FSM novice

[Mari]

How can you make the canter work interesting? I can be fairly inventive with trot & walk but never seem to come up with anything different to others with canter section.

 

[Britestar]

Very difficult, limited by the 20m circle requirement.

 

[humblepie]

Other than the 20m circle, perhaps canter up the centre line even if you go into trot at one of the ends, or a diagonal line to show straightness away from the side. Canter serpentine with trot as you can't do simple change. Would a canter serpentine with counter canter be allowed? I had that in my elementary at one stage. Not sure how much time you have to play around with other than the two compulsory circles.

 

[Mari]

Other than the 20m circle, perhaps canter up the centre line even if you go into trot at one of the ends, or a diagonal line to show straightness away from the side. Canter serpentine with trot as you can't do simple change. Would a canter serpentine with counter canter be allowed? I had that in my elementary at one stage. Not sure how much time you have to play around with other than the two compulsory circles.

Tried all these at elem with my horse, now retired, & they worked well but my pony is different altogether. Has a huge canter stride & finds it hard to shorten/collect it but does a really good counter canter. I’ve plenty of time for more than 2 x 20m circles + a medium canter (not his forte as can be croup high). Last time I looked a 20m 1/2 circle in CC was next level up. Ie elem.

 

[ycbm]

If he has good transitions, are you allowed in the test rules to do repeated canter/ trot/ canter/ trot transitions to demonstrate his balance and submission? 5m loop off the track? Canter leg yield from the quarter line? Excuse me if those are dumb ideas, I have no idea about FSM rules.
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[quizzie]

Remember what the marks are awarded for when you design your test...there is no mark for degree of difficulty until you get to medium, so a senior judge advised me that there is no point putting in more difficult movements at the lower levels as they are not marked...keep your choreography flowing and rhythmic without trying to be too "clever".

 

[doodle]

I write quite alot for dressage judges including music. It is quite hard in novice to do something different. You don't get marks for making things more tricky. What i would say is to make sure your mediums are obvious. We can spent alot of time wondering if that was meant to be medium or not. Also mirror imaging is useful as it gives judge and writer an idea of what is coming. I have seen quite alot people trying to do something more clever and it goes wrong and ruins the test. Do cc if you like and if it helps the rest of the test but you won't get extra marks of you do. What will get you marks is having your transitions bang on the music and a music that really suits your horse and is different, it's amazing how many.mjaics use the same.

 

[nikkimariet]

You don’t get a degree of difficulty at novice so unless you’re 100% sure you can pull off something tricky there’s no real need to add it.

However, using all the arena is a really good idea. Keep it symmetrical too.

Do your medium trot strides on short diagonals. You can do walk/canter so add those in. CC is allowed too. Bring your medium canter onto the 3/4 line. Or medium canter into a circle etc.

If you can use your music to highlight the changes in pace/direction etc then that is mostly what keeps it interesting and prevents the music from being monotonous.

 

[nikkimariet]

If he has good transitions, are you allowed in the test rules to do repeated canter/ trot/ canter/ trot transitions to demonstrate his balance and submission? 5m loop off the track? Canter leg yield from the quarter line? Excuse me if those are dumb ideas, I have no idea about FSM rules.
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Certainly not a dumb idea, off the track loops are a nice addition but as long as they could be ridden symmetrically to make the floor plan make sense iykwim.

Re leg yield - can’t show any lateral work at novice and canter leg yield isn’t a recognised movement.

 

[oldie48]

I'd just focus on having rally great transitions between trot/canter, canter/ trot. having recently written for a judge at novice level, so many horses just didn't do great transitions. I think Novice is about nailing the basics, having a symmetrical test and music that matches the horse's paces, isn't that enough?

 

[Mari]

Thank you everyone for your ideas / suggestions / help. We did our FSM at the weekend. Got 8 for choreography. Am so pleased, it all came together on the day.

 

[humblepie]

Thank you everyone for your ideas / suggestions / help. We did our FSM at the weekend. Got 8 for choreography. Am so pleased, it all came together on the day.

Well done that’s brilliant.