I CAME HERE TO SAY THIS!
Yeah, 60% at First Level shouldn’t be that hard. But you get to fourth, or PSG, and…wow. For someone on an average horse who can do most of the things, but maybe struggles in the pirouettes, well then that same 60% is amazing success.
I think this comes down to the purpose of the USDF medal program or any program as JS states up front.
As an AA who didn’t even own a horse until I was nearly 30, spent 15 years or so doing AQHA all around so came to dressage late, oh and worked full time (with frequent travel) for 40 years, I would have been completely locked out of the proposed scheme. But then, I’m not a “trainer.” I did however help make it possible for trainers to earn a living by having horses in full training. Rarely had trainers show my horses though.
I’m fine with the medals being rider awards and another designation for training excellence. I will say that there is a local trainer nearby with all their medals who has lower median scores than I do at every level except training. It’s a mystery to me why so many nice ladies with real money stay with this one, but hey, to each their own.
I’ve accepted that I’ll never get a gold medal (I have my bronze and silver) and I’m OK with it. I’m in my 60s and not interested in spending the $$ to buy a made GP horse at this point in my life and sure as hell can’t train one myself in my remaining lifetime. My plan is to keep my silver medal horse sound and do a century ride when we’re eligible. In the meantime, we just keep on our own journey.
What I love about the medal program is that it is separate from show placings and you truly are only competing against yourself. Yeah, I know people complain that fancy horses early in the show push scores down for others but I’m still not buying that.
Honestly, I thought it sounded like a cool idea. Not to replace the current/premier system, but in addition to it. Would most people be able to achieve it? Probably not. Trainers will find themselves selling horses, working ammies find it challenging to bring along their own, it’s just the way of the world.
But for those who DO bring along their own, speaking from experience, I can say we generally have to be satisfied with knowing that we bought the full package to the game because other than the personal sense of accomplishment that journey brings you, there’s not a lot in the way of external recognition. And really, that IS the reason most of us do it, but I’m not gonna lie, USDF recognizing it would be a nice little perk. Of course if such a thing did ever happen, I have no doubt that some people would game the system, but I’ve long ago learned you can’t let other people’s actions steal your joy.
I thought it was an interesting idea, but I have to say the 4 yr old registration thing just reeks of a sort of snobbishness that doesn’t do the sport any favors.
When my horse was 4, he was just being started in a fox hunting program. He flunked out of that for excess sass 
(still a defining characteristic), was started as an event horse, and sold to me as an ammie in a good eventing program. Fast forward several years and for various reasons we decide to start showing dressage, something I had never done and did not contemplate when I bought this horse. No one had ever registered him with USDF and as a low level eventer he didn’t need USEF registration.
I now have my bronze and will be showing 4th this summer. This horse is the epitome of an off breed, there was no breeder to register him and it didn’t occur to anyone he SHOULD be a dressage horse until fairly late in the game.
If your entire world of suitable dressage horses begins and ends with purpose-bred horses aimed for this career from birth, then by all means make folks register them at 4. But that closes the door on so many other ways to engage with this sport. It’s a shame to see it still so embedded…
It’s not just the 4-yr-old-registration-requirement that comes off as snobby. It’s the whole premise:
I winced the whole way through. And then rested on my laurels and polished my medals on the shelf.
I’m not sure I agree with the article in totality. I do think it would be cool at each “medal” for there to be a separate award if you made the horse yourself. Maybe you get a trophy or a medal or a special ribbon in the mail.
Also, the word “piloting.”
What a snob!
The dressage world in general excludes many by the fact that lessons are private and cost more, and few trainers have school horses. Please don’t also shut out riders who work full time and have others half lease or train their horse.
A few years ago mass ridicule and scorn rained down from the entire interwebs because a video surfaced of a poorly skilled rider on an upper level horse clunking her way to a low 50’s score. Don’t tell me that’s your typical ammy “piloting” an upper level horse. It takes skill, core strength, and incredible physical control to “pilot” even the middle levels of dressage.
If you want to make them more meaningful, have medals be for ammies only. Then trainers can boast how many horse/rider combos they’ve brought to medal status.
Agree with all, but to add to the above: the clientele of Steinberg’s “boutique-type training program” are, generally, amateurs. And are generally the types of amateurs that benefit from a) buying nice horses, usually trained by someone other than themselves, and/or b) employing trainers to keep their horses in some amount of show-readiness state.
For his business’ sake, he’d better hope they’re also the type of amateurs that read something like this and assume it’s talking about a totally different group than the one they’re in.
I’ve always thought the old centerline scores star ranking was a good way to measure professionals. Too bad USDF will never use it.
Maybe not snobbishness but a lack of awareness of how things work in the world where it’s not your day job… But that’s easy enough to fix. You declare the horse when you decide to start. I suppose you would have to disclose any prior show record, like EU imports who may have a record in their national federation.
Without careful forethought the process could be fraught with loopholes not unlike all those 1.3m horses showing up in the hunters as green horses, but hey it’s an idea that deserves attention, if not precisely for the author’s intended purpose.
In other words, is the idea worth consideration in spite of the messaging?
At this point in time, the only thing that the Awards committee is proposing is that there be new “Medals of Distinction” that require 64% scores.
The current gold-silver-bronze system and its 60% requirement would remain in place.
The rest is what Mr. Steinberg would like to see happen, if it were up to him.
If the requirement was that the horse must be USDF registered as 4 yr old, that precludes a whole bunch of horses that are imported at 5 or 6…
The whole concept presumes that all people who want to compete and maybe get their medals are knowledgeable enough, fit enough and have enough time to make this happen. The reality is most amateurs dont meet all three criteria. And many people, trainers or others talk about the benefits of having a schoolmaster or similar horse to learn from. This is direct contradiction with the above.
I guess I dont disagree with the idea of rewarding people who train their horses from barely broke to GP. But I think in the real world this is a very small part of the membership base USDF should be catering to.
Personal reality is that I’m two GP scores away from my gold medal, 68 yrs old,still quite fit but with significant back issues and a 20 yr old horse who told me a year or so ago that while he is happy to piaffe and passage, he cannot possibly do more than 4 1-tempes without frying his brain. So there is no young horse project in my future, and no gold medal unless someone drops a safe, smaller, trained GP horse in my lap for a year
His comment that there would be two medal systems-professional and amateur-completely disregards the fact that there are amateurs who train their own horses.
His whole concept is rather rude and disrespectful to many of us out here who ride as amateurs on unspectacular “off breed” horses with the help of professionals-but we still work damn hard.
To be fair, people weren’t upset at the poorly ridden test in that video. They were upset at the blatant abuse of the horse - constant whipping and spurring.
Jeremy is entitled to his opinion. To me (not saying this is Jeremy, just my opinion) it sounds like some serious sour grapes. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: dressage as art and dressage as sport are not the same thing. Never the twain shall meet. If JS wants to propose some type of system to award proper training, I think that’s a fantastic goal. But leave the medals out of it. Frankly, if you want to know who can train a horse vs. pilot one around a test, look who does well in the international arena. Otherwise, what is the purpose of tests and scores at all? Why bother to show your horse if you don’t have any goals other than to test your training - which is what we all SAY is the reason we compete. (Generic “we” here - I don’t know if it applies to all, of course.) I think what USDF did by adding the “Distinction” category makes a lot of sense. But pulling the rug out from under amateurs because of some random score is stupid. There I said it. Expecting most people to ride the same horse all the way up is patently ridiculous. I’ve trained horses from unstarted toTL and through GP. Never once was it the SAME horse. I’m certain there are tons of other professionals out there who can say the same. I took several horses from TL through 4th, but they die, get sold, my life gets in the way, etc. It’s unreasonable to make competition goals into horsemanship goals. Do I mourn the loss of the true horsemen of old? Yes I do. I just don’t think changing the medal program is going to bring back good training. Flame suit tightly zipped.
You’re right, and further proof that it’s the skill of the rider that makes a successful ride, regardless of how trained the horse is. I think video surfaced of that poor horse being ridden well by a different “pilot.”
This is important to remember. They serve similar, but ultimately divergent goals. And that is okay. You can pick your path.
So he is trying to make a big point about trainers being capable of training a horse through the levels–as opposed to just “riding” the test at that level. But, as others have said, the medals program is not just for pros—it’s a really nice goal for amateurs too.
And, ammie or pro—both have to be damn good riders (ahem, pilots) to get a silver or gold (even with the “low bar” scores that are required). Even on a made horse. Already pointed out—horses are fragile and all the best intentions, care and training, can end up with a silly pasture injury, or a million other hiccups that occur with horse/owner/rider lives.
My example—I have a horse that I bought at age 3 to event. She is hot and spicy, has a lovely jump, but isn’t the fanciest thing on the planet. Really fun xc horse. When I started to be more serious about dressage—I bought a nice, young WB because I wanted to bring her along to be a dressage horse. And here we are—several years and many vet bills later. Young WB (that passed a PPE with flying colors) had several health issues develop that are not able to be resolved. She is retired (at age 9).
My event horse has now earned me my scores at 1st and 2nd level towards my bronze. And we are doing respectable 3rd level work—we added changes over the winter. Trainer says we are ready. I hope to get my bronze medal. But it’s not on the horse I thought would earn it for me. I did train and show her myself from age 3—so I guess we also will meet Jeremy’s criteria to actually deserve a medal. However, since I started her as an event horse—I didn’t register her with USDF at age 4. So, based on his proposed program, no award of “specialness” for us!
Does anyone find it completely hypocritical for him to criticize/propose a rework of the medal program when he hasn’t earned any medals himself?
This drove me crazy. I’m new to dressage, but I’ve been riding for twenty years (hunters and eq as a kid, then the jumpers as an adult). In the interests of learning as much as I could as quickly as possible (and not making a horse suffer through my learning along with it), I bought a beloved schoolmaster from a dear friend. I am learning more with him than I have ever learned in my riding life — it has been an insanely productive season. He is delightful. He also takes a lot more than “piloting” to look his best, and to work honestly through. I came from a world where there’s a lot of “piloting” of made horses going on, of trainers who work the horse all week and the kid gets on and does 8 jumps on the weekend. I know what that feels like. This ain’t it.
It mentioned in the article that he doesn’t have all his medals - so I got curious…how do you look up his scores?
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