Has anyone watched the CDS symposium with the new tests that’s available on youtube? Curious as to your thoughts at the lower levels (Training through 4th) and scoring/comments, especially related to the test level objectives.
I haven’t seen this - care to share a link?
I just went to youtube and did a search on CDS symposium and a whole bunch popped up. Thus I have spent the past 2 hours watching videos instead of the things I should be doing 
Lots of useful and thought provoking stuff so far.
What did you think?
I had to go look - since as far as I know, CDS has never put any free videos out to watch, and I’m a long time member and chair of one of the CDS chapters! It looks like San Diego Chapter put the videos out, not actually CDS itself (our GMO is CDS, which is huge, so we have area chapters that are all self supporting and do most of the educational events). San Diego is one of our biggest chapters (along with LA). I’ll have to check these out when I have time! So for anyone searching for it - look up San Diego CDS Symposium - each test is a separate video, so hard to give a link …
My chapter (which is in Northern CA) is doing a similar Symposium on Feb 2 with Sue Curry as our judge - if anyone is in NorCal, please do come!
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Lol, you first :D.
I was surprised by some of the individual movement scores for The horses at training level.
I have written and erased this post several times… not sure quite how to say it.
It’s very easy to see how, with this quality of horse, the discussion surrounding qualifying scores for freestyle would be A no brainer.
I think that’s all I can say for now.
I just watched one of the TL rides; the judge was very clear in her comments that correct gaits were more important that fancy and also emphasized correct riding. So, I’d say with this quality of horse and riding the discussion surrounding qualifying scores for anything would be a no brainer.
I was surprised that Donna Richardson’s GP stallion couldn’t do a decent second level test.
Deleted response to snarky post that was apparently deleted
The riding was mostly brilliant throughout.
Which ride are you talking about? There were three training level rides. Did you watch any that had the horse behind the vertical?
I watched Second test 1. I rode the 2015 version this past fall (as my end of the year goal even though we were not quite there). The judge on the video mentioned that the canter to walk and the canter serpentine with simple changes is now in Second test 2. Hallelujah. As the judge says… this makes the jump from First to Second much easier. I am looking forward to showing this test, seems to flow nicely. I can only hope to get as good a score as the horse that was in the video. The rider did a good job. Luckily we have at least four months more to work on this.
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I am on limited cell internet, so only watched 2-3 and 3-3. The horse who did 2-3 would have scored 50% on a test ridden like that if it weren’t a fancy mover. Instead, her total was probably around 70%. But comments of “too much neck bend, 7” and 12m circles getting 7s are just not reality to most of us.
The 3-3 ride was absolutely lovely, and horse was very nice - and I think overall her scores were lower despite being so much more correct and still on a pretty fancy horse.
Interesting to see what all of us are up against when we show normal horses - especially since few of us ride as well as the demo riders, especially as we are learning to go up the levels.
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Exactly what I’m talking about. You get it.
I got my second level scores at 2-1 with those and they were not my best scores, lol. Interesting that they are now in 2-2; I think second level scares so many off!
I have a question about the TL horse that had an upright neck and went behind the vertical. I’ve not ridden a horse anywhere close to that caliber, but IME, that posture comes with tension in the back and at the base of the neck. If he had this tension, clearly it didn’t affect this horse’s self carriage or freedom of the shoulder like it might on a less talented horse. Or maybe it did, he’s just a superstar mover! Did anyone see the kind of tension I’m talking about in the back? I was having trouble seeing it. Or is he holding all his tension in the neck and poll?
I watched TL-3 and the horse seems pretty much on the vertical to me.
Recently went to a scribe teaching clinic where I had an honest discussion with judges teaching about gaits’ quality effect on scores. The gist is the good gaits will win over the not so good gaits and mask a lot of mistakes. All can fairly compete for accuracy and such, but unless the uber mover makes egregious mistakes, that round will win over a less stellar mover. Interestingly, the judges had a different preference of “flashy” gaits - one preferred the modern flamboyant mover while the other tended to slightly more powerful but old style/baroque mover.
While it sounds very daunting, we watched videos where the so-so movers did win over the uber movers at lower levels while ridden by amateurs. The cooperation of rider and horse, accuracy of riding were more important at those levels.
They filmed the new tests at a stable near me. I thought they would be available by now. Anyone know anything about them?
Yes, that is pretty much what happens in reality too. In the L program and in the other judge’s programs (not open to auditors, so if you want insight, you have to run one, or scribe for a candidate), the quality of gaits is emphasized over and over and over. Yes, correct riding counts, yes accuracy counts, but the first thing noted in each movement’s directives is - quality of the gait.
When showing in Region 7, we get a lot of these super horses, so it becomes even more evident when riding a “normal” horse. With the fancy horse, even if they are tight and tense, they still look amazing. And even if they get a 5 on some movement, they can turn around and pull of 8s and 9s on other movements.
Yes, sometimes they are a bit “behind the vertical” - but if you have a horse with 8 gaits, even if you knock off a point or half point - they still have 7 or 7.5. And remember, behind the vertical is not the whole picture - is the horse tracking up, is there reach, is the figure accurate, are they steady in the contact? If so, the horse is still going to score well!
So, those of us on average movers need to learn to be very accurate, and ride our horses forward, but with as much swing and relaxation as possible, and learn to pick up points where we can. I ride a pony - he actually has a decent canter, but he has a pony trot, and I get a lot of comments, must cover more ground, or needs more reach. Well, I’m telling you, that is all the ground he covers, that is all the reach he has - even when he’s revved up at liberty, he’s not a big trotter… So, no matter how accurate we are, when starting with a “6” trot, the most we will eke out is a 7 if everything else is really good.
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They also filmed in California (they did two locations) - generally, those videos are released around February of the following year. It takes a while to go through, pick out which rides they use, dub in the scoring and discussion, etc…
I’m interested - if I’m not auditing the Mary Wanless clinic that same weekend.
