Guest Blog post # 53: "Cheaters Never Win, and Winners Never..." by Bill Woods

No cheaters

Wrong! When you think about it, there aren't many sports in which "cheating" isn't de rigueur— not just expected but accepted and intrinsic to the way the game is played.

In baseball it's the phantom tag at second base on the double-play. It's the catcher framing an outside pitch to make it look like it was in the strike zone. It's the doctored baseball that the pitcher delivers. In football, it's the attempt to disguise holding (which occurs on almost every play that's run). In basketball and soccer players "flop" with no remorse to draw an undeserved foul against the opposition. And in tennis every line call, every infraction, is disputed.

The sole exception appears to be golf where the players are honor-bound to penalize themselves for any nearly invisible infraction to the rules. Dressage competitors by and large fall in line with the majority sports ethics-wise. The nature of showing emphasizes how your horse looks. If you can present him in a way that disguises a flaw in his behavior or training, all the better. Most people wouldn't even call that cheating. It's just showmanship.

The question can be raised, however, (pardon my naiveté) just who exactly are you performing this test for? Yes, part of the nature of competition is to cover up all the problems and to show off all the positives.

I have no problem with that as long as you are not also fooling yourself. Dressage as a Lie is next to worthless unless all you care about is the ribbon. The essence of "classical" is less about whether the poll stays the highest point all the time but more about whether your horse is truly on the aids and not that you have to fake your way through the test to appeal to some judge.

At the most elite level we’d like to believe that Correct is what you're seeing and what's being rewarded. In the regional, local, and schooling show realms this may be less so. For my money a horse that really feels good—one who is truly on the aids and a pleasure to ride—has to be the ultimate goal. Then the ribbons will take care of themselves.