First elementary, few questions?!

JustKickOn

JustKickOn

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Have gone a bit nuts and entered my first elem in just over a weeks time!! :eek:

The plan to go back to basics and prelims hasn't worked, and little mare has felt like she is bored just doing circles, trotting all the way to the other end to do another circle.
Having had a long discussion with various people, we feel that throwing in some more complex stuff will do both of us the world of good.

Schooling session the other day working on transitions went really well, so I'm feeling positive about that.

We've changed her bit from a fixed full cheek ported lozenge snaffle to a loose ring snaffle to see how she is with that, but also have two with a lozenge to try if that doesn't work. One is a centre revolver, the other is made of Salox. Have put a flash on her too, and it has made the world of difference to her concentration, and she doesn't seem to want to go head diving with it on.

SO, we're entered to do novice 30, and elem 44. Excited and nervous!! We did really well the last few novices we have done, so there is hope!

Questions
Why is it the novice looks more difficult?! :eek:

Does the elementary have to be ridden in sitting trot or is rising ok? I don't want to take on too much for it. I can cope doing long periods of sitting trot, but as it is our first, I don't want to fluff it.

Also, with the simple change of leg, can it be ever so slightly progressive with a step or two of trot in the downwards transition, or does it have to be canter BAM walk?

Thanks
L :)
 
Firstly ~ relax :D You will be ok, E44 is quite a nice one.

Rising trot is absolutely fine. With the simple change of leg I'm sure a progressive transition will be fine. Is it aff or unaff? I would think that aff would probably want to see more definite transitions up and down but I always found that unaff my way enjoyed seeing riders try a higher level.

Good luck!
 
From the rule book " in all tests, up to and including Elem, transitions may be progressive except where stated otherwise on the test sheets; in simple changes the upward transition is always direct"
 
Thanks bNc :) it's unaff and for a bit if fun as well as trial and error!!

Brilliant, thank you for that FM, upward we can do :)
 
For the simple change, according to the rulebook it can be progressive down.
In reality, I haven't met a judge yet that scores a progressive downwards any higher than a 6 (which seems to be the norm unless very horrific trans) and came across one the other week that for a pretty good trans with 1 trot step, awarded a 5 with a comment 'not direct'
 
Interesting. Will see how this goes then, we can do the cater to walk with a few trot strides down, so will be interesting to hear judges comment.
 
We did those 2 tests on Saturday. I put a post on here Mon evening with videos if you want to take a look. Was our first affiliated Elementary.
 
ihatework said:
For the simple change, according to the rulebook it can be progressive down.
In reality, I haven't met a judge yet that scores a progressive downwards any higher than a 6 (which seems to be the norm unless very horrific trans) and came across one the other week that for a pretty good trans with 1 trot step, awarded a 5 with a comment 'not direct'[/QUOT


I have written for one judge who didn't mind a couple of trot strides max down so long as the transition was balanced and not abrupt. Upwards should be direct.

However another judge I came across told me that the transition down must be direct or she wouldn't ever give more than a 6 even if everything else was perfect. She was a bit of a miserable old bat though! :p
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