Dressage to music... a few novice questions!

[clairel]

My riding club is running a dressage to music night for the first time and I have always really wanted to have a go!
So question is where do you start?
It would only be a test of about novice standard and a max of 5mins long, no restrictions on what you can or can not do.

Anyone ever tried to do this before?

 

[missmatea]

I did my first dressage to music not long ago and i had no idea what to expect!
I had a lesson before hand, i had picked out some music (the killers would you believe! a lot of people had chosen classical pieces and changed tracks a number of times but i decided to keep it simple) The judge said the music choice was good but she would have liked more tempo variation, if you can get music that suits your horse it feels great to ride to it! This suited my horses walk and canter so i stuck with it.
I had put bits and pieces of movements to the music at home and my instructor just helped me put the whole thing together, it helped to know that you didnt have to ride to the letters like in a normal test and it helps visually to keep the test reasonably symetrical on both reins.
Both my horse and i really enjoyed it, oddly tho the speed was slightly different on the cd player at the competition so we had to make some of our circles smaller and shorten a few diagnals to ensure we fit it all in!
That is totally fine because the jugde has no idea whether the test you planned to ride had a 15m circle or a 20m circle in it as long as you do the same thing on both reins! Brilliant!
Goodluck!

 

[crabbymare]

There are set things that you need to include in the test, so make sure when you do the floorplan they are all included or you could miss marks for that movement. If the sheet specifies 15 mtr circles each way in trot and you do 20 mtr circles you are going to drop easy marks.

Music should really change for each pace as walk trot and canter have different tempos so the music you chose should change to reflect that.

You don't need to do transitions at the letter, so if the music for trot changes to walk (or canter) between letters you can do the transition there so that you are riding to the music.

Also have a look at the British Dressage site, it has some advice on doing music classes and tells you how you can register the music.

Enjoy it.

 

[rugrat]

Have a look at www.freestyledressage.co.uk They have lots of info on there and if you want them to help you they will even if you are in another country. I had them make a riding club music test for my daughter and it is fab!

 

[FMM]

When I used to do it, I used to make sure that I did all the trot work in one go, all the canter work in one go etc etc - this meant that I didn't have lots of changes of music. It is often best not to try to use your favourite piece of music or band/soloist - you need to get a whole range of music down to ride to and see what goes. Ideally, either video yourself and then listen to music at the same time, or get someone to come down when you are practicing and get them to change the CD for you. The bargain bucket CDs in newsagens are often full of CDs which are great for dressage to music.

I have just bought the Strictly Come Dancing CD and am tempted to use that - there is not much good trot music, but the canter and walk music on there is fab!