforbund FEI, der tager ordet først, og som gennem flere år var det direktøren for dressur og paradressur Trond Asmyr, der fortalte om lovændringer og nye tiltag. Som han sagde ind-ledningsvis, så er det gennem kritik, at FEI udvikler sig, men han huskede også rytterne på deres medansvar, når det gælder om at bevare sportens image ved nøje at overveje, hvorledes de rider, når de træner og varmer op ved internationale stævner. Blandt de mange informationer var det nok af størst interesse for Danmark, at ved OL 2016 i Rio, bliver dressurrytternes

kvote forhøjet fra 50 til 60. Det betyder også, at holdene igen må bestå af fire ryttere, og at det for de hold, der kvalificerer sig direkte, er tilladt at medbringe en reserverytter, hvorimod de hold, der er sammensat af individuelt kvalificerede ryttere, ikke har dette privilegium. Som noget nyt indføres der fra 1. januar 2014 to nye Intermediaire-programmer kaldet A og B, som er lettere end det gamle Intermediaire II, der næsten ikke rides mere. Det skulle give en mere glidende overgang mellem lille tur og Grand Prix, og er fx tiltænkt unge ryttere på vej ind i seniorernes klasser eller erfarne ryttere på unge heste.

Tænk jer til at opnå bedre resultaterIngen topsport uden sportspsykologer og ingen GDF uden en sådan. I år var det den unge belgier Jan Dierens, som har en master i sport og bevægelse, og som blandt andre opgaver er

GDF 2013

= kvalitet oG proFessionalisme

som formand for Global dressage Foundation, er det H.K.H. Prinsesse Benedikte, der officielt åbnede det 13. Global dressage Forum. Og sammen med Esben Møller bekendtgjorde h.K.h. Prinsesse Benedikte, at Global dressage Forum i 2014 vil blive afholdt hos Blue hors i randbøl. �

�dressur- og para-dressur direktøren fra Fei, Trond Asmyr, er traditionen tro den første, der får ordet.

Jan Dierens viste med humor og charme, hvor svært det kan være at udføre en simpel øvelse som kræver super koncentration. diagrammet viser, hvordan man bringer sig selv i den ideelle konkurrenceposition.

For første gang siden GDF blev grundlagt for 13 år

siden, vil forummet næste år ikke finde sted i Holland,

men hos Blue Hors i randbøl den 20. og 21. oktober

ridehesteN h 12/132

�danske Anna Zibrandtsen har i to år redet fast hos Jan Brink, og er i dag er del af ”Nursery” -gruppen for unge dressurryttere, som var et af emnerne ved Global dressage Forum.

ridehesteN h 12/134 ridehesteN h 12/13 5

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

1/2ann.

tilknyttet det belgiske dressurhold, der nu trænes af hollandske Sjef Janssen. Velformuleret, entusiastisk og med humor de-monstrerede han med øvelser, penduler og balloner, hvor stor betydning det har, at man kan koncentrere sig totalt her og nu, at man er i stand til at scanne sin krop for forkerte spændinger, og hvorledes hjernen i indlæringen ikke skelner mellem, om en øvelse udføres fysisk, eller om man blot forestiller sig den. Alt sammen selvfølgelig for at forbedre sit præstationsniveau med de midler man har til rådighed.

Et gigantisk arrangementMed i klubben af de talere, der, fordi de har begrænset tid, mener, at de skal tale dobbelt så hurtigt, hørte Laurent Cellier fra Frankrig, sportsdirektør for det forestående World Eque-strian Games i Normandiet i 2014. Lille og spinkel af skik-kelse er det utroligt, at ansvaret for 1000 heste og et tilsvarende antal ryttere fra 60 forskellige lande, 1200 journalister og 3000 frivillige skal hvile på hans skuldre. I alt afholdes der verdensmesterska-ber i otte discipliner: dressur, springning, military, firspandskørsel, distance, reining, voltigering og paradressur, medens yderligere to discipliner vil blive vist som demonstration, nemlig hestebold og polo. Man forventer 500.000 tilskuere og jonglerer med et budget på 72.000.000 euro = ca. 545.760.000 kr., hvilket er den største hestebegivenhed i Frankrig nogensinde. Så velkommen til Normandiet fra 23. august til 7. september.

Når en atomfysiker gransker dommerlisterAtomfysikeren David Stickland som har lavet analyser af dressurresultater til sit speciale, og som nu er fast tilknyt-tet FEI, overgår alt og alle i hurtig tale og hurtig tænkning. Hans analyser bliver af FEI i dag brugt til at udvikle bedre

bedømmelsesgrundlag, og af rytterne til at finde en måde at forbedre deres resultater på. David er også blevet en institu-tion ved GDF. Indtil nu har det kun været dressurresultater på Grand Prix-niveau, han har beskæftiget sig med, men at prøve at finde ud af, hvorfor så mange gode heste på Prix St. Georges-niveau ikke når til Grand Prix, og hvad det kunne være for nogle øvelser, der resultatmæssigt kunne spille en rolle for dette faktum, var en udfordring der måtte prøves af. Derfor blev over 4000 resultatlister fra Prix St. Georges ana-lyseret. De stammede fra tyske nationale stævner, som har fundet sted fra marts 2009 til oktober 2013. Via nogle for en gangs skyld svært forståelige skemaer og beregninger, nåede han frem til en konklusion som næsten er logisk, at det er de øvelser, som dommerne er uenige om, der er udslagsgivende for den endelige placering. Og pudsigt nok kom David Stick-

land til samme resultat, som man tidligere er nået frem til rent manuelt, at det er halve galoppirouetter og skridten, der volder dommerne de største problemer, og derfor bliver så udslagsgi-vende, selvom de ikke fylder så meget i selve programmet. De halve eller hele pirouetter, som rideteknisk er meget krævende øvelser, fordi alle hjælpere skal koordineres på én gang: den ligeudrettende, den afkortende, den bøjende, den forholdende, den drivende, den drejende og placeringen af balancen, er også bedømmelsesmæssigt de sværeste at identificere. Og så er der skridten, denne langsomme gangart, hvor dommerne

aldrig kan blive enige om, hvorvidt den som forlangt er ren firtaktet, om hesten altså f lytter hvert ben individuelt eller om det modsatte er tilfældet. Det burde ellers være nemt at se og at dømme.

Hollandsk hesteavl når den er bedstMen heldigvis blev der også vist levende heste. Holland-ske Wim Ernes er foruden at være femstjernet internatio-nal dressurdommer også formand for det dommerpanel der kårer hingste til KWPN (det hollandske avlsforbund), og han havde allieret sig med tre avlseksperter for at vise, hvor-ledes man rent avlsmæssigt udvalgte føl med Grand Prix for øje: Nico Witte som opdagede vel nok den mest brugte hingst i hollandsk avl i nyere tid, Jazz, allerede som føl, Tim Coomans som fandt og trænede Ravel, der siden blev solgt til USA og redet af Steffen Peters og endelig Joop van Uytert, som har ejet Gribaldi og Painted Black. Vi blev præsente-ret for nogle rigtigt dejlige eksempler på hollandsk heste-avl, som jo virkelig hører til blandt sværvægterne i Europa i dag. Fra to herlige, ædle og velgående føl, via henholdsvis to toårige, treårige og fireårige, til to heste som var næsten klar til Grand Prix. Blandt stamtavlerne på disse pragt- eksemplarer gik navne igen som især Jazz, men også Apache, Ziwago, Negro, Bordeaux, Gribaldi, Vivaldi og Partout. Især en treårig elitehoppe efter Tango, stor og med en herlig ba-lance og store, affjedrende og smidige gangarter efterlod sig et super indtryk. Den havde opnået et samlet resultat på 85%

Laurent Cellier, lille af størrelse, men med et kæmpe ansvar, som sportsdirektør for WeG, der afholdes i Normandiet i 2014.

Wim Ernes, fem stjernet international dressur dommer og formand for hingstekårings-dommerpanelet.

det er ikke altid let at forstå david sticklands diagrammer, men detaljerede er de!

Det er de øvelser, som dommerne er uenige om,

der er udslagsgivende for den endelige placering

ridehesteN h 12/134 ridehesteN h 12/13 5

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

1/2ann.

tilknyttet det belgiske dressurhold, der nu trænes af hollandske Sjef Janssen. Velformuleret, entusiastisk og med humor de-monstrerede han med øvelser, penduler og balloner, hvor stor betydning det har, at man kan koncentrere sig totalt her og nu, at man er i stand til at scanne sin krop for forkerte spændinger, og hvorledes hjernen i indlæringen ikke skelner mellem, om en øvelse udføres fysisk, eller om man blot forestiller sig den. Alt sammen selvfølgelig for at forbedre sit præstationsniveau med de midler man har til rådighed.

Et gigantisk arrangementMed i klubben af de talere, der, fordi de har begrænset tid, mener, at de skal tale dobbelt så hurtigt, hørte Laurent Cellier fra Frankrig, sportsdirektør for det forestående World Eque-strian Games i Normandiet i 2014. Lille og spinkel af skik-kelse er det utroligt, at ansvaret for 1000 heste og et tilsvarende antal ryttere fra 60 forskellige lande, 1200 journalister og 3000 frivillige skal hvile på hans skuldre. I alt afholdes der verdensmesterska-ber i otte discipliner: dressur, springning, military, firspandskørsel, distance, reining, voltigering og paradressur, medens yderligere to discipliner vil blive vist som demonstration, nemlig hestebold og polo. Man forventer 500.000 tilskuere og jonglerer med et budget på 72.000.000 euro = ca. 545.760.000 kr., hvilket er den største hestebegivenhed i Frankrig nogensinde. Så velkommen til Normandiet fra 23. august til 7. september.

Når en atomfysiker gransker dommerlisterAtomfysikeren David Stickland som har lavet analyser af dressurresultater til sit speciale, og som nu er fast tilknyt-tet FEI, overgår alt og alle i hurtig tale og hurtig tænkning. Hans analyser bliver af FEI i dag brugt til at udvikle bedre

bedømmelsesgrundlag, og af rytterne til at finde en måde at forbedre deres resultater på. David er også blevet en institu-tion ved GDF. Indtil nu har det kun været dressurresultater på Grand Prix-niveau, han har beskæftiget sig med, men at prøve at finde ud af, hvorfor så mange gode heste på Prix St. Georges-niveau ikke når til Grand Prix, og hvad det kunne være for nogle øvelser, der resultatmæssigt kunne spille en rolle for dette faktum, var en udfordring der måtte prøves af. Derfor blev over 4000 resultatlister fra Prix St. Georges ana-lyseret. De stammede fra tyske nationale stævner, som har fundet sted fra marts 2009 til oktober 2013. Via nogle for en gangs skyld svært forståelige skemaer og beregninger, nåede han frem til en konklusion som næsten er logisk, at det er de øvelser, som dommerne er uenige om, der er udslagsgivende for den endelige placering. Og pudsigt nok kom David Stick-

land til samme resultat, som man tidligere er nået frem til rent manuelt, at det er halve galoppirouetter og skridten, der volder dommerne de største problemer, og derfor bliver så udslagsgi-vende, selvom de ikke fylder så meget i selve programmet. De halve eller hele pirouetter, som rideteknisk er meget krævende øvelser, fordi alle hjælpere skal koordineres på én gang: den ligeudrettende, den afkortende, den bøjende, den forholdende, den drivende, den drejende og placeringen af balancen, er også bedømmelsesmæssigt de sværeste at identificere. Og så er der skridten, denne langsomme gangart, hvor dommerne

aldrig kan blive enige om, hvorvidt den som forlangt er ren firtaktet, om hesten altså f lytter hvert ben individuelt eller om det modsatte er tilfældet. Det burde ellers være nemt at se og at dømme.

Hollandsk hesteavl når den er bedstMen heldigvis blev der også vist levende heste. Holland-ske Wim Ernes er foruden at være femstjernet internatio-nal dressurdommer også formand for det dommerpanel der kårer hingste til KWPN (det hollandske avlsforbund), og han havde allieret sig med tre avlseksperter for at vise, hvor-ledes man rent avlsmæssigt udvalgte føl med Grand Prix for øje: Nico Witte som opdagede vel nok den mest brugte hingst i hollandsk avl i nyere tid, Jazz, allerede som føl, Tim Coomans som fandt og trænede Ravel, der siden blev solgt til USA og redet af Steffen Peters og endelig Joop van Uytert, som har ejet Gribaldi og Painted Black. Vi blev præsente-ret for nogle rigtigt dejlige eksempler på hollandsk heste-avl, som jo virkelig hører til blandt sværvægterne i Europa i dag. Fra to herlige, ædle og velgående føl, via henholdsvis to toårige, treårige og fireårige, til to heste som var næsten klar til Grand Prix. Blandt stamtavlerne på disse pragt- eksemplarer gik navne igen som især Jazz, men også Apache, Ziwago, Negro, Bordeaux, Gribaldi, Vivaldi og Partout. Især en treårig elitehoppe efter Tango, stor og med en herlig ba-lance og store, affjedrende og smidige gangarter efterlod sig et super indtryk. Den havde opnået et samlet resultat på 85%

Laurent Cellier, lille af størrelse, men med et kæmpe ansvar, som sportsdirektør for WeG, der afholdes i Normandiet i 2014.

Wim Ernes, fem stjernet international dressur dommer og formand for hingstekårings-dommerpanelet.

det er ikke altid let at forstå david sticklands diagrammer, men detaljerede er de!

Det er de øvelser, som dommerne er uenige om,

der er udslagsgivende for den endelige placering

ridehesteN h 12/136

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

ved hoppeprøven og skulle forblive i avlen, og var trods ihær-dige købere, vist ikke til salg her og nu. På spørgsmålet til det samlede avlspanel, om hvilke kvaliteter de især gik efter, når de skulle udvælge føl, lød det næsten enstemmigt; afstamnin-gen! Men selvfølgelig også eksteriør, bevægelse og sundheds-tilstand. Selvfølgelig skulle føllene allerede være i besiddelse af tre gode gangarter, en helst ikke for stor, men til gengæld rentaktet skridt. Også føllenes sind og deres temperament, deres medfødte ”drive” og nok ædelhed for at give energi, blev der lagt vægt på og så selvfølgelig, hvordan de reagerede på først opdragelse og siden træning. Nævnt blev naturligvis også, at bagpartens konstruktion og bagbenenes aktivitet var væsentlig, og at skulderen skulle være lang og skrå for at give tilstrækkelig skulderfrihed. Alt sammen kriterier der gælder inden for al seriøs dressurhesteavl, måske med lidt forskel i forhold til, hvilken rækkefølge egenskaberne prioriteres i.

Ting tager tidOm nogen er Kyra Kyrklund en fast bestanddel af GDF siden dets begyndelse. Mange gange har hun demonstreret sine fan-tastiske evner som pædagog og træner, eller været medlem af det panel, der efter hvert indslag kommer med nogle faglige kommentarer. Hun er kendt for at være den der tør sige, hvad hun mener og skære igennem der, hvor andre nøler.

I år havde Kyra allieret sig med Jan Brink og Liane Wacht-meister, begge fra Sverige, for at præsentere det tiltag, Kyra og Jan i 1998 tog initiativet til, for at fremme dressursporten i Sverige på et langsigtet plan, og som blev døbt ”Knytkalaset” dvs. sammenskudsgildet. Kyra skulle naturligvis være træne-ren, Jan lagde faciliteter til, og de altid så nødvendige penge sikrede Jans hovedsponsor Åke Björsell de fire første år. Si-den er det EFG Bank International som fortsatte sponsoratet og stadig gør det som hovedsponsor. I alt består gruppen af

Verdens eneste universitets - professor i dressur, Kyra Kyrklund.

ti seniorryttere og tre i reserve som mødes ti gange om året. Det er et krav, at alle skal overvåge hinandens træning, og at man er sammen i de to dage kurset varer, så man kan hjælpe hinanden ved nationale stævner. Målet er at udvikle heste og ryttere til internationalt topplan, og indtil nu er der i denne gruppe produceret 13 Grand Prix-heste. Med Jan som den ypperste elev har de kunnet stille ryttere ved samtlige VM og OL siden Knutkalasets tilbliven, og en del medaljer er det også blevet til.

I 2009 opstod så tanken om at lave noget lignende for unge ryttere under navnet ”nursery” = planteskolen, dels i Skåne hos Jan, og dels i Stockholmsområdet hos Liane med samme mål, og samme midler og med otte ryttere hvert sted. Og det var elever herfra hver af de tre trænere, som Liane, Jan og Kyra præsenterede GDF’s auditorium for. For os danske var Jans elev, ungrytteren Anna Zibrandtsen som har trænet to år hos Jan, men nu er tilbage i DK og nu medlem af ”Nurse-riet”, af særlig interesse på hendes dejlige, store, velgående, kårede hingst Next Stop med en super galop. De så ud til at være godt på vej til Grand Prix. Selv demonstrerede Kyra ved hjælp af den store otteårige skimmel efter Caletto, hvor vigtig kontrolleret afkortning i galop er, ikke kun for at kunne ride pirouetter, men for samling i det hele taget.

Og så næste år er det Danmarks tur! Det bliver ikke nem-mere og nemmere at finde nye spændende navne, nye spæn-dende indslag. Dressurverdenen er trods alt relativ lille, men lad os nu se. Nye mennesker har nye idéer, og at Global Dres-sage Forum netop afholdes i Danmark, giver en masse dres-surinteresserede danskere mulighed for ved selvsyn at se og høre, hvad der rører sig i dressurverdenen på allerhøjeste plan.

dette er vejen for en hest til Grand Prix.

h

tAN

ridehesteN h 12/132 ridehesteN h 12/13 3

Allerførst er det helt klart blevet defineret, hvad der tæller som sværhedsgrad

Katrina Wüst fra Tyskland har nu i samarbejde med en dressur- og dommerkyndig IT-ekspert, Daniel Göhler, i september fremlagt et helt nyt forslag til, hvorledes

et af elementerne i den kunstneriske bedømmelse af en kür kunne forbedres, nemlig den for alle så synlige sværhedsgrad. Det skete i tysk ridesports hovedsæde i Warendorf, i nærvæ-relse af FEI’s dressurudvalg, prominente ryttere, ditto dom-mere og trænere, og det blev endog meget positivt modtaget. Dette nye tiltag, blev vi ved Global Dressage Forum (GDF) så også præsenteret for. Det har længe været kritiseret af ryt-tere, der indlægger stor sværhedsgrad i deres kür, at det ikke bliver belønnet tilstrækkeligt, og det har også været svært for den kyndige del af publikum at forstå manglende belønning for veludført sværhedsgrad og næsten oftere, stor belønning for meget lidt sværhedsgrad! Jo mere küren har vundet indpas, ja er blevet den bærende faktor der ”sælger” dressursporten, som FEI’s dressurpræsident Trond Asmyr indledningsvis sagde, des mere er det blevet kritiseret, at bedømmelsen af den kunstneriske del, som udgør 50% af det samlede resultat, er så subjektiv og ugennemsigtig, som den er. Det forsøger man nu at rette op på.

Nytænkning så det batterDet nye koncept lægger sig meget tæt op ad kunstskøjtelø-bernes. Allerførst er det helt klart blevet defineret, hvad der tæller som sværhedsgrad. Derefter er der oprettet et såkaldt katalog over alt, der kan tælle som sværhedsgrad delt op i: ØVELSER (fx dobbelte galoppirouetter), OVERGANGE (fx parade-passage) KOMBINATIONER (fx, fire øvelser udført direkte efter hinanden), LINJEFØRING (fx change-mentserier på buet spor) og GENTAGELSER (hvis en øvelse

”Breaking news”Tyske Katrina Wüst, international femstjernet dressurdommer,

berigede igen Global Dressage Forum med et meget velforberedt og gennemarbejdet indslag

TeksT og foTo: JyTTe Lemkow

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

Katrina Wüst, der er hjernen bag det nye koncept, og Stephen Clark, som er overhovedet for alle internationale dommere, som efter nogen tøven nu varmt går ind for det.

1/1 ann.

›››

ridehesteN h 12/13 5

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

1/2Ann.

vises f lere gange). Og inden for hver af disse kategorier er alle tænkelige muligheder beskrevet (fx under pirouetter i galop kan sværhedsgrad opnås ved 1½ og dobbelte pirouetter), og inden for hver kategori er samtlige muligheder angivet med, hvor meget bonus eller fradrag, man får for sværhedsgrad, hvis øvelsen udføres fejlfrit, eller det modsatte. Bonuspoin-tene får man kun, hvis den tekniske værdi af øvelsen er 7,0 eller derover. Indtil nu har det været gældende, at en svær øvelse skulle være veludført for at tælle som sværhedsgrad, men det var stadigvæk op til den enkelte dommer at bedømme, hvor langt fra eller tæt på at være veludført en øvelse var og at hu-ske det hele til sidst, når karakteren for sværhedsgrad skulle gives. Med det nye system udregner computerne automatisk bonuspoint og fradrag i det øjeblik, den tekniske værdi gives af dommeren! Se det er en forbedring, der vil noget, og som giver dommerne mere tid til at koncentrere sig om den tek-niske værdi. Allerede i dag har man fastlagt, at indeholder et kürprogram kun lige netop de forlangte minimumskrav, hvilket fx kunne være, hvis der kun vises fem changemen-ter for hvert andet og kun ni changementer for hvert galop-spring, så kan der ikke gives mere end 6,0 i sværhedsgrad. Dette system bliver ført med over i det nye koncept. Vises en øvelse som den minimum forlanges, så kan den stadig-

Faren lurer liGe om hjørnet

væk teknisk vurderes højt, men får hverken bonuspoint el-ler fradrag i sværhedsgrad. Opnår man derimod lav teknisk vurdering i en øvelse som er udstyret med sværhedsgrad kun 5,5 og derunder, får man fradrag. Alt dette er lagt ind i et computerprogram og bliver øjeblikkeligt beregnet, når den tekniske karakter pr. øvelse gives. Det samme gøres løbende hver gang, der gives en karakter for den samme øvelse, fx når der vises fire frie traver, udregner computerne automatisk gennemsnittet. Dette nye system kræver, at rytterne samti-dig med, at de af leverer deres musik, nu også af leverer deres kürprogram elektronisk, enten direkte online på nettet, eller via et USB-stik, hvori det også fremgår, hvilke sværhedsgra-der de har planlagt. Den enkelte rytters program indlægges så digitalt (og kan til enhver tid ændres med et par enkelte museklik) og udprintes til hver af de fem eller syv dommere, som har det foran sig som dommerprotokol. Så snart en ryt-ter har afsluttet sit program, har computerne karakteren for sværhedsgrad udregnet, og dommeren har kun tilbage med nogle få decimalers mulighed at kunne forhøje eller sænke det endelige sværhedsgradsresultat, hvis der er forekommet ting som man rent computermæssigt ikke har kunnet tage højde for, hvilket kunne være en eller f lere øvelser udført med én hånd. Med det nye system, kan rytterne også på nettet

komponere deres kürprogram og med det samme se, hvad sværhedsgraden i korrekt udførelse er værd.

Lyder det indviklet? (Så skulle I bare prøve at skulle skrive om det!) Det gør det første gang, man bliver konfronteret med denne nye idé, som af rytterne er blevet meget vel modtaget. Men ved nærmere eftertanke kunne det tilføre dressursporten lidt mere af den troværdighed, som den så ofte kritiseres for at mangle. For dommerne har det den fordel, at de har mere tid til at koncen-trere sig om de fire resterende kunstneriske elementer: Takt, energi og spændstighed. Harmoni mellem hest og rytter. Ko-reografi, udnyttelse af banen samt opfindsomhed, og endelig: Valg af musik, og udnyttelse og fortolkning af musikken.

Foreløbigt er det et pilotprojekt. Det skal først prøvekøres i praksis, og det skal helt sikkert finjusteres. Men uden for al tvivl står, at Katrina Wüst har lagt et kæmpe arbejde i dette projekt, og Stephen Clarke, overdommeren over alle interna-tionale dommere, som indledte dette indslag erkendte, at han var alt andet end computerfreak, og totalt forvirret ved første fremlægning. Lidt efter lidt har han imidlertid kunnet se dets store fordele, og at det for dommerne, når de først lærer det at kende, er let at arbejde med.

I takt med de tiltagende klimaforandringer og den almene større globalisering, står hesteverdenen i Europa over for en ny fare, nemlig spredning af alvorlige hestesygdomme, som hidtil kun har huseret fjernt fra os. Til at delagtiggøre deltagerne i Global Dressage Forum i denne fare, havde man valgt prof.dr. Marianne Sloet, professor i intern hestemedicin ved uni-versitetet i Utrecht og bl.a. veterinær rådgiver for det holland-ske avlsforbund (KNHS). Velformuleret med klar og myndig stemme, og med fantastisk skræmmende, men velillustreret billedmateriale, gennemgik hun de tre hestesygdomme som hesteverdenen skal forberede sig på også kan nå vores bredde-grader! Og det er: Afrikansk hestesyge, som i sin værste form har en dødelighed på 90%, men som ifølge Marianne Sloets illustrationer heldigvis kun findes isoleret i nogle afrikanske lande, smitsom hesteanæmi (blodmangel) som allerede er nået til Europa, og som man ikke kan vaccinere imod, og West Nile Feber (WNF), som ligeledes findes ret udbredt i det sydlige Rusland og udbredt i Sydeuropa. WNF bliver over-ført af myg, ca. 60 forskellige, og er beslægtet med gul feber og leverbetændelse. Generelt er dødeligheden 30%, men hvis hestene er så svage, at de allerede ligger ned, er den helt oppe

på 70%. Den rammer også mindre pattedyr og mennesker, og kan også hos os have dødelig udgang. Det er den eneste af de tre truende sygdomme, man kan vaccinere effektivt imod og professor Marianne Sloet anbefalede varmt, at man vaccinerede kostbare heste, og heste som rejser. WNF er fx udbredt i det meste af Amerika, om end det ikke er i en alarmerende grad.

dette er smittebærerne af de tre alvorlige hestesygdomme som pga. klimaændring og globalisering kan nå os, før end man venter det!

h

med det nye system udregner computerne automatisk bonuspoint

og fradrag i det øjeblik, den tekniske værdi gives af dommeren!

det er West Nile-feberen, der er kommet nærmest, men heldigvis kan heste vaccineres mod den.

tAN

ridehesteN h 12/134

ridehesteN h 12/13 5

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

1/2Ann.

vises f lere gange). Og inden for hver af disse kategorier er alle tænkelige muligheder beskrevet (fx under pirouetter i galop kan sværhedsgrad opnås ved 1½ og dobbelte pirouetter), og inden for hver kategori er samtlige muligheder angivet med, hvor meget bonus eller fradrag, man får for sværhedsgrad, hvis øvelsen udføres fejlfrit, eller det modsatte. Bonuspoin-tene får man kun, hvis den tekniske værdi af øvelsen er 7,0 eller derover. Indtil nu har det været gældende, at en svær øvelse skulle være veludført for at tælle som sværhedsgrad, men det var stadigvæk op til den enkelte dommer at bedømme, hvor langt fra eller tæt på at være veludført en øvelse var og at hu-ske det hele til sidst, når karakteren for sværhedsgrad skulle gives. Med det nye system udregner computerne automatisk bonuspoint og fradrag i det øjeblik, den tekniske værdi gives af dommeren! Se det er en forbedring, der vil noget, og som giver dommerne mere tid til at koncentrere sig om den tek-niske værdi. Allerede i dag har man fastlagt, at indeholder et kürprogram kun lige netop de forlangte minimumskrav, hvilket fx kunne være, hvis der kun vises fem changemen-ter for hvert andet og kun ni changementer for hvert galop-spring, så kan der ikke gives mere end 6,0 i sværhedsgrad. Dette system bliver ført med over i det nye koncept. Vises en øvelse som den minimum forlanges, så kan den stadig-

Faren lurer liGe om hjørnet

væk teknisk vurderes højt, men får hverken bonuspoint el-ler fradrag i sværhedsgrad. Opnår man derimod lav teknisk vurdering i en øvelse som er udstyret med sværhedsgrad kun 5,5 og derunder, får man fradrag. Alt dette er lagt ind i et computerprogram og bliver øjeblikkeligt beregnet, når den tekniske karakter pr. øvelse gives. Det samme gøres løbende hver gang, der gives en karakter for den samme øvelse, fx når der vises fire frie traver, udregner computerne automatisk gennemsnittet. Dette nye system kræver, at rytterne samti-dig med, at de af leverer deres musik, nu også af leverer deres kürprogram elektronisk, enten direkte online på nettet, eller via et USB-stik, hvori det også fremgår, hvilke sværhedsgra-der de har planlagt. Den enkelte rytters program indlægges så digitalt (og kan til enhver tid ændres med et par enkelte museklik) og udprintes til hver af de fem eller syv dommere, som har det foran sig som dommerprotokol. Så snart en ryt-ter har afsluttet sit program, har computerne karakteren for sværhedsgrad udregnet, og dommeren har kun tilbage med nogle få decimalers mulighed at kunne forhøje eller sænke det endelige sværhedsgradsresultat, hvis der er forekommet ting som man rent computermæssigt ikke har kunnet tage højde for, hvilket kunne være en eller f lere øvelser udført med én hånd. Med det nye system, kan rytterne også på nettet

komponere deres kürprogram og med det samme se, hvad sværhedsgraden i korrekt udførelse er værd.

Lyder det indviklet? (Så skulle I bare prøve at skulle skrive om det!) Det gør det første gang, man bliver konfronteret med denne nye idé, som af rytterne er blevet meget vel modtaget. Men ved nærmere eftertanke kunne det tilføre dressursporten lidt mere af den troværdighed, som den så ofte kritiseres for at mangle. For dommerne har det den fordel, at de har mere tid til at koncen-trere sig om de fire resterende kunstneriske elementer: Takt, energi og spændstighed. Harmoni mellem hest og rytter. Ko-reografi, udnyttelse af banen samt opfindsomhed, og endelig: Valg af musik, og udnyttelse og fortolkning af musikken.

Foreløbigt er det et pilotprojekt. Det skal først prøvekøres i praksis, og det skal helt sikkert finjusteres. Men uden for al tvivl står, at Katrina Wüst har lagt et kæmpe arbejde i dette projekt, og Stephen Clarke, overdommeren over alle interna-tionale dommere, som indledte dette indslag erkendte, at han var alt andet end computerfreak, og totalt forvirret ved første fremlægning. Lidt efter lidt har han imidlertid kunnet se dets store fordele, og at det for dommerne, når de først lærer det at kende, er let at arbejde med.

I takt med de tiltagende klimaforandringer og den almene større globalisering, står hesteverdenen i Europa over for en ny fare, nemlig spredning af alvorlige hestesygdomme, som hidtil kun har huseret fjernt fra os. Til at delagtiggøre deltagerne i Global Dressage Forum i denne fare, havde man valgt prof.dr. Marianne Sloet, professor i intern hestemedicin ved uni-versitetet i Utrecht og bl.a. veterinær rådgiver for det holland-ske avlsforbund (KNHS). Velformuleret med klar og myndig stemme, og med fantastisk skræmmende, men velillustreret billedmateriale, gennemgik hun de tre hestesygdomme som hesteverdenen skal forberede sig på også kan nå vores bredde-grader! Og det er: Afrikansk hestesyge, som i sin værste form har en dødelighed på 90%, men som ifølge Marianne Sloets illustrationer heldigvis kun findes isoleret i nogle afrikanske lande, smitsom hesteanæmi (blodmangel) som allerede er nået til Europa, og som man ikke kan vaccinere imod, og West Nile Feber (WNF), som ligeledes findes ret udbredt i det sydlige Rusland og udbredt i Sydeuropa. WNF bliver over-ført af myg, ca. 60 forskellige, og er beslægtet med gul feber og leverbetændelse. Generelt er dødeligheden 30%, men hvis hestene er så svage, at de allerede ligger ned, er den helt oppe

på 70%. Den rammer også mindre pattedyr og mennesker, og kan også hos os have dødelig udgang. Det er den eneste af de tre truende sygdomme, man kan vaccinere effektivt imod og professor Marianne Sloet anbefalede varmt, at man vaccinerede kostbare heste, og heste som rejser. WNF er fx udbredt i det meste af Amerika, om end det ikke er i en alarmerende grad.

dette er smittebærerne af de tre alvorlige hestesygdomme som pga. klimaændring og globalisering kan nå os, før end man venter det!

h

med det nye system udregner computerne automatisk bonuspoint

og fradrag i det øjeblik, den tekniske værdi gives af dommeren!

det er West Nile-feberen, der er kommet nærmest, men heldigvis kan heste vaccineres mod den.

tAN

ridehesteN h 12/134

ridehesteN h 12/132 ridehesteN h 12/13 3

Jeg ønsker ikke at købe mig til

en medalje, men at ride mig til den

Isabell Werth

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

Det var næsten symbolsk, at det netop skulle lykkedes i år, hvor en æra nu er slut, æraen, hvor Global Dres- sage Forum (GDF) udelukkende er blevet afholdt

hos familien Bartels i Holland. Som verdens allermest vindende dressurrytter med ikke

færre end seks olympiske guldmedaljer, syv verdensmester-skabs- og 14 europamesterskabsmedaljer, otte tyske mester-skaber og et utal, ja virkelig et utal af andre sejre, har hun længe været selvskreven, men vist ikke været så begejstret for at skulle deltage. Rytterne frygter lidt dette forum spækket med specialister inden for dressursporten, men de ender vist alle med at synes, at det har været en god oplevelse at have fået lov at præsentere sig selv som rytter og som menneske, og her var Isabell ingen undtagelse.

Verdens mest vindende rytterSom den kapacitet Isabell er, fik hun ”dobbelt taletid”. Som det første indslag med levende heste på forummets første dag, præsenterede hun sig fra jorden over for to af sine elever. Nick-las Kaiser red den 6-årige Soronto efter Sandro Bedo/Flore-stan, en stor velgående fuks, og Beatrice Buchwald red hoppen Weihegold, 8 år efter Don Schufro/Sandro hit, som er stærkt på vej til Grand Prix. Hvis denne hest er tiltænkt Isabell selv, er den med sine ”kun” 168 cm i stang meget mindre end de heste, hun er vant til at ride. Dem der har fulgt hendes ri-

Hatten af!Da Isabell Werth i år accepterede at komme til Global Dressage Forum, gik ikke kun et meget stort ønske fra

programkomiteens side i opfyldelse, men den indtil da lange ufuldendte liste over verdens allerbedste

ryttere som har gæstet GDF, blev fuldstændig

dekarriere ved også, at hun foretrækker store, ofte lidt grove heste, ja der har været nogle temmelig grimme imellem, som i takt med træningen absolut har udviklet sig til det bedre. Her tænkes på hendes mest vindende hest Gigolo, men især Warum Nicht som er 183 cm i stang, og som har forårsaget megen hovedrysten over sit udseende og lige så mange pro-blemer i sin karriere, da den var udtalt jordsky. Men hendes nuværende holdhest Don Johnson var bestemt heller ingen skønhed første gang vi så den i Prix St. Georges.

Dem som har fulgt Isabell i hendes lange internationale karriere har sikkert et billede på nethinden af en rytter, der er totalt fokuseret, som kan ride forrygende sidetraversader, som har turdet satse optimalt i fri trav og fri galop, og som på splitsekunder kunne afkorte hestene igen. Når dette var tilfældet i kürprogrammer blev og bliver en fri galop ofte di-rekte efterfulgt af en enkelt eller en dobbelt galoppirouette.

Med Don Johnson demonstrerede Isabell Werth sine metoder og principper.

ekspertpanelet bestående af (fra venstre); Jean Maurel fra Frankrig, prinsesse Nathalie fra danmark og Michael Klimke fra tyskland, udtalte sig enstemmigt med de største superlativer om isabells ridning.

Isabell instruerer den otteårige Weihegold.

den kun seksårige Soronto bliver også

allerede introduceret til den svære øvelse piaffe,

med ro og kun små reaktioner forventes.

TeksT og foTo: JyTTe Lemkow

ridehesteN h 12/132 ridehesteN h 12/13 3

Jeg ønsker ikke at købe mig til

en medalje, men at ride mig til den

Isabell Werth

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

Det var næsten symbolsk, at det netop skulle lykkedes i år, hvor en æra nu er slut, æraen, hvor Global Dres- sage Forum (GDF) udelukkende er blevet afholdt

hos familien Bartels i Holland. Som verdens allermest vindende dressurrytter med ikke

færre end seks olympiske guldmedaljer, syv verdensmester-skabs- og 14 europamesterskabsmedaljer, otte tyske mester-skaber og et utal, ja virkelig et utal af andre sejre, har hun længe været selvskreven, men vist ikke været så begejstret for at skulle deltage. Rytterne frygter lidt dette forum spækket med specialister inden for dressursporten, men de ender vist alle med at synes, at det har været en god oplevelse at have fået lov at præsentere sig selv som rytter og som menneske, og her var Isabell ingen undtagelse.

Verdens mest vindende rytterSom den kapacitet Isabell er, fik hun ”dobbelt taletid”. Som det første indslag med levende heste på forummets første dag, præsenterede hun sig fra jorden over for to af sine elever. Nick-las Kaiser red den 6-årige Soronto efter Sandro Bedo/Flore-stan, en stor velgående fuks, og Beatrice Buchwald red hoppen Weihegold, 8 år efter Don Schufro/Sandro hit, som er stærkt på vej til Grand Prix. Hvis denne hest er tiltænkt Isabell selv, er den med sine ”kun” 168 cm i stang meget mindre end de heste, hun er vant til at ride. Dem der har fulgt hendes ri-

Hatten af!Da Isabell Werth i år accepterede at komme til Global Dressage Forum, gik ikke kun et meget stort ønske fra

programkomiteens side i opfyldelse, men den indtil da lange ufuldendte liste over verdens allerbedste

ryttere som har gæstet GDF, blev fuldstændig

dekarriere ved også, at hun foretrækker store, ofte lidt grove heste, ja der har været nogle temmelig grimme imellem, som i takt med træningen absolut har udviklet sig til det bedre. Her tænkes på hendes mest vindende hest Gigolo, men især Warum Nicht som er 183 cm i stang, og som har forårsaget megen hovedrysten over sit udseende og lige så mange pro-blemer i sin karriere, da den var udtalt jordsky. Men hendes nuværende holdhest Don Johnson var bestemt heller ingen skønhed første gang vi så den i Prix St. Georges.

Dem som har fulgt Isabell i hendes lange internationale karriere har sikkert et billede på nethinden af en rytter, der er totalt fokuseret, som kan ride forrygende sidetraversader, som har turdet satse optimalt i fri trav og fri galop, og som på splitsekunder kunne afkorte hestene igen. Når dette var tilfældet i kürprogrammer blev og bliver en fri galop ofte di-rekte efterfulgt af en enkelt eller en dobbelt galoppirouette.

Med Don Johnson demonstrerede Isabell Werth sine metoder og principper.

ekspertpanelet bestående af (fra venstre); Jean Maurel fra Frankrig, prinsesse Nathalie fra danmark og Michael Klimke fra tyskland, udtalte sig enstemmigt med de største superlativer om isabells ridning.

Isabell instruerer den otteårige Weihegold.

den kun seksårige Soronto bliver også

allerede introduceret til den svære øvelse piaffe,

med ro og kun små reaktioner forventes.

TeksT og foTo: JyTTe Lemkow

ridehesteN h 12/134 ridehesteN h 12/13 5

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

1/2ann.

h

tAN

Galoppirouetter er også en svær øvelse, som hun er mester i. Ja, når man er verdens mest vindende rytter, så må man være mester i næsten det hele. Isabell kan fx ligeledes som Reiner Klimke kunne det før hende, samle sig rigtig mange pluspoint ved at ride absolut præcist. Men denne færdighed kræver meget lydige heste, og det fremgik også, når Isabell underviste fra jorden, men især da hun selv satte sig til hest, at hun vil have heste, der svarer prompte på hjælperne. Vi der ofte har set hende i træning til stævner ved også, at er he-stene lidt tungnemme her, så får de nogle påmindelser som ikke altid er særlig diskrete! Men én øvelse har aldrig været hendes stærke side eller hendes hestes, og det er piaffen. Med det niveau som international dressur har nået i dag, og især nu hvor piafferne fremover får en dobbelt koefficient på to, når man næppe op på det øverste trin på sejrsskamlen, i hvert tilfælde ikke fortjent, hvis ikke hesten er endog rigtig god til at piaffere. Denne kendsgerning synes Isabell Werth nu at have taget konsekvensen af. Hun har allieret sig med den spanske dressurtræner José Antonio Garcia Mena, som kommer tilrej-sende et par gange om måneden og hjælper hende og hendes heste i arbejdet med piaffe og passage. Det er selverkendelse, og det er prisværdigt. José var med ved GDF, men gik 90% af tiden blot roligt ved siden af hestene, og toucherede dem så lidt bagpå for at fremkalde hos den unge hest, blot en reaktion,

men hos den ældre en reel piaffe som blev forlangt versade- agtig. Det tvinger hesten til at placere indvendige bagben bedre inde under kroppen, og mon ikke det var målet? Men nogle honky-ponky trick blev vi ikke præsenteret for.

I vridemaskine – men skånsomtMen Isabell undgik heller ikke sin skæbne, at komme i den ”varme stol” med stearinlys og et glas vin senere på aftenen, medens Richard Davison traditionen tro stillede alverdens spørgsmål, også de mindre behagelige på sin specielle takt-fulde måde. Og af de mindre behagelige var naturligvis Isabell Werths karantæne for doping år tilbage, og at hun igen står anklaget for at have brugt et forbudt præparat, Cimethidin, på hesten El Santo tilbage i 2012. Hun nægter pure, at he-sten har fået medicinen og vil gå igennem alle instanser for at bevise sin uskyld. Foreløbig har hun omgående anket den dom, som faldt kun få dage efter GDF, som lyder på udeluk-kelse af samtlige nationale og internationale konkurrencer i seks måneder, til øverste instans. Selv jurist som 23-årig, et studium hun gennemførte efter endt studentereksamen trods en overfyldt stævnekalender, må hun formodes at kende alle veje i det retslige system. Med sig ved candlelight-interviewet havde Isabell sin gode veninde og sponsor siden 2001, Ma-deleine Winter-Schulze, selv tidligere international dressur-

Når blot man gør det med takt, som Richard Davison mestrer, så kan man få meget ud af rytterne, også Isabell Werth.

Isabell og hendes gode veninde og gavmilde sponsor

Madeleine Winter-Schulze.

hun bestemmer og jeg siger ja!

MaDeleIne WInter-schulze oM Isabell

rytter på topplan. Madeleine, hvis økonomiske situation, som skyldes hendes fars dygtighed som forretningsmand med Coca Cola og biler mange år tilbage, stiller Isabell helt frit i valg af heste og forstod man, også i valg af pris. Tænk at have en sådan sponsor. Når Madeleine tilbyder Isabell en delvist eller fuldt uddannet Grand Prix-hest, når der kom-mer noget exceptionelt på markedet, så vil Isabell slet ikke have en sådan. Hun vil absolut ride dem op selv fra de er ungheste til den sværeste dressur, og mon ikke også hun har en svaghed for problemheste? Hun tilstod i hvert tilfælde, at de gerne måtte være uartige, men kun til en vis grænse. At ride hestene helt til selv, det er sporten for hende og ikke medaljerne som sådan. Hun kunne ikke drømme om at købe sig til en medalje – hatten af for en sådan indstilling, når man slet ikke behøver at have den!

Don Johnson kan godt piaffereEfter interviewet steg Isabell selv i sadlen, og satte sig som al-tid på sin specielle måde helt ude på sadelsvidslen, hvor andre tilstræber at sidde i sadlens dybeste punkt. Isabell har ikke forgæves været superelev i 14 år hos Dr. Schulten-Baumer, som hun betegner som verdens bedste træner, og som hun stadig jævnligt har kontakt med. Han var den træner, der i dressursporten genindførte rollkuren med super succes til følge for Nicole Upphoff og Rembrandt. Isabell træner også sine heste dybt og rundt, men vi så dog intet spor af eks-trem-udførselsen, og de fleste problemer synes løst ved netop at gøre hestene runde og dybe. Eftergivenhed, smidighed og lydighed er alfa og omega, men også, at hestene forbliver elektriske og energiske. Hertil brugte hun i forbavsende høj grad sin stemme. Og så ligger hendes heste altid helt let i hånden! Også versader, selv i galop på en cirkel, blev meget brugt, og mange overgange trav-galop-galop-trav. Isabell indrømmede bagefter, at lidt provokerende havde hun taget Don Johnson med til Holland, for hun synes ikke denne hest værdsættes nok internationalt. Hun ville vise, at den kunne piaffere, endog rigtigt godt og det gjorde den også, men ikke i de første forsøg. Ligeledes lykkedes nogle flotte overgange passage-piaffe-passage og selvfølgelig flotte sidebevægelser, men hun indrømmede også, at alt ikke altid lykkes inde på banen, som hun gerne ville have det.

Som menneske fik man et meget sympatisk indtryk – en følsom og empatisk person og nu mor til 4-årige Frede-rik, som måske er årsagen til, at hun inden for overskuelig fremtid vil drosle lidt ned på sine stævneaktiviteter. Men der står mange talentfulde heste i stalden derhjemme i det, der før var hendes forældres gård, men som nu er hendes ridecenter. Heste har altid været Isabell Werths liv, det er det fortsat, og det vil det altid på en eller anden måde blive ved med at være.

ridehesteN h 12/134 ridehesteN h 12/13 5

FAGLIGT Global Dressage Forum 2013

1/2ann.

h

tAN

Galoppirouetter er også en svær øvelse, som hun er mester i. Ja, når man er verdens mest vindende rytter, så må man være mester i næsten det hele. Isabell kan fx ligeledes som Reiner Klimke kunne det før hende, samle sig rigtig mange pluspoint ved at ride absolut præcist. Men denne færdighed kræver meget lydige heste, og det fremgik også, når Isabell underviste fra jorden, men især da hun selv satte sig til hest, at hun vil have heste, der svarer prompte på hjælperne. Vi der ofte har set hende i træning til stævner ved også, at er he-stene lidt tungnemme her, så får de nogle påmindelser som ikke altid er særlig diskrete! Men én øvelse har aldrig været hendes stærke side eller hendes hestes, og det er piaffen. Med det niveau som international dressur har nået i dag, og især nu hvor piafferne fremover får en dobbelt koefficient på to, når man næppe op på det øverste trin på sejrsskamlen, i hvert tilfælde ikke fortjent, hvis ikke hesten er endog rigtig god til at piaffere. Denne kendsgerning synes Isabell Werth nu at have taget konsekvensen af. Hun har allieret sig med den spanske dressurtræner José Antonio Garcia Mena, som kommer tilrej-sende et par gange om måneden og hjælper hende og hendes heste i arbejdet med piaffe og passage. Det er selverkendelse, og det er prisværdigt. José var med ved GDF, men gik 90% af tiden blot roligt ved siden af hestene, og toucherede dem så lidt bagpå for at fremkalde hos den unge hest, blot en reaktion,

men hos den ældre en reel piaffe som blev forlangt versade- agtig. Det tvinger hesten til at placere indvendige bagben bedre inde under kroppen, og mon ikke det var målet? Men nogle honky-ponky trick blev vi ikke præsenteret for.

I vridemaskine – men skånsomtMen Isabell undgik heller ikke sin skæbne, at komme i den ”varme stol” med stearinlys og et glas vin senere på aftenen, medens Richard Davison traditionen tro stillede alverdens spørgsmål, også de mindre behagelige på sin specielle takt-fulde måde. Og af de mindre behagelige var naturligvis Isabell Werths karantæne for doping år tilbage, og at hun igen står anklaget for at have brugt et forbudt præparat, Cimethidin, på hesten El Santo tilbage i 2012. Hun nægter pure, at he-sten har fået medicinen og vil gå igennem alle instanser for at bevise sin uskyld. Foreløbig har hun omgående anket den dom, som faldt kun få dage efter GDF, som lyder på udeluk-kelse af samtlige nationale og internationale konkurrencer i seks måneder, til øverste instans. Selv jurist som 23-årig, et studium hun gennemførte efter endt studentereksamen trods en overfyldt stævnekalender, må hun formodes at kende alle veje i det retslige system. Med sig ved candlelight-interviewet havde Isabell sin gode veninde og sponsor siden 2001, Ma-deleine Winter-Schulze, selv tidligere international dressur-

Når blot man gør det med takt, som Richard Davison mestrer, så kan man få meget ud af rytterne, også Isabell Werth.

Isabell og hendes gode veninde og gavmilde sponsor

Madeleine Winter-Schulze.

hun bestemmer og jeg siger ja!

MaDeleIne WInter-schulze oM Isabell

rytter på topplan. Madeleine, hvis økonomiske situation, som skyldes hendes fars dygtighed som forretningsmand med Coca Cola og biler mange år tilbage, stiller Isabell helt frit i valg af heste og forstod man, også i valg af pris. Tænk at have en sådan sponsor. Når Madeleine tilbyder Isabell en delvist eller fuldt uddannet Grand Prix-hest, når der kom-mer noget exceptionelt på markedet, så vil Isabell slet ikke have en sådan. Hun vil absolut ride dem op selv fra de er ungheste til den sværeste dressur, og mon ikke også hun har en svaghed for problemheste? Hun tilstod i hvert tilfælde, at de gerne måtte være uartige, men kun til en vis grænse. At ride hestene helt til selv, det er sporten for hende og ikke medaljerne som sådan. Hun kunne ikke drømme om at købe sig til en medalje – hatten af for en sådan indstilling, når man slet ikke behøver at have den!

Don Johnson kan godt piaffereEfter interviewet steg Isabell selv i sadlen, og satte sig som al-tid på sin specielle måde helt ude på sadelsvidslen, hvor andre tilstræber at sidde i sadlens dybeste punkt. Isabell har ikke forgæves været superelev i 14 år hos Dr. Schulten-Baumer, som hun betegner som verdens bedste træner, og som hun stadig jævnligt har kontakt med. Han var den træner, der i dressursporten genindførte rollkuren med super succes til følge for Nicole Upphoff og Rembrandt. Isabell træner også sine heste dybt og rundt, men vi så dog intet spor af eks-trem-udførselsen, og de fleste problemer synes løst ved netop at gøre hestene runde og dybe. Eftergivenhed, smidighed og lydighed er alfa og omega, men også, at hestene forbliver elektriske og energiske. Hertil brugte hun i forbavsende høj grad sin stemme. Og så ligger hendes heste altid helt let i hånden! Også versader, selv i galop på en cirkel, blev meget brugt, og mange overgange trav-galop-galop-trav. Isabell indrømmede bagefter, at lidt provokerende havde hun taget Don Johnson med til Holland, for hun synes ikke denne hest værdsættes nok internationalt. Hun ville vise, at den kunne piaffere, endog rigtigt godt og det gjorde den også, men ikke i de første forsøg. Ligeledes lykkedes nogle flotte overgange passage-piaffe-passage og selvfølgelig flotte sidebevægelser, men hun indrømmede også, at alt ikke altid lykkes inde på banen, som hun gerne ville have det.

Som menneske fik man et meget sympatisk indtryk – en følsom og empatisk person og nu mor til 4-årige Frede-rik, som måske er årsagen til, at hun inden for overskuelig fremtid vil drosle lidt ned på sine stævneaktiviteter. Men der står mange talentfulde heste i stalden derhjemme i det, der før var hendes forældres gård, men som nu er hendes ridecenter. Heste har altid været Isabell Werths liv, det er det fortsat, og det vil det altid på en eller anden måde blive ved med at være.

40 PferdeSport International | 25.2013

HinterGrund

Isabell Werth (u.) zeigte einen Ausschnitt aus der täglichen Arbeit, dabei standen ihr u. a. Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, Beatrice Buchwald und Weihegold OLD zur Seite (o.).

13. Global Dressage Forum

Mut zum RisikoIsabell Werth beeindruckt auf der Anlage der Familie Bartels im nieder-

ländischen Hooge Mierde mit ihrer Trainingsarbeit

Isabell Werth und Don Johnson in Aktion.

Es war Jan Dierens, der gleich zu Beginn des Global Dressage Forums das Wort

benutzte, das der rote Faden der diesjäh-rigen Veranstaltung werden sollte: Selbst-bewusstsein. Dierens, Sportpsychologe der belgischen Dressurreiter, beschreibt seine Arbeit als Handwerkszeug zur Ver-besserung von „Selbsterkenntnis und Selbstbewusstsein“, ein Hilfsmittel für die Sportler, um zu erkennen, „welche menta-len Fähigkeiten ich bereits beherrsche und welche ich üben muss“. Denn, so Dierens, wenn man das Gefühl hat, auf ein größeres Spektrum an Ressourcen zurückgreifen zu können (z. B. Atemtechniken oder die Pro-gressive Muskelentspannung), empfi ndet man Symptome von Anspannung eher als positiv – da man ja die Mittel hat, mit ihnen fertig zu werden.

Bühne frei für Werth

Nach seiner kurzen Einführung in seine Ar-beit machte Dierens die Bühne frei für Isa-bell Werth, die ihren ersten Auftritt beim Global Dressage Forum für eine praktische Demonstration dessen benutzte, was ge-nau Selbstbewusstsein bedeutet. Denn sie war (risiko-)bewusst nicht in die Nieder-lande gereist, um Dressur in Perfektion zu zeigen, sondern um den Teilnehmern des Forums einen Einblick in ihre tägliche Ar-beit mit jungen Pferden zu gewähren, in die Arbeit mit ihrem jungen Bereiterteam und schließlich mit ihrem „work in progress“ Don Johnson.

„Wir zeigen Ihnen jetzt, was er schon kann, und machen dabei vielleicht auch ein paar Fehler“, stellte sie ihren sechsjährigen Youngster Sorrento vor, der von ihrem Be-reiter Niklaas Feilzer geritten wurde. „Wenn ich nach einem Dressurpferd Ausschau hal-te, halte ich Ausschau nach drei wirklich gu-ten Grundgangarten und nach Elastizität. Unsere Aufgabe ich es dann, die kleinen Dinge besser zu machen und die großen Dinge größer. Außerdem halte ich viel da-von, wenn meine Pferde ihre eigene Mei-nung kundtun – auch meine Pferde müssen selbstbewusst sein.“Sorrento mitzunehmen, war Isabells erstes Risiko an diesem Tag, denn der Fuchs hatte bis dato erst einen einzigen Turnierplatz gesehen. Doch er zeigte unbeeindruckt die lösende Trab- und Galopparbeit, die er von zu Hause kennt, dazu bald kleinere Lektio-nen wie das Schenkelweichen im Trab (dazu Isabell Werth, die immer den gegenwärti-gen Ausbildungsstand und die Perspektive eines Pferdes vor Augen hat: „Das ist der beste Ausgangspunkt für Traversalen; die Pferde bleiben frei in der Schulter, und der Takt bleibt erhalten) und kleine Übergänge innerhalb der Gangarten („wenn ein Pferd erst einmal auf der Stelle galoppieren kann, sind Pirouetten kein Problem mehr“), um die Elastizität des Pferdes zu verbessern.Isabell war nicht nur mit ihren Bereitern an-gereist, sondern auch mit dem spanischen Kaderreiter Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, der sie seit einiger Zeit bei der Piaffe-Arbeit unterstützt. „Ehe ich Jose kennengelernt

habe, habe ich immer aus dem Trab mit den Piaffen begonnen. Sein Ansatz ist sehr viel mehr, die Piaffe vom Pferd ausgehen zu lassen, die Piaffe erst einmal zu vergessen, wenn man mit einem jungen Pferd vom Boden aus beginnt, und froh zu sein, wenn die richtige Reaktion auf die Berührung der Gerte kommt.“ Es folgte eine kurze De-monstration dieser Arbeit – in aller Seelen-ruhe –, an deren Ende sich Sorrento mit Be-geisterung von selbst ans Tanzen machte.Beatrice Buchwald und Weihegold zeigten dann die Version „für Fortgeschrittene“ mit einem Pferd, das auf dem Weg zum Grand Prix ist. Hier zeigte Jose mehr im Detail, wie er das Schulterherein bei der Piaffe-Arbeit benutzt. Isabell: „Im Schulterherein haben wir ja schon die Kontrolle über das Hinter-bein; es hilft uns dabei, die Kontrolle und die Verbindung zu behalten, so dass wir die Piaffe am Ende auch wirklich reiten können statt nur zu hoffen, dass nichts schief geht.“Isabells Ritt auf ihrem eigensinnigen Don Johnson wurde schließlich zum Sahne-schnittchen des diesjährigen Forums. Zu-vor hatte sie im gemeinsamen Interview mit Moderator Richard Davison und mit Madeleine Winter-Schulze das Publikum berührt, als sie von ihren Anfängen im Stall des „Doktors“ Uwe Schulten-Baumer sen. erzählte, der eines bahnbrechenden Tages Hilfe im Stall brauchte, von ihrem späte-ren Wechsel zu Familie Winter-Schulze, die auch zu ihrer erweiterten Familie wurde, und von ihrer unerschütterlichen Denkwei-se, die ihre Mäzenin so beschrieb: „Isabell

25.2013 | PferdeSport International 41

Nimaximi, utet re dolupta quos nonsendantur aut pres moditat ibustrum in perrum verspidis aut ditati.

Kyra Kyrklund demonstrierte. wie sie mit ihren Schülern arbeitet.

Nimaximi, utet re dolupta quos nonsendantur aut pres moditat ibustrum in perrum verspidis aut ditati.pres moditat ibustrum in perrum verspidis aut ditati.pres moditat ibustrum in perrum verspidis aut ditati.

Katrina Wüst und Daniel Göhlen referierten über „objektiveres Richten“.

will keine Grand-Prix-Pferde kaufen; sie will junge Pferde nach oben bringen. Ich würde ihr ja ein teures Pferd kaufen, aber sie will es nicht. Wenn wir also ein Pferd im Visier haben, trifft sie die Entscheidung … und ich nicke sie ab.“ Isabell Werth: „Ich will mir keine Medaille kaufen. Es ist einfacher für mich, vor dem Fernseher zu sitzen und mir die Olympischen Spiele in London an-zusehen als mit einem Millionenpferd an den Start zu gehen. Es ist natürlich eine Wonne, so viel Freiheit zu haben. Aber na-türlich fühle ich mich auch verantwortlich; ich möchte Madeleines Geld nicht für das falsche Pferd ausgeben.“

Kein Dressurpferde-Prototyp

Ein Pferd, das für viele Dressurfans defi ni-tiv das falsche Pferd war, ist Don Johnson. Der impulsive Don Frederico-Sohn hat zwar in der Tat seinen eigenen Kopf, aber er verfügt auch über enorme Elastizität. Auf jeden Fall hat er seinen ganz besonderen Platz in Isabell Werths Herzen, und sie hat-te ihn mit nach Hooge Mierde gebracht, um zu zeigen, warum.Im Sattel griff sie zunächst die Elemente wieder auf, die sie schon mit ihrem Team gezeigt hatte: viele, viele Übergänge in-nerhalb der Gangarten, um sich „Johnnys“ Aufmerksamkeit zu sichern, Schulterher-ein („mit einem super Schulterherein kann ich eine gute Traversale vorbereiten“), das Spiel mit der Länge der Galoppsprünge, bis es fast auf der Stelle war. „Wenn ich in der Lage bin, mit einem Pferd an diesen Punkt zu kommen, ist eine Pirouette keine gro-ße Sache mehr. Wenn uns die Übergänge leicht fallen – und wir fangen schon bei den

Im Gespräch: Isabell Werth, Madeleine Winter-Schulze und Moderator Richard Davison (v. l.).

onen aufzunehmen. „Wir organisieren zehn Lehrgänge von jeweils zwei bis drei Tagen im Jahr. Es ist uns wichtig, dass alle Schüler den ganzen Tag da bleiben und sich nicht nur für ihre eigenen Trainingseinheiten in-teressieren. Wir wollten, dass sie einander und auch die Pferde der anderen kennen-lernen, so dass sie sich gegenseitig helfen können. Wir haben hier also eine ‘Selbst-hilfegruppe’, bei der wir als Mentoren und Trainer fungieren.“ In einer Demonstration, die Isabell Werths Arbeitsweise nahtlos ergänzte, zeigten Kyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink und Liane Wachtmeister dann mit drei Paa-ren, wie sie jungen Reitern und ihren Pfer-den zu mehr Selbstbewusstsein verhelfen. Zur Praxis gesellte sich auch in diesem Jahr die Dressurpolitik. Von der Vergabepraxis bei der Teamqualifi kation für Rio 2016 über eine erstmals für 2015 geplante Dressur-EM der Children bis hin zur Abschaffung der Richter-Rotation bei hochkarätigen CDI-Veranstaltungen reichte der Kata-log der Themen, die Trond Asmyr für den FEI-Dressurausschuss anriss. Gleichzeitig horchte Asmyr auf, als Gastgeberin Tine-ke Bartels wiederholt davor warnte, junge Pferde nur mit dem Ziel auszubilden, dass sie fünfjährig Weltmeister werden, und er schlug einen runden Tisch zum Thema Championate für junge Pferde vor.

„Code of Points“

Und schließlich war er aufmerksamer Zu-hörer, als Katrina Wüst und Daniel Göhlen nach dem Testevent in Warendorf nun un-ter großem Beifall auch auf internationaler Bühne ihr System zum objektiveren Richten von Dressurküren vorstellten und IDRC-Ge-neralsekretär Wayne Channon alle Betei-ligten ermutigte, einen generellen Einsatz eines solchen Richtverfahrens zu erwägen. Channons Resümee: „Wir brauchen ein System, das uns in die Lage versetzt, akku-rat zu richten – wir brauchen einen ‘Code of Points’. Das Dressurhandbuch der FEI beschreibt bis ins letzte Detail, worauf der Dressurrichter sein Augenmerk richten soll. Es fehlt nur ein Schritt: Das Buch sagt nicht, was er abziehen soll, wenn das nicht da ist.“

Text und Fotos: Bärbel Schnell

jungen Pferden mit vielen Trab-Galopp-Übergängen an – dann brauche ich nicht dauernd Lektionen zu üben. Wir trainieren ja mit einem Pferd, um es zu kräftigen, nicht zu schwächen oder ihm gar mit all den Lek-tionen an die Substanz zu gehen.“ Während dessen arbeitete sie sich im Sattel ihres fl egelhaften Johnny von der anfänglichen Explosionsgefahr zu dem Punkt vor, an dem das athletische Zusammenspiel seiner Geschmeidigkeit und ihrer unsichtbaren Hilfengebung in einer geradezu packen-den Piaffe-Passage-Tour endete. „Ich hatte gehofft, Ihnen das zeigen zu können, aber es gab keine Garantie dafür. Aber ich habe dieses Pferd mitgebracht, weil ich Ihnen zeigen wollte, was ich ihn ihm sehe. Leider können wir das nicht immer in der Prüfung zeigen. Ich weiß auch, dass Championate nicht auf dem Abreiteplatz oder zu Hause gewonnen werden; wir müssen das in der Prüfung zeigen.“Aus einer ähnlichen Grundeinstellung – dem Zusammenwirken von privatem Sponsorengeld, Talent und reiterlicher Gründlichkeit – entstand in Schweden das Trainingsprogramm „Knytkalaset“, das von Kyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink und dessen Spon-sor Ake Björsell aus der Taufe gehoben wurde. Kyra Kyrklund: „Vor ein paar Jahren hat mich Ake Björsell angesprochen, weil er sich noch stärker für den Dressursport engagieren wollte. Ich habe zu ihm gesagt, entweder du sponserst einen Reiter und ermöglichst ihm die Teilnahme an interna-tionalen Turnieren, oder wir entwickeln ein Trainingsprogramm.“ Gesagt, getan, und die Unabhängigkeit vom Verband macht es hier möglich, ohne Altersbegrenzung zu arbeiten und auch Reiter aus anderen Nati-

42 PferdeSport International | 25.2013

HinterGrund

Nyheter10 • Ridsport Nummer 21 • 31 oktober 2013

Alingsås · Sussies Häst & Fritid AB

Boden · Royal Hästsport

Borlänge · Norells Hästsport

Borås · My One AB

Eskilstuna · Biderman

Falkenberg · Horse Farm

Falun · Svedens Hästshop

Göteborg · My One AB

Halmstad · Hästshopen

Haninge · Lyckås Ridsport

Helsingborg/Påarp Helsingborg Equestrian o Pet

Helsingborg/RydebäckMånsgård Ridsport

Hudiksvall · XYZ Maskin AB

Hörby · Östraby Trading

Jönköping · Charlies Häst o Hund

Karlstad · Färjestads Rid & Trav

Kristianstad · Stable Store AB

Kungsbacka · Svensk Ridsport

Kungälv · Ridsport Tre Hästar

Lerum · Lerums Hund & Hästsport AB

Löberöd · Marietorp Ridsport

Malmö · My One AB

Mjölby/Hogstad · Sharpman

Norrköping · Avantia Fritid

Norrtälje · Hästshopen Sverige

Nyköping · Hästbutiken i Nyköping

Rottne · G&B Ridsport

Skara · Skara Hästsport

Skellefteå · Royal Hästsport

Skå/Ekerö · Mälarö Djur o Fritid/Spannfod

Skövde · Skövde Ridsport AB

Slöinge · Eriks Hästshop AB

Stockholm/Danderyd · My One AB

Stockholm/Ekerö · Hästhoven

Stockholm/Kungens Kurva Hoppla Ridsport

Stockholm/TäbyGustvall Ridsport

Stockholm/Upplands VäsbyStockholm Ridsport

Strömstad · My One AB

Sundsvall · Grafströms Hästsportbutik

Svedala · Meg’s Djurbruk I Svedala AB

Tidaholm · Filippa´s Ridsport HB

Tomelilla · Stallshopen

Umeå · Tegs Hästsport

Umeå/Travbanan · Pegasus hästshop

Uppsala · Sporren Häst o Ridsport AB

Valbo · Valbo Ridsport

Vimmerby · Hippoteket

Visby · Dahrve Trav & Ridsport

Västerås · Hamre Ridsport

Älvsbyn · AB Nian

Örebro · Till Häst

Örnsköldsvik/Själevad · Royal Hästsport

three-horses.se

Budskapet från FEI, från ryt-tarnas intresseorganisation och den internationella församling-en på årets Global Dressage Fo-rum är klart och tydligt: Vi ska göra det enklare för domarna att döma küren på mästerskap.

Den tyska O-domaren Katrina Wüst har försökt klargöra och för-bättra bedömningen av kürens svårighetsgrad med hjälp av ett verktyg för bedömning. Stephen Clarke, domarkollega, och Richard Davison, ryttare och coach, er-kände båda under GDF att de inte riktigt förstått vad hon sökte i form av it-stöd.

Katrina Wüst fann dock sin tek-niska samtalspartner på nära håll, Daniel Göhler, en 25-årig ingenjör med examen i dataspelsteknik samt Grand Prix-ryttare. Han bor 25 kilometer från Katrina och till-sammans har de skapat ett verk-tyg för domarna, som testades i Warendorf.

Det bygger på att ryttarna lägger in sin kür, rörelse för rörelse, i ett verktyg och redan där får en svå-righetspoäng enligt en poängplan. Olika svårigheter ger olika mycket tillägg. Det kan handla om dubbel-piruetter i piaff, byten på böjt spår och liknande, men även övergång-ar och rörelser i serie ”lönar sig”.

För domarna innebär det att de sitter med ett körschema under be-dömningen och kan bocka av om ekipaget löser svårigheterna.

Sällan har väl ett förslag fått ett varmare mottagande, GDF skicka-de ett rungande ”Ja tack, det vill vi ha” till FEI.

FEI tar tätenTrond Asmyr, ansvarig för dressyr och paradressyr på FEI:s huvud-kontor i Lausanne, inledde årets GDF med att redogöra för de nyhe-ter som introduceras under 2014. Mycket handlar om att förbättra bedömningen, dels genom trä-

ningsprogram för domarna, dels med hjälp av nya verktyg. Domare finns spridda över världen och det är dyrt att samla dem. Därför tar FEI tekniken till hjälp och satsar på webb-baserade utbildnings-verktyg för kompetenshöjning.

För bedömningen av svårighets-graden i en kür finns nu Wüst-Göhlers verktyg och Trond Asmyr såg sy-stemet demonstreras på GDF för första gången under Katrina Wüsts presentation.

Han satte sig samma kväll ner med upphovsmannen Daniel Gö-

hler för att diskutera hur FEI kan använda programvaran.

IDRC med på noternaOm det tidigare varit något fros-tigt i relationerna mellan FEI och IDRC, den internationella dres-syrryttarklubben, så har det tinat rejält. Ordföranden i IDRC, Kyra Kyrklund, är nu medlem av dres-syrkommittén och arbetet löper smidigare.

En stor del av IDRC:s arbete un-der det kommande året kommer att vara att hjälpa till med ska-

pandet av en poängkatalog, med koppling till programmet för svå-righetsgrad men även utanför det. Hur ska en rörelse se ut för att få en åtta eller nia, vad ger avdrag och vad räknar som ett felaktigt utfö-rande, ett stort arbete.

– Det viktigaste för våra med-lemmar, sade Wayne Channon, talesperson i föreningen.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

Läs mer om GDF på webben och i nästa nummer av Ridsport.

Det blir enklare att döma kürenGlobal Dressage Forum . Tydliga besked från FEI

1. Isabell Werth var en av delta-garna på GDF. Hon är inte nöjd med dagens bedömning av svårighetsgra-den i kür– läs mer om detta på sidan 22 i detta nummer.

2. Katrina Wüst och Daniel Göhler redo-visar det nya verktyget för domarna. ”Ja, tack, det vill vi ha”, var reaktio-nen.

3. Trond Asmyr, FEI:s dres-syransvariga, inledde årets upplaga av Global Dressage Forum.

1

2 3

Spelbolaget ATG hotar att lämna Sverige omgående om bolaget måste fortsätta att betala 100 miljoner kronor om året till staten. ATG vill också att skatten på spel ska sänkas.

Bolaget menar att det inte konkur-rerar mot utländska spelbolag på lika villkor när det gäller spel på trav och galopp. Om ATG lämnar Sverige försvinner en stor del av finansieringen av de tre riksan-läggningarna Flyinge, Strömsholm och Wången samt andra bidrag till ridsporten. Även en del forsknings-pengar för hästrelaterad forskning kommer att försvinna.

Fördelningen av ATG:s vinst har varit reglerad av staten i många år. Tanken är bolaget ska ge tillbaka en del av pengarna det tjänar till hästnäringen som motvikt för att det har haft monopol på hästspel. Detta monopol finns i praktiken inte kvar längre då utländska spelbolag också kan ordna spel på svenska banor.

Vid denna tidnings presslägg-ning fanns det ingenting som tyd-de på att villkoren för ATG kommer att ändras inom kort. Det återstår alltså att se om ATG gör verklighet av sitt hot.

Annelie Frank

Mathilde Wirf blir ny ekonomi-chef på Ridsportförbundet efter Jana Petersson som slutade i somras. Mathilde jobbar i dag på ett it-företag i Kista och har tidigare arbetat bland annat inom ABF.

Jobbet som ekonomichef på Ridsportförbundet blir mer än ett nytt jobb.

– Det handlar om kvalitet i livet. Jag ser fram mot att få jobba i den värld där jag känner mig hemma, säger Mathilde Wirf, som nyligen köpt ett torp i närheten av den nya arbetsplatsen på Strömsholm.

Mathilde Wirf är hobbyryttare.

Hon har bland annat haft conne-maror från Holmtebo stuteri.

Aldrig tävlat– Jag rider själv men har aldrig tävlat, och nu har jag precis köpt min första stora häst, ett 4-årigt halvblod.

Anna Nyberg

Risk att ATG-pengarna försvinner

Ny ekonomichef på förbundet

Har hittat hem”Jag ser fram mot att få jobba i den värld där jag känner mig hemma”Mathilde Wirf

Tävling Nationellt22 • Ridsport Nummer 22 • 14 november 2013

TävlingNationelltRidsport • 23Nummer 22 • 14 november 2013

Årets huvudnum-mer under Global Dressage Forum var Isabell Werth med entourage. Hon är känd för att ta tjuren

vid hornen, men har tackat nej till att komma till GDF under alla år. Vad som slutligen svängde henne fick vi inte veta, men helt i Isabells stil blev det en lektion inom ett om- råde som hon haft problem med.

– Det är ju ganska allmänt känt att jag har haft ett piaffproblem med Ernie (El Santo), konstaterade

hon torrt i sin inledning till audito-riets allmänna jubel.

– Därför tog jag med mannen som har hjälpt mig att lösa knuten, José Antonia Garcia Mena.

Hon visade sedan med två de-monstrationsobjekt, Beatrice Buch- wald med Weihegold och Niklas Feilzer med 6-årige Sorento, hur de arbetar hästarna med en hjälpare på marken, från skritt till de första stegen i piaff.

Senare var det dags för henne att själv rida på sin ”Gossen Ruda” nämligen Don Johnson. Isabell är

ofta besvärad och lite blyg i inter-vjusoffan, men helt i sin egen värld och i sitt rätta element i sadeln på sin ”Johnny”.

– Jag pratar ständigt med ho-nom, fast mycket tystare på täv-ling, vi kommunicerar hela tiden, förklarade Isabell efter att ha smackat och kvittrat i mikrofonen, mest med Johnny och lite med pu-bliken.

Ingen genvägWim Ernes höll i en programpunkt med syftet att beskriva hur man

väljer häst från fölstadiet för att till slut hamna i Grand Prix.

I publiken fanns en förväntan om att en genväg skulle beskrivas – men icke.

I Holland gäller fortfarande, liksomdet gör i Sverige, en lämp-lig härstamning, god exteriör, tre utvecklingsbara gångarter, bra uppfödning, väl avvägd träning, bra matchning på tävlingsbanan och ett arbetsamt och samarbets-villigt sinnelag.

De tre giganterna inom hol-ländsk avel, Nico Witte, Joop van Uytert och Tim Coomans, visade upp ett knippe hästar som utan tvekan kommer att ses på tävlings-banorna.

Med det svenska avelscham-pionatet färskt i minne uteblev den sedvanliga imponeringsfak-torn; det var riktigt fina hästar,

fattas bara, men inte längre över-jordiska.

Svensk träningKnytkalaset med grundarna Kyra Kyrklund och Jan Brink i spetsen, plus tränaren i Plantskolans norra del Liane Wachtmeister, intog sce-nen med var sin elev för att illu- strera utvecklingsstegen från ju-nior till U25-ekipage.

Ett inledande föredrag med historik om Knytkalaset bildade ramen till tre mini-träningspass där tränare och elever visade ty-piska övningar och moment. På plats i Holland var junioren Eme-lie Aldenfalk/Winton, den danska young ridern Anna Zibrandtsen/Detroit och Marina Mattsson/Cas-sio på väg mot U25.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

Tillsammans för en bättre framtidSamsyn präglade Global Dressage ForumSvensk touch och samsyn på GDF

Utveckling. Årets Global Dressage Forum präglades av sam-syn och enighet, ett målmedvetet arbete mot en bättre version av dressyrsporten. Det blev två dagars konferens om dressyr, träningsmetoder, regelförändringar och hästvälfärd.

Global Dressage Forum

FEI:s dressyransvariga, norr-mannen Trond Asmyr, var på scenen under GDF med en diger åtgärdsplan för att förbättra sporten på många sätt.

– Det finns en mycket större potential för att hitta en ny publik till dressyren än vad vi tidigare trott, konstaterade han med OS i London som referens.

– Alla ändringar vi gör framöver måste vara mer inriktade på att tillfredsställa publiken, media och genom det sponsorer, sade Trond Asmyr.

– Det är en balansgång att bevara det klassiska och samtidigt bana väg för det nya. Men sporten måste förändras med tiden, därför är vårt arbete framåt så viktigt. Vi kan inte ha en sport som bara är begriplig för de redan insatta.

Begripligt ska det bli genom att åskådare på dressyrtävlingar får mer insyn i bedömningen på olika sätt via displayer och liknande. I samma paket ligger bättre utbild-ning för domarna genom krav på årlig fortbildning via webbaserad utbildning, som kommer att spara både tid, pengar och resor för do-marna runt om i världen.

MellanrundaFör att göra dressyren mer intres-sant för åskådare ska kvaliteten förbättras, på alla nivåer. I stället för att ha Grand Prix-nivån som enda utvecklingsmål, inför FEI från den 1 januari 2014 en ”Me-dium tour”, kanske det kan kall-las mellanrundan på svenska. Två nya program har tagits fram, In-termediare A och B, som innehål-ler några få piaffsteg och ett lägre antal byten i varje och vartannat, samt en allmänt sett enklare nivå. Fler hästar kommer att klara den här nivån på ett bra sätt.

Den Nations Cup som genom-förts i år fortsätter även 2014 under pilotformer.

– Det har gått över förväntan, vi fick fler lag än jag vågat hoppas på, men serien behöver finna sin form, förklarar Trond Asmyr.

På hoppsidan har det ett tag funnits så kallade childrens com-petitions, nu ska det bli ett EM för ”children” i dressyr 2015, där bar-nen även får rida ponny.

För hästarnas välbefinnande ska regelverket för vet-check och prisutdelning ses över, då det är oproportionerligt många inciden-ter där.

Vädjade till EM-ryttarnaDet är fortfarande stort fokus på träningsmetoder av det oönskade slaget såsom rollkür, förbjudet

sedan några år. Trond Asmyr av-slöjade att de i Herning höll ett möte med samtliga dressyrryttare inför tävlingarna. FEI vädjade då om ryttarnas hjälp med att bevara sportens image genom att avstå från sådant som fångat på bild

eller film skulle kunna uppfattas som regelbrott.

– Vi hade stewards på plats och reglerna efterlevdes men ryttarna har också ett ansvar, ansåg Asmyr.

Kim Lundin

Späckad åtgärdsplan ska dra mer publik

Från och med 2014 ska GDF lämna Holland vartannat år och alternera mellan olika länder. Första stoppet blir Blue Hors i Danmark.

GDF har under mer än ett decen-nium huserat i byn Hooge Mierde i södra Holland hos Academy Bar-tels, en träningsanläggning de-dikerad åt dressyr, som i dag ägs av en stiftelse. Nu är det dags för förändring, meddelade forumets beskyddare prinsessan Benedikte.

Tanken är att GDF under de kommande åren ska alternera mellan gästspel i olika länder och Academy Bartels vartannat år.

Det första stoppet på turen blir i prinsessans hemland Danmark den 20-21 oktober 2014. Det krävs stora resurser, mycket yta och en ganska luxuös miljö för att passa GDF, med andra ord går stafettpin-nen till Stutteri Blue Hors på Jyl-land, med närhet till den lilla orten Rambøll och Billunds flygplats.

Starke man på platsPå plats i Holland var självklart stuteriets starke man och vd Esben Møller, som genomfört stora om- och tillbyggnader på Blue Hors under det senaste året. Förutom bronsrepliken av Don Schufro i na-turlig storlek, har stuteriet fått ett

nytt och större ridhus med mycket plats för publik. En hel del bygg-nader har utökats och renoverats.

Utmaningen för GDF ligger nu i att locka med de många britter som kommer i busslaster till eve-nemanget, oväntat många ameri-kaner och de mångtaliga holländs-ka dressyrprofilerna att hoppa på tåget norrut.

Besökare från Norden får äntli-gen lite närmare och kan göra en kombinationsresa, först världscup- premiär i dressyr i Odense lördag-söndag och sedan Global Dressage Forum måndag-tisdag.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

2012 var ett stormigt år för IDRC, den internationella dressyrryt-tarklubben. Nu är situationen helt annorlunda. Ordföranden Kyra Kyrklund sitter med i FEI:s dressyrkommitté och tales-mannen Wayne Channon har fått gehör för sin kampanj för ett bättre bedömningssystem.

IDRC står för International Dres-sage Riders Club och det finns mot-svarande sammanslutningar för tränare (IDTC) och funktionärer (officials) såsom domare (IDOC).

Traditionsenligt hålls årsmötet under GDF. Det behandlade året som gått med FEI Sports Forum i april och en utvärdering av EM i Herning.

En stor del av IDRC:s krafter under 2014 kommer att läggas på att hjälpa till med att utveckla en ”Code of Points”, en poängnyckel, som ska användas vid dressyrbe-dömningen. Det handlar om att i detalj beskriva hur mycket poäng-avdrag olika typer av fel i en rörelse innebär, liksom hur rörelsen ser ut för att ge högre betyg. Beskrivning-arna finns redan i form av FEI Dres-sage Handbook, den första delen i arbetet handlar om att sätta poäng på svårigheterna i kürprogrammen.

Under 2013 genomförde IDRC en enkät bland sina medlemmar för att pejla vilka frågor som är viktigast för föreningen att arbeta med. Föga förvånande värderar de svarande bedömningen i sin helhet som den viktigaste frågan, det blev 4,7 poäng av fem möjliga.

Dressyrryttarna skulle även vilja arbeta för att det är en veterinär i stället för en FEI-steward som gör bedömningen om en häst är i stånd att fortsätta tävla eller inte, efter att det har upptäckts blod någon-stans på hästen.Kim C Lundin

Analytikern David Stickland har sedan några år hjälpt FEI att förstå hur dagens bedömnings-system klarar olika scenarier med förändrat antal domare på Grand Prix-nivå. Nu har han även tagit sig an lilla rundan-programmet Prix S:t Georges.

Stickland är bara i början av sitt arbete med PSG-resultat från na-tionella tyska tävlingar. Men han hade ändå några observationer och råd att dela med sig av.

För en häst på PSG-nivån är ga-loppen absolut viktigast. Där delas det ut mest poäng och halvpiruet-ternas utförande avgör ofta rang-

ordningen mellan ryttarna i klas-sen. Fina piruetter betyder högre upp i resultatlistan, enligt David Sticklands fynd.

Det är en upptäckt som säkert inte förvånar någon. Däremot tän-ker nog inte alla på att ökad skritt är den näst mest inflytelserika rö-relsen, följt av samlad skritt. Bland ekipage som hade i övrigt ganska lika resultat var det de här tre rörel-serna som fällde avgörandet.

Ekipagen får inte särskilt mycket poäng för bytesserierna i vart tred-je/vart fjärde. Men detta är en av de stora svårigheterna på PSG-nivå och rörelser som verkligen sorterar och avgör rangordningen.

Av de tyska resultaten att döma är det mycket ovanligt att få mer än 70 procent i PSG, bara tre procent av alla analyserade ritter hamnade där. I stället är det intervallet 62–67 procent som står för två tredjede-lar av alla resultat.

Ingen behöver skämmas för 64-65 procent, det är ett högst normalt utfall.

David Sticklands råd till alla ryt-tare på denna nivå lyder:

– Titta på dina protokoll från de senaste tävlingarna, jämför rörelse för rörelse, ligger du jämnt eller varierar sifforna? Du kan se var du kan förbättra dig genom att själv analysera om det är enskilda rörel-

ser som är er svaga sida eller om du ”bara” behöver få upp jämnheten i dina uppvisningar.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

Samsyn präglade Global Dressage Forum

Förhoppningsfull. ”Större potential än vi tidigare trott”

Galoppen är viktigast i Prix S:t Georges

Bättre tider för IDRC

GDF gästspelar på Blue Hors 2014

IDRC:s ordförande Kyra Kyrklund, som medverkade under GDF, sitter numera med i FEI:s dressyrkom-mitté. Foto: Kim C Lundin

Fakta. Underlaget

4 000 tyska ritter på nationell nivå har analyserats. från åren 2009–2013.

338 742 olika poäng har delats ut, av dem är bara 82 stycken 9:or och inte en enda 10.

523 anmälda och aktiva medlem-mar (inte alla betalar, ett klas-siskt problem).

3 066 medlemmar i den slutna

Facebook-gruppen där diskussioner förs (inbjudna ryttare).

8 482 följare till det öppna forumet där IDRC för ut sina frågor.

Fakta. IDRC

GDF:s beskyddare prinsessan Benedikte och Blue Hors vd Esben Møller presenterade nyheten att GDF nästa år hålls i Danmark.

1 Det blir obligatoriskt för ryttare att starta i

küren på meetings.

2 Kvalgränsen för att få starta i GP Special

och kür höjs från 58 procent till 60 procent.

3 Flughuvor får inte användas för att

skydda för ljud. Med andra ord blir det inte

tillåtet att rida med huva inomhus.

4 Arenan ska se likadan ut under

träning som under tävling, ett resultat av händelserna kring världscupfinalen i Göteborg.

5 FEI-steward ska vara närvarande

under alla träningstider och under uppvärm-ningen.

6 Regeln om elimi-nering på grund

av blod verkställs över hela linjen.

7 Domare behöver inte längre byta

tävlingsplatser med rotation.

Fakta. Föreslagna regeländringar 2014

Utnyttja potentialenDressyren behöver hitta en ny och större publik, anser FEI. Potential finns, se bara på OS i London, EM i Herning och Scan-dinavium och Globen i Sverige. Foto: Lottapictures.com

1. Det var mycket svenskt på årets GDF, då Knytkalaset och Plantskolan presenterades. Här ses Jan Brink tillsam-mans med ele-verna Marina Mattsson på Cassio och Anna Zibrandtsen på Detroit.

2. Isabell Werth hade äntligen tackat ja till en mångårig inbjudan att medverka på GDF.

21

Tävling Nationellt22 • Ridsport Nummer 22 • 14 november 2013

TävlingNationelltRidsport • 23Nummer 22 • 14 november 2013

Årets huvudnum-mer under Global Dressage Forum var Isabell Werth med entourage. Hon är känd för att ta tjuren

vid hornen, men har tackat nej till att komma till GDF under alla år. Vad som slutligen svängde henne fick vi inte veta, men helt i Isabells stil blev det en lektion inom ett om- råde som hon haft problem med.

– Det är ju ganska allmänt känt att jag har haft ett piaffproblem med Ernie (El Santo), konstaterade

hon torrt i sin inledning till audito-riets allmänna jubel.

– Därför tog jag med mannen som har hjälpt mig att lösa knuten, José Antonia Garcia Mena.

Hon visade sedan med två de-monstrationsobjekt, Beatrice Buch- wald med Weihegold och Niklas Feilzer med 6-årige Sorento, hur de arbetar hästarna med en hjälpare på marken, från skritt till de första stegen i piaff.

Senare var det dags för henne att själv rida på sin ”Gossen Ruda” nämligen Don Johnson. Isabell är

ofta besvärad och lite blyg i inter-vjusoffan, men helt i sin egen värld och i sitt rätta element i sadeln på sin ”Johnny”.

– Jag pratar ständigt med ho-nom, fast mycket tystare på täv-ling, vi kommunicerar hela tiden, förklarade Isabell efter att ha smackat och kvittrat i mikrofonen, mest med Johnny och lite med pu-bliken.

Ingen genvägWim Ernes höll i en programpunkt med syftet att beskriva hur man

väljer häst från fölstadiet för att till slut hamna i Grand Prix.

I publiken fanns en förväntan om att en genväg skulle beskrivas – men icke.

I Holland gäller fortfarande, liksomdet gör i Sverige, en lämp-lig härstamning, god exteriör, tre utvecklingsbara gångarter, bra uppfödning, väl avvägd träning, bra matchning på tävlingsbanan och ett arbetsamt och samarbets-villigt sinnelag.

De tre giganterna inom hol-ländsk avel, Nico Witte, Joop van Uytert och Tim Coomans, visade upp ett knippe hästar som utan tvekan kommer att ses på tävlings-banorna.

Med det svenska avelscham-pionatet färskt i minne uteblev den sedvanliga imponeringsfak-torn; det var riktigt fina hästar,

fattas bara, men inte längre över-jordiska.

Svensk träningKnytkalaset med grundarna Kyra Kyrklund och Jan Brink i spetsen, plus tränaren i Plantskolans norra del Liane Wachtmeister, intog sce-nen med var sin elev för att illu- strera utvecklingsstegen från ju-nior till U25-ekipage.

Ett inledande föredrag med historik om Knytkalaset bildade ramen till tre mini-träningspass där tränare och elever visade ty-piska övningar och moment. På plats i Holland var junioren Eme-lie Aldenfalk/Winton, den danska young ridern Anna Zibrandtsen/Detroit och Marina Mattsson/Cas-sio på väg mot U25.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

Tillsammans för en bättre framtidSamsyn präglade Global Dressage ForumSvensk touch och samsyn på GDF

Utveckling. Årets Global Dressage Forum präglades av sam-syn och enighet, ett målmedvetet arbete mot en bättre version av dressyrsporten. Det blev två dagars konferens om dressyr, träningsmetoder, regelförändringar och hästvälfärd.

Global Dressage Forum

FEI:s dressyransvariga, norr-mannen Trond Asmyr, var på scenen under GDF med en diger åtgärdsplan för att förbättra sporten på många sätt.

– Det finns en mycket större potential för att hitta en ny publik till dressyren än vad vi tidigare trott, konstaterade han med OS i London som referens.

– Alla ändringar vi gör framöver måste vara mer inriktade på att tillfredsställa publiken, media och genom det sponsorer, sade Trond Asmyr.

– Det är en balansgång att bevara det klassiska och samtidigt bana väg för det nya. Men sporten måste förändras med tiden, därför är vårt arbete framåt så viktigt. Vi kan inte ha en sport som bara är begriplig för de redan insatta.

Begripligt ska det bli genom att åskådare på dressyrtävlingar får mer insyn i bedömningen på olika sätt via displayer och liknande. I samma paket ligger bättre utbild-ning för domarna genom krav på årlig fortbildning via webbaserad utbildning, som kommer att spara både tid, pengar och resor för do-marna runt om i världen.

MellanrundaFör att göra dressyren mer intres-sant för åskådare ska kvaliteten förbättras, på alla nivåer. I stället för att ha Grand Prix-nivån som enda utvecklingsmål, inför FEI från den 1 januari 2014 en ”Me-dium tour”, kanske det kan kall-las mellanrundan på svenska. Två nya program har tagits fram, In-termediare A och B, som innehål-ler några få piaffsteg och ett lägre antal byten i varje och vartannat, samt en allmänt sett enklare nivå. Fler hästar kommer att klara den här nivån på ett bra sätt.

Den Nations Cup som genom-förts i år fortsätter även 2014 under pilotformer.

– Det har gått över förväntan, vi fick fler lag än jag vågat hoppas på, men serien behöver finna sin form, förklarar Trond Asmyr.

På hoppsidan har det ett tag funnits så kallade childrens com-petitions, nu ska det bli ett EM för ”children” i dressyr 2015, där bar-nen även får rida ponny.

För hästarnas välbefinnande ska regelverket för vet-check och prisutdelning ses över, då det är oproportionerligt många inciden-ter där.

Vädjade till EM-ryttarnaDet är fortfarande stort fokus på träningsmetoder av det oönskade slaget såsom rollkür, förbjudet

sedan några år. Trond Asmyr av-slöjade att de i Herning höll ett möte med samtliga dressyrryttare inför tävlingarna. FEI vädjade då om ryttarnas hjälp med att bevara sportens image genom att avstå från sådant som fångat på bild

eller film skulle kunna uppfattas som regelbrott.

– Vi hade stewards på plats och reglerna efterlevdes men ryttarna har också ett ansvar, ansåg Asmyr.

Kim Lundin

Späckad åtgärdsplan ska dra mer publik

Från och med 2014 ska GDF lämna Holland vartannat år och alternera mellan olika länder. Första stoppet blir Blue Hors i Danmark.

GDF har under mer än ett decen-nium huserat i byn Hooge Mierde i södra Holland hos Academy Bar-tels, en träningsanläggning de-dikerad åt dressyr, som i dag ägs av en stiftelse. Nu är det dags för förändring, meddelade forumets beskyddare prinsessan Benedikte.

Tanken är att GDF under de kommande åren ska alternera mellan gästspel i olika länder och Academy Bartels vartannat år.

Det första stoppet på turen blir i prinsessans hemland Danmark den 20-21 oktober 2014. Det krävs stora resurser, mycket yta och en ganska luxuös miljö för att passa GDF, med andra ord går stafettpin-nen till Stutteri Blue Hors på Jyl-land, med närhet till den lilla orten Rambøll och Billunds flygplats.

Starke man på platsPå plats i Holland var självklart stuteriets starke man och vd Esben Møller, som genomfört stora om- och tillbyggnader på Blue Hors under det senaste året. Förutom bronsrepliken av Don Schufro i na-turlig storlek, har stuteriet fått ett

nytt och större ridhus med mycket plats för publik. En hel del bygg-nader har utökats och renoverats.

Utmaningen för GDF ligger nu i att locka med de många britter som kommer i busslaster till eve-nemanget, oväntat många ameri-kaner och de mångtaliga holländs-ka dressyrprofilerna att hoppa på tåget norrut.

Besökare från Norden får äntli-gen lite närmare och kan göra en kombinationsresa, först världscup- premiär i dressyr i Odense lördag-söndag och sedan Global Dressage Forum måndag-tisdag.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

2012 var ett stormigt år för IDRC, den internationella dressyrryt-tarklubben. Nu är situationen helt annorlunda. Ordföranden Kyra Kyrklund sitter med i FEI:s dressyrkommitté och tales-mannen Wayne Channon har fått gehör för sin kampanj för ett bättre bedömningssystem.

IDRC står för International Dres-sage Riders Club och det finns mot-svarande sammanslutningar för tränare (IDTC) och funktionärer (officials) såsom domare (IDOC).

Traditionsenligt hålls årsmötet under GDF. Det behandlade året som gått med FEI Sports Forum i april och en utvärdering av EM i Herning.

En stor del av IDRC:s krafter under 2014 kommer att läggas på att hjälpa till med att utveckla en ”Code of Points”, en poängnyckel, som ska användas vid dressyrbe-dömningen. Det handlar om att i detalj beskriva hur mycket poäng-avdrag olika typer av fel i en rörelse innebär, liksom hur rörelsen ser ut för att ge högre betyg. Beskrivning-arna finns redan i form av FEI Dres-sage Handbook, den första delen i arbetet handlar om att sätta poäng på svårigheterna i kürprogrammen.

Under 2013 genomförde IDRC en enkät bland sina medlemmar för att pejla vilka frågor som är viktigast för föreningen att arbeta med. Föga förvånande värderar de svarande bedömningen i sin helhet som den viktigaste frågan, det blev 4,7 poäng av fem möjliga.

Dressyrryttarna skulle även vilja arbeta för att det är en veterinär i stället för en FEI-steward som gör bedömningen om en häst är i stånd att fortsätta tävla eller inte, efter att det har upptäckts blod någon-stans på hästen.Kim C Lundin

Analytikern David Stickland har sedan några år hjälpt FEI att förstå hur dagens bedömnings-system klarar olika scenarier med förändrat antal domare på Grand Prix-nivå. Nu har han även tagit sig an lilla rundan-programmet Prix S:t Georges.

Stickland är bara i början av sitt arbete med PSG-resultat från na-tionella tyska tävlingar. Men han hade ändå några observationer och råd att dela med sig av.

För en häst på PSG-nivån är ga-loppen absolut viktigast. Där delas det ut mest poäng och halvpiruet-ternas utförande avgör ofta rang-

ordningen mellan ryttarna i klas-sen. Fina piruetter betyder högre upp i resultatlistan, enligt David Sticklands fynd.

Det är en upptäckt som säkert inte förvånar någon. Däremot tän-ker nog inte alla på att ökad skritt är den näst mest inflytelserika rö-relsen, följt av samlad skritt. Bland ekipage som hade i övrigt ganska lika resultat var det de här tre rörel-serna som fällde avgörandet.

Ekipagen får inte särskilt mycket poäng för bytesserierna i vart tred-je/vart fjärde. Men detta är en av de stora svårigheterna på PSG-nivå och rörelser som verkligen sorterar och avgör rangordningen.

Av de tyska resultaten att döma är det mycket ovanligt att få mer än 70 procent i PSG, bara tre procent av alla analyserade ritter hamnade där. I stället är det intervallet 62–67 procent som står för två tredjede-lar av alla resultat.

Ingen behöver skämmas för 64-65 procent, det är ett högst normalt utfall.

David Sticklands råd till alla ryt-tare på denna nivå lyder:

– Titta på dina protokoll från de senaste tävlingarna, jämför rörelse för rörelse, ligger du jämnt eller varierar sifforna? Du kan se var du kan förbättra dig genom att själv analysera om det är enskilda rörel-

ser som är er svaga sida eller om du ”bara” behöver få upp jämnheten i dina uppvisningar.

Kim C Lundin, text och foto

Samsyn präglade Global Dressage Forum

Förhoppningsfull. ”Större potential än vi tidigare trott”

Galoppen är viktigast i Prix S:t Georges

Bättre tider för IDRC

GDF gästspelar på Blue Hors 2014

IDRC:s ordförande Kyra Kyrklund, som medverkade under GDF, sitter numera med i FEI:s dressyrkom-mitté. Foto: Kim C Lundin

Fakta. Underlaget

4 000 tyska ritter på nationell nivå har analyserats. från åren 2009–2013.

338 742 olika poäng har delats ut, av dem är bara 82 stycken 9:or och inte en enda 10.

523 anmälda och aktiva medlem-mar (inte alla betalar, ett klas-siskt problem).

3 066 medlemmar i den slutna

Facebook-gruppen där diskussioner förs (inbjudna ryttare).

8 482 följare till det öppna forumet där IDRC för ut sina frågor.

Fakta. IDRC

GDF:s beskyddare prinsessan Benedikte och Blue Hors vd Esben Møller presenterade nyheten att GDF nästa år hålls i Danmark.

1 Det blir obligatoriskt för ryttare att starta i

küren på meetings.

2 Kvalgränsen för att få starta i GP Special

och kür höjs från 58 procent till 60 procent.

3 Flughuvor får inte användas för att

skydda för ljud. Med andra ord blir det inte

tillåtet att rida med huva inomhus.

4 Arenan ska se likadan ut under

träning som under tävling, ett resultat av händelserna kring världscupfinalen i Göteborg.

5 FEI-steward ska vara närvarande

under alla träningstider och under uppvärm-ningen.

6 Regeln om elimi-nering på grund

av blod verkställs över hela linjen.

7 Domare behöver inte längre byta

tävlingsplatser med rotation.

Fakta. Föreslagna regeländringar 2014

Utnyttja potentialenDressyren behöver hitta en ny och större publik, anser FEI. Potential finns, se bara på OS i London, EM i Herning och Scan-dinavium och Globen i Sverige. Foto: Lottapictures.com

1. Det var mycket svenskt på årets GDF, då Knytkalaset och Plantskolan presenterades. Här ses Jan Brink tillsam-mans med ele-verna Marina Mattsson på Cassio och Anna Zibrandtsen på Detroit.

2. Isabell Werth hade äntligen tackat ja till en mångårig inbjudan att medverka på GDF.

21

В ноВый год с ноВыми праВилами

За последние несколько лет в правилах судейства выездки было сделано много изменений, в част-ности увеличение количества судей до 7 на крупнейших турнирах, созда-ние контролирующего судейского совета, введение «половинок» бал-лов. Но на этом процесс пересмотра и модернизации правил не останов-лен. На спортивном форуме FEI в апреле этого года была предложена идея сделать средний тур, который будет полезен для облегчения пере-

хода от Малого к Большому призу. «Многие согласятся с тем, что тест "Средний приз II" считается неудач-ным, спортсмены и организаторы по возможности избегают его», – ска-зал Трон Асмюр, директор FEI по выездке. «На днях на веб-сайте FEI будут опубликованы новые тесты, их рабочее название – "Средний Приз А" и "Средний Приз Б". Учитывая тот факт, что лишь незначительное количество лошадей могут быть под-готовлены до уровня Большого приза, езды Среднего тура дадут возможность увеличить количество

Всемирный форум по выездке редко обходится без бурного обсуждения

спорных вопросов развития спорта, но в этом году единственной вспышкой стал

фейерверк в честь расширения Академии Бартельс. Спортивное сообщество было настроено удивительно единодушно, а

программа форума по традиции сочетала практические презентации с

теоретическими докладами, многие из которых были объединены одной темой –

«поиск и воспитание талантов».

Всемирный форум по Выездке:Воспитание таланта

Кира КерКланд во время открытого урока

ЗМ №12/1362013

2

В ноВый год с ноВыми праВилами

За последние несколько лет в правилах судейства выездки было сделано много изменений, в част-ности увеличение количества судей до 7 на крупнейших турнирах, созда-ние контролирующего судейского совета, введение «половинок» бал-лов. Но на этом процесс пересмотра и модернизации правил не останов-лен. На спортивном форуме FEI в апреле этого года была предложена идея сделать средний тур, который будет полезен для облегчения пере-

хода от Малого к Большому призу. «Многие согласятся с тем, что тест "Средний приз II" считается неудач-ным, спортсмены и организаторы по возможности избегают его», – ска-зал Трон Асмюр, директор FEI по выездке. «На днях на веб-сайте FEI будут опубликованы новые тесты, их рабочее название – "Средний Приз А" и "Средний Приз Б". Учитывая тот факт, что лишь незначительное количество лошадей могут быть под-готовлены до уровня Большого приза, езды Среднего тура дадут возможность увеличить количество

Всемирный форум по выездке редко обходится без бурного обсуждения

спорных вопросов развития спорта, но в этом году единственной вспышкой стал

фейерверк в честь расширения Академии Бартельс. Спортивное сообщество было настроено удивительно единодушно, а

программа форума по традиции сочетала практические презентации с

теоретическими докладами, многие из которых были объединены одной темой –

«поиск и воспитание талантов».

Всемирный форум по Выездке:Воспитание таланта

Кира КерКланд во время открытого урока

ЗМ №12/1362013

2спортсменов и лошадей, принимаю-щих участие в международных соревнованиях по выездке». В новых тестах будут все те же эле-менты, что в Большом призе, но в более простых сочетаниях.

Аплодисментами была встречена новость о том, что на Олимпиаде-2016 будет увеличено число участни-ков соревнований по выездке – с 50 до 60 пар. Команда будет состоять из четырех спортсменов, предполагает-ся, что на каждую команду, квалифи-цировавшуюся напрямую, будет дополнительно разрешен 1 резерв-ный спортсмен. Для композитных команд резерв не предусмотрен. Процесс квалификации на Олимпиаду начнется уже в следующем году – на Всемирных конных играх.

Технологии на службе прогресса

Судейство КЮРов в выездке является более субъективным процессом, чем судейство осталь-ных тестов. Как можно оценить артистичность или степень слож-ности, чтобы спортсмены не толь-ко поняли, но и согласились со своими оценками?

Оценка за сложность програм-мы имеет внушительное влияние на общий результат, так как умножа-ется на коэффициент «четыре». Новая система судейства, разрабо-танная судьей международной категории 5* Катриной Вюст (Германия), направлена на повыше-ние объективности в выставлении именно этой оценки.

Хотя эта система уже была опробована на тестовом турнире в Варендорфе, продолжается работа по созданию каталога, включающе-го в себя набор всех возможных элементов и их комбинаций, из которых всадник может выбирать то, что подходит его лошади. Предполагается, что если включать в КЮР только обязательные эле-менты для данного класса, то оцен-ка за его степень сложности будет равна шести. Тем не менее немногие современные КЮРы обходятся без элементов, повышающих их слож-ность, например, двойной пируэт, принимание на пассаже; остановка-пассаж, пиаффе-прибавленная рысь; перемены на вольту, пиаффе

в центре поля. При составлении каталога каждому элементу, повы-шающему сложность, будет присво-ена определенная «стоимость» (например, 0,3 балла).

Разработана специальная ком-пьютерная программа, которая будет в распоряжении у всех спорт-сменов и с помощью которой всад-ник сможет сделать протокол свое-го теста, где в последовательном порядке будут перечислены все обязательные и дополнительные элементы КЮРа. Кроме того, про-грамма умеет подсказывать спорт-смену, все ли необходимые элемен-ты включены в программу, какие могут использоваться в качестве комбинаций, а какие – нет, и тому подобное.

Приезжая на старт, спортсмен должен будет сдать в секретариат диск с записью музыки и файл с про-токолом собственного КЮРа. Для каждого судьи распечатываются тес-товые листы по каждому спортсмену. Судьи оценивают элементы друг за другом, итоговые оценки генериру-ются самой программой.

Программа существенно облег-чает работу судей, так как им не нужно держать в голове все вариан-ты, повышающие трудность теста. Оценка становится более стандар-тизированной, а судьи имеют перед глазами готовый протокол езды.

КОММеНТАРии СПециАлиСТАЗа комментариями мы обратились к владельцу компании Dressage Horses Юлии Славиной.

ЗМ: Планируется ли какое-то сотрудничество в будущем с организаторами Global Dressage Forum при организации российского форума?

D.H.: Рано или поздно этот вопрос должен был возникнуть! Да, сотрудничество будет, мы уже обсудили с организаторами GDF совместную рабо-ту. Пока рано озвучивать детали, но могу обещать, что программа следующего форума по выездке будет еще более интересной, чем в этом году.

ЗМ: Какая часть GDF в этом году вам показалась наиболее интересной и полезной?

D.H.: В целом GDF четко отражает тенденции мировой выездки, и все доклады говорили об открытиях, инновациях и достижениях. Очень полезен был доклад о КЮРах. Поразило, что написание программы для составления и судейства КЮРов – это частная инициатива, ее написал всадник-любитель. Был интересен разбор ошибок всадников в Малом призе, сделанный на основе статистических данных. Такой несложный, в прин ципе, анализ, который можно сделать даже самостоятельно в Excell, мог бы стать серьезным помощником при подготовке к стартам.

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форум 3Текст, фото: екатерина Штатнова/www/equestrian.ru

Много преимуществ и для орга-низаторов – становится возможным применение в КЮРе открытого судейства, быстрее рассчитываются финальные результаты. ТV-коммен-таторы смогут объявлять заранее сложные движения, а также сооб-щать зрителям о дополнительных бонусных очках, которые может получить спортсмен.

Хотя программа нуждается в дополнительной доработке ряда деталей, FEI уже сейчас рассматри-вает возможность ее применения в будущем для крупнейших турниров.

ТернисТый пуТь изабель ВерТ

Журналисты называют изабель Верт Grand-Prix Machine, подразу-мевая ее нацеленность на результат и способность самостоятельно гото-вить лошадей к ездам уровня Большого приза. В послужном спис-ке спортсменки – пять золотых олимпийских медалей, но это еще не предел, так как изабель не пла-нирует заканчивать спортивную карьеру в ближайший год. Сейчас 44-летняя госпожа Верт совмещает

спорт с воспитанием четырехлетне-го сына Фредерика, который ото-двинул лошадей на второе место в жизни изабель. Модератор форума Ричард Дэвисон побеседовал со спортсменкой о жизни и спорте…

изабель Верт не только рас-сказала о своей жизни, но и прове-ла открытый урок со своими уче-никами, а потом и сама села в седло. Большепризный Дон Джонсон бурно среагировал на аплодисменты публики, но изабель осталась невозмутимой и за несколько минут переключила внимание лошади с необычной обстановки на себя. Работа с лошадью строится на общеприня-тых принципах: во время разминки устанавливается контакт с пово-дом, много переходов используется для того, чтобы уговорить лошадь слушать всадника. Когда изабель видит лошадь, то она может с большой долей уверенности ска-зать, какой она будет через два года работы у нее, и такая пред-сказуемость – следствие огромно-го опыта изабель в самостоятель-ной подготовке лошадей. Изабель верт и дон дЖонСон

Хосе антонио ГарСИя Мена демонстрирует приемы обучения пиаффе

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форум4

Философию изабель Верт в жизни и спорте можно сформули-ровать кратко: важно идти своим путем и не бояться рисковать. Не каждому под силу этот путь, но он привел изабель к олимпийским медалям, и она не собирается сво-рачивать с него.

скандинаВский харакТер

В 1998 году совместные усилия тренера Киры Керкланд и спортсмена Яна Бринка привели к созданию про-граммы поддержки молодых спорт-сменов. Программа получила назва-ние Knytkalaset. В Швеции knytkalaset – это вечеринка, на кото-рую все ее участники приносят угоще-ния и напитки, делая вклад в «общий котел». Кира Керкланд вложила свои знания, Ян Бринк предоставил свои конюшни и манежи для тренинга, а их партнер Аке Бьорселл – навыки менеджмента и финансирование.

Для всех студентов, участвующих в программе, устанавливаются крат-косрочные и долгосрочные планы, которые очень конкретны. Например,

спортсмен, имеющий средний резуль-тат по Малому призу в течение года 65%, должен после года обучения повысить этот результат на 2%. Помимо спонсоров программы, к работе привлекаются и персональные спонсоры спортсменов. ежегодно для инвесторов проводится день открытых дверей.

К участию в программе пригла-шаются всадники и лошади уровня Малых езд, стоящие на пороге Большого приза. ежегодно прохо-дит по 10 тренировочных сессий, которые продолжаются по 2-3 дня. В программе участвуют девять пос-тоянных студентов и три всадника находятся в резерве. В обязатель-ном порядке все студенты присут-ствуют на тренировочных сессиях друг друга, а также помогают друг другу на национальных турнирах.

За время работы программы были подготовлены около 30 «боль-шепризных» лошадей. Студенты выиграли 5 национальных чемпио-натов, 17 международных соревно-ваний уровня Большого приза. В 2009 году, после привлечения

дополнительного финансирования, программа была расширена с рас-четом на участие более молодых студентов. К северному отделению Knytkalaset добавилось южное, в котором старшим тренером работа-ет лиана Вахтмейстер.

именно она провела открытую тренировку в манеже Global Dressage Forum для всадников-юно-шей, а затем ее сменил Ян Бринк, который позанимался с нескольки-ми юниорами. Все они были участ-никами программы.

В заключении Кира Керкланд подчеркнула, что каждый молодой спортсмен должен прилагать макси-мум усилий к обучению и развитию. Ждать, пока придет федерация и приведет за собой спонсора, – это тупик. «и Швеция, и Финляндия – маленькие страны, но я считаю, что нельзя опускать руки только потому, что у наших европейских соседей больше хороших лошадей, талантли-вых спортсменов и лояльных спонсо-ров», – сказала Кира Керкланд.

Одной из главных новостей стало известие о том, что следующий Всемирный форум по выездке прой-дет не в Нидерландах, а в Дании, на территории конного завода Blue Horse, где участников форума ждет не только богатая программа, но и более тесное знакомство со спортив-ным коневодством Дании. ЗМ

трон аСМюр – директор FEI по выездке

Катрина вюСт и Стивен КларК

Судейство КЮРов в выездке является более субъективным процессом, чем судейство остальных тестов. Как можно оценить артистичность или степень сложности, чтобы спортсмены не только поняли, но и согласились со своими оценками?

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22 www.HorseSportInternational.com Issue 7, 2013

Low DownBy Karen Robinson

The Great Non-Debate

Of all the FEI disciplines, none enjoys discussing its finer (and rougher) points than dressage. Since 2001, the

international dressage community has had an annual opportunity to do just that, at the Global Dressage Forum in Hooge Mierde, The Netherlands. Controversies big and small have erupted on the stage at the Academy Bartels over the past dozen years. Dressage is no combat sport, but put a few hundred dressage folk in one place, throw them the chum of a controversial judging result, and the waters quickly churn. I’ve seen the crowd turn at past GDFs; it’s not pretty. After a pregnant Anky Van Grunsven was viciously criticized in 2006, the riders gave the event a wide berth. The judges steered clear following the 2008 GDF, where the Olympic judging was vigorously lambasted.

GDF founder and program director Joep Bartels has struggled hard to lure those two stakeholder groups back. After all, you can’t have a proper dialogue about the sport if the participants aren’t there. There were times when he came close to losing heart, particularly when the global economic downturn caused the number of delegates to dwindle. But with the formation of the Global Dressage Foundation last year, and the continued support of a group of loyal sponsors, the GDF is thriving. The fact that the most contentious moment at this year’s GDF took place when a judge went after a rider, is perhaps the most telling sign that the event has become exactly what Bartels first envisioned: a forum where nothing is sacred and everything is on the table.

SmorgaSbordThe program for the 2013 GDF

contained the usual varied buffet: from mounted presentations (Kyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink and Liane Wachtmeister on Sweden’s talent program) to Dutch team trainer Wim Ernes on the path from foal to Grand Prix, to a lecture on emerging equine diseases given by Dr. Marianne Sloet, to dressage’s master of number crunching David Stickland on how riders can get more meaning out of their scores in the Prix St. Georges test.

The presentations this year were by and large, of the highest grade. Sloet managed to breathe life into the potentially mind-numbing topic of diseases; sport psychologist Jan Dierens reminded us through simple but entertaining audience participation, that dressage is as much a sport between the ears as between the legs. The only presentation that fell flat was the Normandy 2014 preview, which was little more than a replaying of promotional videos. ISabell, at laSt

It is at least ten years since Bartels began trying to persuade Isabell Werth to be the main attraction at the GDF. He came close once, but Isabell shied away, fearful of exposing herself in the year preceding a major championship. The last hold-out among the world’s top riders, the most successful Olympic dressage rider in history finally agreed to be the star attraction at this year’s GDF. And of all the horses she could have brought to the GDF, she chose the naughty one:

Don Johnson. Her decision was both courageous and clever.

In the first session, in which Isabell demonstrated her methods through two of her disciples on younger horses, she confessed that she prefers horses with a bit of a spark. “I really like if they are a bit naughty, a bit awake,” she said. “I don’t like the word ‘submission’. I prefer ‘control’. They should show their own opinions. They should buck once, or be a bit spooky.” When Isabell got on Don Johnson for the evening demonstration, his spicy character was immediately apparent. Members of the media who enjoy publishing unflattering or controversial photos have, until now, had a bit of a field day with Don Johnson. His antics in the warm up have contributed to a perception that the warm up is a battleground for these two combatants. But seeing the pair in action, live and up close, yields quite a

Ideas flow freely through calm waters at the 13th annual global dressage Forum

Isabell Werth and Don Johnson FRH were the main attractions at an unusually harmonious

Global Dressage Forum.

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different picture. The horse isn’t struggling at those moments; he’s playing. And his rider lets him. I expect I wasn’t the only member of the audience to have this same epiphany.

Don Johnson is, without a doubt, a very tricky horse and at the end of Isabell’s ride, GDF emcee Richard Davison commended her for bringing the 12-year-old Hannoverian gelding . “Do you know why I chose Johnny?” she replied. “I wanted to show that he is better than his image. I always feel sorry that I can’t show the horse like he could be shown.” Isabell believes in Don Johnson’s talent, and she is optimistic that his best in the show ring is yet to come. Charming, funny and self-deprecating, Isabell also showed her fallibility to the audience. It’s a humbling experience to witness one of the world’s truly great riders revealing her humanness, which made the line of questioning chosen by FEI judge Bernard Maurel seem slightly repugnant in comparison.

ProvocatIon The GDF has its core group of regulars –

the usual suspects who turn up year after year. Even when many judges stayed away, Bernard Maurel always attended the GDF. As a five star judge, he is invariably asked to be on one of the panels that makes comments and asks questions at the end of a presentation. Provocation is encouraged at the GDF, and Maurel can always be counted on to speak his mind. But he may have crossed a line this time. For a judge to put a rider on the spot – and over a controversy that his own colleagues are responsible for – is in questionable taste. Also questionable is whether or not challenging Isabell on her individual silver medal at the 2008 Olympics served any useful purpose. Beginning by saying he was in a state of mild disbelief to be “asking a question of a living legend”, Maurel, who was not on the ground jury in Hong Kong, asked Isabell a very sharply pointed question: how could a person “not familiar with dressage sport” be made to understand why Satchmo won a silver medal, considering his disobedience in the test? Maurel also suggested that the FEI Dressage task force, which was formed the following winter to address issues with the judging, arose directly out of that silver medal result.

Isabell remained composed, answering Maurel’s question coolly, and with respect. “I don’t think Satchmo was the reason,” she replied. “I think there were a lot of things already in the pipeline. I feel really happy for the horse because he got a medal and he deserved it. I don’t see a direct connection

between Satchmo and the task force.” For her honesty and refusal to take the bait, Isabell was rewarded with immediate support from two members of that task force: Davison and five star judge Katrina Wüst. “We on the task force never made that connection to Hong Kong,” said Wüst. “Dressage is a sport where you can compensate for mistakes. In football you can also compensate. You can be down three goals, and get four goals to win the game back. In show jumping you cannot compensate, but in dressage you can.”

Ultimately, Maurel’s question did serve a purpose. That a judge would dare to ask such a question to a rider’s face is a sign that the GDF has succeeded in bridging what was once a yawning gap of silence between the riders and the judges.

FreeStyle braInchIldThere was universal, even gushing, praise

for Katrina Wüst’s presentation on a proposed system for assessing the degree of difficulty in the freestyle. After several years of intense research, and the creation of a computer program by German programmer and rider Daniel Göhlen, Wüst’s freestyle brainchild received rave reviews. “This system by far brings us closer to objectivity than any other system I have seen,” said FEI Dressage Director Trond Asmyr, who also indicated that the FEI is seriously considering purchasing the software. Extra work would be required of the riders, who would have to submit their choreography a day ahead of the competition using the software, but the potential benefit – having the degree of difficulty fairly and objectively assessed – would outweigh that small burden.

onward and UPward As the 2013 GDF wound to a close, Esben

Möller of Blu Hors stepped up to the podium to invite the world to his farm on October 20th next year. The date is a week earlier than has been the custom for the GDF, but it corresponds nicely with the CDI-W Odense, which takes place the weekend before. HRH Princess Benedikte of Denmark is Chair of the Global Dressage Foundation, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear that Denmark would be the first host to take the GDF out of Holland. The GDF will return to its original venue every second year, while traveling to new destinations in between.

As harmonious as the GDF was this year, I have no doubt that those who crave dissent will have plenty of that to look forward to in future. HSI

FeI Judge Bernard maurel can always be counted on to speak his mind but he may have crossed a line when challenging Isabell on the veracity of her 2008 Olympic medal.

katerina Wust’s proposed system for assessing the degree of difficulty in the freestyle drew rave reviews.

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Global Dressage Forum Wie im Vorjahr war auch das 13. Global Dressage Forum vom 28.–29. Oktober in Hooge Mierde (NED) von Harmonie geprägt. Dennoch konnte man einige interessante News hören – Pferdplus-Autorin Birgit Popp hat die wichtigsten zusammengefasst.

Gleich zu Beginn des GDFs stellte FEI-Dressur-Direktor Trond Asmyr die

für 2014 geplanten Änderungen vor, die anschließend in der ersten November-Wo-che von der FEI General Assembly abge-segnet wurden. Zu den wichtigsten zählen:n die Einführung neuer internationaler Auf-

gaben auf dem Niveau zwischen Inter-mediaire I und II, um langfristig die In-termediaire II eventuell ganz zu streichen und in der Hoffnung, dass mehr Reiter-Pferde-Paare – gerade auch in den ‚Dres-sur-Entwicklungsländern’ – der Sprung auf Grand-Prix-Niveau gelingen wird;

n die Mindestprozentzahl, um sich für die Grand Prix Kür oder den Special qua-lifizieren zu können, wird zukünftig von 58 auf 60 Prozent angehoben;

n noch deutlicher zum Ausdruck kommt, dass, wer nicht in der Kür oder im Spe-cial an den Start geht, seine Platzierung im Grand Prix verliert;

n Fliegenschutzkappen sind nicht als Lärmschutz erlaubt;

n das Wettkampf-Viereck darf während der Trainingszeiten im Hauptstadion nicht mehr hergerichtet werden;

n ein Steward muss zu jeder Zeit beim Trai-ning und beim Abreiten anwesend sein;

n Ausschluss durch Blut am Maul oder anderen Körperstellen – der Artikel 430.7.6 wird zukünftig folgenden Wort-laut besitzen: ‚Wenn der FEI Steward frisches Blut im Maul des Pferdes oder im Gebiet der Sporen bei der Ausrüs-tungskontrolle nach der Prüfung ent-

deckt (Art. 430.10), informiert er den Richter bei C, der Pferd und Reiter aus-schließen wird. Wenn Blut an einer an-deren Stelle des Pferdes gefunden wird, muss der FEI-Tierarzt gerufen werden, um zu entscheiden, ob das Pferd fit ge-nug ist, um die Prüfung fortzusetzen.’

n einheitliche Festlegung der Nennungs-schlüsse bei Championaten;

n bei ‚Children’-Turnieren werden Ponys in der Dressur generell zugelassen;

n das Rotationssystem, das vorsah, dass Richter bei einem CDI nur drei Jahre in Folge vom Veranstalter eingeladen wer-den dürfen und dann mindestens zwei Jahre bei dieser Veranstaltung pausieren müssen, ist wieder abgeschafft worden;

n Festlegung des maximalen Preisgeldes per Kategorie: über 24.000 Euro Preis-geld ist es ein CDI4*, über 90.000 Euro ein CDI5*.

Die zukünftigen Regelungen werden auf www.fei.org in der ab 1. Januar 2014 gül-tigen 25. Ausgabe des FEI-Dressur-Reg-lements in Kürze veröffentlicht.

Neue�Olympia-RegelNDass bei den Olympischen Spielen 2016 in Rio de Janeiro 60 statt 50 Dressurreiter star-ten dürfen und der vierte Reiter voraussicht-lich wieder zum Team zählt, freute das Au-ditorium. Zehn statt elf Mannschaften wer-den sich direkt für die Teilnahme in Rio qualifizieren können, aber es werden auch wieder zusammengesetzte Teams möglich sein, für das sich die Einzelreiter eines Lan-des über ihren Platz in der FEI-Weltranglis-te qualifiziert haben. Harte Diskussionen gibt es, so Trond Asmyr, schon seit Monaten darüber, wie viele Nationen sich von Ame-rika für die Olympischen Spiele qualifizieren können. Da Gastgeber Brasilien automatisch mit einer Mannschaft startberechtigt ist, wird es in diesem Fall nur für ein weiteres Team bei den PanAm Games eine Qualifi-kationsmöglichkeit geben, anstatt zwei wie in der Vergangenheit. Von kanadischer Sei-te wird befürchtet, dass dies automatisch eine Teilnahme der USA in Rio bedeuten wird. Wenn Brasilien seinen Startplatz je-doch nicht wahrnimmt, würden sich die

EmoTIoNENgab es beim Kamingespräch.

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beiden besten Nationen der PanAm Games für Rio qualifizieren. „Wir halten dies für Rio für eine faire Entscheidung, da sonst alle drei amerikanischen Nationen, die in der Lage sind, eine Mannschaft auf Grand-Prix-Niveau aufzustellen, automatisch qua-lifiziert wären, das wäre anderen Regional-gruppen gegenüber nicht fair,“ so Asmyr. Eine Erhöhung des Niveaus der PanAm Games vom Prix St. Georges/Intermediaire I-Niveau auf Grand Prix-Niveau soll schritt-weise in den nächsten zwei Jahren erfolgen.

RichteN�mit��cOmputeR-hilfeEbenfalls vorgestellt wurde beim GDF das gemeinsam mit dem Computerspiel-Ent-wickler und Dressur-Grand-Prix-Reiter Da-niel Gülen von der deutschen ‚O’-Richterin Katrina Wüst ausgearbeitete Computerpro-gramm, das eine bessere Bewertung des Schwierigkeitsgrads und eine größere Transparenz in der Bewertung der Kür er-möglichen soll. Voraussetzung ist, dass die Reiter auf dem Computer ihre Kür zusam-menstellen, vom Programm auch gesagt bekommen, ob alle Anforderungen erfüllt sind, und dieses Kürchoreographien dann vorab dem Richterkollegium samt der Mu-sik vorgelegt werden, damit dieses beurtei-len kann, ob die geplanten Lektionsfolgen auch gezeigt wurden. „Dieser Katalog der Schwierigkeiten ist ein Hilfsmittel, um mehr Transparenz der Bewertung zu erzie-len. Es wird kein Katalog von Tricks und Kunststücken sein. Die Grundanforderun-gen einer Kür seitens der FEI sind wie ein Auto ohne Extras, aber viele Reiter wissen gar nicht genau, was die Note für den Schwierigkeitsgrad erhöht und welche Lek-tionsfolge eine Standardsituation ist. In der Vergangenheit haben die Richter auch viel zu wenig Augenmerk auf die oft sehr schwierigen Übergänge gelegt, sie haben nur auf die Ausführung der folgenden Lek-tion geachtet. Aber das Wichtigste ist, dass die Harmonie des Rittes erhalten bleibt.“

Warnende Worte an die Forum-Teilneh-mer richtete die niederländische Tierärztin

Marianne Sloet, die über die Gefahren von aus Afrika über Insekten oder infizierte Pferde eingeschleppten Viren sprach. (Pferdplus wird dieses spannende Thema in einem gesonderten Beitrag im nächsten Heft aufgreifen.)

KamiNgeSpRäch�mit�iSabell�WeRthGleich zwei Programmpunkte schlossen Isabell Werth ein. Mit zwei Mitgliedern ihres Bereiterteams demonstrierte die fünf-fache Dressur-Olympiasiegerin, wie sie mit Hilfe des Spaniers Jose Antonio Garcia Mena seit rund zwei Jahren ihren jungen Pferden Piaffieren und Passagieren bei-bringt. Wichtigster Ansatz ist dabei durch die Unterstützung von unten, das Hinter-bein reaktionsschnell zu machen und das Pferd zugleich spannungsfrei zu halten. Berührend wurde es am Abend, als beim

‚Kamingespräch’ von Isabell Werth mit GDF-Moderator Richard Davison Mäzenin Madeleine Winter-Schulze hinzukam, der der deutsche Reitsport allein in diesem Jahr in allen drei Olympischen Disziplinen Me-daillen bei den Senioren-EMs zu verdanken hat. Sie schilderte, wie vor allem nach dem Tod ihres Ehemanns Dieter Schulze Isabell Werth und Ludger Beerbaum zu ‚ihrer’ Fa-milie wurden und stellte Isabell Werth ei-nen finanziellen Freibrief für den Kauf ihrer Pferde aus, „..aber sie will ja nicht.“ Woraufhin Isabell Werth bestätigte, „Lieber schaue ich mir ein Championat am Fern-seher an, als ein fertig ausgebildetes Pferd zu kaufen. Meine Motivation ist es grade, das Potential in einem jungen Pferd zu er-kennen und es auszubilden.“

SchWediScheS��föRdeR-mOdellIn Schweden ist die erfolgreiche und mit vielen Medaillen im Jugend- wie im Seni-orenbereich belohnte Förderung von jungen Talenten und Senioren bis hin zum Grand-Prix-Sport einer privaten Initiative von Jan Brink und Kyra Kyrklund zu verdanken und könnte grade in kleineren Ländern, in

denen den nationalen Verbänden wenig finanzielle Mittel zur Verfügung stehen, zur Nachahmung anregen. Mit Hilfe seines Sponsors Ake Björsell hatte Jan Brink 1998 das Programm ‚Knytkalaset’, was soviel wie ‚Fest vom Mitgebrachten’ bedeutet, ins Leben gerufen, um seine vom schwedi-schen Flyinge nach Großbritannien um-ziehende Trainerin Kyra Kyrklund für sich und weitere schwedische Topreiter regel-mäßig zu Trainingseinheiten auf seine An-lage Tullstorp in Südschweden zurückzu-holen. Während in den ersten vier Jahren Björsell das Sponsoring übernahm, sind es heute mit EFG International und ginatricot eine Privatbank und eine Modekette, die das Programm finanzieren. Klares Ziel ist es, Paare zu finden, die sich zukünftig für den Grand-Prix-Sport eignen werden. Vom Unterricht der Seniorengruppe profitierten bislang so erfolgreiche Reiter wie Jan Brink, Patrik Kittel oder Liane Wachtmeister. Zum Training der Senioren-Gruppe kommt Kyra Kyrklund einmal im Monat nach Tullstorp, während Jan Brink im Süden und Liane Wachtmeister im Norden das Trai-ning der Nachwuchstalente übernimmt. Je sechsmal im Frühling und im Herbst tref-fen sich die neunköpfigen Gruppen zu ei-nem zwei- bis dreitägigen Lehrgang. „Ganz wichtig ist dabei, dass die Teilnehmer auch beim Unterricht ihrer Teamkollegen mit-zusehen und sich auf den Turnieren gegen-seitig helfen,“ so Jan Brink, „Die Lehr-gangsteilnahme ist ebenso wie die Anreise kostenlos. Grundsätzlich fördern wir exis-tierende Paare, die einmal im Jahr selek-tiert werden, aber ich helfe auch Sponsoren zu vermitteln oder ein geeignetes Pferd zu finden.“ Jeder Interessent kann sich per Brief oder Email an Jan Brink für die Auf-nahme in das Programm bewerben. Das 14. Global Dressage Forum wird erst-mals nicht in Hooge Mierde sondern vom 20. bis 21. Oktober 2014 im dänischen Blue Hors Stud unweit Billunds stattfinden. 2015 wird das GDF an die Academy Bar-tels zurückkehren.

Birgit Popp

TroNd Asmyrstellte die geplanten Änderungen für 2014 vor.

jAN BrINkist für das Training schwedischer Nachwuchs-talente verantwortlich.

Foto: Mette Boas

USport�|�Turniere News Infos

pferdplus�12|13� 85

beiden besten Nationen der PanAm Games für Rio qualifizieren. „Wir halten dies für Rio für eine faire Entscheidung, da sonst alle drei amerikanischen Nationen, die in der Lage sind, eine Mannschaft auf Grand-Prix-Niveau aufzustellen, automatisch qua-lifiziert wären, das wäre anderen Regional-gruppen gegenüber nicht fair,“ so Asmyr. Eine Erhöhung des Niveaus der PanAm Games vom Prix St. Georges/Intermediaire I-Niveau auf Grand Prix-Niveau soll schritt-weise in den nächsten zwei Jahren erfolgen.

RichteN�mit��cOmputeR-hilfeEbenfalls vorgestellt wurde beim GDF das gemeinsam mit dem Computerspiel-Ent-wickler und Dressur-Grand-Prix-Reiter Da-niel Gülen von der deutschen ‚O’-Richterin Katrina Wüst ausgearbeitete Computerpro-gramm, das eine bessere Bewertung des Schwierigkeitsgrads und eine größere Transparenz in der Bewertung der Kür er-möglichen soll. Voraussetzung ist, dass die Reiter auf dem Computer ihre Kür zusam-menstellen, vom Programm auch gesagt bekommen, ob alle Anforderungen erfüllt sind, und dieses Kürchoreographien dann vorab dem Richterkollegium samt der Mu-sik vorgelegt werden, damit dieses beurtei-len kann, ob die geplanten Lektionsfolgen auch gezeigt wurden. „Dieser Katalog der Schwierigkeiten ist ein Hilfsmittel, um mehr Transparenz der Bewertung zu erzie-len. Es wird kein Katalog von Tricks und Kunststücken sein. Die Grundanforderun-gen einer Kür seitens der FEI sind wie ein Auto ohne Extras, aber viele Reiter wissen gar nicht genau, was die Note für den Schwierigkeitsgrad erhöht und welche Lek-tionsfolge eine Standardsituation ist. In der Vergangenheit haben die Richter auch viel zu wenig Augenmerk auf die oft sehr schwierigen Übergänge gelegt, sie haben nur auf die Ausführung der folgenden Lek-tion geachtet. Aber das Wichtigste ist, dass die Harmonie des Rittes erhalten bleibt.“

Warnende Worte an die Forum-Teilneh-mer richtete die niederländische Tierärztin

Marianne Sloet, die über die Gefahren von aus Afrika über Insekten oder infizierte Pferde eingeschleppten Viren sprach. (Pferdplus wird dieses spannende Thema in einem gesonderten Beitrag im nächsten Heft aufgreifen.)

KamiNgeSpRäch�mit�iSabell�WeRthGleich zwei Programmpunkte schlossen Isabell Werth ein. Mit zwei Mitgliedern ihres Bereiterteams demonstrierte die fünf-fache Dressur-Olympiasiegerin, wie sie mit Hilfe des Spaniers Jose Antonio Garcia Mena seit rund zwei Jahren ihren jungen Pferden Piaffieren und Passagieren bei-bringt. Wichtigster Ansatz ist dabei durch die Unterstützung von unten, das Hinter-bein reaktionsschnell zu machen und das Pferd zugleich spannungsfrei zu halten. Berührend wurde es am Abend, als beim

‚Kamingespräch’ von Isabell Werth mit GDF-Moderator Richard Davison Mäzenin Madeleine Winter-Schulze hinzukam, der der deutsche Reitsport allein in diesem Jahr in allen drei Olympischen Disziplinen Me-daillen bei den Senioren-EMs zu verdanken hat. Sie schilderte, wie vor allem nach dem Tod ihres Ehemanns Dieter Schulze Isabell Werth und Ludger Beerbaum zu ‚ihrer’ Fa-milie wurden und stellte Isabell Werth ei-nen finanziellen Freibrief für den Kauf ihrer Pferde aus, „..aber sie will ja nicht.“ Woraufhin Isabell Werth bestätigte, „Lieber schaue ich mir ein Championat am Fern-seher an, als ein fertig ausgebildetes Pferd zu kaufen. Meine Motivation ist es grade, das Potential in einem jungen Pferd zu er-kennen und es auszubilden.“

SchWediScheS��föRdeR-mOdellIn Schweden ist die erfolgreiche und mit vielen Medaillen im Jugend- wie im Seni-orenbereich belohnte Förderung von jungen Talenten und Senioren bis hin zum Grand-Prix-Sport einer privaten Initiative von Jan Brink und Kyra Kyrklund zu verdanken und könnte grade in kleineren Ländern, in

denen den nationalen Verbänden wenig finanzielle Mittel zur Verfügung stehen, zur Nachahmung anregen. Mit Hilfe seines Sponsors Ake Björsell hatte Jan Brink 1998 das Programm ‚Knytkalaset’, was soviel wie ‚Fest vom Mitgebrachten’ bedeutet, ins Leben gerufen, um seine vom schwedi-schen Flyinge nach Großbritannien um-ziehende Trainerin Kyra Kyrklund für sich und weitere schwedische Topreiter regel-mäßig zu Trainingseinheiten auf seine An-lage Tullstorp in Südschweden zurückzu-holen. Während in den ersten vier Jahren Björsell das Sponsoring übernahm, sind es heute mit EFG International und ginatricot eine Privatbank und eine Modekette, die das Programm finanzieren. Klares Ziel ist es, Paare zu finden, die sich zukünftig für den Grand-Prix-Sport eignen werden. Vom Unterricht der Seniorengruppe profitierten bislang so erfolgreiche Reiter wie Jan Brink, Patrik Kittel oder Liane Wachtmeister. Zum Training der Senioren-Gruppe kommt Kyra Kyrklund einmal im Monat nach Tullstorp, während Jan Brink im Süden und Liane Wachtmeister im Norden das Trai-ning der Nachwuchstalente übernimmt. Je sechsmal im Frühling und im Herbst tref-fen sich die neunköpfigen Gruppen zu ei-nem zwei- bis dreitägigen Lehrgang. „Ganz wichtig ist dabei, dass die Teilnehmer auch beim Unterricht ihrer Teamkollegen mit-zusehen und sich auf den Turnieren gegen-seitig helfen,“ so Jan Brink, „Die Lehr-gangsteilnahme ist ebenso wie die Anreise kostenlos. Grundsätzlich fördern wir exis-tierende Paare, die einmal im Jahr selek-tiert werden, aber ich helfe auch Sponsoren zu vermitteln oder ein geeignetes Pferd zu finden.“ Jeder Interessent kann sich per Brief oder Email an Jan Brink für die Auf-nahme in das Programm bewerben. Das 14. Global Dressage Forum wird erst-mals nicht in Hooge Mierde sondern vom 20. bis 21. Oktober 2014 im dänischen Blue Hors Stud unweit Billunds stattfinden. 2015 wird das GDF an die Academy Bar-tels zurückkehren.

Birgit Popp

TroNd Asmyrstellte die geplanten Änderungen für 2014 vor.

jAN BrINkist für das Training schwedischer Nachwuchs-talente verantwortlich.

Foto: Mette Boas

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www.horseandhound.co.uk80 HORSE & HOUND . 7 NOVEMBER 2013

Kyra Kyrklund works with Marina Mattsson to improve Cassio’s pirouettes

Nurturing potential30 the number of grand prix horses Kyra Kyrklund’s

training initiative has produced since 1998

GLOBAL DRESSAGE FORUM, HOOGE MIERDE, THE NETHERLANDS28-29 October

By Alice Collins

THERE’S usually some bone of contention at the Global Forum, be it Totilas’ sale or the blood rule debate. This year was unusually harmonious, with the only fi reworks being part of the offi cial opening of Academy Bartels’ massive new building and arena.

German Olympian Isabell Werth showcased her riding and training over two demonstrations — including on her grand prix horse Don Johnson.

“I really like it if they’re a bit

BRITISH-based Finn Kyra Kyrklund teamed up with her compatriots Jan Brink and Liane Wachtmeister to showcase the “meeting of minds” that has been bubbling since 1998. In a bid to revive Scandinavian dressage, the trainers joined forces and invited applications from talented, dedicated riders capable of grand prix. They then used their collective bargaining power to draw in commercial sponsors (including a bank mid-financial crisis!).

The support structures range from helping draw up contracts between breeders and riders to secure horses, to warming each other up at events.

“We know Germany has 80,000 foals a year, but small countries mustn’t give up and just wait for their federation to act,” said Kyra. “This scheme is a kick up the butt to do something.”

Riders benefit from training with these mentors and Kyra demonstrated some of her techniques here.

Teaching Marina Mattsson on her 18hh grey Cassio (Conteur/Calato), she said: “Let him make mistakes, then correct him. Don’t correct him before he’s made them.”

She encourages riders to pat the horse with the outside hand as a reward — while many insist on using the inside hand.

“Most people think they’re giving, but actually they’re just pulling less,” she said. “It’s not that the horse loves the patting; I get the rider to do it so they actually release the outside hand and check they’re not carrying the horse.

“You’ve got to go to the border of what horses can do, then back off and sit still.”

When Cassio became tight and drew

his neck up and back, Kyra advised: “Don’t think of getting him more over the topline, think of shortening his bottomline by dropping the neck. Neck down equals tummy up.”

Kyra has an inventive exercise to help horses — and riders — struggling with canter pirouettes.

“We see a lot of crap pirouettes at [prix] st georges,” she said. “That’s because a good one needs as much collection as piaffe, but many of these horses haven’t started piaffe yet.”

She advises playing with the piaffe to improve the collection, and is a fan of one particular pirouette exercise.

“I like to do piaffe, canter pirouette, piaffe,” she explained. “It’s a really good exercise for riders to learn where the horse’s legs are and shows up if the horse is not in front of the leg.”

THE SCANDINAVIAN WAY

‘Horses should have their own opinion’ — Isabell Werth’s Don Johnson certainly does, but with bucketloads of talent, too

Isabell coaches her pupil

Beatrice Buchwald on Weihegold

P080-081_HAH_NOV07.indd 80 04/11/2013 17:13

Global Dressage ForumFor the latest dressage news visit

horseandhound.co.uk

7 NOVEMBER 2013 . HORSE & HOUND 81 The perfect Christmas gift from just £22.99 www.horseandhoundsubs.co.uk/subs

Katrina Wüst and programmer Daniel Göhlu outline how the system works

naughty, a bit awake,” said Isabell, as a very fresh “Johnny” bucked and cavorted his way through the warm-up and his rider chided him gently. “I don’t like the word submission. Horses should have their own opinion; they should buck once, they should spook once, they should kick once.”

Isabell chose to bring the Don Frederico/Warkant 12-year-old as she wanted to show what he is capable of in training, but yet to replicate in the ring. He was initially tricky to the contact so Isabell used a lot of shoulder-in and transitions within and between paces to improve the connection.

She communicated with Johnny all the time — not just through her riding, but by patting, clicking and clucking almost non-stop. She played gymnastically with all their schooling movements, changing speed, direction and the horse’s frame often.

“With each horse you learn — day by day and year by year,” she said. “When I fi rst saw this horse as a four-year-old he touched me. OK he was naughty, but so fl exible in each part of his body.”

By the end of the session, Isabell was able to show massive, cadenced, rhythmical passage on looping lines. He’s already scoring plus-80%, so when she unlocks his full competition potential, expect Johnny’s scores to go even higher.

Though Isabell has been competing for nearly 25 years at top level dressage, her enthusiasm is undimmed.

“What makes me get up and want to do horses every day is my vision for a three-year-old — one that gives me goosebumps,” she said.

FREESTYLE JUDGING: EXCITING NEW SYSTEM SHOWCASED A groundbreaking new freestyle judging system for international grand prix competitions was presented.

Currently, judges award a mark for degree of difficulty — one of the four artistic marks, each of which carries a heavy coefficient of four — at the conclusion of tests, but such is the complexity of many freestyles, difficult elements can be overlooked by the time the judge awards the mark.

Five-star judge Katrina Wüst has devised a computer programme that calculates the degree of difficulty mark, aiming to close the gap with other subjective sports with relation to standardisation of difficulties, transparency and consistency of judging.

Riders would input their freestyle routine to the computer programme and submit it before the class.

Judges would have a printout of each rider’s freestyle, looking much like the current marking sheet. Running scores could be displayed to spectators during freestyles — not currently possible.

Riders would be able to highlight particularly technical movements, such as halt to passage. When performed, these

difficult non-compulsory (unmarked) elements must be either “accepted” or “rejected” by judges to determine whether a rider scores bonus points or is penalised for them.

Compulsory movements attempted with a higher degree of risk or difficulty (such as pirouettes of more than 180° or flying changes on a curving line) receiving a technical score of over six will gain bonus points, but if the mark is below six, the bonus points are taken away.

Judges would still mark the compulsory movements in the test in the same way they do now.

Television commentators could flag upcoming difficult moves — much like in gymnastics, diving and figure-skating — and the achievable bonus points.

The computer programme automatically calculates the degree of difficulty score. Judges may then make an alteration (a maximum of +/- 0.2) to account for possible permutations not covered in the score sheet, such as parts of the test being ridden one-handed.

The technical mark is calculated as soon as the final movement is marked — meaning faster feedback for spectators — and the final total as soon as the judge has filled in the remaining collectives.

But Kyra Kyrklund felt that the facility to adjust the final degree of difficulty mark defies the goal of transparency.

Swedish rider Patrik Kittel said he would “gladly spend hours and days on the system if it can improve our sport”.

Trond Asmyr indicated that the FEI would be very keen to consider the system.

I don’t want to buy a medal, I want to ride into the medal. I’d rather miss a championship and watch it on TV than spend a few million on the goldIsabell Werth

Other riders sometimes struggle to understand her choice of horses.

“We saw [Isabell’s former top horse] Warum Nicht — this long, mahoosive, skinny thing and thought, ‘What has she seen in this?’” said Danish Olympian Nathalie Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. “Then a few years later, he’s a really good grand prix horse.”

Isabell had the foresight to see how the horse would develop given time and correct training. Time and choice are luxuries she can afford as her long-time owner Madeleine Winter-Schulze gives her completely free rein over buying horses — and selling them.

Isabell is driven by the passion to transform youngsters into grand prix horses.

On her exclusion from the German team for the London 2012 Olympics, Isabell said: “I don’t want to buy a medal, I want to ride into the medal. I’d rather miss a championship and watch it on TV than spend a few million on the gold.

“I have two Ferraris in the garage now [Don Johnson and Bella Rose]. I just have to learn how to drive them.” H&H

Judges would have a printout of each rider’s freestyle, much like a current marking sheet. Running scores could be displayed to spectators

P080-081_HAH_NOV07.indd 81 04/11/2013 17:13

Two days of an annual buzzing meet-and-greet conference on dressage, training methods, rule changes and horse welfare is over for this year. The 2013 Global Dressage Forum was characterized by consensus and constructive efforts forward; it systematically strives towards a better 2.0 version of the dressage sport we cherish.

Amicable atmosphereIf the dressage world were to produce a who’s who there is no better place to start off at than the GDF. Here you will find the judges, successful breeders, the crafty horse dealers and a number of riders alongside the trainers and a large number of dressage enthusiasts. As always the forum conductor is Richard Davison, acting as presenter every year, he always manages to make the friendly banter interesting and intriguing. Tineke and Joep

Bartels are everywhere, participating but not steering the direction visibly.

Exodus like a boomerang After being hosted in the village of Hooge Mierde in South Holland at Academy Bartels, a training facility dedicated to dressage and currently owned by a trust, it is time for change after more than a decade at the premises. GDF patron HRH Princess Benedikte announced that it was time to put the forum in motion. The idea is that over the next few years the GDF will alternate between set-ups in various countries and Academy Bartels every two years. First stop on the tour is the Princess’s home country of Denmark and on 20-21 October 2014 the red-white flag will say welcome to the Forum. It requires substantial resources, a more than functional location and rather a bit of a luxurious environment to suit GDF. In other

words, the baton goes to Stud Blue Hors in Jutland, close to the small town Rambøll and Billund Airport. Blue Hors managing director Esben Møller was on the podium in Hooge Mierde and the stud has added some new facilities over the last year. Besides the life size bronze statue of Blue Hors Don Schufro that greets the visitors the stud has built a new and larger indoor arena with plenty of room for an audience. A lot of buildings have been expanded and renovated, during the European Championships in Herning the stud opened its doors for busloads from the arena in Herning and demonstrated their new facilities. The challenge for GDF now is to attract the many Britons who come in busloads to the event, many Americans and the numerous Dutch dressage profiles to jump on the train north. Visitors from the North finally get a little closer and do a nice combo-

package, first the Reem Acra World Cup premiere in dressage in Odense over the weekend and then the Global Dressage Forum Monday – Tuesday: mark you calendars ladies and gentlemen.

German engineering and innovationThe message from the FEI, the IDRC and the overall international congregation at this year’s Global Dressage Forum was loud and clear: We will make it easier for the judges to judge the freestyle classes, if items can be evaluated objectively we should standardize the score giving. The German O- judge Katrina Wüst has tried to clarify and improve the assessment of the difficulty of the freestyle floor plan using a tool for assessment. Stephen Clarke and Richard Davison, rider and coach, admitted both during GDF they do not really understand what she had been looking for in terms of IT

support during the days of the Dressage Task Force. However Katrina Wüst found her technical dream catcher close to home in Daniel Göhler, a 25 -year-old engineer with a degree in computer games technology and Grand Prix rider. He lives 25 km from Katrina and together they have created a tool for judges, which was tested in Warendorf. It is based on the riders registering their floor plan, movement by movement, in a web based tool and thus receiving a preliminary score for difficulty. For judges, it implies that they judge with by anticipating the movements on the floor plan and the marked difficulties such as special transitions and double pirouettes. Did the combination solve the difficulties with quality, the predicted score is awarded, if not there will be deductions. Seldom has a proposal received a warmer reception, GDF sent a unanimous ‘Yes thank you very much FEI, that system would be much appreciated’.

FEI is the conductorTrond Asmyr, director for dressage and para- dressage at the FEI, started his presentations with a list of all the innovations to be introduced during 2014. The judging has to improve was his own assessment and he had everyone’s ears pricked. This will be achieved through training programs for judges and partly with the help of new e-learning tools. Judges are spread across the world and it is expensive to gather them for training thus the FEI brings technology in to help and invests in

web -based training tools for enhanced skills. Trond Asmyr saw the suggested system for assessing freestyle difficulty demonstrated at GDF for the first time during Katrina Wüsts presentation. He sat down that evening with creator Daniel Göhler to discuss how the FEI can use the software.

IDRC is on boardIf in the past there have been somewhat frosty relations between the FEI and IDRC; in the aftermath of the London Olympic qualification, it has thawed considerably. The chairman Kyra Kyrklund is now a member of the Dressage Committee and the

common work runs much smoother between the two organisations. Much of IDRCs work in the coming year will be to help with the creation of a point directory, linked to the program of difficulty but also further on. How should a movement be performed to score an eight or a nine, what renders deductions and what counts as an incorrect performance, a huge task. “This is the most important task to work with according to our members,” said Wayne Channon, spokesman of the association.

On stageThis year’s main attraction was Isabell Werth with entourage while Wim Ernes with colleagues showed what horses to breed to be successful at Grand Prix level. The Nordic countries were represented by Knytkalaset with Kyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink and three students giving a demonstration of how young rider talent is moulded to independence. Isabell Werth is known for taking the bull by the horns but has declined to come to the GDF during all these years. What finally swung her we was not told but in true Isabell style her presentation became a lesson in an area that she had problems with.

“It’s pretty common knowledge that I have had a piaffe problem with Ernie (El Santo),” she said dryly in her introduction to the auditorium’s broad grins. “That’s why I took with me Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, the man who helped me untie the knot, he could help El Santo.” She then showed her two guinea pigs Beatrice Buchman with Weihegold and Niklas Feilzer with the 6 -year-old Sorento. They worked the horses from the walk with help on the ground from Mena for the first steps of piaffe. Later in the evening it was time for

her enfant terrible namely Don Johnson. While Isabell was a little shy in the interview seat, in the saddle she and ‘Johnny’ were completely in their own world and in their element. “I talk to him all the time, though much quieter at the competition, we communicate constantly,” explained Isabell after claquing and chirping in microphone with ‘Johnny’ while commentating to the audience.

No shortcutsWim Ernes gave a presentation with the aim to describe how to choose a horse from foal to eventually end up in the Grand Prix. In the audience there was an

expectation that a shortcut would be described but no, there is no such thing. In the Netherlands as in all other countries, the things that matter in a horse are still a suitable pedigree, good conformation, three gaits with room for improvement, good breeding, balanced exercise, well adjusted competition schedules and a willing, cooperative temperament. The three giants of Dutch breeding Nico Witte, Joop van Uytert and Tim Coomans showed off a bunch of horses that will no doubt be seen on the dressage course in the future. It were really nice horses but perhaps not as magical as the Dutch breed youngsters can be. Knytkalaset with founders Kyra Kyrklund and Jan Brink together with Liane Wachtmeister, trainer from the northern part of Sweden, took the stage with one student each to illustrate the stages of development from junior to U25- classes. An introductory talk with the history behind Knytkalaset formed the framework for three mini- training sessions where trainers and students showed typical exercises and challenges emphasizing on things they had started to work with – not their excellences. In Holland for the demonstration were the junior Emelie Aldenfalk/Winton, Danish young Rider Anna Zibrandtsen/Detroit and Marina Mattsson/Cassio, headed for U25. <<

Global Dressage Forum on the move

By Kim Lundin

Star of the 2013 Global Dressage Forum was Isabell Werth, presenting her demonstration on piaffe work with help from Jose Antonio Garcia Mena.

Knytkalaset founders Kyra Kyrklund and Jan Brink together with Liane Wachtmeister, took the stage to illustrate the stages of development from junior to U25- classes.

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“It’s pretty common knowledge that I have had a piaffe problem with Ernie (El Santo).” - Isabell Werth

54

HORSE INTERNATIONAL HORSE INTERNATIONALREpORtsREpORts

Two days of an annual buzzing meet-and-greet conference on dressage, training methods, rule changes and horse welfare is over for this year. The 2013 Global Dressage Forum was characterized by consensus and constructive efforts forward; it systematically strives towards a better 2.0 version of the dressage sport we cherish.

Amicable atmosphereIf the dressage world were to produce a who’s who there is no better place to start off at than the GDF. Here you will find the judges, successful breeders, the crafty horse dealers and a number of riders alongside the trainers and a large number of dressage enthusiasts. As always the forum conductor is Richard Davison, acting as presenter every year, he always manages to make the friendly banter interesting and intriguing. Tineke and Joep

Bartels are everywhere, participating but not steering the direction visibly.

Exodus like a boomerang After being hosted in the village of Hooge Mierde in South Holland at Academy Bartels, a training facility dedicated to dressage and currently owned by a trust, it is time for change after more than a decade at the premises. GDF patron HRH Princess Benedikte announced that it was time to put the forum in motion. The idea is that over the next few years the GDF will alternate between set-ups in various countries and Academy Bartels every two years. First stop on the tour is the Princess’s home country of Denmark and on 20-21 October 2014 the red-white flag will say welcome to the Forum. It requires substantial resources, a more than functional location and rather a bit of a luxurious environment to suit GDF. In other

words, the baton goes to Stud Blue Hors in Jutland, close to the small town Rambøll and Billund Airport. Blue Hors managing director Esben Møller was on the podium in Hooge Mierde and the stud has added some new facilities over the last year. Besides the life size bronze statue of Blue Hors Don Schufro that greets the visitors the stud has built a new and larger indoor arena with plenty of room for an audience. A lot of buildings have been expanded and renovated, during the European Championships in Herning the stud opened its doors for busloads from the arena in Herning and demonstrated their new facilities. The challenge for GDF now is to attract the many Britons who come in busloads to the event, many Americans and the numerous Dutch dressage profiles to jump on the train north. Visitors from the North finally get a little closer and do a nice combo-

package, first the Reem Acra World Cup premiere in dressage in Odense over the weekend and then the Global Dressage Forum Monday – Tuesday: mark you calendars ladies and gentlemen.

German engineering and innovationThe message from the FEI, the IDRC and the overall international congregation at this year’s Global Dressage Forum was loud and clear: We will make it easier for the judges to judge the freestyle classes, if items can be evaluated objectively we should standardize the score giving. The German O- judge Katrina Wüst has tried to clarify and improve the assessment of the difficulty of the freestyle floor plan using a tool for assessment. Stephen Clarke and Richard Davison, rider and coach, admitted both during GDF they do not really understand what she had been looking for in terms of IT

support during the days of the Dressage Task Force. However Katrina Wüst found her technical dream catcher close to home in Daniel Göhler, a 25 -year-old engineer with a degree in computer games technology and Grand Prix rider. He lives 25 km from Katrina and together they have created a tool for judges, which was tested in Warendorf. It is based on the riders registering their floor plan, movement by movement, in a web based tool and thus receiving a preliminary score for difficulty. For judges, it implies that they judge with by anticipating the movements on the floor plan and the marked difficulties such as special transitions and double pirouettes. Did the combination solve the difficulties with quality, the predicted score is awarded, if not there will be deductions. Seldom has a proposal received a warmer reception, GDF sent a unanimous ‘Yes thank you very much FEI, that system would be much appreciated’.

FEI is the conductorTrond Asmyr, director for dressage and para- dressage at the FEI, started his presentations with a list of all the innovations to be introduced during 2014. The judging has to improve was his own assessment and he had everyone’s ears pricked. This will be achieved through training programs for judges and partly with the help of new e-learning tools. Judges are spread across the world and it is expensive to gather them for training thus the FEI brings technology in to help and invests in

web -based training tools for enhanced skills. Trond Asmyr saw the suggested system for assessing freestyle difficulty demonstrated at GDF for the first time during Katrina Wüsts presentation. He sat down that evening with creator Daniel Göhler to discuss how the FEI can use the software.

IDRC is on boardIf in the past there have been somewhat frosty relations between the FEI and IDRC; in the aftermath of the London Olympic qualification, it has thawed considerably. The chairman Kyra Kyrklund is now a member of the Dressage Committee and the

common work runs much smoother between the two organisations. Much of IDRCs work in the coming year will be to help with the creation of a point directory, linked to the program of difficulty but also further on. How should a movement be performed to score an eight or a nine, what renders deductions and what counts as an incorrect performance, a huge task. “This is the most important task to work with according to our members,” said Wayne Channon, spokesman of the association.

On stageThis year’s main attraction was Isabell Werth with entourage while Wim Ernes with colleagues showed what horses to breed to be successful at Grand Prix level. The Nordic countries were represented by Knytkalaset with Kyra Kyrklund, Jan Brink and three students giving a demonstration of how young rider talent is moulded to independence. Isabell Werth is known for taking the bull by the horns but has declined to come to the GDF during all these years. What finally swung her we was not told but in true Isabell style her presentation became a lesson in an area that she had problems with.

“It’s pretty common knowledge that I have had a piaffe problem with Ernie (El Santo),” she said dryly in her introduction to the auditorium’s broad grins. “That’s why I took with me Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, the man who helped me untie the knot, he could help El Santo.” She then showed her two guinea pigs Beatrice Buchman with Weihegold and Niklas Feilzer with the 6 -year-old Sorento. They worked the horses from the walk with help on the ground from Mena for the first steps of piaffe. Later in the evening it was time for

her enfant terrible namely Don Johnson. While Isabell was a little shy in the interview seat, in the saddle she and ‘Johnny’ were completely in their own world and in their element. “I talk to him all the time, though much quieter at the competition, we communicate constantly,” explained Isabell after claquing and chirping in microphone with ‘Johnny’ while commentating to the audience.

No shortcutsWim Ernes gave a presentation with the aim to describe how to choose a horse from foal to eventually end up in the Grand Prix. In the audience there was an

expectation that a shortcut would be described but no, there is no such thing. In the Netherlands as in all other countries, the things that matter in a horse are still a suitable pedigree, good conformation, three gaits with room for improvement, good breeding, balanced exercise, well adjusted competition schedules and a willing, cooperative temperament. The three giants of Dutch breeding Nico Witte, Joop van Uytert and Tim Coomans showed off a bunch of horses that will no doubt be seen on the dressage course in the future. It were really nice horses but perhaps not as magical as the Dutch breed youngsters can be. Knytkalaset with founders Kyra Kyrklund and Jan Brink together with Liane Wachtmeister, trainer from the northern part of Sweden, took the stage with one student each to illustrate the stages of development from junior to U25- classes. An introductory talk with the history behind Knytkalaset formed the framework for three mini- training sessions where trainers and students showed typical exercises and challenges emphasizing on things they had started to work with – not their excellences. In Holland for the demonstration were the junior Emelie Aldenfalk/Winton, Danish young Rider Anna Zibrandtsen/Detroit and Marina Mattsson/Cassio, headed for U25. <<

Global Dressage Forum on the move

By Kim Lundin

Star of the 2013 Global Dressage Forum was Isabell Werth, presenting her demonstration on piaffe work with help from Jose Antonio Garcia Mena.

Knytkalaset founders Kyra Kyrklund and Jan Brink together with Liane Wachtmeister, took the stage to illustrate the stages of development from junior to U25- classes.

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“It’s pretty common knowledge that I have had a piaffe problem with Ernie (El Santo).” - Isabell Werth

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HORSE INTERNATIONAL HORSE INTERNATIONALREpORtsREpORts

13Hoefslag 12

Uitgelicht

Bondscoach Wim Ernes na afloop van het Global Dressage Forum:

In de dressuur wordt vaak in hokjes gewerkt en die worden hier doorbroken

Het Global Dressage Forum (GDF) beleefde dit jaar zijn dertiende editie op Academy Bartels. Tineke Bartels, die het GDF mogelijk maakt, was enthousiast: ‘De sfeer was ontspannen en ik vind dat er goede onderwerpen aan bod zijn gekomen. Het is niet makke-lijk elk jaar weer een interessant programma samen te stellen. We proberen zoveel mogelijk topruiters en -trainers hierheen te krijgen, maar ook dat gaat niet vanzelf. Om die reden heb ik wel eens overwogen te stoppen. Mijn man Joep wist me altijd over te halen, omdat het een echt belangrijk platform is voor de dressuur-sport.’ Deze meerwaarde van het GDF kwam ook dit jaar naar voren. Het forum leverde genoeg stof tot nadenken op voor de aanwezige ruiters, trainers, juryleden en bestuursleden. Toch mag er ook een kanttekening worden geplaatst. Twee dagen uitwisse-ling van kennis en discussie over de toekomst zouden nog meer rendement opleveren als er vaker een kritische noot gekraakt kon worden. De aanwezigen bleven, in elk geval publiekelijk, behou-den in hun meningen. Na een presentatie of demonstratie bleek er vooral ruimte voor complimenten, waar een stevige, open discussie welkom was geweest. De zaal vol vooraanstaande en gerespecteerde paardenmensen zou er de dressuursport een grotere dienst mee bewijzen. In 2014 volgt op 21 en 22 oktober een herkansing. Het GDF vindt dan plaats op de Deense Stoeterij Blue Hors, voor het eerst dus buiten Hooge Mierde. (KM)

Het Global Dressage Forum kende een afwisselend programma. Isabell Werth bood de aanwezigen op vaak humoristische wijze een kijkje in haar leven en gaf een demonstratie met Don Johnson. Er was een sessie over het onderwerp ‘Van veulen tot Grand Prix-paard’ (foto) en Prof. Dr. Marianne Sloet sprak over opkomende dier-ziekten. Ook het door FEI-jurylid Katrina Wüst ontwik-kelde computerprogramma voor het bepalen van de moeilijkheidsgraad in de Kür op muziek kwam aan bod. Collega-jurylid Stephen Clarke: ‘Het ondersteunt het jureren en maakt het makkelijker. Dit is de toekomst van de dressuur.’ FEI-dressuurdirecteur Trond Asmyr besprak toekomstige ontwikkelingen zoals de veranderingen in het olympische format en het vergemakkelijken van de overstap van de Lichte naar Zware Tour, met het invoeren van een internationale Medium Tour. Interessant was de discussie of de huidige eisen van het WK Jonge Paarden in Verden niet te hoog zijn en het welzijn van het paard belemmeren. Het FEI-dressuurcomité reageerde hier op met het voorstel er nader naar te laten kijken door een werkgroep van experts. Een voorbeeld van hoe openlijk discussiëren de sport verder kan helpen. (KM)

PollIn de vorige Hoefslag zetten we de meest gangbare basisvaardigheden voor paarden op een rij, aan de hand van een checklist met vijftien punten. We vroegen onze sitebezoekers of zij vinden dat paar-den over het algemeen een juiste basis opvoeding krijgen van de mensen die ermee omgaan. De uit-komst spreekt boekdelen. Een royale meerderheid denkt dat er nog veel terrein te winnen valt.

Nee, bij te veel paarden ont-breekt, vaak door onkunde, de juiste basis.

Ja, bij de meeste paarden worden basisvaardigheden juist aangeleerd.

Ga voor de nieuwste poll naar: www.dehoefslag.nl

17%

83%

FOTO

: DIr

K C

ArE

MA

NS

Belangrijk platform

FOTO

: DIrK

CA

rEMA

NS

Afwisselend programma

13Hoefslag 12

Uitgelicht

Bondscoach Wim Ernes na afloop van het Global Dressage Forum:

In de dressuur wordt vaak in hokjes gewerkt en die worden hier doorbroken

Het Global Dressage Forum (GDF) beleefde dit jaar zijn dertiende editie op Academy Bartels. Tineke Bartels, die het GDF mogelijk maakt, was enthousiast: ‘De sfeer was ontspannen en ik vind dat er goede onderwerpen aan bod zijn gekomen. Het is niet makke-lijk elk jaar weer een interessant programma samen te stellen. We proberen zoveel mogelijk topruiters en -trainers hierheen te krijgen, maar ook dat gaat niet vanzelf. Om die reden heb ik wel eens overwogen te stoppen. Mijn man Joep wist me altijd over te halen, omdat het een echt belangrijk platform is voor de dressuur-sport.’ Deze meerwaarde van het GDF kwam ook dit jaar naar voren. Het forum leverde genoeg stof tot nadenken op voor de aanwezige ruiters, trainers, juryleden en bestuursleden. Toch mag er ook een kanttekening worden geplaatst. Twee dagen uitwisse-ling van kennis en discussie over de toekomst zouden nog meer rendement opleveren als er vaker een kritische noot gekraakt kon worden. De aanwezigen bleven, in elk geval publiekelijk, behou-den in hun meningen. Na een presentatie of demonstratie bleek er vooral ruimte voor complimenten, waar een stevige, open discussie welkom was geweest. De zaal vol vooraanstaande en gerespecteerde paardenmensen zou er de dressuursport een grotere dienst mee bewijzen. In 2014 volgt op 21 en 22 oktober een herkansing. Het GDF vindt dan plaats op de Deense Stoeterij Blue Hors, voor het eerst dus buiten Hooge Mierde. (KM)

Het Global Dressage Forum kende een afwisselend programma. Isabell Werth bood de aanwezigen op vaak humoristische wijze een kijkje in haar leven en gaf een demonstratie met Don Johnson. Er was een sessie over het onderwerp ‘Van veulen tot Grand Prix-paard’ (foto) en Prof. Dr. Marianne Sloet sprak over opkomende dier-ziekten. Ook het door FEI-jurylid Katrina Wüst ontwik-kelde computerprogramma voor het bepalen van de moeilijkheidsgraad in de Kür op muziek kwam aan bod. Collega-jurylid Stephen Clarke: ‘Het ondersteunt het jureren en maakt het makkelijker. Dit is de toekomst van de dressuur.’ FEI-dressuurdirecteur Trond Asmyr besprak toekomstige ontwikkelingen zoals de veranderingen in het olympische format en het vergemakkelijken van de overstap van de Lichte naar Zware Tour, met het invoeren van een internationale Medium Tour. Interessant was de discussie of de huidige eisen van het WK Jonge Paarden in Verden niet te hoog zijn en het welzijn van het paard belemmeren. Het FEI-dressuurcomité reageerde hier op met het voorstel er nader naar te laten kijken door een werkgroep van experts. Een voorbeeld van hoe openlijk discussiëren de sport verder kan helpen. (KM)

PollIn de vorige Hoefslag zetten we de meest gangbare basisvaardigheden voor paarden op een rij, aan de hand van een checklist met vijftien punten. We vroegen onze sitebezoekers of zij vinden dat paar-den over het algemeen een juiste basis opvoeding krijgen van de mensen die ermee omgaan. De uit-komst spreekt boekdelen. Een royale meerderheid denkt dat er nog veel terrein te winnen valt.

Nee, bij te veel paarden ont-breekt, vaak door onkunde, de juiste basis.

Ja, bij de meeste paarden worden basisvaardigheden juist aangeleerd.

Ga voor de nieuwste poll naar: www.dehoefslag.nl

17%

83%

FOTO

: DIr

K C

ArE

MA

NS

Belangrijk platform

FOTO

: DIrK

CA

rEMA

NS

Afwisselend programma

We hope to see you back at the occasion of the

14th Forum 20 - 21th October 2014 Randbøl, Denmark

visit www.globaldressageforum.com

to stay informed about Global Dressage Forum 2014

at Blue Hors, Randbøl (near Billund airport)

International Dressage Trainer Club

Mrs. L. SonnenbergMr. & Mrs. Bartels

Mrs. K. Kuistila

Mrs. A. LinsenhoffMrs. A. Lefler

Toosbuy Foundation