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2004 Symposium: Developing the Dressage Horse See Friday Lecture for a review of the presenter's credentials. Scott Hassler: The 2005 Young Horse Championships will be held the first week in July in conjunction with the Professional Championships. Sport is important—it is what makes everything work. Sport is dependent on breeding, and breeding is depending on sport. They need and are dependent on each other. Scott said the he grew up on his family’s horse breeding farm but that he had no interest in breeding. He like to ride and compete, but nevertheless he has a strong memory of being taught respect for the horse as being his biggest responsibility. With age, he has developed a new respect for the breeder, especially during the years that he was living in Germany. Many breeders there have homes attached to their barns, and the walls of their homes are lined with pictures of the horses they’ve bred over the years—horses that they are incredibly (and deservedly) proud of. Remember that none of what we’ve accomplished as riders is possible without those breeders! In 1921, the horse’s primary use was for farming. By 1999, the horse’s primary use was for riding. As a result, we’ve seen a changing type that permits increased enjoyment and responsiveness to the aids. Today’s lecture will be in 2 parts, the first focusing on the breeding process and the second focusing on evaluating the horse and subsequently developing the sporthorse. Scott’s breeding goals is to develop a horse with a good character with a chance to become a good riding horse. Every breeder MUST determine their breeding goal. Are they looking to produce an Olympic level horse? An Amateur riding horse? A horse suitable for a pony clubber? To fulfill their personal riding goals? A horse for early sale? The answer should determine every subsequent breeding choice they make. The next question is, “Is your mare worth breeding?” It is critical to be honest, and to beware of the “breeder’s trap” which is when the mare is beautiful, with nice papers, nice gaits, great inspection scores, great show results both in hand and under saddle (or may have any combination of the above), but she does not produce nice foals (either not able to conceive but the breeder keeps trying, does not carry them to term, does not produce foals of the desired sex, or the foals she produces are not of the quality the breeder had hoped), yet the breeder cannot let go of the hope that this next time, the mare will produce that foal the breeder has been dreaming of. A good broodmare MUST make nice foals, and not just be wonderful herself, to merit the title “good broodmare.” When evaluating a mare (whether your own, or if you are looking to buy), determine if she is a candidate to meet your breeding goals by looking at her INTERIOR and EXTERIOR values. The INTERIOR VALUES are what you cannot obviously see, but what comes out over time (such as her mind, energy, reproductive qualtive, character, temperament and trainability). The EXTERIOR VALUES are her performance and gaits—and can be measured. INTERIOR VALUES:
EXTERIOR VALUES:
Looking at these things can help evaluate a horse that has not yet been ridden. Note that a poor exterior value does not rule out a phenomenal broodmare producing wonderful foals, because a mare may have incredible and/or hidden interior values that dominate the exterior values. Scott himself has a mare with horrid exterior values that is one of the best producers on his farm based on the quality of her offspring. THE VALUE OF A BROODMARE IS IN WHAT SHE PRODUCES. SELECTING A STALLION The STALLION has the potential to provide a great deal of information. If a mare is lucky, she will produce 15 foals in her lifetime. A stallion, on the other hand, may produce thousands. The mare owner should look first to the stallion himself for his strengths and weaknesses, and then evaluate his offspring in the presence of the stallions strengths and weaknesses (his interior and exterior values). The mare owner only gets what the STALLION brings to the mares—the qualities that he generally produces, and must look to see if they complement the mare’s general strengths and weaknesses. DOES THIS COMBINATION MEET THE MARE OWNER’S BREEDING GOALS? Youngsters are best evaluated at 3 days, 3 months or 3 years—and we should be willing to understand that youngsters could be in a growth stage at any given time, and be willing to look again next week or next month. Take age, timing into consideration for interior and exterior values for offspring, but evaluate your breeding program, and evaluate it carefull. AVOID THE BREEDER’S TRAP. After each foal, and certainly before breeding the mare again, ask yourself: Do you want to continue breeding the mare? Do you want to breed somewhere else next time? Also, do you sell your foals? Don’t be afraid to sell both your broodmares, and/or her offspring. Don’t become a collector. Sometimes it’s better to keep a filly and sell the mother—look to your breeding goal in making the determination. Begin planning right away for this offspring and for the mother, allowing your breeding goal to be your guide. Also realize that some lines produce great fillies and only average (or even below average) colts, and others are quite the opposite, while for others, sex doesn’t matter. There is an advantage to breeding over several generations—you will gain an in depth understanding of your horse’s interior and exterior values and develop increased confidence in your realistic assessment of them. You will also gain experience in selecting mares/stallions and in your decision-making process, and learn to balance emotions and expectations. From there, you can go on to DEVELOP THE SPORT HORSE. The young horse should be treated like a child. We are his parent or teacher, creating boundaries. If we are too strong, we instill fear and create a loss of confidence. If we are too weak, then he is all over us and becomes aggressive. Inspections are like getting a birth certificate. At REGISTRATIONS or KEURINGS, an official record is made that gives credit to the breeder. It is also a great networking opportunity, and an opportunity to receive constructive criticism. If possible, all foals should be taken for registration as a courtesy to the stallion owner/breeder. Do not worry about the score, since the day is only a single day in the foals life—don’t allow a low score to offend you. Look at it as an opportunity to market the foal, meet other breeders/owners, and to enjoy yourself and have fun. If your foal does well, bask in the glory. If he doesn’t, remember that it is just one day in his life—some foals canter the entire time, and don’t show themselves well—it does NOT end their careers or rule out a trip to the Olympics. Handling work is preparation for preschool. It allows us to examine the trainability and responsiveness, and lets us know what we’ll need to work on (i.e., shyness) or boundaries we’ll need to address (i.e., mouthiness). It is also the foal’s benefit for his safety and well-being, for discipline, and for the ability to handle a show atmosphere, and can be related to later FEI in-hand work. A foal that is used to handling will also be easier to show to potential buyers and breed shows can be a great marketing tool. BREED SHOWS offer breeder and owner recognition, and evaluation of the horse FOR SPORT. Under saddle work is equivalent to starting elementary school. This is easier if the foal has been well-prepared with in-hand work, as long as the foal had a good attitude towards handling. Before starting, the horse must be ready—i.e., the condition of his feet, nutrition, stage of growth, character and temperament must all be such that learning can occur. Before the young horse can be backed, he should be introduced to lungeing—not for whizzing around, but to teach him communication so that he goes forward, stops and turns off light aids from the lunge line and lunge whip. Fitness is not the primary goal. He is then introduced to the saddle and bridle, and taught very slowly about the equipment. The purpose of the bridle is gently demonstrated from the ground, and the idea of turning is given by gently pulling the head from side to side. Great care is given to making sure he understands the concept of giving to the bit. The young horse is also taught free running and free jumping. Cavaletti work is also introduced. Finally, the horse is backed by the rider, with the first rides always on the lunge and the horse is allowed to learn to carry the rider without rider interference. The rider then slowly takes up the reins while still on the lunge before transitioning to the arena, and then riding the horse around the arena. The last stage is riding the horse outside on trails. Canter with the rider (and without) is done from the start on the lunge (or at least within the first few days), and the transitions are ridden well forward. Scott ended his portion by asking everyone to go home and examine their horse’s papers, and then to get in touch with their horse’s breeder. It’s meaningful to the breeder to have feedback on the horse is doing—and the rider may be able to find their next horse without having to go through a dealer as a result. Breeders deserve and appreciate the acknowledgement. Christoph Hess: Judging the Young Horse The general impression takes into account the correctness of movement in all 3 gaits, the conformation and neck set, and the horse’s presence, ease of mastery of the test, and the smoothness of the overall impression. The Philosophy of the Bundeshchampionate/Young Horse Championship was developed in countries with high standards of breeding to comment on the standard of training, on the quality of the young horses, and where they are with respect to their training. The commentary from the judges is to be: 1) benevolent and with high regard, 2) positive beginning, 3) short and accurate, 4) pointing cause and effect, 5) basic, using the general scale of training principles, and 6) giving training advice. The questions that are to be answered are: Is this horse trained in a classically correct way? And is this a true dressage horse? What is the quality of this horse? It is to be noted that the walk has a coefficient of 2. Mr. Hess feels that the walk mirrors the schooling program. The horse is born with the potential, but if the horse is schooled incorrectly, the quality will be destroyed. The purpose of the young horse tests is to allow the young horses to compete against each other in supportive tests which have criteria suitable to the level of their training and age, and to check their fundamentals. They also encourage riders/trainers to school young horses in classical terms and to get away from “breaking” horses—instead they are encouraged to tolerate curiosity and cheerfulness, and because in Germany the Young Horse Tests also include tests for jumping and eventing, they encourage for broader and more demanding training across disciplines. There is a strong feeling in Germany that there is a BIG difference between judging young horses and older horses in the lower level classes, where young horses should be allowed momentary lapses of attention and young horse-type behaviors. There are fundamental mistakes which ARE penalized and lead to lower marks: obvious unlevel rhythm, steady tension, lasting failures of contact, insufficient swinging back, serious crookedness, insufficient engagement of the hindlegs. However, minor mistakes are not taken into account as much as they would be as in a Training Level-type class as long as the horse is otherwise presented correctly. Examples of these in the 5 year-old tests would be transitions not exactly at the marker (usually because the rider waited for the horse to come into better balance), medium canter slightly crooked, slight crookedness when collecting the extended canter, jumping into the wrong canter lead which is corrected immediately and responsively, “short” break in canter which is corrected obediently. Examples of these in the 6 year-old tests would be lateral movements not at the marker, not holding bend for the last 2 – 3 steps in half pass or travers, slightly overdone shoulder-in position. In walk, the judges are looking for rhythm, activity and length of stride. In trot, rhythm, length of stride and impulsion, and in canter, rhythm, length of stride, impulsion, and uphill nature. A 10 for gaits is exceedingly rare. A willingness and ability to collect are especially important in the 5 and 6 year-old classes. The final score is made up of 5 components: 1 score for each of the 3 gaits (walk receives a double coefficient, though), a score for conformation (especially neck set), and a score for the horse’s overall appearance (including presence, smoothness/harmony of the test and with the rider). Back to the USDF Convention Table of Contents. |
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