Driven dressage- Video

rara007

rara007

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Oh my goodness. I never realised driven dressage was so seriously impressive! Those extended trots and the extended walk would not look out of place at GP in a pure dressage arena!! And such smooth transitions in and out of the extended trot. The mare has three fabulous paces, so much suspension in trot and a lovely walk. Could easily be a dressage horse!!
 
Alot are bred as dressage horses ;) Some are even trained up to top (GP) level before being bought into driving.
In a geeky way I'd like to see a pure driven dressage horse- as obviously these are 3 phase horses so effectively eventers- fit for long marathons. I'm not sure there would be much interest though :p

The WEG winning test with a 4-in-hand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmY1gfBJdZI&feature=fvwrel
 
I remember going to see the final phase of a big driving competition in Germany (the equivalent of showjumping...with the poles on the ground..) and was seriously impressed by how these horses moved, but I never realised the dressage part could be so exciting. Can I ask some numpty questions? How big is the arena? Is the test judged just like a dressage test, with marks for each movement? For a perfect rein back should the carriage reverse in a straight line or do they just mark the horse's rein back? And, considering how advanced the trot work is -- why is there so little canter?
 
Canter is fairly new to the driven dressage test, that probably accounts for why there is so little of it in the test.

Yes the test is judged in the same way as ridden.

And yes ideally the carriage should go straight back.

Not sure the size of the arena.

I really hope you post a report on your lesson i'm very jealous.
 
100X40 arena for everything above novice singles, so even little single ponies get 100X40 to move around in! - a 40X20 never looks the same again :p

It is marked exactly the same-link to my test for this year: http://www.horsedrivingtrials.co.uk/reference/dressage_tests/FEI_No_7a_2007_-_sheet.pdf

Some moves have slightly different names, but all exactly the same concept. 2 or 3 judges at club level, 3 or 5 above.

The rein backs can be quite long- the carriage shouldn't 'bend' as the horse(s) should push back evenly, although if it doesn't go offline till the very end you won't be penalised much, but if you're supposed to do 4m and the first stride back the carriage goes to jackknife and turn over clearly not only will your rein back 'paces' be penalised but also the fact it was not accurate. You can get turntable breaks (We have just had one put on our pony team carriage) which in some ways means you can cheat abit :o But it does make it fair as lumps in the ground etc can cause it to jackknife.

There has only very recently been any canter work atall, and only in advanced singles test- the traditional view was cantering in the carriage was dangerous! The horses do alot of canter schooling though- one horse, who came from florida as a dressage horse, does 2-time changes in the carriage, when asked rather than pratting! I expect more canter work will come in as people realise that cantering isn't quite as wild as they think. Similarly the only lateral work that is marked is leader shoulder in in teams and tandems, although you can get some lateral work even with 4 wheels following a single.

To confuse things british indoors (in a 50X20 arena) split the dressage judging into one mark for paces, and one of accuracy, of each move, and get BD judges to judge.

Confusing ;)
 
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