I’m curious about how much time people devote to practicing tests leading up to a show. Say 6 weeks out, then 4, then 2, then a few days out from a competition?
I don’t think that I agree with my new trainer’s approach, but it seems really arrogant of me to go to her and say, “hey, I think I know better!” I’m looking for other perspectives before I cause trouble.
I don’t. I may string a couple of movements together but that’s as far as it goes.
I practiced tests because I enjoyed it, but if I was planning to do the test at a show I practiced it out of order, or on a different horse than the one I was planning to show. What I found though, is that even if my horse knew parts of the test he didn’t anticipate unless he was nervous. So as long as I could keep him calm enough it didn’t really matter if he knew what was coming next, and sometimes even helped.
Depends on the horse.
In the weeks leading up to a horse show, frequently. But this is tempered by things like tempis with a horse who anticipates. For instance, we might practice a test but instead of riding 4 and 3 tempis, we ride two sets of fours. Also I might not halt on my centre lines (or wait until G) as horse likes to think ahead. Outside of show season, we practice movements from tests, sometimes in sequence.
To answer your question: 6 weeks - likely riding through movements; 4 weeks - start making our way through all three tests for the level; 2 weeks - have ridden all the tests (with modifications as above); and a few days before - definitely riding through the most challenging test of the level, including the warm up day at the horse show (if the ring is empty enough).
My horse is clever and likes to anticipate. But I don’t know how I could go and successfully ride through a test without having ridden it a few times, unless it was training or first. This helps with visualization too.
jayessbee - Also have horse who thinks he knows the tests, so I rarely ride one all the way through, except when its totally new to me. Then I might run through 4 weeks out to see where challenges are. Then maybe 3-4 times as we get closer.
I will work on sections that are more difficult for us. I will also avoid going walk to canter at the correct spot as it helps limit the amount of jigging 8 feet before the letter! I also don’t stop at X but ride further.
Depends on the horse. My smarty pants arab STILL knows Training 3 and 1st 3 by heart and it’s been years since she did them. You start either one and she tries to take over and gets peeved if you stop her from doing it “right”. So on her, you don’t practice the full test except maybe once or twice and you put other things in between. On some other horses I’ve ridden, you can school it until your heart’s content and it didn’t affect the horse’s way of going.
I don’t do full tests very often, but I regularly do the pieces- isn’t it already part of the horses’ daily training? So I know already how to ride the movements.
I’ll string together a few segments as my horse does anticipate a lot.
Quite frequently. My trainer realizes he isn’t a “show rider” and doesn’t train us that way, and we practice tests or pieces of them to help make up for it.
By that I mean, we tend to all school for the perfect balance and prep into a transition, rather than transition at a specific letter. If the horse is losing balance onto its forehand, volte and shoulder in before you go back to working on tempo and steadiness of the working trot on a straight line, getting sluggish - ask for a lengthening on the long side (or short side, depending on horse and current location in the arena.) My trainer uses pieces of tests to help us get the idea of riding as we need to in order to “get the job done” as well as possible when we have to do movements at specific points. It’s not necessarily the test we’ll ride, as he has thrown in simplified versions of the FEI tests he or his wife are riding at times, had me run through a second level test one day (I’m showing first), etc. Leading up to a show, we will practice our specific tests without stopping probably 3-4 times/week starting a few weeks out. I find because of everything else we do, anticipation isn’t a problem. It’s also natural to me if needed to throw in a shoulder in to balance or whatever other movement, rather than just keep going on the test if my horse is anticipating.
My primary discipline is not dressage, but we do show half a dozen or so dressage shows a year. We’re doing a freestyle this year, and I think I ran through that more than I have with any previous test, maybe 4 or 5 times total in the month before we first did it. We just did our first 1st level test this Sunday, and I rode through the entire test exactly once, the Wednesday before the show, in a jump saddle, in the middle of an open field with no markers :lol:
Mine is smart, and will anticipate, so I rarely do more than put a few pieces together while warming up. And because my primary discipline is eq/jumpers, I also don’t do any schooling of lead changes during my jump lessons the week before a dressage show, since both T-3 and 1-1 have a canter across the diagonal with a trot transition at X, and I don’t want her thinking she’s supposed to change automatically! (Obviously she does do changes on course, but that’s different than specifically doing a change from a rollback or across the diagonal, which we do sometimes do as a part of warmup.)
I will often walk my dressage test on a loose rein while thinking it through in my head. Any lateral work I just ride as straight. This allows me to memorize my test but then gets rid of any actual test learning by the horse.
As for practicing the test as is I definitely will do this on occasion leading up to the show. But the amount depends upon the horse. As I moved up the levels I didn’t find the horse anticipation to be a problem, he knew to wait for me but then would give it his all. Some horses I have ridden do not wait well for the rider, and for those horses I would just practice some of the more difficult movements by themselves but mixing up the location. But I never once went in cold turkey.
I don’t. I string a couple movements together and practice those if needed. But I choose tests based on where we are in our training instead of training to the test. I am very good at memorizing tests and run through them on a print off of a dressage ring.
I found out that my horse quickly memorizes the test and he starts doing things by himself and too quickly what is very bad. That’s why I usually practice movements from the test separately and only do the whole test maybe two or three times before show.
I practice my test on paper, and I’ve had students walk the test in a down sized arena with paper cups for letters. Use any method that works for you.
With some horses, you can ride the tests 8 days a week, and have no problem. With other horses, ride it twice and they will ride it for you. Not always a good thing. :no:
Like others said, I practice pieces. I might ride thru once early in the season but really, aspects and questions of the tests are part of the regular training protocol. I do my test learning on paper and by eye. I think I remember practicing the timing and placement of canter walk canter transitions in second level but otherwise I dont think I rehearsed tests.
So far, you guys seem to more or less be on the same page as me. A few weeks ago we ran through the tests we plan on showing soon with our trainer to find the tricky parts, so that was good. But in the weeks since, we still stick to riding the tests in lessons, and not much else. I know we are retrogressing, but I never thought about the possibility that it could be the horse anticipating the next movement as the cause of this lost progress. He is a very smart guy, and I think he thinks that he is doing the right thing by getting from X and back again as quickly as possible. He was a very good racehorse at one point in his life, so that is probably pretty instinctual. This is all very interesting, thanks for your input.
I know a young, up and coming rider (who I suspect will become a very big name within the next several years) who only ever walks the pattern of the test with the horse before he rides it in a show. Even if the horse has never shown that test before, the first time he strings all the movements together is in the show ring. And it works, it’s amazing.
I struggle with memorizing, so I try to ride them once a week starting six weeks out. That said, I don’t have a ring, so half of my once-a-week practice rides are actually at schooling shows.
The first time I decide I’m going to try a test, I run through it a couple of times to make sure it flows as I thought, and to see where my horse may find it harder, or easier. Then I just work on segments here and there. Horses are super smart, I don’t need them memorizing the test! I will run through it in my mind too help memorize it. Then the first time I show it, I’ll run through it a few days before the show to figure out any movements that we might need to polish
Oh, I personally run myself through it dozens and dozens of times. Scribbled on the sides of papers while I’m waiting around, traced on my steeringwheel at stoplights, any time, any place. I need all the help I can get, and appreciate that I get to memorize things well in advance, and don’t have to learn new tests too often!
The horse is the one I don’t want knowing it. She starts anticipating inside turns on jumpoff courses having ridden over the course once. I don’t need that kind of smarts applied to my dressage tests :lol: Useful in her day job, though!
Like others have said, I mostly just school portions of the test. I’ll ride the whole thing through maybe once or twice before a show, and sometimes not at all. We mostly school the interesting or challenging sequences.
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