‘A sad time as we say goodbye to lifelong servants of equestrian sport,’ says Richard Davison
Richard Davison remembers Stephen Clarke, Bob Ellis and Jacques van Daele
It’s been a sad few months for the international officiating community, with the deaths of Bob Ellis, Jacques van Daele and Stephen Clarke – all three lifelong servants of the sport, and all three officials at the London Olympics.
Bob’s team used to build the dressage arena for me in the early years of the London International and Jacques, the FEI’s dressage steward general, judged there too. It was always reassuring to have him on the panel.
Stephen and I first met as teenagers, competing at local shows. He went into judging to find out if the system could be improved from within rather than moaned about from the outside.
Nearly 50 years ago, international judging looked nothing like it does today. Consensus barely existed and where it did, it was usually as a small circle of judges had officiated together often enough to compare notes.
Riding style still varied by nation – a judge schooled in the French tradition prized lightness, one from the mid-European school would place more importance on accuracy and obedience – and judging reflected that split. Riding has harmonised a great deal since and judging with it, though enough discrepancies remain worldwide that consensus can’t be taken for granted.
A great leader from the back
Stephen’s judging combined obvious personal qualities – empathy, humility, integrity, self-reflection – with real clarity of method. He worked movement by movement, comparing what he saw against what the rules required, then gave his score. He never dwelt on the mark just given, nor guessed what might come next. He stayed in the moment, indifferent to how his total might compare with anyone else’s.
He also had extraordinary leadership qualities, which followed the same quiet pattern – he led from the back and pushed others into the light rather than himself. It’s little surprise his fellow judges made him president of the International Dressage Officials Club, or that the FEI made him their judge general.
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He’d already helped produce the FEI’s first judging guidelines, a handbook that still serves as the sport’s definitive reference. But he recognised that dressage had outgrown what that handbook envisaged 20 years earlier, and no one pushed harder to recruit and cater for new judges entering our sport.
In 2018, the FEI mandated its dressage committee to produce a code of points to make scoring more transparent. Stephen, working with fellow consultees, put at least three years of work into helping create it, burning the midnight oil, distilling the judges’ handbook’s 250 pages into summary sheets setting out which “observables” take priority for each movement, and how to score them 0–10.
It has sat on a shelf in Lausanne ever since, while the ongoing lack of scoring consensus takes its toll on the integrity of the sport. The FEI could honour Stephen’s hard work properly by finally bringing his code of points into effect – not as tribute alone, but because it’s what the federation asked for and what the sport still needs.
It’s a tough call
Congratulations to Mette Dahl on her individual bronze medal at last weekend’s young rider Europeans, and commiserations to Annabella Pidgley who just missed out on a medal.
The selection meeting to settle our World Championship dressage team is looming and is going to be a tough call. Lottie Fry, Becky Moody and Carl Hester are certainties and, notwithstanding Germany’s strength and home advantage, are capable of securing team gold for us.
The fourth slot has gone to the wire, with Fiona Bigwood and Charlotte Dujardin being separated by a whisker due to Charlotte’s test-riding masterclass at Hartpury CDI3*. On my own rough sums Fiona edges it, and her five-star result nudges it further her way.
But there will always be information concerning specific criteria that those of us on the outside are rightly never party to. An independent observer and chair ensures that the decision is made in accordance with British Dressage’s selection policy. I have been on both sides of these procedures. I feel for the selectors, but more so for Fiona and Charlotte.
Good luck to everyone in contention and also to our junior and children-on-horses teams battling it out for European medals as we go to press.
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Richard Davison is a four-time dressage Olympian and former British World Class performance manager, who has been at the forefront of international dressage for more than 30 years.