Recap of Sicab 2024: Thinking Outside the Box of Dressage

Shows

2024 SICAB

For hard core dressage aficionados it can be challenging to think outside the box of one's discipline, but if you want to be adventurous, yet not "cheat" you will feel right at home at SICAB, the World Championships for PRE horses.

Three Pavilions of PRE Love

SICAB is the biggest annual celebration of PRE horse breeding and is staged at FIBES, the conveniently located Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones in Seville, Spain, just 10 minutes from the international airport. The exhibition centre has three indoor pavilions, each of them offering a different taste of PRE love.

Pavilion 1 is reserved for the breed show and from Tuesday till Sunday has youngsters, mares and stallions on display battling it out for titles and glory in various gender and age categories. On Sunday it all culminates with the World Champion's title for male and female horses. The major PRE breeders have an ornately decorated booth, where they invite anyone interested in their breeding programme to break bread, drink ever-flowing Spanish wine, and enjoy olives and freshly cut pata negra ham.

In Pavilion 2 there is a big trade fair with overstocked tack booths as well as specialty brands (Argentinian saddle makers, craftsmen of authentic wooden canes as well as tailors). Authentic agricultural craftsmanship and handiwork are on display there, mixing the old with the new. I had to admit I shook my head in disbelief and wondered why the animal welfare wave has not reached Spain yet to eradicate serreta nosebands (metal spiked). They are being sold here and are still commonly used for horse handling. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for this wave to arrive from North Europe on the Iberian peninsula. I can only hope that there will be a day that the organizers forbid tack shops to sell such equipment at SICAB; hopefully next year. On the far end of this indoor exhibition hall is another arena where clinics are being held, as well as competitions for side saddle, doma vaquera, alta escuela, and much more.

Pavilion 3 is fully dedicated to dressage sport from morning through the afternoon, while in the evenings a "spectacular" draws a sell-out crowd each night with exhibitions, horse shows, freedom dressage, sport and much more. Pavillon 3 was my home for the two days I attended SICAB this year, watching the young horse championship for 4, 5, and 6-year old and taking stock of the development in young horse breeding and training.

Packed Crowds

SICAB attracts a truly international crowd with locals and Spaniards coming in droves, while many guests from Europe and all over the world fly in for the week. There is a particularly large group of Latin Americans in attendance, not surprisingly as the PRE horse was introduced to the Americas by the Spanish colonisers.

This year there was plenty of celebrity spotting at the venue with Olympic dressage riders Carl Hester, Yvonne Losos de Muniz, Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, Claudio Castilla Ruiz, and Jose Daniel Martin Dockx attending.

This international pot pourri of people find unity in their love for horses. The Spanish "Viva La Vida" lifestyle is the glue that makes SICAB a staple on one's calendar. In the evenings the outdoor coffee and drink stands near the stables, where you can go see and pat the horses without problem, are the hub for socialising. A live band plays music and as the alcohol flows, the atmosphere becomes merrier and people literally start to party, sing and dance. Wonderful !

Various Ringside Impressions

Aside from spending some serious time assessing the quality of the young horses in competition, my brain was also triggered by more trivial facts.

On the first few days the exhibition center is pleasantly busy, but on the weekend it's shoulder to shoulder traffic and all pavilions are packed to the roof. I noticed local schools dropped of classes with teenagers who came to the show for a few hours to see what SICAB had to offer. They were clearly not schooled in "horse etiquette" as they ascended the stands with their loudly drumming Nikes and Adidas sneakers, putting some horses on edge. Aside from one rider shouting at them, there were no "Isabell-Werth-if-looks-could-kill" stares into the crowd to enforce silence.

It was captivating to hear the amount of cell phones being dropped by people. The serenity and quietness during a dressage test was regularly disturbed by thumps. I watched the young horses from 10 AM till 17 'o clock and literally every ride there was at least one celling hitting the floor. The young horses were quite sharp with all that noise, but overall coped really well, probably better than most warmblood and this is a testimony to their rideability and probably general greater exposure to everyday stimuli. No bubble wrapping here.

I continue to be irked by the popularity of saddles with huge knee and thigh blocks. They look made for para dressage riders who need help with their stability. Funnily I watched a bit of CPEDI para dressage this year and they in fact ride in flatter saddles with less support than most able bodied dressage riders! At SICAB I saw so many riders sitting constricted in their saddle with their thighs banging against the block instead of having a quiet leg as part of an independent seat. Don't get me wrong, I understand the comfort and security such a safety saddle gives, but it will not stimulate a rider to improve his seat and use the aids correctly. Flapping and forwarded extended lower legs abound.

What I also wished for was that the name of the horse in the arena and its pedigree, breeder and owner info e up on the big screen during the ride of the horse. While it's cool to see the PRE logo in the backdrop, I prefer to have that info in eyesight throughout the test.

At a certain point I sat close to the show secretary who was calculating the test scores manually. It was a blast from the past because the last time I saw scores being added up by fingers punching a calculator was in the 1990s. The guy's punched the buttons faster than a pianist playing the Rach 3. It also reminded me of those slot machine addicts in Las Vegas. Tap tap tap.

Time to Explore

Lily Forado standing on a sandbag for the
interview with Raul Arcos

The fun part about SICAB is that you can explore so many different worlds, different disciplines. It is fun to just stroll around, see the horses, forage in the trade fair, have a sip of wine, and chat horse. I stopped at the beautifully designed U.S. PRE booth, where i caught up with the American delegation including Kimberly van Kampen, Jane Bistline, and Tanya Duffey, amongst others.

The last evening we ventured into the historic center of Seville. As the capital of Andalusia, Seville has to be on your bucket list. It is the town where explorer Christopher Columbus is buried and there are so many historic monuments that make your eyes pop. You can soak up the architectural beauty of this pocket size town and eat in the most delicious restaurants for unbelievably cheap prices!

My 2024 trip to SICAB concluded with the US PRE dinner in town. It was a fun event with a mix of Americans and Spaniards. I chatted with ANCCE secretary-general Manolo Gonzalez and his wife as well as got introduced to US Under 25 rider Sophia Schults and US junior rider Justine Boyer, who was celebrating her 18th birthday that weekend. It was a lovely finish to two inspiring days that gave me energy, motivation, and a hankering to come back next year!

Colourful trailer in the trade fair. My first car was that colour.