Photos Dirk Caremans

Monty Roberts called in to see Joep Bartels, visionary conceiver of the Global Dressage Forum, and they had lunch together. Monty explained that he enjoyed the forum last year and would be very pleased to return this year, not to present anything, just to take part. Joep said by all means, why not be our special guest…. why not open it for us? Monty went on further to explain that, after his experiences of the combative atmosphere of the GDF 2006, what was required was someone with training and experience in human psychology who could bring everybody together, egos aside and for the first time feel unified. Joep turned to Monty, “I think you are the perfect person for this role”. So it came to pass, Monty would open the GDF 2007. 
No expense was spared in dressing up the venue. The immaculate sand arena blended neatly into the stage/tiered-seating arrangement for the few hundred delegates.  Chandeliers, carpet, flowers and white tablecloth seating for the three invited panelists whose job was to fire questions at the presenters. The forum opened at 1.30pm with a pounding musical theme: an arrangement of Neil Diamond’s Beautiful Noise with those resonating and thundering opening bars (for those old enough to remember). The theme of Monty’s opening was unity. We all occupy various niches in this sport and, for the most part, participants only see each other under the atmosphere of competition, so a little bit of togetherness and mutual understanding wouldn’t go astray. Monty came across as genuine and with his special brand of charismatic delivery the scene was already set for a different and more cohesive GDF. As a result of issues surrounding Rollkur last year’s GDF was anything but unifying, and as a result of the acrimony there Anky decided to give this one a miss. This was a pity, and more of a pity that other leaders in the competitive field didn’t show up.
As a Master of Ceremonies, Richard Davison never ceases to amaze. A more articulate and quick witted MC you would scarcely find. Where things got touchy, he lightened it, where things might have become boring he provoked panelists to counter attack the arguments posed by presenters. If discussions looked like drifting off into the doldrums, he tightened the sails. The actual success of the GDF in no small way is owed to his careful management and navigation though issues and personalities without losing one iota of examination.

Jean Bemelmanns demonstrates an approach to training that is simply beautiful

Kyra Kyrklund is famous not only as a prodigious producer of top Grand Prix horses for decades, but also as the clearest, most logical dressage trainer and coach in the world. She is also a most likeable and honest person, and speaks her mind freely but fairly. Kyra had been teaching in Austria where Franke Sloothaak was also teaching, and the common ground of their training philosophies led to the idea of a dual presentation between the two. Franke brought his top showjumper and gave a display of training that was simply good dressage. The horse was soft and had easy changes and even performed a not- so-bad pirouette. Kyra also rode the horse and attempted to shorten its steps (on Franke’s insistence) and evoke a little more cadence, and in a few minutes progress was visible. Together they talked, as if the 400 strong audience wasn’t there, and it was interesting to hear their exchanges. Both made the very clear point that dressage riders today mostly decide they want to do dressage early and focus on it, to the detriment of real riding abilities. Kyra and Franke both had a lot of fun on horses as kids, riding bareback and galloping about. There was no shroud of OHS to deter them or their parents and coaches. In fact, many great riders have had such a wild beginning, where balance is refined. 
Few realise that Kyra was also quite a jumper in her younger days, winning many national events.  Both agreed that dressage riders would all fare much better when it came to perfecting their balance if they had some jumping training. I know many of our top dressage riders like Mary Hanna were event riders before any thought of dressage career emerged. Franke made the point that what he didn’t like about dressage was the subjectivity of the judging. He was convinced that who you are determines or at least contributes to your marks, and that you eventually had to ‘earn your stripes’ with judges. Of course some dressage aficionados were quick to savage him on that one. However it was refreshing to hear someone say it at an elite forum.
My presentation was next. I was invited back for the second time as a result of the delegates’ survey conducted at the end of every GDF. As a result of the furore of last year over the Rollkur debate, where some delegates were accusing Anky of training ‘learned helplessness’ rather than dressage, Joep asked me to specifically give a presentation on LH. I decided I would break up the presentation into 2 parts: the first on a description of training principles and the 2nd on LH. I opened describing the exciting new frontier of Equitation Science. This International Society of Equitation Science is a new society that embraces research in all matters of equitation that can be defined and measured. It blows away some of the myths peddled by horse whisperers and new-age trainers. It is the only scientific society that I know where you don’t need academic qualifications to join. To keep a sense of relevance, membership is also encouraged from professional riders and trainers. There is so much mythology surrounding riding, handling and management of horses that this is a timely emergence. Equitation Science has nothing to do with animal rights but much to do with animal welfare. It encourages correct training philosophies that align with psychology and ethology. Even for professionals, science gives us new tools because on the one hand it educates and on the other it re-organises our existing knowledge.
Learned helplessness (LH) however was my focus. LH is a psychological condition whereby individuals learn they have no control over painful conditions, their actions are futile and they are literally helpless. Broadly, it is when animals seemingly ‘tolerate’ large amounts of pain. In a series of experiments in which dogs were exposed to inescapable shocks it was found that this lack of control subsequently interfered with the ability to learn to avoid pain. Studies of other species including cats, rodents and primates have shown similar results. Clearly this condition relates very much to an animal’s interaction with humans. The helpless state comes from losses of controllability by the animal of its behaviour, and where pain is unpredictable and inescapable. So even ordinary acts such as stabling, tying up and riding cause some stress in terms of losses of controllability, but domestic horses seem to habituate to such things and therefore appear not to be disturbed by it.
However when the animal receives relentless pressure, it loses controllability and predictability and the potential for serious learned helplessness increases. Top performance horses are therefore candidates for at least some amount of LH, but top of the list also includes poorly ridden and badly trained performance horses that have no self-maintained rhythm or tempo and are constantly running away into the bridle. The list also includes therapy horses, trail horses and riding school horses, because some of these horses receive on a frequent basis relentless and unpredictable pressures. LH seems to be a continuum of stressful unpredictable events and, with full-blown LH, it ceases responding altogether. It won’t buck or bolt, it just becomes dull and at some point of this condition it is irreversible and fatal. Unfortunately, like many human disorders, LH is not easily identified until it is too late,  however the common cause is easily seen: constant painful pressure.
All riders need to be vigilant about this and there should be more concern by dressage and hacking judges about constant states of pressure especially bit pressure. Lightness and self-carriage should be seen as the Holy Grail for all performance sports and its importance should be reflected in scores. This impacts on the Rollkur debate. Critics of Rollkur are right to criticize the posture as having poor welfare if the position is painful and the horse cannot self-maintain it. That’s where the relentless pressures come in and these are very damaging. But the debate is wrong to focus only on Rollkur. If critics are genuine about their concern for welfare then they should be just as vocal about shortened necks in the upright posture with constant strong pressure in the mouth (as well as on the vertebrae). Short contorted necks and stilted extravagance are still too common and are being rewarded. The fact is when you shorten necks whether they are up or down, you get hollowing of the loins, interrupted gaits, stilted steps and cadence is replaced by snatch and jerk. And it will continue to occur if competitors are rewarded for it.

Jo Hinnemann and Coby van Baalan face the music...

Next to present was Joep Bartels and Frank Kemperman (director CHIO Aachen) and their presentation concerned the marketing of dressage. Joep and Frank had previously lamented that, compared to show-jumping and other sports, dressage had seen few changes in the last 25 years except perhaps for the introduction of the World Cup and the Kür. The sport, they said, was lacking fresh ideas and marketing leadership. Future success in any sport requires revision and change and this can only come from discussions between all interested groups.  Kemperman explained that dressage is still not a discipline for professionals – only relatively few can make a living from it, better marketing was needed to give the sport more depth. He remarked, somewhat pessimistically, that it was fortunate the two great dressage personalities, Anky van Grunsven and Isabell Werth were from different countries otherwise the sport would be doomed.  Among his suggestions were shorter and more exciting dressage tests and a Nations Cup series.
After dinner that evening the Bösendorfer Grand Piano was ferried on stage. Imke Bartels had, against her father’s better judgment, engaged the services of an extraordinary pianist, the virtuoso Wibi Soerjadi, for the composition of her new Kür. The result for actual competitions was fantastic and she has gone on to win a number of them. So on to the stage came Wibi, a breath of fresh air for the GDF with an infectious and self-deprecating humour and clearly obsessed with his music. He played the themes and background to the construction of the Kür for Imke, “The Spirit of Sunrise”, and it was moving to say the least.
But when she rode in on ‘Sunrise’, and Wibi’s music and Sunrise’s rhythm merged as one, everybody was transfixed. It is nowadays common to hear the blending of music with movement, but when the music is played before your eyes and ears, first-hand, it is different. Wibi passionately explained that it’s not about hearing the music it’s about feeling it for every single step helping to express every movement. Not a single footfall was without musical enhancement and transitions into piaffe were paralleled by cascades into diminutive notes. Music has always attempted to mirror nature and dressage has always attempted to mirror music, and for me this was a rare glimpse of mission accomplished. You could have heard a pin drop and the audience was clearly moved. Whereas so many attempts at the Kür are ruined by canned music cleverly but unmusically tweaked and stretched, here was real music metamorphosing into the movement of one the most majestic animals in nature. It goes without saying that an encore was begged for by the audience and granted. 
First up in the morning of the second day was the accomplished rider and trainer, Jean Bemelmans, currently the trainer of the Spanish team. He brought two riders of the Spanish team along, Jordi Domingo and Juan Manuel Muñoz Diaz riding two relatively inexperienced Grand Prix horses, Prestige (by Ferro) and a Spanish stallion, Fuego XII (by Uterano VII). Jean emphasized:  “In Germany we have our training scale and we always work on that scale, but in the end there are many ways to Rome and it doesn’t always have to go directly to Rome. You can experience problems and then you have to travel the way which is right for that horse.” Bemelmans’ demonstrations showed his preference of riding horses low and quite deep to begin with. The horses found no difficulty with that and looked calm, swinging and loose. As work progressed he demonstrated how the next phase was to bring the horse into a higher frame with the poll highest to a state of what he called hyper-collection. The horses always looked light in hand and the effect on making the hindlegs springy and clearly cadenced was obvious.  
He was careful to point out that the horse couldn’t last long like this so it is important to return to the low and deep outline. He remarked that the horse’s attitude and the paces would suffer if the animal was made to work beyond his fitness, strength and capability. If we looked after our horses with correct work, their minds and their legs would last a long time. The best years for a Grand Prix horse he said, are the years from 12 to 18 years old. He emphasised another point about rider training: that it was essential to develop the finesse in balance to allow the horse itself to be perfectly balanced and in order to ‘whisper’ the aids. First he explained that many riders actually can’t ride properly, and he reminded us of the validity of Kyra and Franke’s earlier emphasis on jumping and having fun on horses as children to learn deeper aspects of real balance, and secondly the importance of being trained on the lunge. Clemens of course has been telling us this for years, that the lack of real school horses and subsequently the lack of time spent on the lunge is an impediment to the finer development of our riding here in Australia. Perhaps this will change now that we have a swathe of experienced horses with reasonable paces now going into retirement in this country that 20 years ago simply weren’t there.  Bemelmans set the bar pretty high though when he said that a rider who was ready to ride a horse properly in dressage should be able to ride without stirrups or reins on a horse on the lunge in all three gaits and be able to read the newspaper at the same time. 

Kyra Kyrklund and Franke Sloothaak - the dialogue of horsemen...

After lunch, FEI O judge, Stephen Clarke, lead the evaluation of the European championships in Turin, Italy. This is always a contentious area to delve into, and Stephen held his own and defended the judges’ marks. As always some mistakes were clearly made in judging, when you have the benefit of hindsight, and replay facilities. One of the judges in question even apologised for such an error. Of course these things cost marks and consequently may even cost medals, reputation and money but certainly all competitors should remember that they choose to partake in a sport that has the greatest element of subjectivity of all. On that issue, Wayne Channon, British Team member (and nuclear physicist and business entrepreneur) suggested that since the scores at top level are mostly between 5’s and 9’s, then maybe it was time to consider awarding half marks. Stephen Clarke’s retort was simply that he was happy with the way things were for the time being.
One of the riders in the evaluation, Imke Bartels showed an excellent extended walk that gave her good marks but Kyra (ever one for her candidness and a friend and former coach of Imke) said the marks should be lower than 8’s because Imke was holding her hands down and wide. Some defended the 8’s and said that we should remember that the marks are for the movement: if it’s good than it should be rewarded. Kyra remarked that Imke’s hands stayed down and wide suggesting she is correcting something, otherwise why weren’t her hands able to be in the normal position? Therefore the marks should be deducted compared to the same walk with a rider with the correct hand position, one fist apart.
Johann Hinnemann and Coby van Baalen have been a successful training and coaching team for many years and one their proudest achievements is the training of young riders. They brought with them a bevy of horses and junior riders ranging from a tiny tot on a Shetland sized pony through the age groups to the young rider years. They produced a training scale for riders which went along the following lines: 1. The basic seat - having fun and learning to stay on; 2. Balance work on the lunge; 3. Suppleness training; 4. Learning to swing with the horse’s movements; 5. The correct use of the aids; 6. Coordination of the aids. These six steps are acquired along with sound theoretical knowledge that includes psychology and the horse’s natural behaviours. They emphasised that teaching seat and position shouldn’t happen too early as it is important to learn good horsemanship and balance skills. They stressed that good teaching should be functional and that young riders should be discouraged from aiming for a good percentage but instead should aim for a good score in each individual movement. A good percentage was not a precise enough aim. They mentioned that a good teacher must always be positive with children and should never allow children to focus on the performance of other competitors.
They mentioned the furore surrounding the recent FEI investigation into their very excessive side-reining of the pony, ‘Power and Paint’, that was videoed and reported. In a carefully worded statement, Coby bravely but nervously admitted that they had made an error, and Johann supported her saying the pony, (which was present and performed well in his demonstration) showed no ill effects. While he apologised, he made the bold comparison with other cruelties that he said no one seemed to mind such as motorised horse-walkers. The admission would have stood better on its own without an attempt to justify one negative thing with another. I was invited to be on the three person panel for this presentation, however Johann and Coby went very much over time so question time was short.  My question was one that has puzzled me for years concerning the training scale. Why was straightness placed after impulsion on the scale? After all a crooked horse has unequal propulsion so how can a horse have impulsion if it is not straight? Furthermore the scale began at rhythm, yet an essential ingredient of all training is the immediacy of response and subsequent lightness of the aid. Why is this not included? Johann explained that the scale was simply a guide (as Jean Bemelmans had also said) and not meant to be rigidly adhered to. Horses are all different so you cannot prescribe the same thing for all. But, I explained, it is common to hear that many trainers more rigidly insist that they stick to the scale. So are you saying it is more of a list of guidelines? The reply came, it isn’t a list, it’s a scale, but it is to be used as more of a guide. 
So there you have it, the GDF for another year. I was very pleased to have been asked back again, because the GDF is important. Because it involves animals used in sport, because it unavoidably involves subjectivity and because it has a classical history that sometimes sits uneasily with the demands of modern sport, discussion and education are essential, otherwise decisions are made entirely by committees. In a world where ethical and welfare issues are of increasing interest to society, the GDF is critical in disseminating information. It is my hope that they will continue to maintain a strong interest in equitation science.  Anyway that’s it from me, I’m joining a WWF and WSPA team for December and heading off to Nepal to help systematise elephant training.