am beginning to hate dressage...

[only_me]

so off we went at more civilised hour to the dressage at Danescroft for the 2nd week of the eventing dressage league. had the novice 121 first outside so we warmed up for that and got some nice trot canter transitions ( our main prob last week - we couldnt canter

) and some nice forward trots and a nice shoulder in just to make him use himself more.

so in we go, after a few spooks at a bathtub in the next field (??) and in, nice up the centre line and then down to do our serpentines which i thought were even but apparently not

and we were NOT going forwards but we kept that rythmn and i had to really work hard to keep him going - i was sweating

and we cantered at the marker

and we had a lovely canter half circle in which we didnt break in and kept the rythmn the whole way through

so very pleased with that as he is still growing into himself, although a little unbalanced going back to trot. not a good halt to finish with

but was ok for only being at pre-novice level.

then decided not to warm up for the second test which was the 110, which was indoors, so decided to go for a lttle hack to see if that would get him to "switch on", which seemed to work. so went in and luckily for me the hack worked and he was lit up as someone was cantering on the outside of the indoor

which got him to move forwards. so the test was nice but like a numpty i forgot the halt

but apart from that wasnt too bad, our circles werent good as he kept resisting to me and wouldnt go straight around our circle

so finished expecting both tests to be slightly better than last weeks and guess what? they were EXACTLY the same marks!! and all differnt judges! in the pre-novice section i got 58% and the novice 54%

so at least we were consistent but our class was quite harshly marked - my friend got two 0 for her canter!! she was speechless

grr so i had thought that we had improved but oviously not. he felt soo much better to me, but didnt look it apparantly

oh well i know that i am not going to win them - but to have least improved my marks would have been enough!!

cookies to all who read that

 

[carthorse]

Blind judge ,did she have a labrador or just a white stick.
I've never seen a 0.
Well you felt your horse went better and that is what matters ,one of these days they will get a judge who knows what to look for.LOL

 

[clipclop]

I got a 0 a few years a go. I could not get canter and my horse was just being a total ****. I was quite proud of my zero. It is in my hall of fame next to my one and only 10.

 

[Foxfolly]

Don't take it personaly, I got marked down heavily once for the horse being disunited on one canter then breaking on the other, I hadn't felt it but luckily my freind had videoed the test, we watched the video 10x and not once was he disunited or had he broken!!
I did wonder if they had got the test sheets muddled as the horse before me had pretty much done a test like my sheet described. I then went and got 2 down in the SJ and they only marked me for 1 down so I felt that made up for it!!

 

[dozzie]

Wow! You got a 10!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought 0 meant not performed at all! Not even attempted! Does sound harsh. I dont compare percentages from judge to judge I compare myself to horses I know go well.

 

[Hullabaloo]

This is why I can't get on with dressage. Its so subjective and there seems to be little consistency in the marking.
My horse hasn't been competing in nearly a year due to injury, and I feel I ought to start off gently with some prelim dressage, but I can't work up any enthusiasm for it as I know I'll probably just end up frustrated.
At the end of the day, if you were happy with the way your horse went, then thats what counts but I do appreciate your frustration.

 

[Partoow]

Oh dear, having judged the Novice 120 yesterday i am sure ther are a few riders that probably would like to stick pins in me!
What i will say is, and this was something that EVERYONE did in , what was on the surface of it a good class, they were AWFUL in the canter. Not forward enough , too deep . too short in the neck, just genrally not fluent enough. Obsessed with control by holding seems to be the main problem.
Oh and please dont give me they were all tense and tight and you dont know what its like, i do know and the best way of diffusing a tight horse is woring it securely forward to the hand not holding it on. I am sure not all of the above applies to you so please dont get me wrong but i dont sit there as a judge thinking how few marks i can give you and let me rain on their parade its not like that. I just think that the dressage phase in eventing most riders miss the point. I train a lot of eventers in the art of dressage and even something simple like the 5m loop explained properly opens their eyes up as too what it is the judge is actually looking at. I do not know how many horses i saw yesterday that the riders look left but dont flex the hores left and that they cant go fluently from one bend to another. I could go on, walks, really good marks were lost here by not having a horse in the correct connection inthe free walk, losing rhythm...
So please dont rubbish judges on here all the time they actually may have a point and one of the most difficult things is to look at yourself and admit your own failings.
Sorry.

 

[MagicMelon]

I think the issue is that the rider was given 0's when I assume she actually DID a canter? 0's I believe can only be given if it isnt shown at all.

I dont think people are rubbishing all judges, I think its the inconsistency which is annoying which I totally agree with. You can ride the best test of your life and get one of the worst marks ever! I remember riding a dreadful test on a 4yo once, it was his first ever test. We almost left the arena twice! I ended up getting 3 10's and winning the class. Now, Im sorry but that was insane! There ARE good judges out there who score correctly but also others who clearly have no idea...! This is one reason Im thinking about doing BD on a ticket because at least BD judges are trained!

 

[Equibeau]

I got a zero once, years ago. It was for right canter. My horse struck off on the wrong lead and I didnt even notice!! So I did not perform the required movement. Fair enough! (Think I still got placed!)

 

[kerilli]

i partly agree with Partoow, i have done a bit of judging, and quite a bit of writing for top judges, and it's a real eye-opener how many riders chuck marks away. a top rider on an average/naughty horse can often beat an average/poor rider on a good horse, simply by being correct, accurate, etc etc. i know there's a lot of sour grapes around in dressage, but i've had terrible judging inflicted on me as well as lots of very good judging.
i've never had a 0 though, even though i've had some pretty naughty horses!
i've had 6s and 7s for 2 canter circles that i never even performed... forgot to do them, judge didn't notice...!
i've had 1s and 2s on my naughty mare who didn't do sideways... she planted and bounced up and down on the spot instead! they were fully deserved 1s and 2s.
can't remember if i've ever had a 10, don't think so.

you just have to be happy that you think the horse went better, and try to go away with stuff to work on, i guess. it's all subjective, yes, but once the horse is correct and forward and in self carriage, supple, to the contact, etc etc etc, the judges can't help giving you good marks!

 

[only_me]

"So please dont rubbish judges on here all the time they actually may have a point and one of the most difficult things is to look at yourself and admit your own failings."


this is the FIRST time i have ever mentioned about a judge!! i know i am not perfect and i have a lot to work on, but i thought that i was marked unfairly in the 110 test!!
i never said that i thought the judge was rubbish, what i meant was that she seemed to be very harsh in the marks. i also never expected to be top 70% either, all i wanted was to improve my mark of last week but ended up getting exactly the same percent in both tests! i was acutally pleased with how he went in the novice 121, and thought that some comments were fair, and others not so fair - we were told we were inaccuarate at one marker - of course we where!! the horse tripped just before!! and our canter was not too bad - we just were not going forward enough as he is quite hard to get going - that i am working on but i know i will get marked down for that.

i can see your point and i agree with it - i know that i am not going to come out and win the class, i just wanted the marks to improve as he was going much better than last week!

where you judging at danescroft yesterday?

 

[LEC]

I find it interesting that you pick on canter as I am probably guilty of what you talk about. If I get the nicer freer canter I lose the balance into the next movements or I end up on the forehand. So I probably play it safe and end up losing marks rather than gaining them in order to play to my horses assets which are his trot (when he behaves) and his walk. In fact thinking about it I am a much braver rider in the walk and trot and will push for the best I can get and risk things where as in canter I probably just sit and hope for the best.

 

[Fiona]

Poor thing - it is so disheartening isn't it. I slightly overcooked Flo in the warmup yesterday, and so wasn't expecting to do as well as the previous week. However I got 12% less in one test and 8% less in the other. I really don't believe I was that much worse. She was working slightly downhill thats all (always slightly more pronounced when shes tired) and didn't show any lengthening (in the 121).
If you were in the afternoon though there were different judges!
So cheer up - I was practically suicidal when I got home yesterday. After having such a good week last week I was just gutted.
Are you going to try again, or go to Tyrella and have some fun doing SJ??
BTW - I didn't think you sounded like you were rubbishing the judge, and I have never heard of anyone getting a 0, in fact my OH has got 5/6's for movements he forgot to do!!
Fiona

 

[Orangehorse]

I don't think you can compare marks one week to another, because judges mark differently. You know if you horse is getting better, and you can only compare your mark to the others in your class.

It is more "did I get more marks than X, who beat me last week."

 

[only_me]

thanks fiona!

that is some percent loss - i agree with you that they marked harshly! lol nah will have to do the dressage again next week, as i really want to get the dressage sorted and working consistently (at a higher % though

) didnt know about the jumping though, as i may also do that - we are setting the xc course up next weekend so after the dressage we are driving straight up to tyrella to help build it!

have you entered yet?

have decided not to warm up at all - we will instead go for a hack around danescroft!

maybe that will work! are you stressaging or showjumping?