dressage - in a test environment

[lexibell]

Hi All

I need help !! I have entered ben pony into a very small, local ODE at the end of the month, our jumping has improved massively since last summer and i was confident our flatwork had also.

I have been working on our flatwork as much as poss over the past few weeks, using friends sand school arena, and last weekend i made up an area in one of the top fields to start to practice my test.

The dressage area at the ODE is in a field, with only floor markers. so i invested in some markers, laid them out and proceeded to start the warm up... he was all over the pace!! going sideways, trying to duck out between markers etc etc, without the fence as a guide i found him impossible to get anything sensible out of him!!!

I have since tried 4 more times to practice our test in the open but no improvement.

Any ideas?

 

[charmeroo]

I think that you need to work on his straightness as he is probably using the fences of the arena to do this for him. Try concentrating on riding away from the outside track - down the quarter lines. He will try to fall out so you will need to make sure that he is accepting your outside contact.

 

[be positive]

You are probably using the fence too much when riding in a school, he is not working correctly to the outside rein so without the fence for support he is unable to stay straight.
Go back into the school and do ALL your work on an inside track or on different movements such as circles and serpentines never allowing him to fall back to the fence he must stay between your legs and hands.
Really concentrate on this for a few sessions and it should improve very quickly but you must be totally focused to prevent him drifting back to the fence at any opportunity.
Once you are in control try the field again it should be much better.

 

[lexibell]

Thank you both for comments. I was hoping to be able to get some time with a trainer before hand, but doesnt look likely so am on my own trying to work out whats going wrong!! as you can probably guess Ive never done a dressage test other than playing around at pony club as a kid!

 

[be positive]

At least you got the same advice so plenty to work on It will get better fairly quickly, on the day of the event make sure you warm up well keeping him listening to you and it will be fine, once you have the dressage out of the way you can enjoy the fun parts.