IDOC (International Dressage Officials Club) organised a dressage seminar / FEI refresher at Hartpury, England in July this year. As a FEI judge, we are required to do a seminar every 3 years. This seminar was conducted by 2 very experienced and knowledgeable FEI 5* judges, Isobel Wessels (UK) and Susie Hoevenaars (AUS).

The International Dressage Officials Club (IDOC) has been in existence for twenty years, and it is a “FEI Associate Member,” representing the judges as a stakeholder group. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the education of judges and candidate judges, organization of meetings and seminars for judges and the dissemination of information, amongst other goals.

In 2017, IDOC organised the dressage seminar at Aachen. This year, it was held at the Dressage Festival at Hartpury. Hartpury College is a very famous equestrian college, so it was fitting that the competition and seminar was held on their grounds.

A group of about 20 of us, from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Czech Republic, Singapore, Japan, China and Philipines flew into the UK to attend this seminar.

Kicking things off with a theory session, we talked about good dressage judging and discussed issues and matters that might crop up in competition. In the later theory sessions, we also discussed different movements and marks, PR matters amongst other things.

For our practical work, we had an amazing array of horse and rider combinations to work with. Starting with the Grand Prix class, we had to watch each test, then discuss. There were also times where each of us had to take the microphone and mark the whole test as it was happening whilst talking out loud to the whole group. Nervewracking is one way to describe this! There were also other classes we watched ; Inter 1, Grand Prix Freestyle (where Charlotte Dujardin debuted her new Freestyle music and won the class), Grand Prix Special, Inter 1 Freestyle, amongst others.

Carl Hester winning the Grand Prix Special with Hawkins Delicato

Throughout it all, Susie and Isobel guided, corrected and prodded us in the right direction. Their patience and effort was truly appreciated by the whole group.

The highlight of the tour was a visit to Carl Hester’s yard on the Monday after the Dressage Festival. Carl talked to us about their methods of training and the importance of having happy horses. We also watched Charlotte ride an amazing young horse, and the fantastic semi retired Valegro! Talk about cool!!!! If I was a kid, I would have been bouncing up and down on the spot!!

They were so relaxed with their horses and their work. There was a happy pack of dogs running about that had to be occasionally told to get off the arena! The horses stood and lapped up the attention. I was definitely star struck and I don’t think I was the only one that felt this way.

Carl and Uthopia

Meeting Charlotte and Valegro up close!

It was a great seminar. One never stops learning and it was so beneficial to be able to discuss with more senior judges, as well as meeting new friends and catching up with old ones.

After the seminar, I hopped over to Prague for a few days. We went to visit the famous Pardubice racetrack that has the famous steeplechase race every year. The photos below show you how big the hedges are!