Dressage despair!

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Took young silly horse to his 10th dressage test this weekend. He's been to this venue before a number of times and I hired the indoor school a few days beforehand, put out white boards etc but still he was a disaster in the test. Test was perfect at home but in the competition we achieved our lowest score ever. Perfect in the warm-up with no spooking but a nightmare in the indoor school. Now I know that I'm not riding that well, I've kind of frozen and am not riding him forward enough, my lower leg has come forward and I need more contact when he's got his head in the air but even so ...

So here are some photos from our test:

Half the time he had his head in the air

Occasionally he would sort himself out

Massive spook cause by a slight change in the colour of the sand by the door then froze (would move AT ALL) for what seemed like a minute as he stared at the photographer pointing a big zoom lens

Half pass every time in front of the judge

I'm not quite sure what the point of this post is except to vent my despair that after all this effort he is getting worse. I love him to bits though. We are not going to do any more tests for a year and just do light-hearted clinics. Anyone else got a horse that is a lunatic in an indoor school?

Barton Bounty · 24 July 2023

No advice but mine doesn’t need a school to be a lunatic… but how handsome is he!!!

rextherobber · 24 July 2023

He's lovely! No advice, sorry

SEL · 24 July 2023

Nice horse! Are you getting nervous and is he picking up on it?

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Barton Bounty said:
No advice but mine doesn’t need a school to be a lunatic… but how handsome is he!!!

He also has his moments outside an indoor school. Last week I fell off when he spooked at a pile of his own poo! I have a seriously bruised coccyx or something and can hardly sit down - another excuse for my rather insipid riding

Bobthecob15 · 24 July 2023

You'll get there!!! Gorgeous horse x

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

SEL said:
Nice horse! Are you getting nervous and is he picking up on it?

Possibly - but I was more nervous in this warm up after nearly being ridden down last time and he didn't spook AT ALL in the warm up.

scats · 24 July 2023

What a gorgeous horse you have though!

Puzzled · 24 July 2023

Have you tried calming cookies? I wouldn’t rule out putting a more confident rider on him for a few outings to help to….I do this if I’ve any doubts as I’m not the bravest rider and I compete at Nationals etc.

Peglo · 24 July 2023

He is gorgeous but I can almost hear your sigh in picture 3

Barton Bounty · 24 July 2023

I love Ottos side eye, sorry @Marigold4 he looks a character

Goldenstar · 24 July 2023

He’s a lovely horse , it will come you just need to go to every low key unaffiliated you can and if he jumps do some group jumping and pole clinics .

PinkvSantaboots · 24 July 2023

Beautiful horse and my observation is you look tense you are leaning forward, your reins are quite slack apart from from one photo and neither of you look focused and thinking about the job.

I would do lots of arena hire take a step back and have lessons at different venues to get you used to different environments, make it difficult for him in the warm up do lateral work on all gaits to keep him focused on you it really does help.

You both look lovely you just need to get that overall picture and that Harmony and it will all come together.

PinkvSantaboots · 24 July 2023

Honestly I've had Arab's for years went through this but picture 2 is lovely and what you will get consistently with time.

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Pinkvboots said:
Beautiful horse and my observation is you look tense you are leaning forward, your reins are quite slack apart from from one photo and neither of you look focused and thinking about the job.

I would do lots of arena hire take a step back and have lessons at different venues to get you used to different environments, make it difficult for him in the warm up do lateral work on all gaits to keep him focused on you it really does help.

You both look lovely you just need to get that overall picture and that Harmony and it will all come together.

If only I knew how to make a scared horse focus, I would! He's not putting it on, he's genuinely scared of the things he's spooking at. Look at the one where he's gone from full trot to stretched out backwards - he did this in an instant, without any build up. I don't think any amount of focus would prevent that. I'm not going to intimidate him into going forward either as it will just create more drama and he'll have an even more wretched time.

doodle · 24 July 2023

Mine is 16. He is not new to dressage boards. This came up on my memories from last year….

He can be brilliant and win. Or he can be a complete idiot and decide he can’t possibly cope with one arena. And then we go to the petplans and nope can’t do it today!

I did then wonder about his mouth and got the vet the next day who found a diastema. He is a complete drama queen. I keep hoping he will grow out of it.

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Puzzled said:
Have you tried calming cookies? I wouldn’t rule out putting a more confident rider on him for a few outings to help to….I do this if I’ve any doubts as I’m not the bravest rider and I compete at Nationals etc.

There is a nice instructor who is about my size who might be willing. I put a pro rider on him for schooling and he ended up with an injured sacro-iliac joint as she asked too much of him, so I need to take care who it is and what size they are. Good idea though.

fetlock · 24 July 2023

No advice but, with his looks, I’d forgive him almost anything!

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

doodle said:
Mine is 16. He is not new to dressage boards. This came up on my memories from last year….
View attachment 118568

He can be brilliant and win. Or he can be a complete idiot and decide he can’t possibly cope with one arena. And then we go to the petplans and nope can’t do it today!

I did then wonder about his mouth and got the vet the next day who found a diastema. He is a complete drama queen. I keep hoping he will grow out of it.

Ha ha. That makes me feel better! If only we could know what was going on in their heads when they find something terrifying that wasn't terrifying before. I rode this horse in this arena a few days beforehand and the change in colour of sand that caused the big spook wasn't an issue then. He IS genuinely scared though.

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

fetlock said:
No advice but, with his looks, I’d forgive him almost anything!

Thank you! He is a delight to look at and full of character - and he is forgiven. I'm even beginning to see the funny side of it.

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Peglo said:
He is gorgeous but I can almost hear your sigh in picture 3

Yes, there was a lot of sighing that morning!

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Barton Bounty said:
I love Ottos side eye, sorry @Marigold4 he looks a character

He certainly is a character/crackpot/lunatic. And has been much adored and equally despaired over since a bought him as a just turned 2 year old. I remember the transporter I used being very unimpressed by how difficult he was to load and told me "you'll never do anything with this horse". I think he wanted to give him a good bashing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some sanity by the time he's 20!

PinkvSantaboots · 24 July 2023

Marigold4 said:
If only I knew how to make a scared horse focus, I would! He's not putting it on, he's genuinely scared of the things he's spooking at. Look at the one where he's gone from full trot to stretched out backwards - he did this in an instant, without any build up. I don't think any amount of focus would prevent that. I'm not going to intimidate him into going forward either as it will just create more drama and he'll have an even more wretched time.

Find a really good instructor or just make the mind busy, my Louis is so clever and is sharp but he thrives on difficult my old instructor trained horses up to GP level and he said he was so quick to learn but I wasn't.

His 18 now but I still have to make our schooling interesting, transitions even just walk to trot, 5 strides of each then add in a bit of shoulder in once warmed up then even in canter add in some leg yield get him listening to you and focused on you then they don't have time to look at stuff.

doodle · 24 July 2023

Marigold4 said:
Ha ha. That makes me feel better! If only we could know what was going on in their heads when they find something terrifying that wasn't terrifying before. I rode this horse in this arena a few days beforehand and the change in colour of sand that caused the big spook wasn't an issue then. He IS genuinely scared though.

Yes. Mine is also scared. The best thing to do is to ignore it. If I get annoyed at him or try and ride him through it then it just gets worse. He is a big chunk and shouldn’t be as quick as he is.

moosea · 24 July 2023

Marigold4 said:
Took young silly horse to his 10th dressage test this weekend. He's been to this venue before a number of times and I hired the indoor school a few days beforehand, put out white boards etc but still he was a disaster in the test. Test was perfect at home but in the competition we achieved our lowest score ever. Perfect in the warm-up with no spooking but a nightmare in the indoor school. Now I know that I'm not riding that well, I've kind of frozen and am not riding him forward enough, my lower leg has come forward and I need more contact when he's got his head in the air but even so ...

So here are some photos from our test:

Half the time he had his head in the air

Occasionally he would sort himself out

Massive spook cause by a slight change in the colour of the sand by the door then froze (would move AT ALL) for what seemed like a minute as he stared at the photographer pointing a big zoom lens

Half pass every time in front of the judge

I'm not quite sure what the point of this post is except to vent my despair that after all this effort he is getting worse. I love him to bits though. We are not going to do any more tests for a year and just do light-hearted clinics. Anyone else got a horse that is a lunatic in an indoor school?

I'm happy to give mho on your photos, but only if you ask for it!!

If he was mine I'd be working on getting hin in front of the leg, because he does not appear to be in any of those pictures.

Sossigpoker · 24 July 2023

I think we have the same problem- tipping /leaning forward ! My boy's head then comes up too.
I'd work on your position being more upright- which will feel like leaning backwards to start with - shoulders back, weight in heels. Then try and stay slightly behind the trot in the rise so you can use your seat in the sit phase to push him into your hand. When I get my balance correct, my horse's frame changes instantly.
When they are going properly from behind , they are more focused on you and it's harder for them to scoot sideways like this.
The half pass looks lovely though

lol

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

Pinkvboots said:
Find a really good instructor or just make the mind busy, my Louis is so clever and is sharp but he thrives on difficult my old instructor trained horses up to GP level and he said he was so quick to learn but I wasn't.

His 18 now but I still have to make our schooling interesting, transitions even just walk to trot, 5 strides of each then add in a bit of shoulder in once warmed up then even in canter add in some leg yield get him listening to you and focused on you then they don't have time to look at stuff.

I don't think he's being sharp and clever though. I've had a sharp/clever horse before and she exactly needed this approach. This one is genuinely scared if he sees something he doesn't understand. If we are hacking and he sees something new you can feel and almost hear his heart thumping away. Once I've talked him through it, he's OK but he needs time to process what he's seeing. Unfortunately you can't do that in a dressage test!

GreyDot · 24 July 2023

Get yourself a neck strap and hook and hand under and see if that helps. It's totally legal in affiliated competition and will give that extra sense of security. You need to hold his hand, everything is new for him.

Sossigpoker · 24 July 2023

Marigold4 said:
I don't think he's being sharp and clever though. I've had a sharp/clever horse before and she exactly needed this approach. This one is genuinely scared if he sees something he doesn't understand. If we are hacking and he sees something new you can feel and almost hear his heart thumping away. Once I've talked him through it, he's OK but he needs time to process what he's seeing. Unfortunately you can't do that in a dressage test!

Mine is the same, we're currently learning to do gates and he's terrified of them moving towards them, his heart is really thumping between my legs , poor lad.
I think the more you can ride him from behind and the more he gets to trust you ,.the reactions will get smaller in time.

Marigold4 · 24 July 2023

moosea said:
I'm happy to give mho on your photos, but only if you ask for it!!

If he was mine I'd be working on getting hin in front of the leg, because he does not appear to be in any of those pictures.

Thanks but no thanks. I already know I'm a cr@p rider. I'm not doing another test so we'll leave it there.

Dressage despair!

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