Cold hard truth

Speaking of cold.
It has decided to snow in KY.

I expressed my opinion already on the freestyle score requirement change.

And then I saw something Robert Dover posted.

Here it is:

As the lines began to blur between what defined an amateur from a professional at the FEI level, our National Governing Body recognized that our industry and the shows could not thrive without the ongoing income brought in by the vast majority of its membership, the amateurs. Therefore, it was time to create not one but multiple amateur divisions for hunters and jumpers that were determined by the height and size of the fences as well as the horses. Riders loved these classes so much that they grew until they ultimately had to be split at many shows where there were literally hundreds of riders in the division. 

As the years went by, horses became more and more expensive, professionals were living very well off of the amateurs who had always paid large sums to train them as well as compete their top horses toward team competitions. But the amateurs also began to recognize that, given the chance, the training, the confidence and the same great horses being ridden by their pro’s, they might actually have a chance to ride for a team spot and go for that Olympic Dream themselves.

 And that was the beginning of the next new era. It was always the amateurs, for the most part, who held the purse strings. But now they also began to believe they had an equal right to use their money to bankroll their own careers and dreams. And here is where I will state what I have said for years: I have known professionals who could barley sit the trot and had little if any feel but they were smart, thought they were great, and actually produced some quite outstanding results during their careers. I have also known amateurs who could ride fantastic but nobody ever let them in on the secret, so they stayed in their little arenas and never rose to the occasion to become what they should have. We are all literally making this whole thing up, this movie we call our life, as we are going along. In every breath, as we breathe in and breathe out, we are defining outwardly to the universe who we see ourselves as; hopefully the grandest version of who we imagine ourselves to be, whether amateur or professional. 

Training in riding is not supposed to be of less quality because of one’s status, professional or amateur. It is not dictated by the quality of the horse although the results in competition most definitely will be affected by the quality and ability of the horse as well as the talent and training of both horse and rider. 

Recently, there has been quite an uproar over the raising of a qualifying score from 60% to 63% in lower levels for Freestyles. Although I was no longer officially on the Dressage Sport Committee, I was still apparently on the list and received many letters from angry riders who said they felt betrayed by the organization which depends upon their money as their backbone and yet won’t allow these people who simply want to ride their “back yard, home trained, horses which are receiving scores below 63%” into the classes. The judges and members of the committee responded to the very upset riders by saying that they understood their points but that 63% is just barely a score representing “Satisfactory”. It is not “fairly good” but rather only a little better than “Sufficient”. It does not require a super horse or a 40 hour training week to aspire toward a result of Satisfactory and I believe that it is incumbent on everyone who wishes to sit on and put a piece of metal into a horse’s mouth that they learn to ride well enough and communicate with their horse proficiently enough to produce that 63+%. 

Off to bed again but I will be posting more about issues affecting Amateurs tomorrow. I do hope that these 2 posts will open up a larger conversation and I am happy to respond to all questions and comments, even the ones from those who strongly disagree with me. 

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I get his point. And appreciate what he is trying to say.

But I get this feeling that his overall point is that yes, you CAN get a 63 even on a backyard horse, even on a 6 mover. You just need to ride better and work harder.

I get it but ... also I feel a little talked down to. As if I'm not working hard already. I cannot change my horse's conformation, Mr. Dover.

I intend to bust my ass and get my 63 at PSG AND I-1 this year. In fact I'm going to get ballsy and say this year I think we can get a 65 at PSG. But please don't imply that many of us are not riding well enough, or working hard enough. And that's why we can't reach those scores.

That is simply not true.