Opinion piece about current state of dressage and what some want to see changed

[strangewings]

Here is a video of the 76 Olympics. Both riders scored just shy of 75% so had to get a few scores above 7…

Stuckelberger and Harry Boldt '76 Olympics

(Also includes a missed change…)

My memories of the 90’s are that the average pair lacked the precision shown here, and may or may not have been fancier movers. Straight is straight. Rhythm is perfect. Halts are immobile. Everything looks balanced and easy.

My impression of what has happened since about 2000 is that we have allowed brilliance to outweigh precision in scoring. The top scoring pairs should show both, but I would rather have those scoring mid-70s have less flash and more precision than more flash and less precision.

[strangewings]

Thank you, very glad to hear that and will definitely keep an eye out for more info about him (went to the fb and his horses are gorgeous)

[gailbyrd]

@strangewings

Here is a video of the 76 Olympics. Both riders scored just shy of 75% so had to get a few scores above 7…

And from the little they showed of the rides, they would be scoring in the 70’s today.

[Pehsness]

What struck me about both rides was how up and open the front ends were.

[Dr_Doolittle]

I’m left to wonder whether in this day and age, trainers and judges would want the horse to “be rounder”

[gailbyrd]

For the pirouettes and the piaffe, there needs to be more “sit” (and why they may have been only scored at 75%, with not seeing the entire test, can’t say that more “sit” wasn’t apparent in some of the other sections of the test). So yes, round from back to front. But not what I see many saying is “round” (head and neck only). The passage could also have a bit more “lift” and suspension. Again, could be why they “only” scored 75%.

[Lunabear1988]

I think we know that to be true!

Although, I was pleasantly surprised from the clips I saw coming from the regional championships. Mostly the top rides. I thought people were riding more up and open than in the past and getting rewarded for it. I won’t say it was necessarily to the same level of the videos posted from 1976 but definitely not as curled up as years past.

[Dr_Doolittle]

This is heartening!

[Aussie_2020]

Why does the announcer say “pee off a” instead of “pee off”?

Love that horse Granat (sp?). The rider seemed to have a wobble head.

[lorilu]

No.

[lorilu]

Re color and greying and Palomino….
I think we need to remember that equine coat color is very complicated with many genes controlling the eventual outcome. Often more than one gene control what we consider a “color”. Sometimes one gene “overtakes” another (such as the grey gene(s) ). . I owned a bay with a dorsal stripe…. Not a buckskin. Only had the one gene required not both.
Etc etc.

[lorilu]

@pluvinel

We are already there. I attended 2 L-judges training and was 2nd level demo rider at one. All I heard was “brilliance” of the gaits…

Perhaps because brilliance is what separates one well ridden circle from another well ridden circle.
L candidates only consider up to 2 nd level in their training.

[lorilu]

@atlatl

Depending on where a halt occurs in a test, there may be other elements to that movement’s score which if executed really well could result in a higher score than expected.

I think this is often forgotten. The entire movement (box) is scored……

[pluvinel]

@lorilu

Perhaps because brilliance is what separates one well ridden circle from another well ridden circle.
L candidates only consider up to 2 nd level in their training.

The word “brilliance” was only applied to the gaits…typically the trot…not the perfect circle vs a potato…

[jvanrens]

@lorilu

Re color and greying and Palomino….
I think we need to remember that equine coat color is very complicated with many genes controlling the eventual outcome. Often more than one gene control what we consider a “color”. Sometimes one gene “overtakes” another (such as the grey gene(s) ). . I owned a bay with a dorsal stripe…. Not a buckskin. Only had the one gene required not both.
Etc etc.

Grey is actually a pigment disease, not a gene. Buckskins don’t have a dorsal strip unless they also have Dun or nd1. nd1 can cause the dorsal strip and possibly light primitive markings on any colour but doesn’t cause dilution like Dun will.

If I had the energy to search right now I could show you multiple examples of Palominos going grey but I’m just taking a quick break from work.

Hyper-pigmentation darkens them in amazing ways at varying speeds, which may be because of other genes, but they are going to go dark before greying out, but often you can’t tell what colour the foal was born because of the hyper-pigmentation and the greying by the time they are a yearling or two year old. My mare’s dam looked like she could have been born black by summer of her yearling year, when she was definitely born red, she was so dark with grey splotches.

[endlessclimb]

It was my understanding that bays can’t have dorsal stripes, only heavy counter shading. Is that still correct?

[jvanrens]

Bays can have dorsal strips, they are caused by nd1 (non-dun 1 is dorsal strips and possibly primitive markings but no dilution nd2 is no dorsal strip or primitives). Any colour can have dorsal strips caused by nd1.

In equine genetic terms countershading is caused by Pangaré.

[endlessclimb]

Wasn’t there a poster here whose had a chestnut stallion and a chestnut mare, and the foal came out [not chestnut, but a bay or black] and she kept insisting that “God works in mysterious ways”?

[Dr_Doolittle]

As in “a bay stallion broke out and bred the mare by accident but the breeder won’t admit it”?

Quite the “act of God”

[jvanrens]

@endlessclimb

Wasn’t there a poster here whose had a chestnut stallion and a chestnut mare, and the foal came out [not chestnut, but a bay or black] and she kept insisting that “God works in mysterious ways”?

Yeah, that’s impossible, two reds can’t make a bay, but two bays can make a red, but if I recall that was a screw up on the semen? I don’t think she ever found out who the sire was if it’s the case you’re referring to. The foal was referred to as Chestnot.