An afternoon of learning, insight, and inspiration
By Annemarie Cochrane
Center Line Success brought dressage and eventing perspectives together for an engaged audience at Dressage at Devon 2026.
Putting Knowledge into Practice
Center Line Success, sponsored by Team Tate Academy and hosted by USDF, provided 80 attendees with a wealth of knowledge to put into practice. Jeanne McDonald, USEF ‘S’ Dressage judge, and Heather Gillette, USEF ‘S’ Eventing judge, generously took time out of their day to present, and attendees received a USDF educational credit.
Bringing Two Disciplines Together
My co-organizer, Mary Grace, and I formulated this topic after an adult amateur eventer asked Mary if she would explain the scoring system from a judge’s perspective, so he could better understand why he was receiving the scores he was. The explanation presented a wonderful opportunity to bring the dressage and eventing disciplines together to help riders better understand what judges see and want to reward.
Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.
— Anton Chekhov
I have been fortunate to know both Jeanne and Heather for several years. In fact, Jeanne is responsible for my love of dressage; I rode with her for more than 25 years. We are good friends, and she encouraged me to pursue my USEF “r” Eventing license. I met Heather when we were going through the USEF “r” Eventing testing together in 2019. Heather has been a good friend and an inspiration to me as she has progressed through the levels of judging.
The Focus: Success Down Center Line
Held in the Devon Room on Thursday during Dressage at Devon, the focus of the afternoon was learning tips on how not to lose points when riding your test in front of the judge.
In true teamwork fashion, Jeanne and Heather divided the topics and spent an hour and a half addressing how to understand the purpose of the level and directives in a test, and improving one’s test riding. The goal of being in harmony with your partner, always keeping your horse’s welfare paramount, adhering to the pyramid of training, using the scale of marks, the importance of accuracy, knowing your test— including the specifics—and so much more were covered.
There was a PowerPoint presentation for attendees to follow, and people listened attentively, took notes, and many asked questions and stayed to talk to Jeanne and Heather. The new 2027 US Dressage Tests were inquired about, but were not discussed in detail, as they had not been released as of the seminar.
Center Line Success Test Tips
For anyone who could not attend, Heather and Jeanne have put together Center Line Success Test Tips to help riders (below; originally posted on Annemarie’s TACK Culture). We hope everyone can use this knowledge in their training and showing.
Thank you to Mary, Jeanne, Heather, Lisa Engle and her volunteers at Dressage at Devon, Katherine Robertson of USDF, and Team Tate for their sponsorship.
Happy training and riding—and enjoy the journey with your partner.
