See joiedevie99 comment above…
You don’t “need” an L-graduate or above for your in-house shows. Just about anyone who rides dressage could give the kids a “good” experience while still giving good comments on how the kids could improve their test scores. Riding the patterns IS important even if the kid has bouncing hands and has to kick the pony to keep it moving. Circles should be circles even if the pony isn’t bent around the inside leg.
BUT most important, instill in the kids that 6, 7, and the occasional 8 are GOOD dressage scores. Almost NO one gets 10’s on their movements. And you can take the comments from the judge and use them as teaching tools for their next lessons.
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I think the OP is missing the point of Intro tests. First, like all the tests, they ARE tests, not merely a place to come ride in public.
Then, they are not the exclusive arena of beginner riders. Plenty of riders who are experienced not only in riding but in showing, too, bring their youngsters to shows at Intro level.
If your kids aren’t ready to walk and trot with contact and control, they probably aren’t ready for public horse shows, schooling or otherwise. I would say we don’t need to dumb it down any further, but people would get their panties in a twist and we can’t have that.
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excellent point!
The goal is to introduce someone new to dressage to the sport, not to introduce a new rider. You would not want a new rider to be riding independently at a show, too much can go wrong. Riders should not enter shows (outside of leadline divisions) until they are able to control a horse. My 2 cents.
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I think the OP is really looking for something like the academy classes in other horse sports - a competitive place for kids on schoolies they don’t necessarily have control over or even ride regularly. They are safe and able to complete the pattern, but not able to meet the directives of the level they can steer around.
I’m torn on the thought - I think anything to bring in interest in dressage would be great. But its sort of antithetical to the nature of the sport to exempt out proper development of the horse from a sport centered around that one single principle.
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True, but a dressage judge isn’t going to be mean to a 6yo kid on a pony if the reins are loose and the pony isn’t round. I’ve seen plenty of kid’s first shows ever were at Intro. I don’t think it discourages kids riding dressage to have those directives on the test.
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That’s my understanding. I’m far from a beginner rider but a couple of years ago dipped my toe in to the dressage waters taking my QH to a show and riding into A and B. It was a great experience. I learned how it all works, how they score etc.
If it was for rank beginners then I probably looked like a moron :D.
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I agree that the OP is overthinking this and not appreciating the tremendous variation in meaning similar terms can have as you go up the levels.
At this level, horses and ponies are not expected to be “round and on the bit”. Judge is happy if they show some acceptance and softness. Correct bending pretty much means not having the horse counterbent at this point. “quiet” seat and hands are also relative to the level.
The scoring system needs to be explained, though. First timers may not realize that it is not like school grades. While judges tend to score gently at this level at schooling shows, riders need to appreciate that a “6” is “satisfactory” not nearly failing!
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Rail classes at local stable h/j shows are a great start for riders entering competition before going down center line.
Host your own schooling home shows and invite other stables like your own to attend to help off set costs. You control who you hire as a kid-friendly, beginner-friendly judge. You can then also set the day - maybe the beginner-friendly judge gives each rider positive feedback. You could also create your own simple first timer pre-intro walk-trot dressage tests.
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Yes, I am realizing that USDF Intro A and Intro B are probably not a good fit for this lesson kids demographic and that’s fine.
(they are competent kids but we don’t let them even attempt a “soft contact” until they’re passed what would be the equivalent of a D2 Pony Club rating. Lesson ponies don’t deserve to have their mouth yanked around by people still figuring out how to trot with an independent seat).
Our options locally for flat classes are:
- Western Pleasure Open or 4 H shows
- Rail classes at breed/color shows (mostly Arabian saddle-seat type)
- Dressage Schooling shows
So if you follow a Pony Club type curriculum like we do, that leaves the dressage type schooling shows. But without a class that really works as an “academy” type class.
I think this may be a misunderstanding of the term intro.
I would not consider an intro level dressage test to be for beginner riders.
It is more for getting young horses out into a lower pressure test, or for already skilled riders making a transition from say hunters.
It’s not designed for beginner lesson kids, it’s not like a trot poles jumper class.
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Yes, that’s what we did - but we are struggling finding judges who accept to judge them (not many judges/competent advanced riders open to judging in our area and most want to focus on the horse and its gaits).
And unfortunately the closest H/J barn is about 4 hours away (one-way) with a trailer so that makes the kid-friendly H/J type of rail classes a bit harder…
And, we try to avoid group classes as there is so much pre-teen drama at this age that we don’t need to add more fuel to the fire by having lesson mates compete against each other… 
Yes, that seems to have been my misunderstanding…
So what is there for beginner youth riders - who are not learning a huntseat type of position and not doing Western Pleasure?
When I was a kid we had rail classes.
But honestly I don’t feel riding should necessarily be crammed into a competitive format before children can even ride independently.
Also from my observations of Pony Club at my barn they mostly focus on jump seat because the eventual goal is cross country. Dressage comes later.
You can’t really ride dressage until you have control of the aids.
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For sure!
But not offering anything suitable for beginner kids/riders at schooling shows also keeps out of the discipline a large chunk of the population who could benefit from being in this environment and observing more advanced riders.
It’s unfortunate that there are no academy type “educational flatwork” classes (that emphasize accuracy, rhythm, and rider’s position) in this country as you can find in continental Europe - which I guess is what I was hoping to be able to find here as well.
(And I should point out that the kids can safely ride independently - just not in the “frame” that local judges seem to expect.)
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Ahem, you clearly haven’t met our last couple of judges we invited to judge our in-house shows… sigh (let alone the one who might have been giving encouraging comments content-wise but in such language that she really wasn’t fit to be around children?)
We have relatively beginning riders do Intro A and B at in-house academy shows all the time. We teach them in advance that at their stage, a 4 or 5 is to be expected, and if they get 6’s, they should celebrate. We bring in qualified judges (not necessarily recognized), and explain in advance that for our purposes, we don’t mind voice cues (within reason), and we are not looking for any real contact (although we do prefer to see correct bend). Depending on the Judge, and accounting for their audience, the scores are typically coming back in the 50’s or 60’s and the kids and parents are all pleasantly surprised because we had them ready for 40’s or 50’s. These are perfectly appropriate tests for riding schools and beginning riders, and we also sometimes will have a separate division for more experienced riders on greener horses. I think you are reading to much into the “ideal” and not giving credence to the practical realities that your judges have enough judgment and discretion to give feedback appropriate to the level of rider and don’t hold the 6 year old on a 30 year old pony to the same standard as an experienced 30 year old rider on a lovely young horse. We will typically group the riders so that the true beginners are their own division; the slick juniors are their own division; etc. We also combine separate poles classes and flat classes for these shows, and use the same general rider groupings so that the similarly experienced are riding against each other. The savvy judges know to spread the results around a little to help counteract the kid on your best lesson horse winning all the blues, which can cause a little angst. Our kids generally do’t have any hard feelings about placings relative to each other…my older ladies (60s-70s) can be a different story! We talk a lot about what judging is or isn’t before the shows to try to give them some perspective
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Great to hear! You seem to be doing something similar to what we have been doing but after some unsuccessful conversations with potential judges and some of the comments earlier on this thread, I was beginning to second guess myself that perhaps Intro A and Intro B were not suitable for our purposes… Thanks!
The beginner-ish kids at our local shows do the dressage seat equitation classes. They are group classes to be sure, but they are designed to judge the kid not the horse.
And maybe they need some lessons in sportsmanship if they can’t handle competing against each other in a group.
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