This fellow had on a belt buckle the size of Rhode Island . . . No, No. Make that Delaware. He wore a Stetson hat that put to shame the one worn by Hoss Cartwright on the old TV show “Bonanza.” (If you’re too young to remember “Bonanza,” go over to Wikipedia and look it up.)

Standing behind me in the line formed waiting to enter the Men’s room he noticed the press credentials dangling from my neck and he said, “I hope this won’t offend you, but my darlin’ wife dragged me to this show and I think these here dressage horses are the prissiest lookin’ bunch of critters on the face of the Earth. The people on their backs look like they’ve got broom sticks . . . .” Well, you will have to guess the rest. This is a family publication, after all.
Photo: Axel Steiner by Terri Miller Steiner

I asked this chap if he had had a chance to hear Axel Steiner’s description of the test ride that preceded the afternoon’s dressage test. When he said that he and his missus arrived late, I took my FM receiver, held it out toward my dialogue partner as we stood on line, and invited him to plug it into his ear. Ten minutes later I watched him amble down the corridor as he went to the sales table and plunked down eighty hard earned bucks to buy two receivers, one for him and one for the missus, with which they could listen to the remainder of the day’s broadcast commentary.

Chalk this small victory up to one of the best ambassadors U.S. dressage has in its arsenal, “O” level judge, Axel Steiner. Nearly everybody who is “in the know” in the dressage world is familiar with this charming and affable gentleman – either in person or by reputation – but after the 2007 edition of the FEI World Cup Final, Axel should be enshrined on the Olympus of dressage.

I could provide you with several of what are probably hundreds of reasons for such a recognition of this gentle man’s talents, but I will prick your curiosity about him with a mere one overarching example followed by two specific instances and will then leave it to you to explore at your leisure the depths of this treasure named Axel.

My case in point loops back to the man who thought dressage was a sissy sport practiced by hoity-toity individuals; people who like to put on formal attire in the middle of the afternoon and mince around on horseback. He is not alone in this world. There are thousands, perhaps millions of people who, if they know dressage at all, view it as a cold, impersonal, technically demanding form of sport.

Okay. So my caricature of those who are not conversant with dressage presents them as correct on that last point: it IS technically demanding. But this should never be a hurdle to guys with rodeo belt buckles and too-large Western hats appreciating the beautiful riding of Catherine Haddad, Isabell Werth, Edward Gal, Steffen Peters, and the rest of the boys and girls we see at this Final in Las Vegas or at local shows in our home neighborhoods.

Sound the trumpets and usher onto the stage Axel the Magnificent! I readily concede he is no more knowledgeable than Cara Witham who supplied the play-by-play commentary through our earpieces two years ago here in Las Vegas. Cara was (and is) a sweet, bright, and winsome presentor for the sport of dressage. Herr Steiner, however, has raised the bar of excellence in one stroke, he places an immensely human face upon the competition.

Here are the two specific samples I promised from the many I could supply:

(a) On the first day of the dressage rides, as Courtney King completed her final warm up movements before her Grand Prix test, Mister Steiner informed all within earshot of his broadcast that Courtney’s Mom, Mrs. Kellison King, was sitting at ringside. “Okay,” you may be thinking to yourself, “how does that bit of information gain Axel Steiner a seat in the Pantheon?” The hook that Axel planted in my and (I suspect) every listener’s heart was the additional fact that Kellison King had not been able to see her immensely talented daughter ride in quite some time and – now that she could be out and about to see Courtney take up the reins – her daughter is riding at the highest level possible and competing as a representative of her fatherland. Please pardon me, gentle reader, while I daub the corners of my eyes with a hankie.
Photo: Diana DeRosa - Courtney King in her signature pigtails during World Cup Warm Up.

(b) My second illustration is so similar to the first as to make me think that Axel Steiner has spent months recently visiting the homes of the top twenty or thirty dressage riders in the U.S. and sitting with these athletes’ parents reviewing their albums of baby photos. On the second day of dressage tests, during the Las Vegas Invitational, as Michael Barisone road his Grand Prix test Axel observed, “He’s a very talented rider, and he has perhaps the nicest mother in America. She is my favorite scribe. Whenever I have the opportunity to judge in New Jersey, I always ask if she is available to scribe for me.”

My mind went into overdrive. What could there be about Michael Barisone’s mother that qualifies her for sainthood in the canon of Axel Steiner? I typically steer clear of the post-competition press conferences (mea maxima culpa!), but this day I could not pass up the opportunity to quiz Michael about his mother. When asked about his Mom Michael volunteered that Peggy Barisone is a retired legal stenographer who is “very organized” and who likes very much Judge Steiner’s orderly approach to his work. Were it not for Axel Steiner neither I nor anyone else at this show would know that this burly hunk of dressage rider is just an old softy when it comes to his Mom. This may turn out to be a two hankie dressage final.

There you have it, my two bits of data from which I ask you to extrapolate the conclusion at which I have already arrived: We must clone Axel Steiner and send the exact duplicates of this dear fellow to every dressage show in the Americas. Once he is on the show grounds the local organizers will place the replicant in front of a microphone and the hundreds, nay thousands of reluctant husbands who believe dressage to be the equestrian equivalent of drinking one’s tea with a pinkie held resolutely high in the air – these persons will see the gentle, kind, and humane face of a wonderful activity wherein loving sons and daughters thrill their parents to the marrow with each passage, piaffe, and extended trot.

Thank you, Axel Steiner. I believe you to be a national treasure.

Footnote: Thank you, very much, to Ms. Terri Miller (Axel Steiner’s charming and oh-so-capable wife who runs her own equestrian photography business) and to Ms. Lendon Gray for their assistance with today’s article. You are wonderful gentle women!