Guest Speaker: Col. AXEL STEINER O Level Dressage Judge
Col. Steiner was born in Germany and followed the classic German system of riding instruction, studying at the famous Reitinstitut von Neindorff. What a wonderful beginning for a dressage judge!
A retired Colonel in the US Air Force, he has been an International level judge for 36 years (WOW and he looks so young!!) and an Official level judge for the last 16 years.
Col. Steiner has been in Australia before, officiating at a previous National Championships in Victoria, immediately following the Asia Pacific Games and of course, the fabulous dressage at our own Sydney Olympics in the year 2000. Whatever else you do in your lives, don't EVER make an error of course when Axel Steiner is the judge at C!!
Well what can I say!! What a guy!! After the initial (and it always happens) problems with the mike, the seating, the wet chairs (don't ask) and general introductions, Axel began to speak. He told us of the American system of judge education (most impressive) and of his role in its formation. He answered questions (which I think he likes to do!!) from everywhere - most of them regarding the American system. Do we perhaps need to adopt the US system?
Then came the serious part - the horses. First of all, some very good young horses presented. Four horses from 4 years to 8 years and interestingly 2 of them were by Weltmeyer, one by Jazz and I can't tell you who the 4th horse was by (apologies to Sharon!!).
These young horses showed us some excellent work and Axel made it clear just how a Young Dressage Horse should be judged. The baby 4 year old (Sharon's horse) really was a baby, but showed some terrific lengthening of stride and obviously has it all .. his manners were impeccable. But Axel was smitten by the 6 year old Weltmeyer gelding, Neversfelde Whistler and so was I. Rebecca had the horse going so well - she has got him up in front and properly into the bridle which is great to see from this new combination.
Then on to some Prix st. Georges/Intermediare I horses and we had an imported warmblood stallion (Cairo 869), a locally bred warmblood gelding (Northern Regency) and a thoroughbred gelding. I hate to say this because I love the Thoroughbred horse, and this Thoroughbred was a very very nice example of the breed, but the 2 purpose-bred warmbloods blew him away. My opinion only though.
So the tricky business of judging walk and canter pirouettes. Excellent and lasting advice from the wonderful Axel Steiner as there were conflicting marks being offered by the experienced judges present. I do believe that the pirouette is easier to ride than it is to judge - and that's saying something because it's one of the hardest movements to ride correctly!!
Axel also had these horses show 2 trot diagonals - one at medium trot and the next at extended trot. That was interesting. I loved the stallion Cairo 869. He did a very enthusiastic medium trot (well ridden) but then became a little over-enthusiastic in his extended trot and broke into canter, was brought back by his rider and boy then did he show some extension!!! Unfortunately the damage had already been done so none of the judges present gave him a good mark. But it wasn't the real thing so there were smiles all round.
It's a shame that there weren't more of the originally listed horses present. But I guess things can go wrong. None of the top Grand Prix riders who were present at the championships that weekend made themselves available for the judges' clinic on the Monday. I suppose there are 2 ways of looking at this ... they don't want a bunch of learner judges pulling them apart (and not everybody present at this clinic was a learner judge - not by a long shot) - or they don't want to help the sport. I have no idea why they weren't there so really can't comment at all.
So Orchids to Pauline and Tracey on their two lovely Grand prix horses who bit the bullet, gritted their teeth, held their breath ... whatever they did .. they were wonderful. Axel said he hadn't seen such good passage/piaffe/passage transitions in particular that these horses showed, during the whole of the previous days' competition.
Axel isn't just a judge - he's also a teacher. He didn't have to stand behind the horses with a whip - which we see so often with these "expert" instructors who come to help us with our piaffe. He just told the riders what to do. 8's for passage!!! 8's for piaffe and 9's for the transitions!! Proof that we have the goods and I'm not so sure that we don't have one of our very best instructors tucked away in a little corner of our state helping young riders get the very best out of some not so flash horses and also not such a slouch on the Grand Prix scene.
Have to admit that I'm not so rapt in the idea of a half hour lunch break, with 100 odd people all lined up at the single little food van .. Sue doing a fantastic job but with so many people ordering cappucinos and special type food stuff (which Sue does superbly by the way) and it taking absolutely aaages to get anything to eat ... sorry EFA but axes on that account. Please try and do better next time!! The afternoon session started half an hour late.
Videos!!! Fantastic video of Jo Hinneman with (mainly) 2 pupils showing the basic training of the young horse. I don't know who his pupils were but one looked like Martina Hannover and the other like Coby van Baalen. Could be wrong .. but they were just such beautiful, elegant, supremely soft and "with it" riders!! Of course the horses were out of this world, but that goes without saying. The young horses work in the manege, across country, over cavaletti and on a little track. As I said to a friend .. imagine having Jo Hinnemann shifting your cavaletti for you!!! sigh ...
But I digress. Interesting footage showing the correct way of "allowing the horse to chew the reins through the rider's hands" as it was described and this now has to be shown in the novice tests in Australia .... In other words the "stretchy trot circle". No excuse now for bad judging of that movement.
Then the fun part - some fantastic footage of the young horse championships in Europe .. mouth-watering horses including Don Davidoff and Poetin. Then more of Poetin later as a 6 year old. She is so nice. She isn't just an oustanding moving horse with rideability and trainability - she also looks like an absolute honey of a horse.
And then the PSI auction horses ... and boy can those kids ride!! Presentation and marketing is everything!! Some of those horses were very ordinary but I think the lowest price was around the $UD200,000 mark. Going on memory here and my memory's been a bit stretched recently so could well be wrong. Certainly 6 figures though.
Thanks for coming Axel. I learnt heaps and I'm sure most others of us did too. Thanks for being so easy to get along with, thanks for not putting anybody down when they held up the "wrong" score ... thanks for being honest and for treating us like adults.
