Russian I-judge Irina Maknami Weighs in On the State of Dressage in Russia

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Once believing it impossible for a Russian judge to advance in the international dressage world, the now 4 star and very well travelled Irina Maknami was very happy to be proven totally wrong. She is now certain that there are opportunities for every young judge to reach the most elite judging level.

"A judge from any country can be promoted, they just has to have a big desire to learn and to improve. They must be persistent, stress-resistant -- something that I am still learning -- and determined not to give up," the 38-year old Irina told Eurodressage.

Still in the early stages of her international career, Irina is very honoured to have judged at some of the biggest dressage shows of the season such as the CDI 4* in Treffen, Perl and the Vienna Masters. These shows offered her a fantastic judging and learning experience. "I have to say that for me being allowed to judge top riders is a very big honour and responsibility. To judge a person, whom you deeply admire in your heart and a horse that fascinates you with its remarkable beauty, is always an unbelievable and a rather emotional experience and certainly for me every such opportunity is a highlight."

Russian Dressage in Communist Times

Irina experienced a tough start in dressage as in Russia for a child, particularly one whose family was not involved with horses, taking riding lessons was not a given. When Irina was young the country was still in Communist times and there were no private horses you could just go have a lesson on. "There were several state equestrian clubs in Moscow where all horses belonged to the government and thus there was tremendous competition between children to be accepted into the riding schools," she reminisced. "We even had to pass special physical training exams."

Not an especially athletic child herself, Irina continuously failed this rigid screening process, but it didn't stop her from pursuing her love of dressage. "I was very determined, so eventually I was accepted into the so called “Club for children who love horses” and my life in the stable started," she said. "For many years I trained in the Equestrian Centre Bitza, a huge riding club in Moscow which was built for the 1980 Olympic Games."

There was nothing else in life that Maknami wanted to do except be around horses and luckily for her the leader of Bitza club was Grand Prix rider and very talented trainer Olga Soboleva. "Now she works as a national trainer of the Russian youth team and is also a 3* international judge, a steward, a member of the Russian NF Dressage Committee and an FEI tutor," said Irina.

Olga noticed her horse-obsession and she selected Irina and two other girls out of many children for training. She taught them how to work with horses, trained them in dressage, and allowed them to ride and compete on her dressage horses. In a few years she convinced another well known Russian trainer Anatoly Antikyan to take Irina into his dressage team, in which she continued to train for several more years until shemoved to live in the U.S.A.

Maknami relocated to Virginia and got a nice break when she was accepted to work at TEGA Farms. The very supportive dressage trainer Melissa C. Ash and the stable owner Pat Robertson imported some Russian dressage horses and was kind enough to allow Irina to compete on them in national competitions.

Return to Russia

Maknami at the 2012 CDI Radzionkow (Photo © Luksaz Kowalski) After three years Irina returned to Russia and started working for the Equestrian Federation in charge of international relations, as well as helping to organize all international shows. For a long time she served as chef d' Equipe for the Russian national dressage teams for all age divisions.

"Around the same time I started to judge nationally and all my work within the Federation was very helpful in improving my skills," she explained. "For many years I was able to scribe for the best international judges and with the Russian team I went to many international shows, where I was using every opportunity to learn."

Finally in 2008 with the full support of her Federation, Irina dared to pass the exam to become an international judge and was very happy to be successful in her attempt. "Now I of course no longer work for the Federation as I am rather busy judging at both international and national shows. I'm also trying to participate in as many seminars for judges as possible to improve my knowledge."

However, when she isn't in the judges box Irina still finds the time for her other major passion: riding. She has two lovely Russian dressage horses that she considers as members of the family. "Riding is my other passion, but I have to say that one of the many reasons why I also enjoy judging internationally so much, are my absolutely wonderful colleagues! Through all these years I have felt so much kindness and support from many international judges. They are always so helpful and understanding and willing to share their experience. We have a great team of judges, I am proud to be part of it!"

Improving Dressage in Russia

Working her way into the world of elite dressage Irina feels that her nation as a whole is also striving hard to get up amongst the bigger dressage powers. She hopes it won't be long before there are more Russians on an international scene, both in and around the arena.

"Russian dressage is definitely developing rather fast and I have a strong feeling that the situation is going to improve a lot in the coming years. In the big cities we already have some super equestrian clubs, with more being built all the time, and we have and buy many really good horses. We now have a pool of talented riders who are willing to work hard, so all we really need now is to come up with some kind of a genius strategy of how to make it all work for top results."

With her judging career taking her around the world, Irina believes that it will depend on the open-mindedness of Russia's top trainers and riders to open the doors to advancement in Russian dressage.

"The really good thing is that I have lately noticed that more Russian riders and their sponsors are becoming far more open to what we call the “European” methods of training, where a lot of attention is devoted to basic training in compliance with the training scale," she stated. "Less and less I hear the phrase, which totally kills me, “we have our own Russian school of riding and we have to train according to the Russian methods”.

Irina strongly believes that good quality riding is international and it is based on the tremendous experience available in the entire world. In the modern day world of sport it also has to be supported by equine science.

"You have to be really stupid to close in on your own methods and reject the abundance of equine knowledge which the world now has to offer," she stated firmly. "I feel that Russian riders now are really willing to learn. For example, every year a group of about 20 Russian riders are welcomed at the Global Dressage Forum and the organizers of the Forum are very kind to even organize a special simultaneous Russian translation for our group. All of these things have to start bearing fruit sooner or later!"

In addition to the acceptance and incorporation of new methods, projects and education plans are also vital for a brighter dressage future.

"First of all we are trying to give our dressage community possibilities for education. Around every two months we have a seminar for national judges with famous European judges and these seminars are always open to anyone who wishes to come and learn," she said. "The teachers at these seminars always come very prepared with super presentations and lots of interesting videos and these occasions are becoming more and more popular with riders and trainers also coming along to learn. By their reaction I see that they are very hungry for the latest information and make full use of this, and the clinics we host several times a year for riders of the national team with famous European trainers."

Raising the Visibility of the Sport

With an increase in the number of international competitions hosted in Russia, the Russian dressage committee is currently trying to implement a new project to send a team of 3-4 promising young Grand Prix riders with their horses to Germany to a famous trainer, so that they can stay there for several months every year to train and compete.

"Plus, last year we had a very interesting project called "Galloping to Rio de Janeiro", which was supposed to raise the popularity of dressage in Russia and possibly help find sponsors for some promising riders. During the whole year 13 participants (celebrities and actors) were taking riding lessons. At the end of the project they demonstrated their skills and performed a "pas de deux" with a professional dressage rider on the Red Square in Moscow.

Maknami also emphased that private projects shouldn't be underestimated. "Now we have several young people training all aver Europe with some best European trainers. Every year more and more Russian riders are going to competitions in Europe. We have one Russian businessman who is now building a fantastic equestrian centre for 300 horses; he also sponsors a team of young talented riders from ponies to Grand Prix. For the last couple of years this team is working with an excellent German trainer, who comes every month for 2 weeks. So in reality there are a lot of interesting things going on in Russia, we just need more time and I am sure that soon we will gradually begin to improve our position in the dressage world. Of course most of us realize that it is a long, difficult way and this will not happen in one day."

According to Irina, one of Russia's problems was that for a long time the country suffered under very difficult economic times, while at the same time the rest of the dressage world was going forward with huge steps.

"We first were trying to “survive” and then ecover from our losses. So now we have to catch up with the rest of the world. While now the situation is rather stable in big cities like Moscow, St.Petersburg, and Nizhniy Novgorod, there are many regions in our huge country where people are still struggling."

With any major country like Canada, the U.S.A., Australia or Russia, the biggest difficulty is to overcome the distances. "We are so far from where the “real dressage” is happening," Maknami admitted. "To be able to progress and compete on a high level a rider has to be surrounded by good riders, and unfortunately many riders complain that here in Russia they are “stewing in one's own juice”."

"The majority of riders, who for different reasons have to stay in Russia, do not have much chance of getting anywhere internationally, and while this is rather sad, it is reality, she added. "Driving out to Europe once or twice a year and competing on a horse, which is exhausted after the long journey, not acclimatized, and stressed, leads to the obvious fact that both horse and rider cannot perform at the same level that they are able to show at home."

Irina knows that for a rider to actually be able to get some good results they have to either live and train in Europe or be able to go to Europe for several months of the year. This of course means not only to be able to spend much money, but also leave their home, family, job, stable, and other horses behind.

"In order to do that a rider has to be very determined and ready to sacrifice a lot for their sport," she said. "I am not even mentioning how hard it is to cross the borders between countries in our part of the world. So the distance for us is a major complication, but of course there are many other countries where riders face similar problems."

Irina Maknami Irina knows that Russian people are very persistent and not likely to give up. With a long dressage tradition in her country, she is certain the sport is in the Russian DNA.

"In the entire history of Russia in all spheres of life we have always had genius people who appeared out of nowhere and achieved great things against all the odds. We call such people gold nuggets. We lately had an example of this in dressage with our wonderful rider Alexandra Korelova and her Orlov Trotter Balagur. He was a police horse from Nizhniy Novgorod, did not have to say the least a very dressagey origin, but together they managed to get very good results. Of course we have to also thank their absolutely fantastic trainer, who put his heart into this horse-rider combination, George Theodorescu, and the owner of the horse Anatoly Balykin, who sponsored the entire process. Mr. Balykin is now in charge of our National Dressage Committee and this phenomenon is surely something that gives hope to us all, and shows us that miracles are possible."

Positive About the Future

Forced to take a step back from her very active role in the Russian Federation, as a judge Irina knows she can no longer be involved as much in the decision making process in order to avoid conflict of interest.

"I guess now I cannot really do as much, but I see my role still as very important in helping to educate Russian judges," she explaiend. "They can then educate riders through correct judging in accordance with the training scale. I am already actively doing this through the organization of seminars with international judges, and I still also enjoy helping a lot in the organization of our CDIs."

With a minimum six CDIs, two of which will be CDI-W's, set for the coming year, Irina is particularly exited about the CDI 4* in the "absolutely new and fabulous equestrian club" the National Equestrian Park “Russia”. "The organizers are planning that this event will be held on a very high level and they are even thinking of hiring a plane from Europe to bring in some famous riders," she disclosed.

Fiding it difficult to say what the future of dressage in Russia will bring, Irina knows that her country is rather unpredictable. Her dream scenario is that her nation just keeps on its constant pursuit of that bit more.

"I hope that everything will continue to develop as well as it is at the present time and that gradually Russian riders will get better and better," she said. "I feel that in about 10 years we will have a whole new generation of good and experienced riders that will be well known in Europe, have consistent results, and will be ready to compete at the highest level. Meanwhile, we will not lose our hope that some golden nugget like Alexandra and Balagur will suddenly appear and surprise everybody, even us!"

Text by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage