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NEW EGYPT: Dressage now means western riding, too

By Jane Meggitt, Special Writer
   Dressage received a great deal of publicity last year because of Ann Romney’s horse Rafalca’s participation in the London Olympics.
   Dressage, which means “training” in French, isn’t a sport just for multimillionaires. It benefits any horse, including those trained for western riding.
   The Horse Park of New Jersey is hosting a western dressage judge’s forum on March 16, open to all who want to learn more about the rules and movements required for this new sport. The $45 fee includes a light lunch.
   Cyndee Roszel of New Egypt and her husband, Jacque, ran the FFA program at Allentown High School for many years. Mr. Roszel is president of the Horse Park of New Jersey. While Ms. Roszel has ridden western all of her life, she’s also experienced in saddle seat, hunt seat, sidesaddle, driving and dressage styles of riding.
   ”As I went along I realized that all good riding relies on balance in both the horse and the rider and that the outstanding riders I saw basically used the same training techniques to reach those goals,” according to Ms. Roszel. She adds that after competing in dressage for 10 years with one of her half-Arabian mares, she also found her performance in western pleasure and hunter pleasure classes were improved.
   ”I find my working western horses are lighter, work more from behind, are balanced and more responsive without the use of a heavy hand and or bit,” when they have basic dressage training, Ms. Roszel said.
   Ms. Roszel said that participants in the western dressage clinic, horse and rider, will benefit from the training no matter what their goals.
   The western dressage test gaits are walk, jog and lope, with complexity of the tests increasing as horses and riders progress up the levels.
   ”Any well-trained western horse should easily be able to compete at the basic level which includes movements in all three gaits,” Ms. Roszel said. “To compete and benefit from western dressage the emphasis is on good clean movement, not speed.”
   That means a four-beat walk, clear two-beat jog and a clear three-beat lope. Ms. Roszel said riders may show in a curb or snaffle bit, using both hands or one on the curb, but two hands only on the snaffle.
   Guilene Mallard, owner of Good Times Farm, Freehold, is the vice president of the recently formed New Jersey Western Dressage Association. She said that, at its core, western dressage is the same as English dressage.
   ”It has the same requirements of a balanced, moving, light, athletic, happy horse at its base. Good horsemanship and humane training practices is still the core for both disciplines,” she said. “With the introduction of the relatively new, western dressage, the gap is being bridged between the two worlds.”
   She said that many of today’s western riders are looking for a venue to show off their horses’ natural abilities in the same light that is shown on the English ones, but in western gaits, tack and maneuvers. When the tests are learned and ridden correctly, western dressage will take a capable horse very far up the ladder, she said.
   For more information or to register for the western dressage judge’s forum on March 16, e-mail [email protected] or call 732-431-8337.