The judges seminar held at the Assagay Hotel on Saturday 2 March, was certainly a roaring success. KZN has a lot to roar about! The new energy is evident in what we can loosely term a “Dressage Renaissance!” The 2013 Committee is taking the sport to new levels of expectations from all involved.
With over 30 Judges and Learner Judges attending a seminar which was chaired by both Anita Adendorff and Sue Horne, the atmosphere was jovial and enthusiastic and everyone was encouraged to participate. We have 12 knowledgeable riders and trainers wanting to become Dressage Judges, and having seen first hand the level of their participation and input, we feel confident that they will all be of great value to Dressage in the coming years.
The value of these seminars is under estimated by both riders and trainers. Although this seminar was from a Judges aspect, if more riders and trainers attended these sessions, the divide between what we all see and think would become less. Our new young learner panel candidates were soon very aware of the difficulties of committing yourself to a mark, but, realising they still had a lot to learn, did not dampen their enthusiasm.
Anita and Sue showed DVD’S by Stephen Clarke and led the room in discussions on various movements which had been repeated several times. Both these ladies are 2* Level Judges, and they handled questions from the floor with cool precision and knowledge gained from years of experience, as riders, trainers and judges.
As Calet de Vos, (previous SA Dressage Champion), commented “Yes, a super judges seminar. Myself, Johnathan and Pascal had a lot of fun and realised it is not so easy to be a Judge – much easier to train! But we are all open and willing to learn and have fun in the process!”
So when we hold our next seminar “From The Judges Chair” on Saturday 6 April, with Dutch Judge, Jan Enne Kloosterboer, let’s hope we have more riders and trainers as well. If you don’t know what the judges are wanting, how are you ever going to be able to produce it!
NEXT SEMINARS; FROM THE JUDGES CHAIR – ALL WELCOME Saturday 6 April 9am at DSC pp R100
RIDERS SEMINAR – ALL WELCOME – Monday 15 April 9am at DSC R100 pp
Article by STABLEBOY
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