First dressage competition: HELP!

[EvieandJack]

My pony is a 13.2hh Welshie who is an ex-riding school pony. He's 13 and I've had him a year and a half and when he wants to, he can do a beautiful dressage test! I only managed to teach him to bend about two months ago, and I guess I'm just asking for advice on how to keep his head in a consistent place because he pays attention to my contact for a little bit and then decides he wants to throw his head about! (Aka typical cheeky pony!) He tends to make dressage into stressage very easily... Any other advice on dressage would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

 

[DressageCob]

Keep communicating with him down the reins. Not a pull, just a conversation down the reins. A little squeeze with your ring finger whenever you feel like he's going to come up. Make sure you soften when he does give though. Flex him as you're going around, keep his attention on what you're doing rather than what is going on outside.

Don't expect perfection from your first outing though He's bound to look around more than he does at home because it's a new place, lots of new horses to be interested in, lots going on etc

Have fun!

 

[alice.j]

Keep communicating with him down the reins. Not a pull, just a conversation down the reins. A little squeeze with your ring finger whenever you feel like he's going to come up. Make sure you soften when he does give though. Flex him as you're going around, keep his attention on what you're doing rather than what is going on outside.

Don't expect perfection from your first outing though He's bound to look around more than he does at home because it's a new place, lots of new horses to be interested in, lots going on etc

Have fun!

This is what I do. My pony throws his head around when he starts to get tired - fine in the school, I can finish what I'm doing and then get off, but not so great if I've still got half an hour of a hack left. Keep him listening to you, which is easier said than done, but eventually he'll come to accept contact

Good luck!

 

[kc100]

This is what I do. My pony throws his head around when he starts to get tired - fine in the school, I can finish what I'm doing and then get off, but not so great if I've still got half an hour of a hack left. Keep him listening to you, which is easier said than done, but eventually he'll come to accept contact

Good luck!

This is great advice to inform your warm-up strategy - have a think and if your pony only throws his head up when tired, he is not fit enough to sustain long periods of schooling. So next time you school him, have a stop-watch. Time when you get on, and then as soon as he starts to throw his head around and avoid the contact, stop your watch. Deduct 10 mins for the test (test normally takes 5 mins but allow an extra 5 in case the judge is faffing around writing comments on the previous test as you may be trotting around waiting for the judge), and then that gives you your warm up duration.

Some horses work better with a long warm up, and for the more advanced horses you need longer - but they have to be fit enough to handle working for that long. Whereas with your pony this is all new so he is bound not to be fit enough to cope working in an outline for long periods. So your warm up is key here - if you over-do the warm up, he'll go around the arena like a giraffe and will ignore your aids. But if you time your warm up spot on so you've got him listening but not tired, you should get him at his best in the test.

But as the other poster said - dont expect perfect on your first outing. Even if you get him listening chances are he'll get a bit excited being somewhere new and will want to stick his head up to look! Second outing will always be much better.

Keep that slight wiggle/tweak in your reins when you feel his head coming up, it shouldnt be a sharp jab in the mouth just a subtle reminder down the rein that he should be listening to your hands.

Good luck!

 

[kc100]

And I forgot to say - make sure you alternate working in an outline with letting him stretch and relax. A constant 'outline' (i.e. what you'd ride your test in) is tiring for horses, especially those that are just starting out in dressage. So do 10 mins in an outline, then give him a long rein and let him stretch down (long and low type thing). You can do stretchy walk, trot and canter - you dont just have to amble around on a long rein in walk!

Even Intro and Prelim level dressage require you to show a free walk on a long rein (stretchy walk) and some test have a circle in trot with stretching. So this is something good to practice. Carl H advocates working 10 mins in an outline followed by 10 mins in a stretchy fashion, so you are not tiring the horse out and over-developing any particular muscles. The horse must seek the rein down though, dont allow him to throw his head in the air as soon as you relax the reins - he should want to seek your contact down not up.