But, so far, it’s a message that not all riders and trainers are heeding or accepting.

Unveiled as a method for spotting future dressage stars early, the Federation Equestre Internationale’s tests for 5- and 6-year-old horses, and now the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s dressage test for 4-year-old horses, have drawn considerable criticism from some unlikely corners.

At last December’s U.S. Dressage Federation symposium in Los Angeles, U.S. team coach Klaus Balk-enhol expressed concern about the tests in front of an audience of hundreds. One important message he sought to convey during the event was that correct, classical dressage training takes years. And while the young horse tests are great for some horses, they aren’t great for all horses.

“The problem with young horse tests in competition is they encourage some people to push horses when they are not ready,” Balkenhol said. “Some horses develop early, but many others do not.”

Scott Hassler, the USEF’s new national young horse dressage coach, agrees with Balk-enhol. But the problem, in his view, is that riders, and even many trainers, don’t understand that.

“There’s a major need for education so that trainers can come to understand which horses fit these tests and which do not,” Hassler said. “There’s this perception in the U.S. that warmbloods take a long time to grow up and shouldn’t be put in work until they’re 4 or 5. This is why people have gone to Europe to find the 3-year-olds with potential. Some horses are ready at that age, but not all.”

Also of concern to Balkenhol, and others, is the way the young horse tests are judgeed–often rewarding a frame not correct for such young horses.

“The rider will always show what the judges are rewarding. So judges impact very much how we train,” Balkenhol said.

The Problem Is The Presentation
It’s a view expressed by Henk van Bergen, the former Dutch national trainer who guided his team to a silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“I’ve spoken to Klaus about this. I know his opinions, and I agree with him, but there are a few other trainers who have the same opinion,” van Bergen said. “What they ask for in the tests is not the problem. The problem is the way the riders represent the horses in terms of the collection and the position.

“That big, upright position is not what we like to see as the trainers. It’s just wrong for that age,” continued van Bergen. “But as long as judges give high marks for that performance, people won’t listen to us. Where the judges give the marks, that’s where the riders go.”

Balkenhol and van Bergen worry that what people see winning in competition is, naturally, what they’ll practice at home.

“The judges want too much collection, and people see it and think, ‘That’s the way I have to practice on my young horses,’ and then they ruin the horse. Maybe the top, top talented young horses can do that for a short while with a good rider, but good riders are clever enough to stop it immediately when they go home,” van Bergen said.

Hassler doesn’t necessarily agree with van Bergen’s assessment. He notes that at a recent young horse qualifying competition, the judges actually made it clear that they don’t want to see high necks. He said they wanted to see loose, relaxed necks.

“What judges want is to see a supple horse with great self-carriage, with an overall picture of softness and harmony,” Hassler said. “They don’t want to see a 6 trot overworked into an 8 trot. They’re looking for the natural 8 trot.”

Axel Steiner, the FEI O-rated judge who’ll be judging the National Young Horse Finals later this year, agrees with Balkenhol and van Bergen that judges have a responsibility. But, he said, so too do trainers and riders.

Steiner echoed Hassler’s argument that these tests are not for every horse and that it’s the riders and trainers who need to understand this.

“What I’m more concerned about is that everybody thinks, ‘Well, I have a 4-year-old so he needs to go in the 4-year-old test,’ or that they have the same rationale for a 5- or 6-year-old,” said Steiner.

“These classes are designed for the exceptional athlete,” he emphasized. “It’s the same thing as when your child goes to school and then goes into the gifted program. Not everybody is gifted. Not every horse has that potential to become one of our superstars.”

Still, Steiner does place some responsibility on the judges, particularly at the level of qualifying shows.

“These judges should not try to placate everybody and say, ‘Well, let’s just qualify the horses for the finals and let the finals judges deal with it,'” he said.

A Special Test
The FEI tests for 5- and 6-year-old horses have been around since 1998, but the USEF 4-year-old test was created only last year. Hassler said that both are showing their value. Horses that were big winners in the 5- and 6-year-old tests a few years ago are now showing successfully at FEI.

That’s why Steiner and Hassler each believe that these tests are helping to find and showcase those U.S. young horses with the ability to go all the way to international competition.

“I agree with Klaus, certainly, that we have to be very judicious in the way we approach this,” said Steiner. “And one way we’ve done that, from a USEF standpoint, is that we did not particularly care for the FEI 4-year-old test. So we took a test that we thought was more conducive to a 4-year-old test–our first level, test 1–and turned it around. It’s a nice test that any well-trained horse for the age can handle.

“We do recognize that we can’t ask too much of our young horses because they’re still growing,” he added.

What the FEI 4-year-old test had that bothered Steiner and others were some medium gaits and leg yields that they considered a bit early to ask a 4-year-old horse.

What makes the young horse tests different from regular dressage tests is that the focus is on the potential of the horse, rather than on its performance at that moment. The key question for judges in the young horse tests is, does the horse have the potential to be an FEI-level horse?

“In a regular dressage class, we have to give scores for every movement, and the rider is very much involved. Sometimes the horse shows all the potential, but if the rider does something wrong or something happens, unfortunately we have to put in a poor score,” Steiner said. “But in our young horse classes we can strictly concentrate on the quality of the gaits. It doesn’t matter if the horse wiggled a bit here or had a tiny shy there.”

Part Of The Bigger Picture
In a sense, the debate over the young horse tests is really part of the larger one over the judging of dressage competitions in general. As Shelly Francis, an international competitor who has successfully shown young horses in these tests, put it, “I can see how these tests could cause some people to push. It’s a legitimate concern. But that’s a danger with anything. If it’s not the young horse tests that cause someone to push a horse, then it’ll be a desire to ride the Prix St. Georges or something else.”

Van Bergen said that the problems he sees can be found in many levels of tests, but he sees the young horse tests as exacerbating the problem.

“As trainers and teachers, we see that if our students want to win, they have to do things a certain way. For the professionals, especially the young ones, it’s difficult. If you show and have good results, money comes in and clients come in,” he said.

“But it’s not just the young horse tests that are the problem. It’s the way the whole sport is going,” added van Bergen. “You see what’s going on with the training system today. They don’t mind if the horse comes in with legs all over the place–nobody is asking how they’re trained. If they do the performance well, they get the high marks.”

Still, Van Bergen places faith in the older trainers who have learned from their mistakes.

“When you are younger, you want to build up your business and your career. But older trainers have had the experience of ruining talented young horses by the time they are 8 or 9. And so, as you age, you want to protect your sport and the horses. People need to listen to the opinions of these older trainers,” he said.

Hassler thinks that the debate is typica of any new program. But van Bergen believes what has emerged is more of a battle between two views than a scholarly discussion.

“You can talk about this for hours, but it’s most important that people understand how important it is to protect the young horses,” he said.

Whether or not they realize it, both sides have found common ground–they agree the young horse tests aren’t for all riders and all horses. And they agree that this message must be conveyed.

The disagreement seems to be whether or not people can and will get the message.

Hassler is optimistic that, in time, riders and trainers will get a sense of which horses ought to show in these classes and which ought not. Van Bergen and Balkenhol seem more concerned that less experienced riders–and Balkenhol places many adult amateurs in that category–will either not get the message or will not heed it.

Said Steiner, “It’s like anything else. This is all new and we all still have to learn, but I think we’re on the right track on this one.”

They’re Good For Breeders
If there is any agreement in this debate over the young horse tests and championships, it’s that they’re here to stay.

“It won’t help to take the tests away, because the classes are a part of our sport and they do stimulate the breeders to produce the best horses,” said Dutch trainer Henk van Bergen.

And, indeed, the point of them is all about supporting the breeding and development of dressage horses.

“The positive of the tests is that they give our breeders the opportunity to showcase high-quality young horses that are born in this country. In order for our breeders to get more recognition and get stronger and better horses, they need to have a window to show their horses. And the young horse tests are beginning to become that window,” said O-rated judge Axel Steiner, of California.

He sees the young horse programs as a way to put a spotlight on potential dressage stars in a way that forces the trainers who have them to take special care of these horses because the world is watching.

“We’re trying to find our future superstars early so that they can, hopefully, get the right training so that we can move the horses through the levels and not lose them early in the game. Sometimes that happens when you have a good horse that’s not so well ridden,” Steiner said.