When one dips their toe back in to the show ring on an older off breed, at the intro level, what should ones high level goals be?
As in, 2025 show intro a,b,c for a full season. Assume it goes well, do you aim for training the next year, first the 3rd year etc, until the horse taps out? Barring injury, illness or long breaks in riding, is it the usual to progress a level a year?
I’d probably do one or two shows at intro and then go right into training one. I don’t love intro. C, I think training one is a better test if you can canter. You can usually show training as an opportunity class without having to join all the associations.
But each person has their own schedule. I just don’t love spending the money to show intro a bunch of times but I don’t mind doing it once or twice to get in the ring. But that’s my philosophy.
Ok, so you could theoretically show intro at a show, next show do training, and next show go first? That won’t be our trajectory, but if it were, one could do that?
basicly there are no rules saying what tests you can ride at different shows . There ahs been clamoring for minimum requirements to move up, but in the “Free state” of the USA, no one is going to like that…
The only restriction is that in the same show you can’t ride more than one consecutive level. So you can ride intro and training but not intro and first.
Freestyles require a minimum score qualification but any other level has no requirements for proving competency before entering.
I’ve seen people do first, second and third in a weekend over a 2 day/ each day single show format to get their bronze.
I’d you and your horse are comfortable with canter, I’d move to training level within the first couple shows. From there, it took me about a year to move fully to first level. Sometimes I’ve straddled levels. Like 2-1 is not a huge jump up, so I’ve for instance shown first 3 and 2-1 while working on the additional requirements of second level.
There really is no usual progression. With horses, things take as long as they take. Some horses skip levels and some take years at the same level. It just depends on how the training progresses. There is a rule of thumb many folks follow that you should show one level below what you are schooling at home.
You asked about a reasonable long term goal. How about aiming for a bronze rider medal? It’s a great way to track steady progress and achievement and, unlike year-end awards, how other folks perform has no bearing on your outcome. Show intro to get your feet wet in the show environment and move onto training level when the canter work is secure. As things gets more confirmed and you feel like it’s likely you’ll get a 60 at first level, give it a try. Stay there until you feel solid enough to try for a 60 at second. Etc.
I cannot offer any personal experience as I’m an adult beginner who has never shown, but I’ve been listening to many RideIQ podcasts/hack chats that touch on the “when can I move up the levels” topic and the answer there continues to be “when you can consistently execute the movements”.
I only bring this up because it sounds very straightforward and obvious to me, but I’ve been noticing it as a repetitive theme from multiple professionals when they talk about it in a podcast. It sounds like there is no “usual” progression, exactly as @Badger says above, but the advice I’m hearing is you don’t have to be 100% perfect, but should be at least consistent in both you and your horses’ ability to do the required movements.
I would add to that - “when you can consistently string the movements together.” For instance, preparing for a SI with a 10 m circle, and then consistently producing it down the long side is one thing, but it’s another thing to produce the SI out of a corner, and then move quickly to the next movement, and the next. So the transitions and ability for the horse and rider to change and adjust are a big key, and are more and more rapid going up the levels. So maybe a takeaway for someone starting at intro/training, is to remember not to just endlessly school the 20 m circles, but prep to move up by incorporating lots of transitions, changes of direction, etc. even though they aren’t required in the tests yet. Otherwise it can be very discombobulating to learn to manage it later. Just my perspective as a 2nd level rider starting to get my arms around 3rd while training my own horse with minimal coaching.
Examples with my own horses:
Bought 4 year old appendix QH in spring, showed her intro that fall. Fall of 5 yo year she showed a respectable T-3. Sidelined with injury for 18 months, then back to T-3 and 1-1 end of her 7 year old year. At 8 we showed 1st, and then at 9 managed 2-1, though her mediums really weren’t there, and probably needed at least another year to develop, as she just was not built for dressage. However, she was developing a respectable half pass when I sold her at 10.
Started current WB mare at 4. Talented but highly opinionated, so I did not take her anywhere for two years. Fall of her 6 yo year I finally showed Intro. At 7 we did training in the spring and 1st in the fall. This year we started out showing 1-1 and 2-1. Circumstances prevented getting out to other shows, but I’m now prepping to do 2-1 and 2-3 at a schooling show in two weeks. If we can get changes, I expect to be ready for third next summer and she is starting to show glimpses of 4th level work (canter piri). She’s a nice horse, but not naturally talented with the canter, so it is not a linear path with her.
Is your horse a youngster who hasn’t shown before, or is he/she experienced in another sport? If the horse is used to showing, I would spend my money on lessons instead of showing at Intro. When you can successfully perform 1st Level 1 in a lesson, I would show Training 1 and 2, but that’s just me.
If your horse hasn’t shown before, I would go to any horse events I could, for any discipline, and just hang out until your horse is comfortable with the atmosphere, and then show Intro 1 & 2.
I knew a guy who didn’t show dressage until 3rd Level. He did hunter schooling shows and worked on dressage at home. But he was far more talented than I.
All good responses, thank you!
This horse is as show proofed as they come. That’s definitely not an issue. He’s an old roping horse. This is more of a personal challenge for myself - walking the talk, so to speak.
Canter is actually his preferred gait given his background. He even has changes - if his former owner rides him.
Interesting to read people can take years to get up a level. That’s good to know. I’m in Ontario so I don’t think we have the same medal system to aim for, unfortunately. My goals at this time are to get him (and me) as far as we can go before age catches up with him. That could be 2 years, could be 6, who knows. Then find another, more discipline appropriate horse for myself. The goal of showing is to use it as a way to keep tabs on how well we are (or aren’t) doing.
And we are investing in lessons! Currently spending a small fortune every month. And loving it 
It is very common to have uneven progression. Depending upon the horse’s mind and talents, and the rider’s developing skills, you may spend half a year at one level and then two years or more on the next level. Training of horse and rider is often not linear.
I’m on my first dressage horse still, but I concur from what I’ve witnessed that each horse/rider team is on their own journey. I bought my horse as a green broke 5 yr old, did a schooling show at Training level that first year, took him out to a real show at Training the next year, and then did one level per year until I hit Third. We were highly successful score-wise at 2nd, but he was kinda faking collection and I didn’t realize it, so we had to spend some time fixing holes. We are on year 3 of third level, but have only shown it twice because life got in the way last year and we’ve been working through lameness issues related to hoof angles this year. I think I’ll let us top out at 3rd and then dabble in other sports. He isn’t really built for the collection of 4th and I’m not determined enough to make it work anyway.
A close friend, who got her bronze on her last horse, was doing a level per year with her mare but took 2 years at 4th and hasn’t made it to show I1 due to life and a lameness journey.
Another friend showed 1st and 2nd in 2019 and was still planning to go out at second this year, because that’s what she and her horse were ready for.
For Training and First I did essentially a level a year. I opted for several reasons to forego showing my third year with this horse and the following year I did Third and Fourth. Choosing to not show allowed me to somewhat alter my training regime, as I did not need to concern myself too much with making sure I was keeping specific movements sharp for showing while increasing his training level.
For some horses, attempting to show second with simple changes while teaching a horse flying changes can be very difficult. This is where I will often see people take a step back on showing - either after time showing Second level or not showing second level.
My horse was a basically unbroken 4yo when I bought him. Showed him lightly at 5, and more substantially at 6/7. Took his 8yo year off from showing and came back at 9 to Third/Fourth level, then eventually a couple of years at Fourth/PSG before I felt like he’d topped out. Plus my finances had changed and I could not afford to continue to both have lessons and show, so I opted to just train. Eventually ended up selling the horse as a super solid mid-level schoolmaster. Favorite moment was when I had a woman trying him who had never ridden a flying change, and her trainer sent her across the diagonal and told her to “switch” her legs. He popped a nice clean change like the solid citizen he was for her.
Oh, you’re going to have so much fun! I took a Quarter Horse to Medium 2 in a little over a year, with plenty of lessons. He’d been a Western show horse before.
Honestly this falls on the side of more common rather than less - especially 2nd+.
Part of it is training the movements, but more of it is building the fitness and straightness required for sustaining collection and making it look easy through an entire test. Takes time to put the conditioning on, even in horses transitioning from other disciplines. Dressage is equine pilates.
If the horse is comfortable at shows and canters well I’d go straight to Training. If the horse scores well at Training and your instructor feels you are ready for first then I’d move to first. Be aware that MANY people get stuck at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd as each of those levels add an advanced degree of collection, on the bit, lateral work, counter canter, and flying changes.
The only thing I can add is that when one shows, one quickly finds out that things that are executed well at home are… not… at shows. Unfortunately for our pocket books, for most of us, the things that makes us better at showing is showing, showing, showing. So if you do move up, and it all goes sideways, assess how well it’s going at home and if it is really good (not great, but good) don’t get stuck in that trap of staying at home* looking for perfection because there’s always an element of suck involved with competing**. Sadly, the only cure I’ve found is spending my way out of it! 
'* unless you don’t like showing, then home is a fine place to be. But it only prepared you to begin to learn how to compete.
'** I compete a lot. In multiple disciplines. I’ve had 4 organization’s tests in my head at one point. I remember complex patters with very little prep time. And yet, this summer I decided to debut 3rd level and see if we could sneak out a qualifying bronze medal score even though I knew we were a mix of pretty good and not ready. And I was well on my way to better than qualifying score when I went off course. TWICE. Sucking at competing is a lifelong pursuit for most of us!
I love this 
Showing for me is unfinished business from my youth. Growing up in a backyard barn with what I now know was pretty poor instruction… we were taught beautiful equitation, we were not taught how to RIDE. So there were so many years of feeling out of place at shows and not knowing why.
So as an adult, for the past 20 years, I’ve been chasing learning how to ride. It felt like starting from scratch. Finding instructors with school horses, slowly moving my way up the instructor ladder so to speak, as I learned more. Stumbling on a free horse after my old mare died, getting the trailer etc etc. It’s been a journey.
I feel like the culmination of all of this will be going to shows and feeling in place rather then out of place. It will be on an uglyish QH, and he won’t be winning any classes, but that won’t be the point. The point will be being there, knowing we are both riding and moving correctly and to the best of our collective ability.
It just seems like starting at intro and working our way up is the thing to do. Making sure we’ve ticked all the fundamental boxes along the way.
As a person who bought a fjord and competes very successfully in combined driving and plays around in dressage, you just never know what the future holds. My expectations were to have fun, compete at the lower levels and learn something (I was a newb to dressage and had only casually driven when I was younger). The pony was an unbroken almost 4 year old). Seven years later we are qualified for FEI 3* in combined driving and we may yet be successful at 3rd level dressage. The journey has been beyond my wildest dreams, but most importantly I’ve never stopped having fun or learning.
I try to keep a healthy respect/awareness for my pony’s physical challenges while also taking to heart one of my favorite quotes from Jonathan Livingston Seagull (totally dating myself here): Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours…
Good luck!
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