A CDI3* Dressage Event or Area 51?
In a sport obsessed with transparency, it’s remarkable how quickly the shutters slam shut the moment a camera appears. So if and when dressage ever falls, it won’t be the critics who take it down, it’ll be the people guarding the warm-up like it’s a classified military space.
The story goes that a freelance journalist wandered into a CDI3* dressage show on a peaceful Thursday afternoon, not as media, not on assignment, but simply as a private person with a tiny camera.
A camera so small, in fact, that most people would mistake it for a keychain, or at best something you’d buy for a child who wants to “play photographer.”
The plan was very innocent, enjoy the horses, enjoy the atmosphere that comes along when a lot of horses and riders gathers in a small place, as they tend to do at an international event.
Maybe, even take a nice photo or two, and then go home again. In all, complete normal human behaviour.
And then...
A woman, with the attitude of an underdressed FBI-agent emerged from the sidelines. She also had the energy of someone who just discovered power five minutes ago, and now demanded the freelancer to identify herself.
However...
The wanna-bee FBI-agent did not state her own name. She did not even state her role at the event. She also failed to explain why she was now interrogating a visitor at a public event.
An event with no gate keeper nor entry fees.
An event with no photography ban posted anywhere, neither on-site, nor in the official app [Equipe] hosting the time table.
But the woman now demanded the following information to be provided by this particular visitor:
– name
– press or identity card [the press card from the IAEJ was shown]
– a photo of such press or identity card [but why?]
– and, for the grand finale, an email address [again, but why?]
All this for the horrific crime of perhaps and or maybe taking a photo.
Meanwhile, the wandering reporter, who had photographed at this venue for years at countless other shows without a single raised eyebrow, not only felt concerned, cornered, and extremely uncomfortable, but was also left to wonder if dressage had collapsed into a secret society overnight.
Or if the sport was now operating under the assumption that anyone, even after proving to be a member of the International Alliance of Equestrian Journalists, with a camera is a threat.
Or, perhaps most logically, that the dressage sport indeed has something to hide.
Ready, aim, fire...
Only later, back at home base did the identity of the Mystery Interrogator reveal itself.
Not through transparency, professionalism, an e-mail, with the standard “Hello, I’m X and this is my role,” but through the journalist’s own research.
Turns out the woman demanding credentials like a Texan border guard was not a steward, not security, not even a photographer wrangler.
Nope, this self empowered individual sits on the board of the very same national equestrian federation hosting the event. She was also the appointed event director.
Which, given the behaviour and her [illegal] actions, raises some rather exquisite follow up questions.
- Are these the signals you'd like to send out to the public?
- If they [dressage] have nothing to hide, why act like they do?
- If photography was forbidden, why wasn’t that posted anywhere so spectators visiting the venue would know this?
- Is this in line with the current buzzword, transparency?
- Was she also questioning the people that secretly filmed specific riders by the other arena?
Guarding dressage like it is freakin' Area 51 won't lead to any progress in the public image of the sport. On the contrary it will just alienate [no j0ke intended] people even further from the sport.
The wandering reporter left the event with no photos worth keeping, the light was as terrible as the sudden change of mood anyway.
But what did come to light was a shining example of how dressage continues to shoot itself in the foot, reload, and then wonder why people are asking questions.
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