The future of dressage in Canada is on a pathway to greater success thanks to a high-performance planning summit which saw more than 50 stakeholders gather to identify program strategies to grow the sport and ultimately, the number of podium-level performances at the international level.
The summit, which was held March 11-12 during winter competitions in Wellington, Florida, included Olympic and Pan American Team riders, up-and-coming riders, horse owners, Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) officials, event organizers, committee members, coaches and staff. Two-days of extremely positive sessions saw all attendees committing to moving forward together for the betterment of the sport.
“I would like to say that I found the Summit to be a very positive step in an effort to improve Canada’s Dressage organization and programs, which will in turn improve our international standings in the future,” said four-time Olympian Ashley Holzer. “I hope that this feedback will result in the necessary changes to put Canada back on the podium. I applaud Equine Canada and Dressage Canada for taking the initiative to organize this much- needed summit.”
Facilitated by Peter Davis, PhD, an expert in high-performance strategic planning, the summit captured program, development, fundraising and leadership ideas from each of the stakeholder groups. Programs were ranked in order of priority and now it will be up to Equine Canada and Dressage Canada to review all the priorities and feedback collected to build an operational plan to carry out the delivery and implementation.
“The Summit was a great opportunity for all stakeholders to come forward with concerns and ideas on how to move forward with dressage in Canada,” said Wendy Christoff, an Equine Canada High Performance Coaching and Grand Prix rider. “Canada is lucky to be able to pool our wealth of information and resources to come up with a strategic plan that will improve our world rankings. We have great resources in our riders, owners and supporters in Canada and now we need to put them to work.”
“The Summit was extremely successful. The level of communication established over the two days left Canada looking at a very positive future with lots of potential,” said summit guest speaker Desi Dillingham, the former chairman of British Dressage, from 1997-2007, who set up the organization that propelled the British team to Olympic gold in 2012.
“The Dressage Canada Summit was a super opportunity for all stakeholders to meet, communicate and share views and experiences on a variety of topics, specifically with regards to moving dressage forward in Canada and internationally,” added FEI 4* dressage judge Joan Macartney. “There were lots of stimulating and interesting discussion and ideas. Thanks to all participants for so freely sharing their views and to Dressage Canada for taking on this initiative. We can now look forward to the next steps in the effort to ensure a strong and vibrant dressage program.”
“This process was an opportunity to create interaction and gather feedback from different stakeholders in an open and dynamic format. Our staff will now be preparing an action plan with clear deliverables based on the agreed priorities,” said Jean Christophe Gandubert, CEO of Equine Canada. “We intend to keep all the participants informed at each step of this process.”
“We thank all the participants for their passion, commitment and support in making the High Performance Summit a huge success,” added Gandubert.
An executive summary of the Summit outcomes will be released to the participants and the membership when the report is finalized at the end of March. Special thanks to Mr. Michael Horgan for hosting the Summit in such a great venue.
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