Mariette Withages Appointed Technical Advisor for Dressage in Mexico

Dressage

Mexico

Mariette Withages, a retired international dressage judge and former chair of the FEI Dressage Committee, has been appointed Technical Advisor for Dressage by the Mexican Equestrian Federation.

Withages will begin in her new function at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo (DOM) the first weekend of July and her contract runs through 2024.

She has been hired to assist the Mexican team at the CACG as well as the upcoming 2023 Pan American Games, but her expertise and experience will be applied mainly to improve dressage sport in general in Mexico.

"Mariette's work will be focused on helping us establish a technical and clear work frame in order to establish programs that lead to raising the technical level of our sport, especially of the high performance pairs in our country that have the potential to represent our country, as well as a development program for young combinations who show promise and potential to develop and compete nationally," the Mexican federation communicated.

The 80-year old Mariette Withages-Dieltjens is one of the powerhouses in the dressage world. Widow to the late classical dressage trainer Raymond Withages, Mariette began as a national dressage judge in Belgium and in 1976 she became an international judge. She was a 5*/CDIO judge and officiated at numerous major World Championships (1998, 2002) as well as Olympic Games (2004). In 2014 she retired as a judge.

Withages in the evening sun at the prize giving
ceremony of the 2019 European Youth Championships
in Italy

She was the driving force behind the Classic Castle dressage cup with competitions in in front of castles in Schoten, Goodwood, Wiesbaden, Donaueschingen. She was chair of the International Dressage Officials Club (IDOC) and the FEI Dressage Committee in the 2000s. She wrote a book about horses and cooking.

Due to her vast experience Withages is still a much sought after clinician, keynote speaker, technical delegate, trainer and equestrian show consultant. She has been a technical advisor for Brazil in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio and has been serving as Technical Advisor for Japan in the lead-up to the 2021 Tokyo Games, a job she retained to this date. She now also has been hired by Mexico.