Jan 30 2010
Growing Elitism in Dressage?
There is a growing concern among Dressage competitors about the elitism in the sport, as noted by yourhorse.co.uk. Big warmbloods and flashy movers which are bred for extravagance and do not come cheap, are showing up in many levels and grabbing the top spots.
Grand Prix dressage rider Lucinda McAlpine reveals that she’s on the verge of quitting the sport because of what she calls a “worrying” tendency for judges to be blinded by flashy movers. “Flashy paces should not be put above correctness, but increasingly this seems to be the fashion,” Lucinda says. “In this environment it’s impossible for your average horse and rider combination to work their way up through the grades through excellent training and sheer hard work. Such extravagant paces can only be developed from a very good starting point – and that costs. The message seems to be, if you can’t afford to buy the right horse, you haven’t got a hope. This is making dressage increasingly elitist and will put off a lot of aspiring young riders.”
Lucinda continues: “I actually cried for some of the riders at the Europeans this summer. There were some riders there that rode their horses absolutely beautifully, but because their horse’s knees weren’t knocking their noses they didn’t get rewarded for it. It makes me question whether I still want to do dressage.
“Horses being ridden with their knees hitting their chins like some kind of show horse is not what dressage should be about. In fact, the more they are pushed to be extravagant, the more the true quality of the movement is discarded.”
There seems to be a changing of the guard in the sport of Dressage where these flashy movements are increasingly being noticed and given top spots by the judges, to the disdain of Lucinda.
Very true; it’s a problem that we need to address and take care of very soon.
I believe this problem is one that is relatively easily solved, just as it was many years ago in the hunter-jumper world.
We should always wish for those beautiful, expensive, fancy horses to be rewarded—they are a joy to watch, and provide inspiration to many dressage riders.
WHat is missing in our sport, however, is a place with meaning for the rest of us.
It used to be that the amateur-owner divisions of the hunters were relegated to the ‘back 40′ at the horse shows. It was made clear that, while tolerated, no one really wanted to see these classes or acknowledge them in much more than a perfunctory manner at yearly awards presentations. THe big guns, with expensive horses paid for by clients or sponsors, were given all the glory.
But a really bad recession in the 80′s did a number on that industry, with the adult amateurs deciding to stay home, and that put many of those trainers on notice that the money that was supporting those big fancy shows could, in fact, dry up.
And I think it was similar to what we feel as dressage riders—we work all week to afford our horses, support shows, volunteer at shows, take our kids to shows, and ride as often and as well as we can on horses that are olympic hopefuls only in our own silly dreams.
And our adult amateur awards are almost an aside to our national association, we are barred from attending many association sponsored clinics and events—they are only open to the elite of the sport, and while I am thrilled with the strong Young Rider program, I would be more thrilled with some of that opportunity coming my way as well.
I believe that the rank and file members of our sport MUST raise our voices and insist that USDF put more of their money and effort toward acknowledging the contributions of the adult amateurs. They ignore us at their peril.