So here’s the thing - I’ve been training pretty much flat out since taking on the post of Coach/Technical Advisor for the Canadian Team. Anyone who knows me knows that once I commit to something, I become pretty much obsessive/compulsive over it until I have achieved my goal or at the very least failed miserably while trying my best to do so. Well, this job is no exception! I promised the riders and their Federation I would do everything in my power to bring them the success they wish for, provided they give 100% to the cause as well. And I am very impressed by every-one’s effort so far toward making great strides toward becoming a medal contending team.

I want to compliment the Riders, Owners, Staff, Supporters, and all the new members of the Federation’s High Performance Committees for their hard work and dedication to building a future which will truly enable Canada to “Own The Podium” again and again.

As for me, I’m taking my first and probably only weekend off starting tomorrow afternoon. I’m calling it my “Mental Health” weekend but I suspect my students are thinking a couple of days without “Uncle Robert” around might not be too bad either.

Cheers!

RD

I am a firm believer in the power of prayers and that nothing is impossible when enough of us get together and send out healing and loving thoughts to those of our friends in need. I know for sure that ths has made a huge difference in the lives of my Mom and so many others.
So to add to those of our friends and family we are already praying for, I would love it if everyone will remember 2 wonderful horse people who need our well wishes right now; Charlie Weaver, one of the top Hunter trainers of this era, and Dr. Midge Leitch, many time Olympic Team Veterinarian. Charlie had a fall and suffered traumatic injuries to his spine and is recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami under the care of the same great doctors who did my back surgery a year and a half ago. I can tell you for sure there is no better place in the world for Charlie to be receiving his care and hear he is making great improvement daily. Our friend, Kim Tudor, has created a facebook page for him where you can go for updates on his progress and to send him messages. Please do this as often as possible as he is definitely enjoying hearing from us all.

Midge was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer which has gone to her spine in a few places and is estrogen driven. I spoke with her today and she is very upbeat and is already feeling positive results from the estrogen blocking drugs as well as the radiation she has received to kill the tumors. This is great news and I feel certain these medications will starve those little suckers right into a very quick and painless demise.
I told Midge that we absolutely have got to stop having all this drama in our lives, since we promised each-other we would do exactly that after our last Olympic stint together. It seems neither of us did a very good job of simplifying our lives, eh?

One final note to say that I was very sad to hear of the passing of Sue Sexton, one of the greatest horse photographers and a good friend for many years. Sue was one of those people who I could run into after not seeing her for years and pick right up as if it were yesterday. She had so many friends and will be sorely missed.

So, to my friends and readers around the world, keep the prayers and good thoughts going out to these and all the others who we know and love. We should not only hope for, but truly expect miracles to happen. I see them every day of my life!

Cheers!

RD

For me there was no doubt that the Winter Olympics had it all over American Idol tonight. Yes, I thought both blonde girls with the guitars were good and memorable, but I still don’t think they achieved anything comparable to what our Olympic stars are performing like.

To get on that Olympic podium requires such unique talent, focus and confidence that there is absolutely no doubt that each contender is putting 100% of their heart into every muscle move and living in the moment which depends not only upon competing on the edge but loving it! In fact, it is only by being confident at that edge that one is able to find true brilliance. And that is what eluded me tonight with the ladies on American Idol. They are very gifted but took few real chances to ensure I and millions of other viewers would remember their names when the show was over.

Here’s to the Winter Games and also hoping the guys raise the bar on Idol tomorrow night.

Cheers!

RD

Back from San Diego with the red eye last night and I am recuperating today before getting back at it with my Canadians tomorrow. Other than the weather, it was a very good two days.

This was a clinic shared between private American riders and Dressage Canada as 2 of the 4 west coast based combinations took part. Wendy Christoff and Lorraine Chappell brought their Grand Prix horses and Lorraine also had her very nice 6 year old gelding there. It was a lot of fun working with them to see where we could make more points in their tests, while always stressing the basics. Both riders as well as the other 2 who did not attend this weekend are scheduled to ride in Burbank at the CDI this coming week and I will be looking forward to hearing how our work paid off.

I also have to mention how fun it is to work with so many of my west coast friends and I always love staying with Guenter and Sean who are truly like family to me. And Dove Hollow is absolutely fantastic, especially considering it was raining and riding outdoors would have been impossible. So many thanks again to Flo, Laurie, and, of course, Allison, who does the lion’s share of the work.

The next CDI is the Palm Beach Derby on March 4th -7th and then I will be flying back to San Diego to help the Canadians at Show Park from March 11th-14th. This will be followed up by the Wellington CDI at the Festival Show Grounds from the 18th-21st. In other words, it’s going to be a very busy month and I hope, a very successful one for Canada!

Cheers!

RD

Atlanta 1996
The Games of the XXV1 Olympiad

Imagine that you are sitting among thousands of people watching Mohamed Ali sprint to the top of the stairs to light the Olympic flame, opening the 1996 Olympics. What a thrill. Mohamed Ali was presented a replacement gold metal for his boxing victory in the 1990 Olympics.

Dressage was located at the Georgia International Horse Place in Conyers, Georgia.
Herb & I were lucky to be staying at our brother & sister-in-law’s house in Roswell.
We were very anxious to see the marble wall honoring the athletes. It said ” Through their talents, dedication, and spirit, they have brought glory to the University of Georgia, their country & themselves”. Many people were admiring the honorary panel. We were very thrilled to see Robert’s name up there twice, never dreaming it would be there 6 times one day! Herb was beaming. I was crying, of course! .

One evening the 4 of us decided to take a walk through Olympic Park. All of a sudden we heard an uproar. I remember seeing a bag thrown out in front of us. Later we learned it was some kind of a bomb, and a woman was taken away in an ambulance. We read that a white supremist by the name of Eric R. Rudaly was the Olympic bomber. He had committed a series of bombings across the USA. He killed two people and injured at least 150 others.

The team ride was very good. Ed & Marilyn drove us to the huge parking area. When we all went to find the car it was a riot. None of us could see it. Herb walked so far I had to call a lady with a cart to find him. The next day we took a bus, then a train to the stadium. I was so nervous, I was afraid we would never get on the bus because it was so crowded. A women shouted out, “What are you doing here Mrs. Dover? Didn’t Robert tell you all the parents were being picked up every day?” I had to admit Robert had forgotten to tell us about the rides. We arrived just as Metallic came into the ring. All of a sudden he reared up, and that took care of his chances.

A lovely lady came up to me and asked for my autograph. I laughingly said, “Why would you want my autograph?” She said “You are Robert’s Mom aren’t you?” I got a kick out of that.

All in all it was a great joy to be an American in Atlanta

Since creating Dover’s World, I have become more and more aware of the power of words. It became abundantly clear to me when I was trying to make a point about the lack support by many for our sport of Dressage, that it only takes a few poorly chosen words to inflame a veritable storm of controversy.

But I think that, to be honest, the FEI’s choice of wording regarding the use of Rolkur ( something I’m still not certain is a real word at all) at competitions is going to produce way more confusion than their needed to be. How are the stewards going to be trained to discern the difference between “aggressive force” to make a horse go deep from “non-aggressive ” means to a similar frame. And what seems aggressive on one horse which, for all sort of reasons may be very dull to the rider’s aids, can look like the animal which is extremely sensitive is being tortured. A couple of weeks ago I watched riders at the World Masters in Wellington and came to the following conclusion. Very forward thinking, well trained horses were being ridden in various frames

, none of which seemed at all to bother these wonderful animals in any detrimental way. On the other hand, I noted that at least 2 riders used the whip in an effort to make or keep their horses going forward through most if not all collected movements, especially piaffe and passage. In these cases the whip was used almost step for step, which aroused seemingly nobody’s attention other than, perhaps, my own, as I felt sorry for the horses who had to endure the constant being struck behind the saddle with the stick.
Which brings me to the conclusion that better wording should have been used for future guidelines on warming -up regulations.

“Any action by the rider which causes UNDUE PAIN or BEWILDERMENT to the horse should be deemed abuse by the rider and dealt with appropriately by the stewards”.

–I believe most if not all of us truly know when an animal is being abused when we are right there and witnessing it. This is not necessarily true from things we see a snippit here and there on the internet from though, which is why such determinations must be left to those with authority on the show grounds. I believe that we are on a very slippery slope right now and the wording used to describe behavior which is or is not allowable or appropriate at competitions should and must be very carefully thought through, lest we end up in a very dangerous situation for our beautiful sport.

Cheers!

RD

Dear Mr. Gore,

Here’s the thing. I voted for you and have been an avid and strong supporter of most of your beliefs (other than Gay Marriage) and especially those regarding Climate Change. Now, I’m not saying I’m jumping ship or anything, but I still say you’ve got some “splaining to do”, as Ricky Ricardo used to say to Lucy. I mean, really; since when is it supposed to be necessary to wear my long leather ski coat (even though it is fabulous!) for week after week here in Wellington, Florida? And that is over a sweater and shirt!
Listen, we pay our good money to come south for one major reason - to be able to ride, train and show in great weather, and global warming should have been making us complain all season of how hard it is to ride in the sweltering heat. But no; it has been ridiculously cold for months now with just an occasional day here and there to remind us of what we were assured we’d be enjoying all the time but have been rooked out of somehow.
So I’m scheduled to leave tomorrow to fly out to beautiful San Diego where the weather is almost always perfect, but guess what? Highs over the weekend will be no more than 55 degrees and raining! Can you *%^#ing believe it?
So this, Mr. Vice-President, is to put you on formal notice that I am sick and tired of crappy weather and, since it is my right as an American, I figure publicly complaining is about the best I can come up with.
And to my readers living in worse climates who think I’m just a whiney Jew, I don’t want to hear about what ypou are goingthrough. It’s your choice to be in these places where temperatures hover around freezing. I, on the other hand, live in Wellington and Miami Beach, and if it doesn’t change soon, I expect a refund, Mr. Gore.

Cheers!  

RD

Tomorrow should prove to be a very fun day as I judge approximately 36 rides at various levels over at Marco Bernal’s beautiful farm in Wellington. Quite a few of the combinations will include my WEG declared riders who are using the show as a dress rehearsal.
Even more fun for me will be the fact that both Linda Zang and Gary Rockwell are planning to come “inspect my judging abilities”. Having spent most of my riding career with Linda and been Gary’s trainer through the World Championships in 1994, I am looking forward to the challenge and receiving my report card at the end of the day.

Cheers!

RD

So here’s the thing. I have been on Facebook for about a year now and have accumulated quite a few friends, for which I am very happy. Connecting with both horse and non-horse people from around the world has proven very interesting and re-connecting with old friends has been the best thing for me.
But now I’ve run into a glitch- you see, somehow I ended up with 2 accounts, one of which has my picture and more than 99% of my traffic, and the other without a picture and only maybe 1%. Not this was not such a big problem until I wanted to go on my laptop onto Facebook and it would only let me onto the bogus account. After an hour of trying to deal with it myself, I finally called my webmaster, Julian, who naturally was able to fix my disaster in 5 minutes or less. What can i say - college kids know everything!
Well, the fly in the ointment is that, during the 5 days which I was too busy to go on my Facebook account, 106 people asked to ‘Friend” me. Normally I would go on my Blackberry daily and decide to make of delete these Friends, but now that there were so many my hand-held could not download them and would only go to a blank page. And that is why I was trying to do it from my laptop instead in the first place, you see?
So, I started clicking on each of the individuals at 9pm last night but was so exhausted from the last hour that I just couldn’t sit one more minute in front of the computer, and went to bed instead.
So I’m once again about to begin the process of accepting or rejecting prospective friends but I decided that complaining to my friends on Dover’s World first was justified. I guess I’ve whined enough to you all and will get right at it now.

Cheers!

RD

Canada enjoyed a very positive weekend of competition this last weekend on both coasts at the CDI’s in Wellington and Thermal. Wendy Christoff placed 6th in the Grand Prix and 2nd in the Special. And On the east coast, Ashley Holzer and Belinda Trussell were one and two in both the Grand Prix and the Specia as well. In 4th place in the same classes in Wellington was Victoria Winter with very respectable tests.
I am very proud of all of them but also want to point out that many of Canada’s other combinations showed great improvement over the weekend from class to class, gaining scores of over 65% and making me certain that they are making good progress. We have to remember that most of our riders simply do not get to show nearly enough when home in Canada. I feel certain that they will continue to show a lot of growth as the season progresses.

I will be out in San Diego at Dove Hollow working with a few of our WEG’s declared riders and then going back for the March 12-14 CDI at Show Park. In the meantime, I am also judging a schooling show this coming Thursday, the 18th, at Marco Bernal’s barn in Wellington and am sure to see many of our riders perform their tests, as I love “Dress Rehearsals”! I’m told that Linda Zang and Gary Rockwell are planning to attend as well to see how I fare as a judge. Any bets?

Cheers!

RD