WHAT BREED OF HORSE FOR AMERICAN
DRESSAGE?
by Chuck Grant
25 years ago, I was having dinner with Alex
Mace-Smith, and he asked me what kind of horse I thought we
should go with for dressage. At the time, the Warm bloods were
well on their way to popularity. My answer was the Thoroughbred,
and I felt we had an ample number of them. We both thought that
the Warmblood was just a passing fancy. Today, they are still
very much entrenched here, and the European economy is much
better off, due to the constant advertising of the Warmblood.
We have so many more horses to choose from than
Europe does. What we don't have is someone to organize the
American breeding program. Innovation is one of the great things
in life. One has to be bold to innovate, and we tend to follow
the leader. The Thoroughbred horse is conceded to be the greatest
for so many things it is pointless to take the space to mention
them all here. The Warmblood is an excellent horse for what he
was bred to do: pull heavy guns for warfare.
lWe had them in America, but they were the
local farm horse bred to Thoroughbreds. The American government
encouraged people to breed this way, for they wanted a good
supply of horses as much as the European governments did. That
way, they could enlist perhaps millions of horses for military
use if needed. The Thoroughbred infused with the cold blood of
the draft horses made ideal cavalry and artillery horses. The US
government stood stallions at various stations for breeding
purposes, for just $10 a breeding. The Thoroughbred was a little
hot for the average army man, but when mixed with the Warmblood,
it made the ideal horse for both riding and pulling heavy loads.
To quote Bert de Nemethy, "When the Thoroughbred runs out of
gas, you just switch tanks." If the other reason for buying
so l many European Warmbloods is that we want trained horses, it
is a good one, for America lacks trainers. At this time, we are
doing nothing to remedy the situation. I know of no program in
this country that is helping young trainers. As a matter of fact,
I think we discourage young trainers from venturing out into new
fields to train for more advanced work.
I can understand the European judges saying
that the horse has to move a certain way to be considered for
dressage. Naturally, they see the way the Warmblood moves as a
part of the horse's training. But that really has nothing to do
with dressage; he moves as he was bred to move. The Thoroughbred
moves like a Thoroughbred; he has been bred to run for over 250
years. But no horse is more handy than a Thoroughbred, which is
why he is bred for polo. The Thoroughbred is as handy as the
pocket on your shirt. He is the greatest of all at jumping and a
top event horse; this is a horse where all you have to do is
switch tanks, and he is .ready to go on. He is also a great cow
horse, and not too many years ago, the 10 leading sires of the
American Quarter Horse Three Barrs were Thoroughbreds. Three
Barrs was a registered Thoroughbred sire and raced in Michigan.
He was owned by Frank Farral. Remember, judges and trainers are
the ones that convince people which horses will win. Not long
ago, I asked Bill Coester why he liked Warmbloods. He said they
have so much more rhythm. This could be true, for the Warmbloods
are quieter and much more relaxed, and relaxation makes for
rhythm. But again, this is partly bred in the horse. If we are to
become competitive, we have to find American trainers who know
the Thoroughbred. Watch the great reining horses slide, spin, run
to the rear, and then stand quiet as a "mouse in the
belfry."
Then we have another breed, made in America in
the early colonial days: the American Saddlebred. In my opinion,
he has everything one would want for a great dressage horse. He's
beautiful. He has the grace of a great athlete and the mind of
one who wants to work in a relaxed state and is easier to train
because of this. He uses himself in a much more refined manner.
He has not been around long, only 260 years.
I have played polo on registered Saddlebreds. I
have also had a few who were outstanding jumpers. I have ridden
them in brush races at Oak Brook, in Chicago, but listed them as
breeding unknown, for the Saddlebred was not known for taking
part in those events. In 1948, I finished 12th out of 21 horses,
in a mile and a half over brush.
The horse's early training, like a child's,
leaves a mark that will remain for a lifetime. It is hard for me
to imagine a Saddlebred that has spent a year in a typical
Saddlehorse barn being reoriented to a dressage training stable.
The Saddlebred is taught to be up on his toes all the time, to be
excited and look excited. A year of just being in this atmosphere
might remain with a horse for years. A child raised in such
surroundings will not be normal for a long time, and then only
under the care or training of someone who knows what he is doing.
The Saddlehorse people see beauty in this animation. I do not
blame or criticize them for this. We are all a product of our
environment; they just live differently than we do in the
dressage world.
In the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, our
dressage bronze medal team consisted of Capt. H.L. Tuttle on a
Thoroughbred, Olympic Capt. Len Kitts on a Thoroughbred mare
American Lady and Capt. Moore on a cavalry how with a good
infusion of Thoroughbred blood. It is not often that America has
placed well against the best the world has to offer. The French
Thoroughbred Taine was the winner of those Games.
In 1936, Kitts and Tuttle were on the same
horses, this time in Berlin. The Germans were the winners in
every division of the horse disciplines. The next games, due to
the war, were in England. The 1948 American team finished 3rd,
but on German horses, all trained by the immortal Otto Lorke. The
winner there was Kronos, world famous for elegance and light
piaffe, as was the French horse Taine. Both of these had the head
elevated to the point that the nose was about even with the
withers. Has dressage regressed since then? Yes; gradually the
tests have been made easier for riders and trainers. Gradually,
over the years, judging has changed from judging training (that
is, dressage) to more emphasis on the way the horse moves. I have
even heard judges say the most important thing is the transition
from one movement to another. Not long ago, one of the European
judges asked me if I thought judging was about the same now as it
was years ago. He told me the important thing was not the trick
but how the horse moved from trick to trick.
Col. Len Kitts, father of Col. Bud Kitts,
retired to the Chicago area right after the war. Major Paul St.
Jernhold was in Chicago at the time. He bought the Thoroughbred
mare Duar Girl off the racetrack as a six year-old. She was in my
barn from December 1945 to 1950, when she was shown in a Grand
Prix exhibition at the Bloomfield Open Hunt Show in June. At the
time, I owned the Plush Horse Stables in the inner city of
Chicago.
In 1947, Col. Kitts and I met several times and
talked about dressage and its future in America now that the
horses were gone from the army. He decided to take over as
director of riding at Culver Military Academy in Culver, IN. The
American Saddlehorse Breeders' Association presented him with a
Saddlebred stallion, a beautiful chestnut horse that stood about
16.3 hh. He was massively built, and if you looked at him, you
just had to look again. He was perhaps the most majestic horse I
had ever seen. His quarters were massive, and the topline told
you the breed, for no horse has the beauty of the Saddlebred. His
head was fine, and his ears and eyes were the picture of a horse
that might have been sculpted in bronze.
American Lady died at Culver and was buried
there. Col. Kitts was not a well man after that, and he gave up
his training. One thing he did do was revitalize Culver's jumping
team. He had the Culver Boys show on barefoot horses against the
best the midwest could produce. It was a great thrill to watch
those high school boys gallop against the stopwatch in a timed
open jumper class. The grass was slippery in the morning, but the
kids had guts as they raced around, sliding their $300 horses
bought from Wiley Jones of El Reno, OK Major St Jernhold was Col.
Kitts' assistant for about a year, then left with his horses Duar
Girl and Peter Pan for Morgan Park Military Academy. Shortly
after that, he was killed in a car/train crash. Both horses were
sold to a French of officer.
In dressage, let us take a bold new approach
and start over. Not just for the next Olympics; let us plan for
ten years down the road. Let's do it the American way. We may not
have the dressage trainers (that is, competitive trainers), but
America does have trainers. We should ferret them out from
wherever they are. Let us solicit their help.
No one breed is the best for dressage. Let us
work with a few talented horses and riders. The masses will not
be interested in the discipline necessary for dressage. Let us
take just a few dedicated people who have the genes to be
trainers. We can work and encourage them. We have riders and
horses. What we need is trainers, and those trainers need your
help.
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