Our Aachen Team Of Ashley Holzer, Bonny Bonnello, Wendy Christoff and Belinda Trussell getting ready for the final parade of nations.

I got home late last night from Europe and sorry but I was just too exhausted to get my laptop hooked back up to post my fianl thoughts of Aachen. So here it goes.

First, as usual, Aachen is hands down the most amazing Equestrian competition on earth if you are into any of the FEI sports.  The feeling just walking around the grounds is like no other and the sport there whether you are an exhibitor or a spectator is simply fantastic!  Kudos to Frank Kemperman and his team for once again bringing us all such an incredible week.

As for the Canadian Team, not only did they end up raising their ranking from 6th to 5th after the Grand Prix special, but I was very pleased that both Ashley Holzer and Belinda Trussell qualified for the final Freestyle.  To be in the top 15 of the world at the world’s strongest show is a feat in itself!  I have to tell you that Ashley as well as 2 other competitors in the show came down with either a virus or food poisoning the evening before and day of the freestyle. As a matter of fact, Anabel Balkenhol was too ill to even ride and poor Ashley did so under such duress that I was amazed she could even compete no less place 13th from the 16 qualified combinations.  She is an amazing horse-person and I cannot tell you how much I admire her sportsmanship and professionalism!  I was equally proud of Belinda Trussell in her Freestyle as she did a wonderful, clean ride to place 12th with over 72%.  All in all, our Canadian Squad achieved a great deal from the European tour and had many personal bests and excellent placements at the shows entered.  Now they will have a well deserved rest, though we still have several combinations in Europe who plan to do more shows during the next months.

Regarding the trial run of several of the new judginging methods  which we on the Dressage Task force created, I am 100% sure that the Supervisory Panel will be of great benefit for the successful futur of the sport.  I also believe that the use of half-points will prove to be a plus, but am not so sure about the use of 7 instead of 5 judges.  In the end, what is most important is that we have extremely well educated judges who exhibit both the knowledge and self-confidence to  stand by their opinions.  I saw so many truly excellent movements through the week by many horses, but it was extremely rare to see 10’s given even when, for instance, Parzival and Adelinde did superb 2 and 1 tempi changes on the diagonals but did not get one “excellent” score for them.  I honestly could not have wanted anything more from this great combination in those exercises but it was not until Katrina Wuest finally gave her a 10 for the 1’s on the centre-line between the pirouettes that she received her due score.  The same goes for her transitions between piaffe and passage but again she did not get a 10 until her final one from the judge at C, Mr. Tornblad.  In the end, my honest opinion is that the horses and riding are by far at an all time high but the standard of judging in total has not improved to the same degree.  There are some very good judges and I believe all are trying to do their best, but seeing up to 8 percentage points difference as well as classes where judges placed the same horse from 3rd to last place just does not cut it.  I do believe that the Supervisory Panel will bring judging to a much better level as the members have more ability to alter poor scoring; however, nothing can take the place of ensuring a very strong eduction and monitoring system for the advancement of judges in the future.  And I am a strong proponent for creating an expedited program for top Olympic riders who retire and have a desire to become O judges. They should be able to take an equivalency exam after a brief training period to get their I  in all countries and then their O certification from the FEI.  This way we will expand and improve our pool of top O judges and see the standard of judging increase as well.

Cheers!

RD

Posted: Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized