Dressage, rubbish day yesteday

[Seahorse]

Did some very low key local unaffiliated dressage yesterday at a place Axey has never been to before.
Halfpass drew the short straw and had the horribe job of riding him first, he was a total a*se and very spooky, he wouldn't even go along the side of the arena where the gallery was and did a giraffe impression 80% of the time.
They scored 55% which was only redeemed by the fact they got an 8 for his free walk. But qualified for the BHS finals in April which is why Halfpass was riding him as I'm not eligable as we have been placed as a combination in a Novice.
She did a fantastic job of riding him, as she's only sat on him in the school about 5 times

I then did Novice 21 on him and to my surprise he has settled really well and did a really nice test, he felt relaxed and was round and working nicely.
So when I got my sheet I was most disapointed to get 56% and wasn't placed. Most of the marks were fair enough but what had p**sed me off the most was the fact that the judge gave me 4 for his free walk

He normally gets 7 or 8 for this and he didn't do anything different this time. In fact he stretched down lovely and naturally has a massive overtrack anyway.
The judge was there at the end so I went and asked her and she said that he was a bit wobbley in the medium walk at the beginning, she also said he was tense and tight across his back, fair enough but a 4 FFS

Like I said this was very low key and aimed at genuinely inexperienced horses and riders, you would have thought she would have been a bit more generous. Its put me off going there again now.

Sorry rant over

Sam x

 

[amandathepanda]

I hate it when that happens! I sold my arab I used to do dressage with a couple of years ago because judges wouldn't take him seriously. I rode tests on him that would have scored high 60's if they had been one of my warmblood's & would be lucky to get low 50's... And this was only prelim level! So disheartening! Really wonder what judges expect sometimes, especially when you are doing a test aimed at baby horses. When the horse is going forwards, in a straight line & is submissive, what more can you expect from a youngster?

 

[Rosiefan]

dressage judges are often very weird in my (totally unknowledgeable, observer only) opinion

Rosie & BB were awarded 53+ at Weston JRN finals - everyone (including her area co-ordinator) thought they'd done a great test and would be in the top ten - she was 45th

 

[Seahorse]

Exactly! I wouldn't have minded if he had been awful, but when you do a nice test and still get marked badly it makes you wonder....

Am having a lesson on thursday with a dressage judge and will show her my sheet and see if she can shed any light.
I did N21 2 weeks ago and it was judged by her and I got 65.9% and tbh I thought he went better yesterday!!

 

[ajb]

I think you will always get this at Unaff level to a degree and over the last year I have just had to learn to put up with it..I did a prelim the other day which I thought was ok, nothing stunning but acurate test and given mine has issues with canter was pleased that although he picked up wrong lead and I corrected within 2-3 strides...got my sheet and had 60%..ok I guess but the person behind me was moaning about getting a 4 for cantering on the wrong lead all the way round the movement!..looked at mine and got a 3 for the same movement with "wrong lead corrected late"...seems biziarre to me that I get 3 for correcting it (bit harsh at prelim I thought as I corrected it pretty quickly and the other rider got the wrong lead both times and kept wrong lead (his helper said that was the main reason hes struggles cos he cant tell which lead hes on) and got 4!!!...my lads best pace is his free walk but sometimes he gets a 9 and other times a measly 4..at Hickstead in the summer I got 4 in the first test with needs more rein so in the second I gave just slightly more and the same judge gave me a 3 and the comment "too much rein"...arghhhhh -spoke to the judge after and she didnt really seem to know what to say about the inconsistent and then said it was probably because his overtrack wasnt as good the second time...

no wonder its called stressage!!!!

 

[Seahorse]

LOL
Its not just me then!!

 

[not_with_it]

I often wonder what judges are looking for.

 

[Halfpass]

Hey hon thanks for the lovely comments but I really don't deserve them I rode him like a complete muppet!!!

Its put me off slightly from going again but now I have something to proove!!!
Oh well roll on next year with Folkington Manors Dressage Series!!!
See you tomorrow hon