Eventing dressage tests vs regular dressage tests

[Libby2563]

What do people like/dislike about eventing dressage vs regular dressage tests? Are there any features of one you’d like to see in the other?

My likes of eventing tests:

• I love the diagonals off of and onto centerline in Beginner Novice A! It’s so much more doable for green horses/riders than the 10 m turns. A bonus is not having to ride a green horse directly towards C upon entry while they’re giving the judge’s booth the hairy eyeball! I’d love to see that in Intro and maybe Training 1.

Dislikes of eventing tests:

• Canter lengthenings on a 20 m circle. I found this so weird when I first encountered it. Do they not trust event horses not to bolt down the long side?? We’re often doing dressage on grass and even with studs, I don’t feel like I can really go for the lengthening on a circle. Does anyone else hate this?
• The new “harmony” collective. I don’t understand the point of this other than to shorten time between rides. In theory it seems like it should be more or less an average of all your other scores, in which case it doesn’t affect the result. I’m down with not having a gaits collective but I feel like impulsion, submission (maybe called harmony), and rider provided more useful feedback. Plus on a super tense horse you could sometimes get the little “tactfully ridden” boost in your rider score, ha.

I’m also curious if anyone knows how organizers choose which test will be ridden at an event (A, B, C). Are B / C supposed to correlate with greater difficulty on XC, vs A? Or do events try to coordinate to offer some variety throughout the year? Or is it random? Looking at my records from the past few years I did about 40% A / 60% B at Training but 83% A / 17% B / 0% C at Modified.

[Highflyer1]

I’ve been told that the A tests are “easier” and more suitable for the beginning of the season but in practice it seems like for every event/venue that does A the first half and B the second, there is an event/venue that uses the same test year round.

This test cycle I’ve only done Starter/ BN A/ BN B/Novice A and I don’t have super strong feelings about any of them. I don’t really like the diagonal at the beginning and I definitely dislike the trot half circle to canter circle in BN A (huge struggle to remember where to stop) but that isn’t new. There a few random things that annoy me because they don’t feel intuitive so they’re hard to remember (for example there is a lot of just trotting around the ring at the end of BN A and the halt being at G in the end of BN B is confusing).

I don’t feel like the harmony score has made a huge difference but I tend to get similar scores on all the collective marks on this horse anyway so thst might be why.

I do like that they are mostly symmetrical-- I did the western dressage tests a lot for a bit and found them very hard to learn (but I am also pretty dyslexic.)

[ghst13]

Since lower level eventing tests are frequently held in a small arena, I dislike the use of the short diagonals in those tests. It makes the turn from the corner to the opposite mid point of the long side feel pretty steep.

Novice B is kinda strange with all the walk work at the end, including the final turn onto the center line at the walk. And it has those short diagonals, though it rode okay.

[Janet]

@Libby2563

I love the diagonals off of and onto centerline in Beginner Novice A! It’s so much more doable for green horses/riders than the 10 m turns.

I hate them. ESPECIALLY with a green horse.

Instead of doing one 90 deg turn at C you have to make a much sharper turn (effectively 60 deg) at M (or H). It is MUCH easier to ride a square than a triangle, and the turn from the diagonal is effectively the corner of a triangle. AND it has a radius less than 10m. Since it is 6m from M to the corner, the radius of the turn is less than 6m.

WRT the Harmony score, I am glad they got rid of the separate score for gaits.

[Libby2563]

@ghst13

Since lower level eventing tests are frequently held in a small arena, I dislike the use of the short diagonals in those tests. It makes the turn from the corner to the opposite mid point of the long side feel pretty steep.

Omg yes, the worst IMO is Training B, where you track right at C then have a short diagonal out of the corner and then immediately a 15 m circle when you hit E. It’s the most awkward series of turns and I can’t understand why anyone would write it into a test.

In general I feel like the eventing tests flow a little less easily than regular dressage tests and have more strange geometry like that, but then again I started in dressage so it might just be what I’m used to. I also did FEI dressage tests only from about 2009-2018 then switched to eventing, which means my familiarity with USEF dressage tests is not very current!

[beowulf]

I don’t have many complaints about either test types, granted, it’s been a few years since I’ve shown recognized dressage though I do step into the sandbox unrated a few times a year at a local dressage venue.

In Eventing BN I actually like the half diagonal - it’s a great exercise on its own. I don’t have a big ring, so we’re used to things coming up quick. I like that it steadies and balances a green horse that might get looky at the judge booth. In really tense greenies, trotting straight down the centerline towards something spooky sometimes sent them. I find the half diagonal much kinder.

I like the flow of BN. I love that we don’t halt & salute until the last centerline. I can’t stand the current Training tests. They are jarring. I agree eventing tests have less of the natural flow.

My last few tests I didn’t get the best Harmony scores although I felt our test[s] were largely smooth. Granted, I was on very green horses, but a 6 was humbling. I used to get pretty good collective marks. I appreciate the problem they were trying to address by having a good moving horse ‘score’ twice.

I look forward to being able to get out next spring and seeing more how that Harmony score influences us. My show season came to an abrupt halt a few weeks ago after discovering my routinely maintained trailer needs to be retired.

[Gardenhorse]

I agree that the harmony score does not seem very useful. I like not having a halt on the initial centerline. For some reason the canter transitions on the half circle in BN A never ride well for me even though in theory it seems like they should.

[SimpleSimon]

Not a huge fan of the harmony score but I’m currently riding a mare - who has very visual opinions about almost everything.

[LittleMare]

Totally agree on the canter lengthening on a circle. So hard to show a difference!

[Libby2563]

@beowulf

In really tense greenies, trotting straight down the centerline towards something spooky sometimes sent them.

“Something spooky” like the blue table of death?

[HorsesinHaiti]

FWIW, I find it easier to scribe regular dressage tests. The form I’ve been handed for hand scribing Eventing tests doesn’t give the scribe much room to write! It may be that I’ve been given prints of the form that’s supposed to be typed into instead of handwritten.

Jumping from test to test after every third rider is what gives me fits. It’s great if the judge gives lots of comments but then I get writing so fast I get lost on when to change boxes - especially when the judge forgets if turn off centerline, round the short end into a circle at B is one score/ box or two and tends to wait a few beats before giving a number anyway.

[Carried_Away]

Another vote for hating this movement - it’s much harder to balance while lengthening on a circle than a straight line.

Prelim C is also a nightmare and quite counterintuitive, you basically turn the opposite way that logic says you should turn and it’s hard to get into a flow even though it’s in a standard arena. I remember when it first came out, half of my division at that first show had errors!