Sticking my head in from H/J land to say, "Hi, I'm going to my first dressage show and I'm terrified!" (Update: post 55!)

[Cowgirl]

I have to admit that I have not read the other responses. I showed H/J A circuit as a child and young adult, had a gap, then dressage as an adult. First, do not look for your next “jump”, stay looking through your horse’s ears so that your horse can stay laterally balanced. Second, get over yourself because jumping is way more risky than a dressage test!! Third, I hope you kick ass and give yourself a good experience. I hope that someone offers you a glass of wine (dressagers can take themselves too seriously but some of us have a special freezer that holds both our horse boots and frozen margarita pops…)

ETA: I read the last replies and add that you do not have to ride tests with your horse endlessly to sourdom; you can map them out and ride them in your backyard or living room without your horse. As a kid, I was coached by a wonderful AHSA judge mentored by Bert de Nemethy. She never let us jump a course more than once a week–do the same with dressage–you can practice with an app or by making your own dressage court for yourself in your back yard…

[SuzieQNutter]

@SillyHorse

@SuzieQNutter

Practising the tests at home means you might have anticipation.

I will never understand this line of thinking. Your horse has no idea you are practicing a test. It’s just a series of movements to the horse. If you are trotting around the arena during an ordinary ride and you come to a walk say, at F, do you really think your horse is going to anticipate walking at F the next time you’re trotting around the arena?

Today I did SI to renvers down the long side, cantered at F, back to trot at K, and another SI to renvers. I don’t think you’ll be surprised to know that my horse did not offer to canter the next short side.

In addition, if I don’t ride a test at home at least once, I don’t get a feel for the time between movements, when I need to half-halt, etc., and the general flow of the test.

Rather than advising not to practice a test at home, I would advise not to practice often, maybe once or twice with plenty of other things in between, just enough to feel comfortable with the flow of the movements.

Something to think about: Grand Prix horses and riders ride the same test every time they go into the show ring for four years. Granted, I’m sure they never practice a test at home, but every time those horses step into the ring for four years, they do the same test. If there was ever an opportunity for anticipation, there it is. Yet somehow, most of them manage quite well.

Anticipation is also used when training a horse. As in don’t do the same thing twice. If you are going down trot poles and over a jump, turn left, next time right, next time left, then 2 to the right, 2 to the left back to once each, etc. Which of course only comes into play if it is on the centre line and not the outside track.

Or in your case don’t do renvers down the long side and canter before the short side too many times otherwise you might get canter without asking for it.

You can also use anticipation to train what you want, like when you halt you stay halted so don’t do too many turns on a forehand after halt without halting again. It does depend on how smart the horse is and how hot they are, and once they have reached a certain level it is not as crucial.

Or to improve a canter transition you might do renvers and then canter several times. Every horse and ride on that horse is different.

To start with some horses will anticipate canter again after the first canter. Once riding one of these horses you learn to not let your body tell them what you are thinking.

So anticipation in a horse can be used in both training them to do something or not wanting them to do something. It is simply a tool and is usually only told to someone going to their first test as in this case on their first test out as one less thing to navigate on the day.

In this case HJ is more experienced so it will most probably not come into play, however it was the wording that the tests have been practiced diligently at home that caused me to post. Diligently to me means more than once or twice.

[DMK]

Totally true! But I was thinking more about your statement that is just a series of movements, the horse does not know you are practicing the test. Also very true, but you will be potentially creating anticipation.

As you say, there’s a lot of grey space here, but not falling into the trap of repetition is a good thing to be periodically reminded of. Note: do not drill simple changes on the centerline the week before a show because that might bite you in the ass (last weekend) when your Fjord anticipated said movement before the centerline and you are so caught unaware, you add some trot steps to the movement. He was very impressed with himself, I’m sure. He already thinks he knows the marathon hazards better than I do, now he’s sure he’s read the dressage tests in two disciplines!

[SillyHorse]

Why are people equating my suggestion to ride through a test once or twice to “drilling the movements?” Why would anyone think that riding through a test once on Wednesday and then again on Saturday will cause anticipation? If there’s anticipation from that, it’s in the rider’s head, not the horse’s.

[hoopoe]

Agree with most everything mentioned.

Intro is about level balance and forward thinking, Contact is not vital, acceptance of the light hand is. Deep corners are not really expected. Do not sacrifice the balance and accepting bend for deeper. Minor errors and disobediences are not penalized until they become consistent and translate to a training issue. A momentary glitch will not kill you

Personally I would not wear a bonnet. Highlights the head and if it is not needed for bug control, I would not wear it.

dont jump the queue. If the rider before you scratches, you could probably go early, but check, sometimes the judge will use this for a potty break. If you do go, stop at the stand and clarify your number and the test you are riding.

if you have two tests back to back or near each other, simply go for a walk between the two. Let him stretch and relax.

[SBrentnall]

@SillyHorse

If you are trotting around the arena during an ordinary ride and you come to a walk say, at F, do you really think your horse is going to anticipate walking at F the next time you’re trotting around the arena?

If you practice the test often enough, yes, absolutely. My retiree used to have a big problem with this. Every four years when the tests changed, we would have at least one crappy show where he resisted my attempts to perform the test differently.

[SillyHorse]

It’s getting tiresome to repeat that I’m not suggesting drilling movements, only to have people respond that you shouldn’t drill movements.

[SillyHorse]

@SBrentnall

Every four years when the tests changed, we would have at least one crappy show where he resisted my attempts to perform the test differently.

Maybe you should have practiced the new test once or twice.

[Tha_Ridge]

Especially for an intro level horse where the “movements” are mostly just routine flatwork for him anyway. 🤷

[Tha_Ridge]

@hoopoe

Personally I would not wear a bonnet. Highlights the head and if it is not needed for bug control, I would not wear it.

Eh, his ears aren’t clipped at the moment (pet peeve from hunter land) and I’ve spent a lot of money on nice Equiline bonnets for my jumper so I like the way they look.

[yaya]

I didn’t drill tests, but my Friesian mare saved my ass one time when she knew the test better than I did. It was First level, and one trip across the diagonal went back to the same side at X (the canter shallow loop), and the next trip from the same corner went all the way across to trot and change rein. I was all set to go all the way across when my mare swerved at X and headed back to the same long side. She was right! It was the first trip, not the second! No error for us!

[Graymaresrule]

Practice the salute. It does not have to be at X in practice but it isn’t cool to drop your reins.

Count strides on your circle. Each quarter circle should have the same number of strides. The judge is probably counting too.

[SBrentnall]

LOl, oh, we do. But as soon as we get to a show, he’s all “Don’t worry mom, I got this!”

[IPEsq]

As far as your prep goes, you need to have his bridle number on at all times you are away from your trailer or stall. Even if it’s on a halter while you are hand walking. And I think you have to put him in a bridle when you longe.

[Tha_Ridge]

My two takeaways from my first dressage outing: don’t forego lunging because your horse “looks” quiet, but don’t skip wearing your spurs just because you had to lunge. In all seriousness, we had a wonderful day and both myself and my horse got a ton out of it.

I followed the rough timeline @J-Lu suggested, with a few minor deviations based on what my horse ended up needing (more on that in a minute), and it was perfect. I bathed and braided at our farm, just 10 minutes away from the venue, and he hopped on the trailer like an old pro. When we got to the host farm, my helper (11-year-old resident barn rat) and I went to grab my bridle number and were also treated to a frozen lemonade machine—a real treat on a 94-degree day!

We spent about 30 minutes walking around the grounds (bridle number on! ) with a few minor “puff ups” but no insane calling or other theatrics. Definitely annoyed by heat and bugs, so after that, with a heavy application of fly spray, we went back to the trailer in the shade to tack up. This is where I made my first (wrong) deviation from the plan—I told myself I’d skip the lunge since it was so hot. We made it to the ring uneventfully, but in the indoor warm-up ring, it was clear that I had a lot of horse under me—not hot, per se—but definitely one who needed to get some energy out. I hopped off and the farm owner lent me a lunge line, so I didn’t have to go back to the trailer and took me to their wonderful round pen for a 10-minute buck’ n squeal. That made a huge difference!

I hopped back on with about 15 minutes until my ride time, which was just long enough to ride a few transitions and serpentines to get him focused on me before we went into the ring. A friend showed up right as we were about to step into the ring for our first test (Intro A) and asked if I needed a lead into the ring, but Mr. Brave TB didn’t find anything about the dressage ring itself to be scary, and we marched right in. Due to the set-up, we got our brief warm-up in the ring itself, which was helpful for me to get an idea of the shape and the size and for him to get his eye on the judge and scribe early on (and get the shudder at the shuffling papers out of the way!). Our test was relatively uneventful, in a good way! I wished I had my spurs to push him deeper into the corners and get better shape and straightness—and in hindsight, there was no reason I couldn’t have put them on for our second test—but he was more than willing to do the job and was his usual, lazy self once he realized that we do the same things at this new place as we do at home.

He was a little more complacent with the ring during his second test, which made him even quieter and resulted in some lousy geometry on my part, but we got some very lovely comments on the quality of his gaits, rider position, and a “nice horse.” Overall, everyone was SO friendly, and it was such a fantastic way to put some miles on a young horse in a relatively low-stress environment for not a lot of money, relatively speaking. We will be back in your sandbox very, very soon!

[SillyHorse]

Thank you for the excellent report! I’m thrilled that you enjoyed your first experience in our sandbox.

[BrownDerby]

Lovely report, sweet horse. Isn’t it wonderful to have Ride Times?! And the braids are so much quicker and easier.

[SBrentnall]

So glad you had a good time, and that everyone’s tips here were helpful!

[J-Lu]

I’m so glad you found my comments useful and had a great day! Woooooot!!! Your boy is certainly a looker!

ETA: I’d love to hear how your boy progresses. Post back!

[NaturallyHappy]

Good for you! I may try the same thing, so am following this thread. I really like your bridle. What kind is it?