Dressage , tactfully ridden / Tense

[henmother]

Hi all ,hope everyone is out enjoying competing and all horses are happy and well . I went to my riding clubs monthly ,"pick your own," tests . We decided just to try to do one test and do it well , I struggle to remember tests , I blame my prescription painkillers , or my tiny mind . Didn't go exactly to plan as horse was spooked twice by planks being knocked down in next field where jumping was going on. Judge wrote , "tactfully ridden" and I realised , that's a comment I get quite often . I'd like to improve our dressage so we don't get , tactfully ridden , as a comment . We also get "tense " quite a bit , but not as often as " tactfully ridden." Horse is quite happy to run through tests at home but I never do the test in full every time we practice. I like to do segments of test and get them right before moving onto the next part . We probably only do the whole test together three or four times. He almost always anticipates canter so gets excited , because going fast is exciting . I mix up dressage practice with hacks , lessons and jumping just so as not to bore him, and me . I'd love to pick up our scores , does anyone have any tips to get rid of tactfully ridden / tense ? Hoping to affiliate maybe next year but would be too embarrassed to make the step up until we can get better .
Thankyou .

 

[scats]

I write a lot for dressage judges. The tactfully ridden and tense often go hand in hand. Sort the tension out (easier said than done, I know) and you’ll probably have far less need to ride tactfully!

Does your horse improve the second time in the arena? Is it worth doing two tests and seeing if the level of tension improves the second time?

What’s he like at home?

 

[be positive]

I write a lot for dressage judges. The tactfully ridden and tense often go hand in hand. Sort the tension out (easier said than done, I know) and you’ll probably have far less need to ride tactfully!

Does your horse improve the second time in the arena? Is it worth doing two tests and seeing if the level of tension improves the second time?

What’s he like at home?

The tension tends to create the need to be tactful, the rider looks as if they dare not ask any more and sits quietly, once you can get him more relaxed you can push for more and ride with more purpose and confidence.

Anticipating canter needs addressing at home, he should not get excited because you ask for canter, do more until he accepts the transition and if he gets carried away canter him until he wants to slow down then do more, he will soon learn he has to wait, listen and that if he does not he will not be allowed to stop when he gets tired, lots of trot, canter, trot until it is part of his normal work usually helps make it less exciting and he should relax and become more rideable generally.

 

[henmother]

I write a lot for dressage judges. The tactfully ridden and tense often go hand in hand. Sort the tension out (easier said than done, I know) and you’ll probably have far less need to ride tactfully!

Does your horse improve the second time in the arena? Is it worth doing two tests and seeing if the level of tension improves the second time?

What’s he like at home?

That's a good point , we usually would do two tests, the second is usually less tense . We go to a local place and they have a big outdoor , right next to indoor for tests, and it's much easier. He needs a longer than normal warm up to get him tuned in. I don't feel like I'm tense , but then that's something a tense person would think. I'm not terribly competitive so don't care about placings, rather, I'd like us to be our best selves.
At home, he can school well, but can get strong . One of my fab trainers suggests turning him in circles with inside leg on to get him relaxed and listening. This works great at home but isn't something I can always do in the warm up. Out hacking he's my brave boy . We had a little accident last month thanks to flytippers , but on the roads , in the woods, he's a star.

 

[henmother]

The tension tends to create the need to be tactful, the rider looks as if they dare not ask any more and sits quietly, once you can get him more relaxed you can push for more and ride with more purpose and confidence.

Anticipating canter needs addressing at home, he should not get excited because you ask for canter, do more until he accepts the transition and if he gets carried away canter him until he wants to slow down then do more, he will soon learn he has to wait, listen and that if he does not he will not be allowed to stop when he gets tired, lots of trot, canter, trot until it is part of his normal work usually helps make it less exciting and he should relax and become more rideable generally.

I definitely need to work on canter transitions more . He gets very frustrated when he anticipates and I don't allow him forward , it turns into a bit of a disagreement. My riding instructor certainly pushes me on when he starts to get worked up . He never behaves like that out on hacks . I think I'm going to invest in some more lessons, I'm going to ask my riding instructor to get on him again too. I sometimes wonder if it's me creating the problems but seeing her ride him helps me with him.

 

[eggs]

Others have already given good advice.

I know myself that when I compete I have a great warm up and then go up the centre line and things can start to unravel. I definitely think that we unwittingly change the way we ride / get tense / freeze / whatever in our desire to do a good test. I find that thinking of it as just another schooling session helps. I also take Bach Rescue Remedy at a show as I believe it helps keep me calm. It might not but as I believe it I feel calmer.

Like you I very rarely ride through a whole test at home but will ride different bits of it. My old mare would be in a lovely trot and the moment I thought that I would canter in the next corner the trot would start to go to pot. As she wasn't a mind reader I must have changed something in the way I was riding that she was picking up on and therefore anticipating the exciting wall of death otherwise know as canter.

With a previous horse I often got the 'well sat' comment ......

 

[henmother]

Thanks eggs , you have decided exactly what can happen to us with the trot / canter transition. He can do it right , but sometimes rushes in. I don't know what I'm doing different to get the different responses . I have a video of my last test so going to watch , which I hate , but if I can pinpoint what I'm doing different / wrong , I can try to fix it . I have started to read , again , peter doves dressage book, and I've got a new book , cobs can , so hoping to pick up some tips .
Haha , I've had a few well sats too , usually when we are xc schooling , horse adores galloping about jumping and has a very enthusiastic jump on him . We did a trec event a few months back and the lady instructing suggested I take up xc with him .

 

[oldie48]

My horse anticipates canter and I was discussing this with a trainer who suggested that I try to find how much preparation I needed to do, too much and he'll anticipate and tend to get tense, too little and the transition would be poor. I realised that i would start thinking about canter too early and inevitably my body would give the game away as he's very sensitive to my seat. so, I'm trying to make my transitions much clearer and also making sure the quality of the trot is always good enough for the canter transition to be good. Not sure if that makes any sense?

 

[henmother]

My horse anticipates canter and I was discussing this with a trainer who suggested that I try to find how much preparation I needed to do, too much and he'll anticipate and tend to get tense, too little and the transition would be poor. I realised that i would start thinking about canter too early and inevitably my body would give the game away as he's very sensitive to my seat. so, I'm trying to make my transitions much clearer and also making sure the quality of the trot is always good enough for the canter transition to be good. Not sure if that makes any sense?

Thankyou oldie48, that makes perfect sense and I suspect I a must doing the same. It's almost as soon as I think canter he speeds up trot , it's not all of the time , just some of the time . If I don't set him up for the transition, I don't get it , but then sometimes I set him up and don't get it . If the trot is rushed , I try to bring him back but he knows he's being settled down to be asked again so it can be troublesome. I do sometimes school without any canter work , so he realises that he doesn't get to / need to canter every time we are in the school . Unfortunately , since making the big scary move to prelim I know i have to nail the transitions . I am going to attempt to be more mindful , I can't feel my seat and legs aren't great ( incomplete paraplegic) but I must be changing something or he wouldn't be anticipating. Waiting to hear back from my instructor for a lesson tomorrow morning , in preparation for a lesson with Sophie Wells at weekend , eek ! I'm sure she will be able to give me some good tips . Good luck with your canter