Dressage with an unfit horse!

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MizElz

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Ooooooh I am a bad mummy; Ellie's got to do three stressage tests on Sunday, and she isnt as fit as she could be....I've had a mass of exams over the past fortnight, so she's been mainly turned out....have ridden her every day this week though, and schooled twice, where I must say she has been positively angelic (in Ellie terms, anyway
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Anyone else naughty enough to compete their horse at less-than-peak fitness? I have to say, I never jumped her when she was unfit; I saw too many horses broken down in that way.
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I'm thinking we will probably be fine; she might get a bit sweaty, but we're only doing Prelims and a Walk & Trot....she probably did more in the way of strenuous activity by buggering off across the fields with me yesterday and trying to buck me off....
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I took a fat and unfit horse to riding club camp last month, he did five intensive flatwork sessions and a long hack over four days (plus 5-6 hours travelling overall). He survived! I wouldn't like to risk it too often, but in the lessons we only did what he was capable of. Horses don't lose much fitness in a couple of weeks, they hold it well. TBH doing prelims and a W&T you should be absolutely fine
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If you are doing a W&T test first then I would consider that warm up for the Prelims anyway, so I don't think she'll find it particularly hard going!
 
Thankies, Silmarillion - she does tend to hold her fitness quite well, and to be fair, she always sweats up during flatwork anyway, because she finds it quite tricky. It'll be our first comp of 2008; I'm going to have a lovely time on Friday, bathing her, cleaning tack and sewing our number disc onto her saddle cloth!
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And do you know, if this were a jumping competition, I'd be sh1tting myself already. All I can think of is how excited I am - giving up jumping was the best thing I ever did!
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If you are doing a W&T test first then I would consider that warm up for the Prelims anyway, so I don't think she'll find it particularly hard going!

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LOL this is true.....we need the W&T to get over her irrational fear of white boards and *shock horror* conifer shrubs either side of A......

We ran through the W&T yesterday in the field.....she cantered sideways through half of it....
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Dont sew it! Pin it with safety pins that way its easy to change numbers

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Oh really? It's one of those where you attach the velcro to the numnah, and then stick the disk over the top.....are safety pins best?

I've never had one before!
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If you are doing a W&T test first then I would consider that warm up for the Prelims anyway, so I don't think she'll find it particularly hard going!

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LOL this is true.....we need the W&T to get over her irrational fear of white boards and *shock horror* conifer shrubs either side of A......

We ran through the W&T yesterday in the field.....she cantered sideways through half of it....
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If you can canter fine out in a field how comes you are doing a walk trot?
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Well, i'm off to do an BE intro with 2 this weekend (my first aff eventing event) and neither of them i would say are ultra fit but they're fit enough in my opinion and it's not like it's that difficult for them really (well I hope not!). I think we often underestimate how fit our horses are. If you've been riding as much as you've said i'd have said she's fit enough surely!
 
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If you can canter fine out in a field how comes you are doing a walk trot?
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How do you mean?
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Are walk and trot tests only for horses who physically cannot canter? Confused!
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No of course not but I thought they were for people realy just starting out dressage and certainly not capable of cantering out in an open field and able to be happy/confident on a lively horse
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No of course not but I thought they were for people realy just starting out dressage and certainly not capable of cantering out in an open field and able to be happy/confident on a lively horse
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We are just starting out, pretty much....have never yet been placed higher than 4th unaff. prelim, and collected canter is a real problem for us - we're working on it, but we never get more than 5 for it in a test.

Yes, she is a lively horse, and we can canter across an open field perfectly happily, but somehow I've never really compared riding a test to hacking
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The schedule only states that the combination must not have won a Prelim/Novice test in order to enter the W&T....I wasnt led to believe it was for total beginners...
 
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Sorry maybe I got wrong, thats what I thought they were for.

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You've got me worried now!
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Sorry but agree with HJ
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Eligibility wise you can do a walk/trot test but as a local RC dressage secretary I know we aim the walk/trot test at people with youngsters who do not have an established canter or for young/novice people who are not secure in canter hence that we open it to lead reiners too.

Could be that our RC understanding of it is wrong though
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Edited to add:
If you are working towards collected canter (which you do not have to show until elementary I believe) then surely you can cope with prelim/novice tests and to be getting placed in top 6 of prelim you must be getting in the 60% range so why do you feel the need for a walk/trot test
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