last updated on November 04, 2006 00:00

Bland it was not and the general consensus was that the sixth annual Global Dressage Forum, held in Holland, 30-31 October 2006, was the best yet.

Britain’s leading dressage rider and trainer Richard Davison acted as moderator and took a different approach to previous years to provoke interesting debate, which resulted in heated discussion at times.

Richard said: “In the past, I have focused on the positive and identifying what people agree on. This time, I was encouraging everyone to tell me what they didn’t like.”

Some 350 delegates attended the forum, which was set up in 2001 to provide a meeting place for the world’s top trainers, riders, judges and officials to debate the sport.

The forum kicked off with a demo by one of the most highly-respected riders in the world, Germany’s Hubertus Schmidt, who has trained more than 30 horses up to grand prix using the sound traditional German training system.

Richard said: “Lecture/demos are usually addressed to the audience, but this one was different. Hubertus spoke with a soft voice so as not to disturb his horse’s concentration. His running commentary gave us an insight into every step he was feeling in an intimate way. It was as though we were spying on him and his horse training.”

Dutch sports psychologist Dr Rico Schuijers was nominated by last year’s audience to come back again this year. He demonstrated various concentration techniques and showed how to use your breathing to relax. With the help of an Olympic archer, Rico also showed how to use a diversion technique to control your heart rate.

“Archery, like dressage, is a concentration sport. An archer has to fire his arrow in between heartbeats. The archer was wired up to heart and stress monitors and Rico wound him up to increase his heart rate and then asked him to recite the 13 times table. This had the effect of slowing down his heart rate as he had to concentrate hard on adding up, which made him forget what he was wound up about,” explained Richard.

The legendary American horse whisperer Monty Roberts spoke for the first time at the forum, demonstrating his horse body language, Equus. He transformed a nappy mare in 30mins and managed to load her into a trailer.

Richard instigated debate about how Monty’s methods related to dressage training as it was developed as a gentle alternative to the traditional way cowboys used to break-in horses. Some riders were keen to experiment while others, including the world’s top rider Anky van Grunsven, were more reserved.

Australian zoologist Andrew McLean explained the science behind how the horse learns and the differences between the human and equine brain.

According to Andrew, the part of the brain used for reasoning doesn’t exist in horses, which is why humanising them doesn’t work. He stressed the importance of ground rules and dealt with a rambunctious colt by asking him to take a step back to gain control.

FEI Dressage Committee chairman Mariette Withages reviewed the judging of the 2006 World Games. The grand prix special tests of Mexico’s Bernadette Pujals, Denmark’s Andreas Helgstrand and Germany’s Isabell Werth were analysed, which raised many points of discussion, with the audience not always agreeing with the judges, despite explanations from the relevant judges.

Anky van Grunsven and her husband and trainer Sjeff Janssen demonstrated their controversial training techniques, which have been much criticised in the German press in the past few years. The German journalists admitted they did not disagree with any of the methods they had just been shown, but heated discussions ensued.

Click www.globaldressageforum.com for more info.