How do you spend your warm up time before dressage test?

LauraBR

LauraBR

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Random general question...!
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What do you do in the warm up ring to best prepare your horse for a fab dressage test?

How long do you warm up for and what kind of exercises to you do to get your horse listening and working at his best?

Just curious!
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Well we only do prelim stuff, not affiliated or anything but I find lots of transition work helps Coco concentrate then serpantines and bending to supple him up and then trot without stirrups, walk the test out and then a final canter before going into the ring
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I'll be interested to hear what everyone else does as we're out tomorrow dressaging!
 
I'm a fellow unaff prelimer- and a pretty rubbish one at that lol!

I have to work hard to get my lazy horse thinking forwards and listening. Try and do plenty of transitions and lateral stuff but am guilty of pottering about the warm up without much purpose sometimes.
 
I generally give most horses 20-30 mins before the dresage at an event. I work them exactly as I would at home. I'm not sure theres much benefit to warming up for longer unless you really need to knacker the thing out!!
 
I just do a lot of trot work, and try to get him bending and listening to me. I will do a burst of canter, but only to get him warmed up otherwise he will be 'fresher' in the actual test, and stop listening (i dont do much dressage though!)
 
Depends on the horse, but generally about 30 mins. Firstly walking on a long rein, letting them stretch into the contact, then some stretching and flexing first in walk then trot and canter, still quite low to soften the back.
Then I'll pick them up a bit more and work on transitions between and within the paces and a bit of lateral work if that's required in the test.
 
Depends on the day really, how fresh they are, nervous, tense etc.... I have learnt, over the last day or so, regardless of how tense the horse is, 40 mins is too long!!!!! more 10 mins walk, stretch, bending then 15 mins "work", then 5 mins breather then 5 mins pick them back up again, OFF YOUR LEG !! and go straight into your test!! Anymore and they are too flat, unless of course your horse is hyper and has bundles of energy to spare and takes more time to relax, get his concentration!!
 
usually i have a walk, then trot and have a canter for 10 mins usually. then i go for a hack around the lorries!

its the only thing that really switches him on, so we do that for 10mins and then a quick trot to canter transition in warmup, and then in to do our test!
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if he is more laid back than normal, then i take him out of the lorry 10mins before test and just walk, trot and canter and straight into the test!
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I usually spend about 10mins walking around lorries trying to convince him that it isn't exciting, then into warm-up area to walk (lots of changes or rein) then trot with lots of transitions then a canter or two which is the final softening work then just work on transitions, roundness and lot of changing of rein. Couple of center lines/long diagonals and halts and then in. I do not need to work on being "off the leg" but do need to relax and calm him and get him listening, usually takes about 30/35mins but depends on weather and atmosphere. Doesn't always work though. Second test I get on about 15mins before as he listens immediately and gets bored if I do too much
 
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Normally driving like crazy to try to get there, and then tacking up...

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Been there! I wasn't driving but what should have been a 2 hour journey took 3 because of our usual lovely Scottish weather.
I got changed in the back of the car on the way, leapt out, got on and proceeded to get the worst score I ever had
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What a waste of a day. Felt like crying but I can laugh now LOL


Normally, I like a good 20-30 mins to get her tracking up and flexing properly as she is getting older.
Lots of transitions to get her thinking.
A quick canter but not too much because unlike at home, she is always very fresh at a show. It's like riding a different horse!

I love schooling April at shows, because the bigger the venue the more she turns it on. She's fab
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How do you spend your warm up time before dressage test?

Normally driving like crazy to try to get there, and then tacking up...

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LMAO!!!!!!!
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My sister is very lucky with her new one, she turns up gets on warms up for 5 mins scores 70%+ and all the judge writes in the comments is 'A Joy'

When I used to do dressage I found lots of leg yielding worked wonders.
 
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I would kill for a horse like that....
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I also do lots of leg yielding off a circle to get Jerry used to my leg, as even though he has been backed for a year now it still seems to come as a huge supprise everytime I put it on!

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They are moving to Suffolk.....
 
My mare is very tense when away from home so I spend about 20 mins trying to get her to relax and listen by flexing, stretching and doing lots of transitions. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but that's horses for you.
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Playing dodgem with idiots who have no care of consideration for anyone else, whether its your "right of way" or not!!!!!!

Whilst this is going on I am trying to convince my SJer that yes dressage can be fun - yes he says back to me but I have to mimic a camel for it to be any fun for me.

So as you can guess we compete at unaff prelim, and we were placed once. I think we had a judge with cataracts!
 
If i could i would pop him over a jump to wake sus up as he finds dressage rather boring and no matter what i do to wake him up has no effect whatsoever!!!

I normally have a bit of a trot, transistions to get him listening and then a canter and then walk him off till im ready to go in.
 
i almost always get on an hour before the test. i spend about 10 mins mooching around on a long rein, letting the horse take it all in, before asking for a little bit of an outline etc. then i do intermittent 3-5 mins (ish) sessions of trot or canter, working on loosening, suppling, getting horse listening to me, etc etc, interspersed by more relaxed walk. this gives me enough time that if the horse is in a tizzy mood i can do more work as necessary, and enough time to keep me relaxed mentally - i hate being hurried. if the horse is ready early, we just mooch about more! i pick the horse up about 5 mins before the test and ask a bit more engagement, energy etc etc, boots off, tidy up, walk to arena, trot round once, small circle and in, usually.
interestingly, the two best tests i've ever done i ended up with an extra 20 mins warm-up due to steward erraticness etc, and spent that time doing walk lateral work... food for thought i guess!
 
Well, my real classic was pulling my black boots on to find that I had brought 2 left feet boots instead of a pair with me to the competition!!!!
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PANIC!! In the end there was nothing for it but to put one on the wrong way round... I actually got placed - but I did get some funny looks from the judge!! Needless to say this has not been my subsequent warm-up routine.........
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Well we only do prelim stuff, not affiliated or anything but I find lots of transition work helps Coco concentrate then serpantines and bending to supple him up and then trot without stirrups, walk the test out and then a final canter before going into the ring
tongue.gif
I'll be interested to hear what everyone else does as we're out tomorrow dressaging!

[/ QUOTE ]I dream of being able to do such a warm-up! If I try to chuck in a couple of small circles or a serpentine, the best I can usually hope for is dirty looks and maybe tuts!

My ideal warm-up is a little shoulder in, maybe some leg yield, lots of bending in walk, then transitions, 15 and 10 metre circles, maybe a serpentine, maybe run through the test.

Usually I do what I can according to the amount of available space and people in the warm-up!
 
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