Dressage test riding...

If you use a snaffle type bit, what sort of mouthpiece does it have

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H's mum

H's mum

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www.coligone.co.uk
Thought I'd start a debate/interesting conversation on the art of dressage test riding...
When you're out competing - do you ride the test? or do you ride the horse?
Please feel free to add comments as to what you voted for!
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Kate x
 
I use to ride the test
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but in the last 6 months I've started to get my @rse in gear and ride the horse. I have no experience above elementry so can't really comment to much but I think at the lower levels its much more important to ride the horse correctly and improve their way of going.

I stand prepared to taught differntly
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I'm glad somebody's responded! I thought I wasn't going to get any conversation going! LOL!!
I used to ride the tests too - It was a case of "omg I've got to remember to canter at A...etc etc etc" but now it's more preparing the horse as you're going around the corner to canter at A - Which is something that would've blown my mind all those years ago - But I wondered what other people did
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Kate x
 
I thought after posted there'd be a barage (is that the right word???).

Yes I use to think 'oh god got to do this there and then this and then this' but now I don't mind so much I ride how the horse feels at the time - yes I do try to be as accurate as possible but if my horse needs a second more before a medium or I need really get a quailty trot before my canter I will.

I also use to worry hugely about the people watching - generally it doesn't bother me so much anymore as I'm there for me - because I love it!
 
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I also use to worry hugely about the people watching - generally it doesn't bother me so much anymore as I'm there for me - because I love it!

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I think that that's the best attitude to have!
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Kate x
 
Well - I think I need a both. I don't just ride the test, but I ride the horse to the test
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I ride the test RE accuracy of letters, and the horse so I make all the transitions/turns accurate... if that makes sense
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I only do prelim at the moment as i have not long been doing dressage.

I start of riding the horse then half way round the test i realise i am not riding the horse anymore but riding the test.

As i get better i hope i will ride the horse more and stop worrying about forgetting the test.
 
Unless the horse is going well it is difficult to ride an accurate test, i.e. cant get in corners if horse is not obedient and supple, however the more accurate you are the more obedient they become and the more obedient they are the more trainable they are and the easier they are to ride and therefore the more accurate you can be. So in short a both button please.
 
When I first started Driven dressage tests, I really drove the test. The problem was, Pip wasn't balanced enough to be accurate, but I was so concentrating on where to be I forgot about him. TBH I was still doing this up to the end of last year. Every PN we did we were right near the bottom of the dressage. I would forget to balance him coming off the centre line, he would break pace or really fall in, and from then on it always had to go down hill. Over the winter I did 'fun' events and had training and I remember being told, lots, to just think of it as showing how good you are at schooling to markers. Now I concentrate on him, how he should be bent and when he needs balancing. My last PN dressage was about 56%, worst PN of the w/e. My first N dressage was 70%, 2nd best pony dressage from all classes out of 60. All that change was mainly down to really driving him rather than the markers. If I think about him he is balanced, calm, round and goes to the correct markers as he is exactly how I want him to be. When I forget and just do the test he struggle round each bend, breaks pace, has a horrific outline, is tense, bucks and however hard I try he can't be accurate, and if I try his head goes to the correct marker, not his body
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It certainly does vary alittle on horse to horse, as its a total disaster if you forget about Pip, but many of the more balanced ones take to being driven thoughtlessly pretty well.
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Start out riding the horse and then when you finally hit the point where you can ride the horse easily as it's very well established at the level you are competing at, then you can start riding the test for all those extra marks.
Tis a long slow road. At the moment, I'm definitley riding the horse
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