BD Dressage what level should I compete at

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auntienutnut

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Hello

We have just done our first BD competition and got 60% at prelim and 62% at Novice.

My horse had competed at Elementary level and has 32 points, before I had him, but I am just going though the grades.
I was very tensed during the tests which is why the lowish scores were reflected.

I plan on registering and competing a bit more BD would you compete at Prelim or Novice?

Or does it matter? Im happy to do a prelim and a novice test each time

Thank you in advance for your comments :)
 
Just my personal preference but would focus on getting the scores up at prelim where you have more time to focus on how the horse is going and your accuracy before the increased complexity of novice.
 
If the horse has done elementary I wouldn't bother with the Prelim as he's likely to get bored! The movements come a bit quicker in the Novice, but it'll help to keep his mind occupied!
 
I would be inclined to stick with Novice - for a horse that can happily do Elementary, Prelim may be a little too simple. My trainer always claims that Prelim is one of the hardest levels anyway, because there are no movements to distract the judges they are super critical on what they see - 20m circles and transitions are generally all thats required at prelim (maybe the odd serpentine and smaller circles as you move up the tests) so there is a lot of time for the judge to watch the horses way of going and be quite critical. Whereas at Novice there are more movements for the judge to think about so they have less time to be super critical of the horse itself.

If you are not very confident yet why not stick to unaffiliated for a while longer, get your scores up to around 65% at Novice and then affiliate? There is no rush to join BD, its not going anywhere! So get your confidence nice and high, start to enjoy it a bit, get your scores a little higher and then affiliate.
 
Also be aware that if your horse has 32 BD points already the cut off limit for Prelim is 0-49 points, so possibly sticking to unaffiliated a while longer could be beneficial for you?
 
Personally I would stick to Novice, if he's got Elementary points he may find Prelim too simple but I think you need to do what you're ready to do.

There isn't that much difference between the two levels providing you can create medium paces Novice isn't a problem, things come up quicker especially in the higher numbered novices (37/38/39 especially I find myself thinking 'oh now!' quite a lot)

He's got until 49 points until he's out of prelim qualifiers, if you wanted to do the regionals/petplan at prelim stick to that for now and move up once you've got the quals?

But, by all means do what makes you feel comfortable (even do a few Novice/Elem's unaff to get your confidence up?) if you feel you want to do a few more Prelim's then who is to judge you, there's lots of options so long as you're in the rules you can do what's best for you :)
 
Do whatever level you want! If you enjoy the more complex tests do novice, if you feel they're too busy do prelim or do one of each. If horse has competed elem you won't be pushing it beyond its capabilities, so don't worry! Doesn't matter if you get 46% or 76%, if you both enjoy it, take into account the judges comments and are progressing. I do BD as I think the judges comments are more helpful as part of our training, it's my money and my choice, we're not in any danger of troubling the leaders but I enjoy it so who cares!!!
 
kc100 said:
My trainer always claims that Prelim is one of the hardest levels anyway, because there are no movements to distract the judges they are super critical on what they see - 20m circles and transitions are generally all thats required at prelim (maybe the odd serpentine and smaller circles as you move up the tests) so there is a lot of time for the judge to watch the horses way of going and be quite critical.
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But isn't time spent getting the basics as correct as possible (within reason) worth it before you have to focus on horse and more complex movements?
 
PaddyMonty said:
But isn't time spent getting the basics as correct as possible (within reason) worth it before you have to focus on horse and more complex movements?
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I think in this case stepping up would be fine, but understand your point. Though, you could spend years perfecting the basics!
 
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