13 May The Masterful Student #14
Show season recently started back up here in Pennsylvania, and I’ve been out a couple of times to compete Grand Prix with Roman. The show atmospheres were courteous, well-organized, and I did not see any objectionable riding (although I did see some fresh horses). I saw fellow professionals, amateurs with their dream horses, children and cute ponies, coaches with youth teams. It was hard to reconcile the pleasant show days with the negative atmosphere surrounding our sport online and in print.
Pick up recent copies of USDF Connection magazine, Chronicle of the Horse, get on Facebook or Instagram and you’ll likely absorb some version of the message that our dressage sport is in crisis, abuse is common, and judging probably needs AI to clean up its problems. Since Totilas heralded the mega-moving modern warmblood in the 1990’s and rolkur was setting a bonfire of public outcry, dressage has been said to be in a continual state of crisis for at least 30 years. (And much longer than, that if you read Podhajsky’s “The Art of Dressage”).
I’m well aware of the terrible abuse scandals of the past several years, of animal welfare concerns rocking Europe, and I compete under the same USEF and FEI rules intended to protect horses as everyone else. Fashions are changing as a result of new pressures: it seems more correct biomechanics are in focus and it is frowned up to ride behind the vertical, both of which are great progress. Still the negative messages abound about dressage and I wonder, whose sport is in crisis?
Is the sport that is in crisis only the top 1% of dressage performers? Is it because the upper echelons of the sport have the most money, the most pressure, the most ambition? Quite possibly, but I don’t think that’s entirely the answer. Many in dressage business feel the pressure of finances, the need to prove oneself, the desire to earn their USDF medals and bars, the competition for clients between many similarly qualified trainers. In that sense, there is certainly as much pressure on national riders as those going to CDIs and feeling a hotter spotlight. I’m not sure if this is still perfectly accurate, but at one time about 80% of USDF riders were riding second level and below, so if there is an epidemic of horse abuse, statistically it could not be just in the FEI levels.
I’m going to argue here that a bit of perspective is needed. I’m not excusing bad training or the loss of classical principles in competition. When I am watching a video of what seems to be a beautiful passage in a CDI test, and the view from the side looks pretty good, but when the horse turns towards the camera and shows extreme single-footing (or ropewalking) in the passage, I just turn the video off. And I’ve had the uncomfortable experience of being at a fancy barn while a horse in draw reins bucked wildly during “flying changes.”
I think that most riders are not contributing to the modern crisis. I firmly believe that most of the dressage world is making every effort to put horses first. In my years of competing from first level to Grand Prix, only once have I ever seen a rider rung out for excessive use of whip. What I see at shows and at barns where I teach are riders who care deeply for their horses and competitors who are trying to keep their side of the street clean.
We must be aware of our own negativity bias – the natural human tendency to focus on the negative. It is wired in our brains to see problems, risk, danger, and magnify negativity – this allowed us to survive in the wild! Positivity is not necessarily a human ‘factory setting,’ as it has been said.
Knowing that our brains are naturally attracted to catastrophizing can remind us to pull back for a moment and examine the message we’ve been given. While it is true that bad actors have an outsized impact, studies have shown over and over that most people act in good faith. And, knowing that the brain leans negative can help us focus on what we can control: our own behavior and performance.
The sport of dressage belongs to every rider, not just the oversight bodies of the FEI and USEF. We have direct influence over our experience of shows and of dressage riding in general, simply by how we show up in our community and treat one another.
Here are three simple ideas to improve your experience and that of other riders:
1) Be a well-informed competitor: read the directives of your test level and make sure you are clear on simple definitions of the required movements. Ask yourself if you are prepared well enough to show a relatively harmonious test in public, knowing that mistakes can happen.
2) Bring good sportsmanship to the show: a quick smile and good morning or a thank you can change the tone of a show day for an official or fellow competitor. You can be the reason someone might leave a horse show thinking what a positive experience they had.
3) Try to be kind on social media: remember that energy spent being negative doesn’t benefit you at all, whereas energy spent embodying what you want to see in your sport benefits you and everyone else.
The message that the sport we love is in crisis is a heavy burden, but not one that we must carry without question. Be aware of human negativity bias and doomsday headlines; turn off the screen and go ride your horse!
