I brought Archie for pure dressage, and he dishes! And as written in H&H (!) apparently hes 'world class' - so it certainly wont stop him from hopefully going all the way. Ive never ever been marked down for it, or had it commented on. When he does extended trot its straight tho - he dishes more when hes tired aswell.
My firends mare badly dishes but is managing to get low scores at ODE 32 first time out, won prelim first time out. Her whole prescence in the arena makes up for the dishing. The vet took mickey when he vetted and said better trot down the 3/4 line so she doesn't catch the wall!
I had a horse that dished, and she used to get marked down a lot at the lower levels, but once we went above Medium with her the dishing was never mentioned again.
So long as the foot hits the ground straight dishing wouldn't bother me too much.
She always got low marks for paces at lower levels (well, not always, but quite often - you know what I mean), and I always assumed that was because of the dishing. She was quite a nice mover in my opinion, and as she went up the levels it was interesting that she started scoring much better for her paces as well. I never really understood it to be honest! Perhaps the judges didn't focus so much on the dishing when there was more lateral work, I don't really know!
If you only want to do RC or maybe up to elementary affiliated then dishing shouldn't affect your marks. The temperament & way the horse goes in more important & if you 'click' with them. If you are trying to go further then you may get marked down for a horse that dishes but again, the horse's way of going should be a priority. It is possible to improve dishing with a good farrier as by changing the foot balance & with careful weighting of the shoe you can change the horses action. The important thing to remember is why it is a fault in the first place - not only does it not look as good as horse that moves straight, it puts undue, uneven wear & tear on the joints - especially the knee - which can result in problems with degenerative break down of the cartiledge within the joints.
As a judge I can tell you categorically that it is wrong for any dressage judge to mark a horse down for dishing. It is of no relevance whatsoever at any level.
When judging paces we are not in any way judging straightness but are ONLY interested in purity of rhythm (ie correct footfalls in each pace) freedom and elasticity.
There may well be some unaffiliated judges who don't know this but anyone who has undergone proper judge training should do.
In all my years competing judging etc I have never heard any judge at any level say they gave a lower mark because of dishing.
No i would not touch a horse that dishes!
When spending that amount of money i would not buy something that is so glaringly wrong. WHy buy one that dishes, when there are hundreds that dont!
K
It would depend if the dishing was down to a conformatiion fault or just extravegant action, if the latter then it will largely disappear with correct training.
Archie's is due to his big action (ive already been told this by my trainers) and when hes extending it disappears totally. With good shoeing hes become a lot straighter in his action, and only does it now when hes tired or not up through the shoulder.
I dont see any problem with a horse that dishes, noone has ever commented on it, and i wouldnt have got an 8.9 for his trot in the YH class (and won!) if the judges thought it was an issue!!
One of the top dressage stallions in Germany, Don Frederico is well known for his very extravagent movement , and he is certainly not a straight mover! Doesn't bother the Germans as he is hughely popular as a breeding stallion and is competing Grand Prix now I believe