Are We Pushing Our Horses to Grand Prix Level Too Fast?

There has been a lot of interesting and valuable discussion over the past year about putting more attention to the welfare of our dressage horses.  Horse mistreatment and abuse are being broadcast through social media so that when these items occur, a wider audience is aware and can take action.  It has brought up a debate about the dressage sport as a whole and how we can do better for our valued equine partners.

One area that is starting to surface is the lightning-fast pace at which some horses are being trained to the Grand Prix level.  The Danish equestrian team adopted a new rule as of January 1, 2025, pulling up the minimum age requirement for horses eligible to compete in Grand Prix classes from age 8 to 9.  The FEI rule is still set at a minimum age of 8.  Considering that most warmbloods do not finish closing their growth plates in their back and withers until age 6, this is a stunningly short amount of time to develop a horse’s body to have the immense amount of carrying power needed to compete at the Grand Prix level.

As an adult amateur rider myself who is training young warmbloods for the first time under the instruction of my experienced trainer, I have been thinking about my own young horses’ journey to Grand Prix.  I would love to have all 3 have long and healthy careers at the FEI levels so my primary focus is to give them a good experience in this journey.  I was curious as to what the trends are currently in the United States for this progression so I embarked on a data research project.

In this first part of my research, I reviewed the show results for all Level 2 and above USEF-recognized dressage shows in 2024.  I then made a list of all US-based horse/rider combinations that showed at GP level and achieved a score of 65% or higher at least once during the year.  The population was 239 horse/rider combinations.  I then reviewed the recognized show history of each horse to see the progression the horse made from 3rd level to GP and the years it took in between.

I am sharing this data because I am curious as to what others in the dressage community believe this reflects.  Is this a worrying trend?  I have some theories in this article, but I think this warrants a larger discussion with industry experts to decide if we want to change our standards.

The first set of data is the age at which the horse first started competing at GP level.

Luckily, there are few 8-year-old horses competing at GP but in total around 31% of the population started at GP between the ages of 8 and 10.  Another roughly 37% started from ages 11 or 12.

The next charts are the more interesting to review.  In this next chart, we see that an amazing 48% were able to start showing 3rd level for the first time and start showing GP just 3 to 4 years later.  In the majority of these cases, the horse had to skip levels such as PSG or all of the Intermediate classes or spend less than half a year on each.

In this last chart, we see the amount of time spent between showing PSG for the first time and showing GP for the first time.  Roughly 69% were able to achieve this in an incredible 3 years.

As I disclosed earlier, I am an adult amateur and by no means an expert on the amount of time it takes to develop a GP horse.  However, just in my own experience so far, I have found that even if a horse can complete a movement mechanically, it doesn’t mean they have the strength yet to sustain it on a regular basis.

So what is the hurry?  Why are we pushing our horses to show level after level at such a quick pace?

In my research, I found that many of these horses showed and followed the FEI young horse levels.  This sets a model of what movements horses could be doing at certain ages.  The program starts at age 4 and goes up to age 8 - 10 where a horse can show the developing Grand Prix.  The young horse levels are very ambitious (in my opinion at least).  Age 4 test is about the equivalency of 1st level, Age 5 is 2nd level requiring collection, Age 6 requires a 3rd level equivalent with clean flying changes and age 7 is a developing PSG level.

Theoretically, these tests should just be for a small set of very talented horses.  However, I run also an equine sales brokerage business and can tell you that this system sets the standard of expectations now across the board for those trying to sell dressage horses.  Try to sell a horse at age 7 without flying changes?  Good luck- you will likely not get a price to make even your money back.

So I will say it again for those in the back…. What…. Is…. the….. Hurry?  Is this an economic decision?  Are we rushing to push out little PSG and GP record horses to make money back as soon as possible?  Horses can stay sound and healthy throughout their teens with maintenance and good training.  Is there no value in this anymore in our economy?

So I am putting this question out to the dressage community: Why are we so rushed?  I would love to hear people’s feedback and start a discussion on this.  In my next research installment, I will be tracking horses that achieved 65% or above in GP in the year 2019 and evaluate what happened to their careers.  Stay tuned for the next article!