Dressage - when to move up a level

It depends on a few factors IMO

Do you care about the scores going on your record (if you are affiliated)?
Why are you wanting to go up the level?
what is your horse capable of?
What are you capable of?
What are your weaknesses as a pair?

e.g. I didn't do any prelim on my current horse as I was bored and I preferred to get crap scores at Novice than be bored at Prelim. I am now bored at Novice and cracking on at elementary and doing awfully but having fun! My horse is a forever horse so I don't care about his record showing scores in the 50s.

General rule of thumb that gets thrown around is to be working 1 level above at home - so if you are getting to working 2 levels above perhaps move up. I ahve also heard judges saying that if you are getting mid 60s then you could/should move up.

Personally I think it is suck it and see and a very personal choice.
 
I'm a bit the same as Batgirl - I get bored, so while I'm not going be a champion at the higher level, I would rather challenge myself than carry on doing same-old, same-old.
 
I started at intro, but fairly quickly moved to doing an intro and a Prelim each time. Then started doing 2 Prelims when available. We were consistently scoring mid to high 60s at both levels by then. We have just moved up to novice after a couple of wins and our first 70+ score at Prelim. We now do a Prelim and a novice each time. It never gets boring because my horse presents me with different challenges on every occasion :D
 
I have not long stepped my horse up to Novice. He did 4 prelims, all over 66% and won the classes. He is a wobbly 5yo ex racehorse and we have no school at home so do all schooling out hacking so I wasn't intending to move up very quickly.
He has since done 2 more Prelims as a warm up to his first 2 Novices and had over 68% and won both Prelims again, so we are moving on to 2 Novice tests.
He has scored 66% and over in his first 2 Novices and placed 2nd and 3rd but we are a long way off Elementary as he is still developing his mediums and lateral work, so we are not schooling a level above at home! Although a lot of this is down to having no school and dealing with trying to develop his canter riding in bog...!
As with the above Prelim also gets pretty boring :)
I think it's just down to how you feel personally, if you have a feeling you should move up then have a go at unaff and see how your horse reacts to new questions and the speed each movement comes up.
 
same as batgirl again :)
I pretty much skipped elementary on Millie as I don't like the tests and she is good at going sideways. I will probably do the same again with Kira when we get to that point, we'll see.

In the past I've pushed myself and competed at the top of my level of competence, more out of impatience than anything else :o it worked well enough as we got a lot of red frillies but I've taken a different approach with Kira and she is definitely schooling higher than she's competing (competing Novice, beginning Medium stuff at home).

Kira's weakness is dealing with show atmosphere so I'm more inclined to bumble about at Novice for a bit longer until that improves, and then hopefully she'll be ready to move up the levels a bit faster and with greater confidence.
There isn't really a right answer - it depends on horse's ability and rider's priorities :)
 
I'm not very good at hanging around at a level too long - I get bored! I will try the next level up as soon as I can do the movements. I don't really care what I'm scoring at the current level. We basically skipped Medium as he learnt his changes at the same time he mastered half pass and Advanced Medium is much more fun as we get to do flying changes. Now working on the moves for Advanced and as soon as I feel like I won't embarass myself we'll go out and try one. Trying to be patient at the moment as actually cannot wait to get out there and wear my tailcoat! Eeeeek!
 
Pondering this at the moment myself! Horse only ever done 3 intro tests. His trot is still work in progress! By that I mean we lack swing etc but it is improving all the time. However his canter is lovely. I don't feel quite ready yet to canter him in the warm up but I think we may do better in prelim than intro!

As others have said, moving up depends on a few things. Try it, you can always drop down again x
 
Not only would I like to be getting decent scores at my current level (around 70%-ish) but I'd also like to be comfortably schooling the movements required of the next level up at home.

My horse and I are getting about 70% now at Prelim but I haven't yet started confirming the movements in Novice such as medium work or leg yields. We can do them but it's a bit thrown together :)

My goal is to focus on refining the 'new' movements such as the above, 15m circles, counter canter etc, over the summer with the aim of moving up for the Autumn leagues.
 
nato said:
Not only would I like to be getting decent scores at my current level (around 70%-ish) but I'd also like to be comfortably schooling the movements required of the next level up at home.

My horse and I are getting about 70% now at Prelim but I haven't yet started confirming the movements in Novice such as medium work or leg yields. We can do them but it's a bit thrown together :)

My goal is to focus on refining the 'new' movements such as the above, 15m circles, counter canter etc, over the summer with the aim of moving up for the Autumn leagues.
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Leg yield doesn't come in until Elementary so you don't need to worry about that one just yet.

Some horses just aren't 70% horses, esp at the higher levels. We're just about getting to 65% at Advanced Medium now - if I wait until I get 70% before moving up I might be there forever! I think it's more important to be comfortable with the moves at the next level up than worry about specific scores at your current level (although obviously if only getting 55% then might want to look at that!)
 
star said:
Some horses just aren't 70% horses, esp at the higher levels. We're just about getting to 65% at Advanced Medium now - if I wait until I get 70% before moving up I might be there forever! I think it's more important to be comfortable with the moves at the next level up than worry about specific scores at your current level (although obviously if only getting 55% then might want to look at that!)
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couldn't agree more :) My cob has hit the 70s a few times and that's wonderful but I'm not deluding myself that it will continue past Novice! For me, if I'm hitting the qualifying scores consistently then I feel like we are meeting the requirements of a level, and it's not a stupid idea to move on up.
 
star said:
Leg yield doesn't come in until Elementary so you don't need to worry about that one just yet.

Some horses just aren't 70% horses, esp at the higher levels. We're just about getting to 65% at Advanced Medium now - if I wait until I get 70% before moving up I might be there forever! I think it's more important to be comfortable with the moves at the next level up than worry about specific scores at your current level (although obviously if only getting 55% then might want to look at that!)
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Good to know about the leg yield - we're pretty terrible at it! But I definitely need to start confirming movements such as CC and medium, I just don't fell we're there yet.

With regard to the 70% comment, that's fairly personal for me at the level I'm at. I feel like my horse still has loads more to give at this level and we have come home with 67%+ at all recent Prelim level outings, however I am under no illusion that as I move up to the next level that 70%+ is going to be a regular thing!

What you could say is for me, to move up a level, I would want to be riding the 'new' movements for that level confidently at home already, and be reaching a certain score consistently at my current level (depending on level, and the average scores for those levels etc). I like to have a target so a score target works for me :)

But it's the consistency that is key for me, I don't think I'd hit 70% for example once and be like 'ok, ready for Novice!'. If I consistently get 65% and I know that we are really performing at our best then I know that I have achieved a lot at that level and would be ready to move up, rather than one single 70% score.

By the way, 65% at AM is excellent! Well done :)
 
When I was competing my older lad ( now semi retired ) I stayed in prelim for ages. He was a difficult ride so I never thought about moving up. He won lots at prelim and it was in our comfort zone. It was a remark about pot hunting made by a ' friend ' that made me think perhaps we could move up. Move up to novice we did and won plenty of classes. We won our first two elementary classes then the wheels started to fall off with soundness issues. I wish I had moved up sooner but thoroughly enjoyed what we did and the experience we gained. I'm now starting again with a young ex racer and throughly enjoying getting out again. We are at intro level at the minute but as soon as we are confident in canter we will move up to prelim regardless of intro scores. Life is too short to wait for that elusive 70% that may never materialise!!
 
Charlie007 said:
When I was competing my older lad ( now semi retired ) I stayed in prelim for ages. He was a difficult ride so I never thought about moving up. He won lots at prelim and it was in our comfort zone. It was a remark about pot hunting made by a ' friend ' that made me think perhaps we could move up. Move up to novice we did and won plenty of classes. We won our first two elementary classes then the wheels started to fall off with soundness issues. I wish I had moved up sooner but thoroughly enjoyed what we did and the experience we gained. I'm now starting again with a young ex racer and throughly enjoying getting out again. We are at intro level at the minute but as soon as we are confident in canter we will move up to prelim regardless of intro scores. Life is too short to wait for that elusive 70% that may never materialise!!
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Thanks for sharing! It's actually interesting as there have been times I have won a Prelim class, and the horse who came second in my class has gone on to win a Novice class with much stronger scores!

Think I will get onto my coach about starting to work at Novice level at home :)
 
I get bored and so does my horse! We're planning our first elem in march. Are we ready? Probably not, but I'm finding novice a bit repetitive now, and he flippin knows all the tests! ;)
 
I used to think I had to be regularly getting 68% scores before moving up but now I don't worry about scores as I find the lower level tests pretty boring so as long as the horse is comfortable working at a level at home I will move up. One of my horses took a long time to get going and I ended up starting her at elementary level as she needed a more busy test. Another of my horses did a couple of novice tests then a couple of elementary tests, a handful of mediums and has now done a couple of advanced mediums and will soon do his first advanced but he only has about 70 points as he has done so few competitions. He consistently scores about 64 - 66 with the odd 60 or 69 thrown in for good measure.
 
I was a bit restricted under the old system due to my rider group (one horse taken from scratch to PSG/Inter I) so tended not to go affiliated until they were ready for elementary. The new system gives me more scope with a youngster without constantly being stuck in with the professionals, so will probably take my baby horse out fairly quickly. He's registered with BD now, just need some decent weather to get the work in at home to be ready for parties.

I tend to move up when they are ready, so no hard and fast rule for a horse. My foundation mare had 3 whole points at Novice but 16 points at advanced/PSG, although to be fair she had evented prior to switching to pure dressage so was already working well past novice.
 
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