First Dressage-What to expect?

[Helenabbey]

I am doing a prelim (don't know which one yet, schedules not published) in 2 weeks on my 4yo Welsh Sec D. I have decided to do whichever one is on the grass arena rather than the sand one, as his babyish canter has more 'oomph' on grass. We are going to try to get an early time so that not too many people will be watching.

Would you do a walk and trot test first or go for the full prelim? (tbh I am edging toward the full prelim)

If he completes the test without any major hiccups, and does all of the movements as specified, is 50% a reasonable mark to expect? He goes in a reasonable outline but is green and needs to be more forward.

How long will I have to wait til after my test to get my marks/sheet?

Cheers for any help you can offer

 

[Jemayni]

I personally prefer sand arena to grass on youngsters, as the extra grip gives them more confidence to use themselves and go forward.

Personally, Id do both tests, I suppose it depends how stressful you find doing one. I compete at novice, but I always do a prelim test as a warm up which settles him down. There is usually a big improvment between my 2 tests because of this. Also it means if you have a disaster in the first test you can withdraw from the prelim & you havent lost anything. If you find it too stressful, Id do the full prelim, there is so little in a walk & trot test, it will give you longer in the arena to get used to the arena & surroundings in the full test.

50 % is a more than reasonable expectation, it varies completely from horse to horse & judge to judge on what mark you get. My first ever test on pony (5yo) I got 35%, but my first test on my horse (4yo) I got 65% - it completely depends on what stage your at. Just rememeber in dressage your only competing against yourself.

As for how long you have to wait, it depends on class size, you usually get your sheet back within an hour of your test. If you dont want to wait you can leave an SAE and they'll post your sheet.

Good luck & keep us updated!

 

[Shipley]

My horse is very similar to how you have described yours, I did a walt trot first to give him some confidence (sp) and worked really well he got 68% then I did the prelim and got 56%. I would recomend the walk trot tests as it gives the horse experience and means I can still work on his canter which is green. I did three walk trot tests and 2 prelims before affiliating (sp).

Good luck and the most important thing is to enjoy it. As for ground go for what you are most happy with as you dont need to worry about anything else on the day.