by Ted Ryan

Few sports enterprises involving interaction between animal and human require the training, discipline and coordination of dressage, a demanding and intricate partnership of horse and rider.

And few dressage teams can match the success of Shelburne resident Joy Congdon and her Hanoverian mare, Wixen (pronounced ‘Vixen').

Congdon and Wixen reigned as the high point champions of the Vermont Dressage Days at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction in mid-August.

"We won both of her classes with a 76 percent, which is quite a high score in a third-level Test 3," said Congdon, who moved from central Massachusetts to Shelburne six years ago.

Congdon has owned Wixen, bred by Eliza Rutherford of Foxwood Hanoverians in Charlotte, for four years and believes the seven-year-old mare has the potential to compete at the Grand Prix level, the sport's elite competition. "Liza's breeding program is incredible," said Congdon.
"If everything goes on course, (a horse) can be working at the Grand Prix level by the time (it's) nine," Congdon said. "Even then, they don't often come into their own for a couple of years. The peak years are 11 to 13, but they can be really competitive through their mid-teens."

Congdon reached the Grand Prix level with her previous horse, a Dutch Warmblood gelding named Gershwin, who, she said, had a different personality than Wixen. "It's like men and women; mares tend to be more sensitive," Congdon said. "It's been said you can tell a gelding what to do but you ask a mare what to do."

Congdon began riding Morgans in saddle seat as a youngster, but moved over to dressage by high school, a relatively unusual decision since many dressage riders take up the sport at an older age.

"A lot of youngsters ride hunter/jumper (in which horses compete by clearing jumps on preset courses) or eventing or stuff like that," Congdon said. "I didn't do all that very much, but I did a lot of trail riding."

Dressage appealed most to Congdon because "it's a good combination of real mental discipline as well as physical discipline.

"Basically, it means the gymnastics training of the horse," she said. "People liken it to gymnastics or figure skating," two sports in which competitors are judged upon the execution of certain moves or patterns.

In dressage, a horse must execute a series of set patterns with a judge scoring each execution. A test might have 18 to 25 scores with only one at the end directly dependent upon the rider; the rest are based on the horse.

"The rider is so indirectly involved ... (but) the horse only performs as well as the rider tells it to perform," said Congdon, who instructs and trains at the Laura Mack farm in Charlotte.

"It takes two lifetimes to do it," said Congdon. "It's not just your body you're dealing with but the animal's body as well. So much thought and focus goes into it. Dressage people tend to be Type A, very detail oriented."

Congdon expects Wixen's next test will come at the New England Dressage Association competition in Saugerties, N.Y., on Sept. 18-21.

In addition to competing and training in dressage, Congdon has also served as a U.S. Dressage Federation ‘L' level judge, the first step on the judging ladder. She's been doing that for 15 years and expects to continue at that level. "I prefer training and teaching to judging. I love to instruct," she said.