Is Dressage Declining?

[Cowgirl]

With another large training facility sold off and closing in our area, it has sparked local discussion about whether or not dressage is on the wane. What some of the people in our discussion are having trouble getting their arms around is how our metro area has grown exponentially, yet that growth is not producing new riders. Membership in our GMO has dropped by half in the last decade; our four/five ring shows have turned into one/two ring shows. As a working professional who has a big job, what I have experience is that now that all of these facilities have closed and sold off to other disciplines, to developers or to private parties, I am struggling to stay in the sport because there is nowhere to board for those that aren’t in full training (I don’t do it because I want to train my own with weekly coaching) and those who have jobs can’t commute hours after work and still get a ride in before the barn closes. This closing of our public barns and large private training facilities is apparently state-wide, but I am wondering if it is a national thing.

A few years ago, a prominent international clinician (now based in the US) told me that, within the next decade, dressage will become too expensive and difficult for the average professional (doctor/lawyer making a nice income–$200-$300k) to afford. So that means that all those of modest means have already been cut out. At the time, I didn’t believe him, but what I am currently experiencing makes me think this is true. He was seeing this happening across the country where he clinics.

Is it simply that the development of large metropolitan areas has cut out horse sport in those areas, except for the very wealthy or is this happening in more rural areas too? The price of land here, within in a reasonable driving distance of the city, means that you really have to have at least a million to invest (for a 5 acre modest property, probably without horse facilities on it). But here we need indoor arenas to ride during the winter, and zoning in the closer-in areas prevents the building of an indoor on small acreage (if the cost alone doesn’t prohibit it–and it probably doesn’t add to your property value so you best be in a position to throw $200k away if you build one).

It is so hard to generalize, but I am wondering what others are experiencing. Are there still horsey meccas (outside of Wellington and San Diego, which really is, again, for the wealthy) or is the sport in another narrowing phase.

I also wonder because I am seeing horse prices jump up (like the price of houses) but the horses that are selling are the expensive ones. My friend who trying to sell a horse in the $20k range is getting no calls.

Does someone know if the USDF membership has shrunk too?

Locally, we are talking about co-op arrangements and other such things to try to preserve the few barns we have left. Any other perspectives? Anybody find any solutions?

[tinah]

Until dressage swings back to soft and willing partnership, it’s going to lose ground. It’ll go the way of Big Lick unless the way the horses are handled changes. You can blame it on money, but the truth is probably closer to no one wants crank and spank in their backyard. Endless drilling in an arena is boring for everybody involved.

[RPM]

As you say, it is hard to generalize.

So, what state are you in?

[RPM]

@tinah

Until dressage swings back to soft and willing partnership, it’s going to lose ground. It’ll go the way of Big Lick unless the way the horses are handled changes. You can blame it on money, but the truth is probably closer to no one wants crank and spank in their backyard. Endless drilling in an arena is boring for everybody involved.

This.

Also, and related to what tinah posted, is that people may be realizing that dressage is an art, and is about much more than your cavesson, your whip, or your knee and thigh blocks. As long as people are depending on their saddles to hold them in place, and their cavessons to hold their horses’ mouths (and heads) in place, mechanics are going to take the place of classical dressage, and people are going to be disillusioned when they realize that devices cannot take the place of thorough training of horse and rider.

[NoSuchPerson]

I wonder if some of those people who used to be active in dressage are moving to western dressage, which is perceived, I think, as being more affordable and friendlier to ammies?

But, I think horse sports in general are declining. I’m not sure it’s just dressage. For example, I see people here on the forum talking about the loss of show venues, cross-country courses, and trails.

[ladyj79]

Nah. But I think horse ownership and training for showing purposes are in decline everywhere, in every discipline. Because the money and the land. And honestly an aging population.

[WannabeDQ]

The horse market is insane right now. I spent the last year buying and selling and it was shocking how high prices are. The last time I shopped I was able to get 2 lovely warmbloods, one second level, one schoolmaster, both in the 20-30k range. Granted this was during the recession. Now you can’t touch a completely average, green broke 3 year old for less than 35k. Anything nicer or with more training? Mere mortals can forget about it. The good news is that the horse I sold, I priced well, and he moved very quickly/had multiple offers.

I have also noticed less people opting for full training and instead keeping horses at cheaper places/at home and hauling in for lessons.

[KayGee]

Dressage is not the only discipline asking this question. It’s on other forums as well. It may not be as expensive to show AQHA, but it’s still expensive. One person’s cost to get to (earn 70 pts in the chosen class), and show at, the AQHA World Show was $70k. Even if that sum was a pittance to me, my practical side would not allow it. That’s a down payment on an investment property, my children’s education, etc.
Besides the money, we have a cultural shift. A friend’s daughter (in her 20’s) just spent a month in Thailand for very little money, and the pics of the activities she did and the scenery were amazing! She’s heading to Nicaragua next month. How does one sell a journey over having multiple, different experiences? So, forget about traveling, take what you spent on those 2 trips and multiply it by 5, at least, and spend it on a large, fragile animal that may bite, kick, buck you off, have a long term injury, or die tomorrow. Along the way, you’ll probably encounter some highly unscrupulous people so you can feel doubly betrayed by not only the animal kingdom but also mankind.
We will survive even when the landscape changes. For example, western dressage is really taking off, and it’s a good thing. It’s okay! I would rather see people work at perfecting the 20m circle than riding their horses saddleless and bridleless jumping over picnic tables or using draw reins with shanked bits and a spur stuck in the side to get that jog or lope.
These are just my observations, experiences and thoughts. I’m in the Midwest.
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[Silverbridge]

@RPM

As you say, it is hard to generalize.

So, what state are you in?

She knows exactly where she is, therefore, so should you.

Here in the Phoenix metro area, it goes up and down. The ride times for the AZ dressage association’s annual spring show just came out and it’s huge this year. Four rings and four judges. It is usually three. The show manager’s letter said they had to hire a fourth judge due to high interest.

One of the classes at my level (Third) has 17 rides and I think 13 of those are AAs. I don’t ever remember there being that many AAs at Third Level at an AZ show but I have only been showing since 2013. There are more rides at the shows I go to in Southern CA, too, than there were a few years ago. And I am seeing many types and breeds participating which is among the things many people complain no longer happens.

And I personally don’t think trends in riding styles or training have any affect at all on the interest of people who are actually showing. They do have a huge affect on Internet enthusiasts and hopefuls, for sure.

The economy and people’s faith in it, as well as the organizational skills of show management, have the biggest impact on the numbers in any given area. IMO. Followed closely by the access to good help from trainers who know what they are doing, and who encourage showing.

[scruffy_the_cat]

@tinah

Until dressage swings back to soft and willing partnership, it’s going to lose ground. It’ll go the way of Big Lick unless the way the horses are handled changes. You can blame it on money, but the truth is probably closer to no one wants crank and spank in their backyard. Endless drilling in an arena is boring for everybody involved.

I don’t agree. OP is describing big attendance at shows during the time of Anky/Sjef and rollkur. Now that we are in the era of Charlotte & Carl and happy horses, enrollments are declining. They are not related. It’s the economy or people’s earning power. Regular folks can’t afford to show any more.

[Glyphica]

Dressage is becoming a larger percentage of the horse community in my neck of the woods, but overall horse participation is slowly declining. I think horse sports are too expensive for the average folk, even on a small scale. A season of typical rec-league basketball is less than a month of weekly group kid lessons. I also think the danger factor is a problem in our special snowflake world.

A bit of an aside, but I don’t think GMO participation is a good metric for measuring participation. We have quite a thriving dressage community here, but the local GMO is empty.

[Scribbler]

It’s possible horse ownership overall is falling in some areas or overall.

It’s also possible that in certain areas, participation in lower level dressage is stagnating or declining.

But the whole concept of lower level dressage is relatively new. When I rode as a kid in the 1970s it simply did not exist locally. If you had a pretty horse and wanted to get out and show it off, without jumping or barrel racing, you went in a w/t/c flat class a few times a year.

When I returned to riding in the first decade of the 2000s, the open breed flat class had disappeared except for very small schooling shows. And people were either jumping or if they were a bit older and lost their nerve, doing dressage.

Now, no one starts off in dressage expecting to stay at training or first level forever. Everyone has dreams of “going up the levels” to at least where their horse tops out athletically. But it turns out that it’s really hard and statistically not that many average rider ammies doing most of their own schooling actually get there, as the order of go for our local shows demonstrates.

I have to say, a number of the average rider ammies I’ve seen plateau would probably have been happier if they could just have felt ok about dressing up and heading to a flat class of some description.

So it’s possible that there is some disillusionment in some tiers of dressage riders in some areas. I think fashion in horse sports will rise and fall. Lower level dressage may have just been around long enough that people have stopped dreaming the dream.

Anyhow I’m kind of curious when lower level dressage was created or took off as a major competition venue for ammies. I expect it got started earlier in the US than Canada as most trends do.

[Manni01]

I observed in the last year that small horse properties are moving like crazy. In many of these horse properties there is the option to board (often self board.) but not many amenities. I think most don’t even have a riding ring. There are a couple of barns who offer full training and there are a couple of barns which allow you to bring in your own trainer. Some of them are very fancy. I sometimes have the impression that being fancy is more important then quality. we have a couple of very good trainer in our area, but they are more hidden and rare. I think most people have horses because they like them not because they pursue a dressage career (above 2nd level). We have 2 schooling shows series, usually they fill up ok. One is the GMO one is completely private. The shows are doing well. The last one I went to had 3 rings. So I am not sure whether in my area Dressage is declining.

[4wdNstraight]

Several large equestrian facilities are for sale in my area. Local participation is down. Due to weather, we have a rather short season, so this created show dates on top of each other. They haven’t been filling, so some shows were cut out. I have heard the quality of footing in one reason. At the upper levels, you have to travel to have a strong competition field of riders in order to better oneself.

I have had multiple horses for a long time, but am considering cutting back to one, boarding permanently rather than having horses at home, to free up more time for other things. I love to ride and show, but am shifting to less work/time and money outlay in order to spend more time with family. I still have FEI goals, but I am not feeling compelled to burn up the show curcuit as I once was. I have a demanding job, and travel quite a bit, and have to be in part training so my horses get ridden while I’m out of town. It is astounding to look at the amount of money spent on my horses per month, and am grateful that my husband doesn’t pay attention, or else it would not be great!

[Edre]

One of the things I’ve seen in my area (midwest) in the last ten-ish years is that the recognized shows that are well run/well maintained have changed their focus. It’s all about the Big Classes now, and showing off “soandso special pony class here” instead of making sure that the show is well run and managed for all competitors. They’re losing participants from the average classes as a result. I think that focusing on the special class options to the detriment of the average AA is a mistake - I assume that the majority of fee-paying members (in GMOs, USDF, & USEF) are going to be the AA riders that might (in dressage) never crack beyond second level. So expecting those riders to bankroll your shows by entering but making their showing experience sub-par is foolish to me.

As a result, some of our shows which in years past have been less popular (“less than ideal” warm up ring/situation for example, or combined training shows that run a USDF recognized dressage test option on the side) are gaining ground as the major venue loses some participants. For the cost of show entry (and all three are expensive but of course, the major venue is priciest) I would rather pay to ensure that I’m having a good ride in decent conditions instead of shoehorned into a corner of a show ground so they can televise/fancy up a large arena space that could otherwise have been used (and has, successfully, in the past) to host 3 20x60 show arenas.

So here, I think, it’s less that I’m seeing “dressage declining” as I am seeing people being more judicious about where they spend their money. They want to show. But they’re tired of poor showing experiences, so they’re seeking alternative options - unrecognized shows, clinics with bigger name riders (both local & ones that are flown in), or combined training + USDF recognized tests on the side.

[Texarkana]

General horse ownership has been slightly waning for years, but I think the bigger problem is that recognized/rated shows of all disciplines are losing traction. Like almost everything else in this country at the moment, the largest and most prestigious shows are doing better than ever while everyone else struggles.

I assume the chief reason is because recognized/rated shows have become too expensive for a lot of the population… which trickles down to effect the entire horse industry. If you aren’t showing at recognized shows, you probably don’t need to board/train at a fancy dressage facility. You probably also don’t need to spend $20K on a horse. And you certainly don’t need to maintain memberships to show organizations.

I also think what I call “the Wellington effect” has done more harm than good for equestrian competition. People with the means (and even many without the means) aren’t spending as much of their horse money at home… they’re saving up to go to Florida to ride with BNTs and compete there. What originally was a way to keep training and competing through the winter so you could come back ready to compete at home in the spring has now replaced the competitions people were originally training for.

[JLR1]

@Silverbridge

She knows exactly where she is, therefore, so should you.

Here in the Phoenix metro area, it goes up and down. The ride times for the AZ dressage association’s annual spring show just came out and it’s huge this year. Four rings and four judges. It is usually three. The show manager’s letter said they had to hire a fourth judge due to high interest.

One of the classes at my level (Third) has 17 rides and I think 13 of those are AAs. I don’t ever remember there being that many AAs at Third Level at an AZ show but I have only been showing since 2013. There are more rides at the shows I go to in Southern CA, too, than there were a few years ago. And I am seeing many types and breeds participating which is among the things many people complain no longer happens.

And I personally don’t think trends in riding styles or training have any affect at all on the interest of people who are actually showing. They do have a huge affect on Internet enthusiasts and hopefuls, for sure.

The economy and people’s faith in it, as well as the organizational skills of show management, have the biggest impact on the numbers in any given area. IMO. Followed closely by the access to good help from trainers who know what they are doing, and who encourage showing.

The Fall ADA show was a flop…very small turnout. So yes it definitely goes up and down. With Regionals in our backyard this year the numbers are likely going to be up in the mad dash to get qualifying scores. I don’t think dressage is declining per se in this area…it’s a natural ebb and flow of people aging out with their horses, or acquiring youngsters not ready to show. In Scottsdale/Phoenix we have of course a large population of retirees and snowbirds. Long term viability in AZ will require injecting some new young blood into the sport. I think reining is doing a better job of attracting younger competitors in this area. The reiners have access to some of the best full service facilities in the area as well. My biggest concern is long term availability of quality boarding. There are only a handful of full amenity dressage only boarding facilities available in Scottsdale. Some are happy to work and train out of someone’s backyard, but living here year round I just can’t do without a covered arena.

[SnicklefritzG]

It would be interesting to know more details about the clinician’s thoughts, specifically what level of involvement he was referring to.

There are plenty of people I know who make far less than $200-300k who are training and competing successfully on horses that didn’t cost a fortune. Are those people going to Wellington in the winter and winning at the big shows? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean the sport has become “too expensive” or “too difficult”.

People of modest means haven’t been cut out. They can and still do participate but not necessarily on the biggest circuits or in places like Wellington in the winter. I could see the clinician being right about competing successfully on the national level or in Wellington, etc. but I don’t think his comment applies to dressage at every level.

What he is saying applies more to the upper levels of the sport and the biggest shows or international circuit. On a related note, Schuyler Riley joked in an article that years ago when she first started you needed to be a millionaire to have a nice stable of horses, but now you need to be a billionaire. That doesn’t mean though that the rest of us can’t have fun on a budget.

@Cowgirl

A few years ago, a prominent international clinician (now based in the US) told me that, within the next decade, dressage will become too expensive and difficult for the average professional (doctor/lawyer making a nice income–$200-$300k) to afford. So that means that all those of modest means have already been cut out. At the time, I didn’t believe him, but what I am currently experiencing makes me think this is true. He was seeing this happening across the country where he clinics.

[SuzieQNutter]

@tinah

Until dressage swings back to soft and willing partnership, it’s going to lose ground. It’ll go the way of Big Lick unless the way the horses are handled changes. You can blame it on money, but the truth is probably closer to no one wants crank and spank in their backyard. Endless drilling in an arena is boring for everybody involved.

I think the opposite is true.

1/ With Charlotte and Carl at the top out id’s the willing partners that are winning.

2/ Dressage is designed to keep both the rider and the horse from getting bored. As such I am quite happy in my own sand box and having lessons. There is no thought to wasting money on showing.

[LarkspurCO]

@SnicklefritzG

It would be interesting to know more details about the clinician’s thoughts, specifically what level of involvement he was referring to.

There are plenty of people I know who make far less than $200-300k who are training and competing successfully on horses that didn’t cost a fortune. Are those people going to Wellington in the winter and winning at the big shows? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean the sport has become “too expensive” or “too difficult”.

People of modest means haven’t been cut out. They can and still do participate but not necessarily on the biggest circuits or in places like Wellington in the winter. I could see the clinician being right about competing successfully on the national level or in Wellington, etc. but I don’t think his comment applies to dressage at every level.

What he is saying applies more to the upper levels of the sport and the biggest shows or international circuit. On a related note, Schuyler Riley joked in an article that years ago when she first started you needed to be a millionaire to have a nice stable of horses, but now you need to be a billionaire. That doesn’t mean though that the rest of us can’t have fun on a budget.

I don’t know where you are, but here in Colorado people of modest means certainly have been and are being cut out. Decent board and training (if you can find it), shoeing, vet care, showing, etc., will run you $30K a year. That’s not a hobby for someone on a modest income, at least not in my world view.