Affiliated vs unaffliated Dressage

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Sammy1983

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Hey everyone
I have done a number of unaffliated dressage competitions on my boy and so far he's won them all. So I'm thinking of taking the plunge and registering us to do BD competitions, but I'm feeling slight apprehensive about the whole thing. How different are they to unaffliated competitions and what should I expect? I've got this image of us turning up and looking a complete mess compared to everyone else
 
There have been a few threads about this recently and I would say go for it. We have had the same or slightly higher scores. I would say one of the unaffiliated ones we did in the autumn had nicer horses on the whole as there were a lot of eventers out with youngsters. The last affiliated one we went to, I felt actually felt much more unaffiliated than a couple of the unaffiliated ones we had been to - if you know what it mean.
 
I affiliated for the first time in the New Year after a very successful couple of seasons unaffiliated. I did my first affiliated competition last week and we still held our own! I must admit to having to give myself a bit of a talking to as the other horses and riders all looked so much more "professional" than I thought we did. The competition itself was really no different. It was a new venue for me and my horse (stress -head at the best of times) which made me a bit more nervous (and there was sideways rain!!!) but we came out with scores around 5% less, which is what I expected. We also came 3rd in both tests (even with my error of course!) - I think I was more nervous about forgetting the test actually. I made sure to chat to a few other competitors too as I had gone by myself.

I would say GO FOR IT - I can't wait to do another now.
 
I put a thread up last year asking the same thing. I decided to give it a go and so far so good. We have even managed to win 3 times. My unaffiliated scores (prelim) were between 63% and 72% and I would say my average BD score is about 66% so not a massive difference. I just wear my normal show stuff I did for unaffiliated, just need to get a number for your bridle. Don't think it's the rules to plait up but most do. I'm really enjoying it, so is give it a go :)
 
I write for both unaff and affiliated competitions, and really there is not that much of a difference. Ok so at unaff you get a wider mix of people and horses, and BD can sometimes have a lot of nice, expensive looking horses - but the judges always point out, you can have a big flashy horse that cant contain itself or relax and the correct, well trained cob will wipe the floor with it.

If you are getting 65% or above regularly at unaff then I think you'll be fine to affiliate, people say marks can drop as much as 5% but I'd say you are more likely to drop around 2-3% for the 'encouragement' factor. At my local venue most judges who do the unaff are BD listed, but they say they dont want to put people off dressage so they can be a touch more generous at unaff comps.

Search on the BD website for the judges that have marked your tests (their name should be at the top of your sheet) and see if they are listed or not - if they are listed then chances are your marks wont change much. If they are not listed then be prepared for a bigger drop in marks.

But either way, we all have to start somewhere and provided you enjoy dressage and are having fun, then there is no reason not to give it a try. You will get access to more training and it should help you improve - speak to your BD region (they should have a page on the BD site with contacts for each region) and see what would be available for you if you joined.
 
Go for it :) My marks tend to go up at affiliated as judges are less wowed by flashy incorrect horses and keener to reward correct non typical ponies :)
 
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