This^^^
Gosh. What can I say ?? I do dressage on a shoestring and have one pony. I have clawed my way up from unaffiliated intro to just about adv med. I have training from top trainers and work incredibly hard, in absolutely all weathers, to progress with my dressage. However, I'm just not really that good. Average to below average I'd say. I do it for the love of my pony and the love of dressage. I truly truly hope no one sees me as a no-hoper or deluded. (Wipes tear away
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You're supposed to do it before Advanced Medium, that's for sure. It's what lower level tests are for, presumably the majority of people can manage to pull w/t/c out of the bag with reasonable certainty. The question was about Adv. Medium, most people don't debut their horse at that level.
Still rocking around unaffiliated intro here on a pony that performs brilliantly at home but fails miserably on relaxation in a competitive environment. Working hard but probably deludedGosh. What can I say ?? I do dressage on a shoestring and have one pony. I have clawed my way up from unaffiliated intro to just about adv med. I have training from top trainers and work incredibly hard, in absolutely all weathers, to progress with my dressage. However, I'm just not really that good. Average to below average I'd say. I do it for the love of my pony and the love of dressage. I truly truly hope no one sees me as a no-hoper or deluded. (Wipes tear away
And this sort of attitude is why dressage is seen as snobby. It is also why less and less places are putting on classes for the higher levels. Because people are not even willing to try because of attitudes like yours and class numbers are dropping to the point its just not worth putting them on at all.
I don’t regard wanting to be competitive as being snobby. Wanting to know how you are progressing is fantastic, and it’s what training with an instructor is for. Proving it is what competing is for. I have competed in many different countries and the UK is the only place where I’ve come across this attitude, in most places you have to qualify to rise up the levels, or even to enter a competition at all and as a result the standard across all levels is much more consistent. There are also training shows where people can take their young horses for competition experience, some where the judge will give you a mini lesson after the test, those are a great idea and very useful. I also judge and it is not fun having to watch someone struggling and overtaxing their misfortunate horse, plainly out of their depth. Dressage is about progressive exercises, built on developing muscles and balance, if you miss out steps you will never move forward and may harm the horse in the process.
Working with an instructor is fine and advisable but if your instructor doesnt spot a problem then you will never work on it.
I doubt that any of your top competitors ever entered a class where they weren’t thoroughly prepared and capable of producing work at least a level higher than they were competing, but they are professionals and know how it all works. If your instructor doesn’t spot a problem then you don’t have a very good instructor, that’s their job, not a judge’s. There are plenty of people who are deluded if they think they can compete when they plainly are not prepared, and again that is the job of their instructor. It is not snobby to know that, it is the actual job of the judge (although expressed more politely than that on the sheet, obviously). I’d imagine that people would prefer to get higher marks and place or win in the competitions they enter?
It’s more that you have said that they are no-hopers rather than unprepared. If that’s your attitude when you see a pairing coming up the centre line it’s a sad reflection on dressage judging. Unfortunately it’s very common I have written for many judges and verbal comments from some judges have been eye opening. They don’t put it down on the sheet though.
Because Advanced medium is not grass roots, and the original post - i.e.context - was about Adv. Medium, no? I mention showjumping as an example of unpreparedness resulting in low scoring, except for some reason dressage doesn't seem to warrant the same level of pragmatism.
Anyone who is entering a test that requires flying changes and who cannot reliably produce flying changes has no hope of meeting the requirements of that test, that is a no hoper. That's not a reflection on dressage judging, it's a reflection of the quality of the competitor and their entirely unreasonable expectation that "it'll do". I can assure you that the judge has as much hope that the competitor will do well as anyone, I've watched many a test with fingers crossed as hard as can be.
What if the changes are fine at home, just not in a competition setting?
We didn’t become ‘hopers ‘ because of being out competed at that level for years we became ‘hopers’ because of Carl changing the training regimes in this country and going to said competitions stronger… as I have said before I don’t get this attitude at all but there’s a lot of things I don’t get , and unlike jumping a course you are not ready for the chances of dying are less - quite a low bar though tbh
No one mentioned perfect / nothing in dressage is perfect but at least your horse can go backwards on command and that is kind of the point
But in the 80s, they were out there, competing and learning. Plugging away from the bottom up.
they could do a flying change and a pirouette- just not that well and that is the difference
Yes I would agree
Totally different sport of course so possibly a derailment, but I'll be very proud of my 45th if we're so lucky as to get there. I could just retire- being based here post brexit plus being an amateur on a budget puts us at such a disadvantage, really my horse is a consistent competitor but would need to get very lucky to bother the top 2 or 3, and the way the sport is developing at such a rate he's at risk for being old fashioned and just without the scope of the elite horses. Plus I'm just not consistent enough either.