Dressage for a complete numpty

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poiuytrewq

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Help me out a little here!

I have never had anything whatsoever to do with dressage in my life, neither has my daughter. I suddenly find myself as the mother or a dressage obsessed daughter who seems to be quite good at it :) which is nice but does seem to involve dressage conversations where im a little out of my depth with either her or others at shows (is a dressage test evening a "show" even?)
The levels I think im getting Intro tests are the easier walk and trot, then prelim then what happens?
Also she asked the difference between affiliated and normal dressage?
Then theres scoring???? WTF?!
I get told enthusiastically that "A" got 75% one minute and that they got 26 (not %) the next and I have NO IDEA which to be happy about and which to say "ahh bad luck" too!
O/H is buying us a 4x4 so I can drive her round these places as he's a farmer and will harvest soon- at least he's more clueless than I am!
I can see my whole summer being spent on the Dressage circuit looking like a complete fool!

HELP!!!!
 
No help but I've managed to inherit a show jumper whose terrified of fillers but loves his flatwork so I'll be reading replies with interest!
 
Firstly there are unaffiliated dressage competitions - these are run by riding clubs, riding schools, livery yards, etc and these can be judged by anyone the organiser's choose.

Then there are affilated dressage competitions run by British Dressage and have British Dressage listed judges.

The levels of dressage are as follows:

Introductory
Preliminary
Novice
Elementary
Medium
Advanced Medium
Advanced
Prix St Georges
Intermediare I
Intermediare II
Grand Prix

For the scoring - see http://www.equine-world.co.uk/horse_sports/dressage_scoring.asp
 
Spotsrock said:
No help but I've managed to inherit a show jumper whose terrified of fillers but loves his flatwork so I'll be reading replies with interest!
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Ah your in a similar situation! After so many problems with her own pony we were given on sort of loan a ex- eventer/jumping mare who just refused to jump anymore so the people who owned her sent her to stud and now she's back- still not happy to jump really but fab at flat work. We are incredibly lucky to have found and have the use of such an amazing little horse :)

Thank you Nightmare I will study closely!
 
I'm in the same position, we went to our first dressage competition last week and daughter came first in the intro class, I have never ever done dressage myself so completely clueless. Pony can be a bit on/off with jumping but seems to love his dressage so for now that's what we are going to be doing. Luckily there is a dressage club at the yard opposite us so we only have to walk across the road, so very handy. She won with 64.8% and the comments were very good, so I'd better start learning all about dressage!
 
Is your daughter a member of pony club / riding club? I have always found organisers of these dressage comps very, very helpful when you're starting out about what's involved.
Intro is just walk and trot, prelim includes canter. 75% is fab so a definate well done needed, 26 probably refers to eventing dressage and that's really good too (it is scored differently and a low score is better than a high score)! If you got 26% it would be an oh gosh what happened? moment :)
You can't do affiliated Intro, only unaffiliated (I think) and places quite often have strict rules on the horses that can do intro (if your daughters pony has won any dressage comps, even with previous owner, he MAY not be allowed to do Intro but the rules are usually very clear and vary depending on the club / establishment!).
I would say just to ask people at competitions, unless someone is horrid they will be happy to give you information and encourage your daughter to get involved :) Just a couple of things to remember - you are not allowed to have boots on your horse, bit must be "dressage legal" (eg snaffle bits at low levels), no martingale / gadgets and your daughter has to wear light coloured gloves - oh and you're not allowed to talk to your horse during the test at all! If you're keen I found a great way to learn was to volunteer to write for the judge at competitions - you really learn heaps! And have lots of fun!
 
Shannonandtay- Well done to your daughter! Were you a bit stunned or was it expected? Our first time out was a few weeks ago where to our utter amazement they won the Intro and Prelim then last night she won an Intro class but completely stuffed the prelim....back down to earth with a large thud!
Hbrea2- That explains my confusion! Yes she go's eventing with the horses owners and other horses so that's where I get all these scores from!
She is a new member of our local riding club. We found PC mainly aimed at jumping, I wasted a whole years money and she wasn't able to join in anything so gave up on that.
Luckily this horse wears a snaffle and no martingale etc anyway so that's all fine. Gloves however I hadn't realised, in fact we were told dark gloves so unsteady hands or something wouldn't show up as badly to the judge- This is wrong then?
Tips like this are what I need thanks!
 
TBH if its unaffiliated the dress code is fairly relaxed. You dont have to plait your horses mane up. Wear ideally a black jacket white shirt & stock, white jods, white gloves and black boots & hat. Hair should be tied back in a net if its long. Dont panic if youve got a tweed jacket or beige jods or black gloves no-ones going to deduct any marks from your score sheet. At this stage its all about how supple & relaxed pony is, does he come in an outline, is he fighting the rider etc. As for rider is she relaxed, not jabbing in the mouth with reins or booting with her legs. Its harmony between horse and rider, it should look easy like theres no fighting between them. Ignore any snooty people and just enjoy yourself. Remember to use your corners of the school and smile. ;)
 
Hmmm, at riding club level we HAVE to wear light coloured gloves so I would say it does matter. Also, unless you have a native, plaiting shows respect for the judge and everyone I know plaits. It may depend on your area though. Do check that the horse hasn't done dressage before when you're entering intro as you may not be eligible,
 
The basics of dressage very quickly:

Unaffiliated dressage - you dont need to join anything to compete, you just pay your entry a few days before and turn up on time to compete. You will get a rosette if you come top 6 (depending on the venue), but more often than not there is no prize money. Unaff (that's the shortened term) can be judged by anyone the venue chooses, although a lot of unaff comps do use BD listed judges.

Affiliated dressage - this is ran by British Dressage (BD) and you have to strictly adhere to their rules, and all comps are judged by listed judges. Often they say the scoring at BD comps should be more accurate because there is no variance in judges at each level, however I write for judges and even at affiliated comps it still boils down to 1 persons opinions and they will vary from one judge to the next. You need to pay to join BD, you have to pay for the rider and the horse. You gain points with BD that can lead to you qualifying for various regional and national championships. You also get prize money with BD but entry fees are more expensive than unaff.

Scoring - for pure dressage comps (not eventing, just dressage) each movement is marked from 0-10. 10 being the best, but no-one hardly ever gets a 10! 0 is not executed (i.e. if you dont perform the movement), 5 is sufficient, 6 is satisfactory, 7 fairly good, 8 good, 9 very good and 10 excellent. Most riders should expect a range of marks from 4 up to a 9 if they are lucky. 4 is if they spook and have a bit of a nightmare doing the movement. Anything less than a 4 is not good! So with everything marked out of 10, this results in a percentage for the final score. So if you were mostly scoring 6's on the test sheet then you will get around 60% and so on. Most riders are happy with scores in the 60's, 70's is great and 80's is WOW!

Eventing dressage scores are different - it works on penalties for SJ and XC so they have to translate dressage into penalties. So the better you do in your dressage test, the lower your score will be e.g. 26. The judges still mark in the same way (out of 10) but this then gets translated into penalties (I'm not sure quite how that works - I'm no eventing expert!).

Levels have already been explained - but into is walk/trot, prelim introduces basic canter (20m canter circles and cantering around the arena). Novice introduces more difficult movements - medium trot and canter, with a few smaller circles and some more difficult transitions. Elementary builds on that, again with more difficult transitions (walk to canter etc), leg yield I think all requiring more suppleness from the horse and the horse needs to start to show some degree of collection at this level. Beyond elementary is a bit above me (I only compete at novice!) but things like half pass start to be introduced, flying changes later on right the way up to canter pirouettes, passage and piaffe at Grand Prix.

I wouldnt worry if you dont know much about it, I had no clue about dressage in February when I first started, all I knew was that Carl Hester did it and Charlotte Dujardin had a horse called Valegro! The more time you spend watching the more you will pick up :)
 
poiuytrewq said:
Shannonandtay- Well done to your daughter! Were you a bit stunned or was it expected? Our first time out was a few weeks ago where to our utter amazement they won the Intro and Prelim then last night she won an Intro class but completely stuffed the prelim....back down to earth with a large thud!
Hbrea2- That explains my confusion! Yes she go's eventing with the horses owners and other horses so that's where I get all these scores from!
She is a new member of our local riding club. We found PC mainly aimed at jumping, I wasted a whole years money and she wasn't able to join in anything so gave up on that.
Luckily this horse wears a snaffle and no martingale etc anyway so that's all fine. Gloves however I hadn't realised, in fact we were told dark gloves so unsteady hands or something wouldn't show up as badly to the judge- This is wrong then?
Tips like this are what I need thanks!
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Yes it was a complete shock to me, I thought she had done the test better at our yard practicing so didn't expect her to get anything but I obviously don't understand about dressage because the judges comments were good. I bet your daughter was chuffed winning both intro and prelim that's very good, does she have a caller? I had been doing it for her when she was practising but then on the day she said she didn't want me to do it in case I messed up and ruined it for her :eek: I was worried she would forget the routine but she made the right decision in the end, thankfully.
 
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