By Caryn Vesperman
This article was nominated for the 2025 GMO Newsletter Awards for general interest articles for GMOs with 75-174 members. It appeared in the Wisconsin Dressage and Combined Training Association newsletter, eQuester, June 2025.
It’s a big step coming down centerline in the CDI ring.
Imagine riding a test in front of five judges from all over the world. Imagine warming up in the schooling area with international riders. Imagine riding in front of people in the bleachers and VIP tent with banners flapping and dishes clinking, even crashing to the floor.
You tell yourself it’s just another test in a normal-size dressage ring. You tell yourself you’re checking off another thing on your bucket list and to have fun, no matter what happens.
All of those thoughts were only part of what was going through my mind when Janet Foy, whom I train with, said, “You’re ready. Do it.”
And after it’s all over, with mistakes and a horse health scare, you say you’d….do it again. In a heartbeat.
What’s Different about a CDI?
So what’s different besides the show designation of CDI (Concours de Dressage International)? Turns out—a lot!
Besides judges needing to have the extra FEI * designation to sit in the judge’s box, riders and their horses need to meet several requirements:
Passport
Not for you—your horse (unless you’re competing outside of the U.S., then you’ll need one too). In the U.S. there are two kinds of passports: a USEF national passport (cost $50) and an FEI passport ($300).
A passport is a document that allows horses and ponies to be accurately identified and more easily transported internationally. They must be revalidated every four years. In the U.S., passports are intended for horses competing in FEI-regulated competitions and—new for next year: tracking health issues. (See the USEF website for details.)
The FEI passport also contains a unique equine life number (UELN), which is also the horse’s passport number. Since 2009, horses must have a microchip number recorded on the passport. (The microchip—a specific model—is inserted by your veterinarian in a designated area in the horse’s crest. It’s about the size of a rice grain.)
How do you get a passport? In the US, owners request one from the USEF. A blank passport along with a packet of information is sent to you, which you share with your veterinarian, who will complete it. Once completed, you send it back to the USEF for final approval.
The passport contains the UELN, the microchip number, your horse’s pedigree, and documentation of the required influenza vaccinations. It also contains diagrams of the horse (body, head, legs), which your veterinarian must hand-draw of your horse’s markings (blaze, socks/stockings, hair whirls, etc.).
Entering a CDI
This is fairly simple. You find the show on Equestrian Hub (an app you need to download) and enter. However, you can’t forget to get the USEF’s permission to enter a CDI.
You also need to download the FEI Horse app. You need to set up a password for this because it contains all your horse’s information: owner, rider, horse health, movement, pictures, documents (including the FEI passport information).
This app is also where you have to document your horse’s temperature twice a day for three days before the competition and twice a day during the competition. Also, you have to complete a self-assessment the morning of your arrival at the show when you meet the FEI veterinarian who examines your horse (including its temperature—you take the temperature with your own thermometer) and only then are you allowed to go to your assigned stall. If you don’t follow these rules, riders can get sanctions, which range from a warning to a monetary fine.
This is also the point you hand over your horse’s passport (you pick it up at the end of your stay). Now you’re allowed to take your horse to his stall. Fortunately you’re allowed to set up your horse’s stall ahead of time, which was nice for those of us who lived nearby.
Credentials
At an FEI competition, the barns are cordoned off from the public. Riders are allowed a limited number of individuals to have access into the barn area. This would include your groom, owner, trainer, etc. Prior to the competition, you send in your list with a head photo of each. When you arrive, you claim your credentials (a lanyard with a photo ID—see photo above). You must have this on to enter the barn area, and you need to announce your horse’s bridle number (which obviously has to be on the horse when outside of its stall) when leaving or returning to the barn area.
The Jog
This is where the horses are presented in-hand, all spiffed up and usually braided, to the judge and FEI veterinarian. It’s a bit of a stress for the riders/owners because this is the “test” that determines whether your horse is sound to compete.
The horses are brought up one at a time (you choose your jog time on the Equestrian Hub app too). You stand them up (or at least try!), while the microchip reader is passed over the horse’s neck and the numbers are compared to your horse’s passport, which have been brought out from the show office for this. The riders are then asked to trot their horses straight away and then back toward the judge and FEI veterinarian.
There is always a sigh of relief when the rider hears the word, “Pass!” If there is a question about soundness because maybe the horse was tense or went so crooked that it looked unsound, the rider has the opportunity to re-present. If the horse is unquestionably unsound, the horse is excused from competing.
After the jog at my first CDI, many generous sponsors donated items—from nice handbags to bag chairs, glassware to hats, phone chargers, and more.
Schooling Before the Classes
The times and locations of when the rings are open for schooling is shared prior to the competition and posted at the barn. I wanted an opportunity to get into the international ring—as did most every other CDI competitor. My sister, who graciously flew in to be my groom, got my horse, Diamond Dureza (Zeza) ready and off we rode. Basically I just rode her around the arena (too many riders inside it and Zeza likes her space from other horses). We mostly walked with a little trot and canter. She was perfect and never looked at anything.
The next day, Thursday, the show was underway, so I couldn’t school in the international ring unless I wanted to go in there from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. I talked to Jennifer Williams, one of the U.S.’s international riders about doing that, and she advised against it. Based on her experience, that was the time when they start setting up for breakfast in the VIP tent (which is on two sides of the arena), so they’re whipping open the plastic sides of the VIP tent and there are a lot of sudden noises, such as dishes clattering or falling to the floor. I agreed that I didn’t want that impression of the arena to be in Zeza’s head!
Since my classes were Friday and Saturday, I just schooled Zeza in the warm-up ring. Again, she didn’t spook, but was a bit cautious with the noise of the metal bleachers. (The warm-up ring is on the backside of the bleachers for the international ring.) She felt a bit tense when people were going up and down the metal stairs or their seats snapped closed, but she never spooked. I was very proud of her.
The Small Tour
I was doing the adult amateur small tour, which means riding the Prix St. George on Friday and the Intermediare I test on Saturday. Zeza warmed up beautifully, but I admit, the five minutes before I was called into the international ring for my test felt like five hours! Once I was going around the arena, I calmed down. I had seen the view of this arena from the judge’s box as a scribe for six years, so I was thrilled to be actually going into the arena and looking at the judge’s boxes, not out from them.
I was surprised that I wasn’t that nervous. Both test rides went ok, but I had mistakes that I shouldn’t have. For example, I can usually count on Zeza standing quite square and immobile at the halt; however, she was a little amped up and wanted to get going. Then in the tests on both days, Zeza was super sensitive to my aids for the flying changes so the first set of changes had mistakes but the second line were fine. Specifically, in the PSG test, my four-time changes were threes and in my Int. 1 test, my threes were twos (but the next line in the test were clean because I backed off on my timing). She also got stuck in one of my canter pirouettes (which has never happened), and she did a quick one-time change in the corner where she should have stayed in counter canter. But I was super happy that, overall, we both kept our nerves in check.
Then it was pack up and go to the show office to sign out and collect Zeza’s passport.
The show office, which included Monica Fitzgerald and Wisconsinite, Deb Heier (who doesn’t know Deb?), were extremely helpful to a newbie like me. They answered my questions and made sure I completed everything required by our national federation (the USEF) and the FEI. Without them, I’m sure to have gotten a sanction or two!
Again?!
It’s expensive to compete in a CDI (about the cost of taking two horses to one of our national shows), and I thought I would do just one during my winter season. However, after a week, I decided I wanted to try again to clean up my mistakes, so I signed up for another. The good news this time was that Janet Foy could be there, so I wasn’t going solo. I worked super hard to get more secure in all the movements for the PSG and I1 tests, and I felt ready. And…my sister flew back to Wellington to groom for me again. I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have a sister who helps and supports me in my dream (plus, we have a good time together)!
So, a repeat of the same routine: sign up for the show, start taking temperatures three days before, set up the stall, arrive with Zeza, and do the jog on Wednesday. This time Zeza was more settled for the jog. It was kind of cool to wait our turn in the “holding pen” (one of the dressage arenas) and see Adrienne Lyle walking Helix, waiting for her turn.
After the jog, I schooled Zeza around the international ring once again. There were at least six horses in the ring, so I chose just to walk, trot and canter her on the outside, only entering and going down the centerline to a halt to test her immobility. She was perfect.
Something was Different This Time
On Thursday Janet was gong to school me at 8:30 a.m.
Zeza came out of her stall, stretching her left hind leg out behind her. That seemed a little odd, but I thought maybe she was just doing a morning stretch since she hadn’t gotten her morning turn-out. As soon as I sat on her, I didn’t think she felt right. She felt a little hitchy in her croup area. I walked her up to the warm-up to meet Janet. I told Janet what I felt and asked if she saw anything in the walk. She said she looked a bit short in the reach of her left hind leg, but as I walked her more, it disappeared. I trotted and cantered her, did a lot of the movements including flying changes, and while she didn’t feel lame or have the typical head nod associated with a lameness, she still felt a little tight over her croup. So I decided that I would walk and hand graze her a lot for the rest of the day.
About an hour after her bath and munching on her hay, Zeza stopped eating and wasn’t enticed even by an apple. I took her temperature and, while she is normally about 99.5, she was 100.6. Not a panic, but I knew something wasn’t right. I felt I had to go get the FEI veterinarian. He came back and decided we needed to call the local, on-call veterinarian.
The vet arrived in about 15 minutes, put on a haz-mat suit and entered her stall. He took her temperature and checked her over. Of course, the worry with a temperature is EHV1, the equine herpes virus of which the neurologic virus has a 30-50% mortality rate. Even if she had EHV4 (the most common) or EIV, the fact that she could spread it to others was a big concern. The vet observed that her left hind was slightly filled and picked it up and put pressure just below her hock and Zeza just about leaped out of the stall. The vet looked at me and said, “I think you just dodged a bullet. I think it’s cellulitis.”
However, as a precaution, we had to move her to an isolation stall. The vets pulled blood and told me they’d have clinical results in a few hours and Florida state results in a day or so. He also gave her some Banamine to make her more comfortable, and within an hour, she started to eat her hay. The FEI and on-call veterinarian thanked me for reporting this so soon, as they said not all competitors put their horses first.
Then I called the vet I use, Dr. Dryden (who use to be head of podiatry at Rood & Riddle in Lexington, KY) to give him the heads up. It was a long three hours, waiting for the results, so when I got the text showing the results for all four viruses were negative, I was ecstatic. I called the shipper to pick her up, and called Dr. Dryden to let him know we were on the way back to the barn. Long story short, Dr. Dryden confirmed cellulitis, so she was put on antibiotics, and he told me to start walking her the next day under saddle to keep the fluid accumulation in her hind leg down, and as long as her temperature was going down, I could gradually ramp up her work because movement to keep her blood flowing and fluids from accumulating in her leg was better than standing in the stall. She was back to full work in a few days, and was on antibiotics for two weeks. So with this CDI, I learned a lot about how the CDI horse health process works too.
My sister said the competitors who had stalls around Zeza were concerned when she started packing up her old stall so the show crew could disinfect it. I can’t say that I blame them. I’m sure they breathed a sign of relief, hearing that the blood tests were negative.
Speaking of the other competitors, I was so grateful with how willing they were to answer my questions and support me in my venture into the CDI world. The camaraderie among the competitors was a highlight and made me feel very welcome and comfortable.
Would I do a CDI again?As I stated at the beginning: in a heartbeat!
