Stewarding in practice
FEI Head steward Jacques van Daele was born in Bruges (Belgium) on August 3 1954. He started his profession as a teacher at the Federal Police –Cavalerieschool. In 1973 he got a bachelor for Criminology and Psychology and was a member of the Royal Mounted Escort for over 25 years.
Van Daele was the head of the Young Horses training Center (Remonte) for over 20 years, where also Police horses for other European Countries were trained (horses of the Royal Danish Guard). After judging Dressage, Jumping and Eventing at a national level he became a FEI Dressage Judge, FEI Dressage Steward(Stewarding in 3 WEG and 3 OG), an FEI Eventing Course Director (Dressage) an FEI Dressage Mentor for Judges.

Training methods, especially the so called LDR method (long, deep, round), have been discussed frequently in de last few years. This year the FEI bureau gave its approval to new Stewards’ guidelines on warm-up techniques produced by the Working Group. The main question is how the new rules will be applied in practice. During the Global Dressage Forum FEI’s Dressage Steward General, Jacques van Daele, will lead a practical session with riders, warming up their horses in different ways. The practical implementation of the new rules will be discussed with an international panel, including riders and trainers.

One of the key stipulations in the Working Group’s report was that all unacceptable training methods and techniques must be stopped immediately. The current guidelines for FEI Stewards already included instructions covering aggressive riding, but the Working Group has created a new Annex (XIII) that includes clear instructions on action to be taken if necessary relating to flexion of the horse’s neck during pre and post-competition training.

Some key initiatives in the new guidelines are:

• Movements which involve having the horse’s head and neck carriage in a sustained or fixed position should only be performed for periods not exceeding approximately ten minutes without change (diagrams defining the head and neck positions will be provided to the Stewards)
• No single neck position should be maintained which may lead to tiredness or stress
• The rider is not permitted to use rough, or abrupt aids or apply constant unyielding pressure on the horse’s mouth through a fixed arm and hand position The guidelines state that it is the steward’s responsibility to ensure that riders respect the above procedures and intervene if required. The steward will intervene should he/she observe:
• Neck stretching achieved through forced or aggressive riding
• The use of extreme flexion if it does not comply with the above
• A rider deliberately maintaining a sustained fixed head and neck carriage longer than approximately ten minutes
• If the horse is in a state of general stress and/or fatigue
• The steward may also ask the rider to walk for a certain period in situations where the rider’s stress may cause undesired riding.