Intro A Dressage test help please...

Rudey

Rudey

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My little Cow Pony was broken in and returned to me back mid July. I have been trying to do a number of different things with him for educational/de-sensitizing purposes, including boxing him out to ride around the woods.

If you fancy a gander at my photo diary of the various things we have been up to, see this link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151123963627930.506789.626507929&type=3

Now the time has come, to see what he thinks to being ridden away from home at a competition before he is turned away for the winter! On 20th October I am planning on taking him to a local small dressage event, doing a simple walk trot test.

I wonder if anyone could help with part of it please? It is the Intro A Dressage test. Twice within the test, there is a part from trot, between two letters you go down into a transition of 'walk for one horse length', then proceed back to trot. My (daft) question is, do you think 3 walking strides would equate to the 'one horse length'? :o Or, what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance! xx :)
 
when I've ridden it this summer the judges haven't been concerned if it's 2,3,4 strides etc so long as it's been brief (i.e. downwards transition, quickly establish walk then back into trot) and demonstrated that the monster is vaguely listening :)
 
I normally go for 4 strides of walk :) no more no less, so its all in the preparation so you get a clean trot-walk-trot transition and no shuffling :)
 
Thank you for the responses! You did make me chuckle Polly. Yeah, admittedly I wanted to get a number of set strides so I know what to work towards, and try to match the same on the other rein too.

I am not a natural when it comes to dressage and need all of the help I can get! Thank you both again. xx
 
Thanks Sophie! I would say no right now, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did get the dressage bug. It was the same with showing. Professed I wasn't interested in it at all, and I was only doing it for education/experience purposes. The next thing I knew, I was hooked and got the showing bug! xx
 
i go for four so they see a full set of strides for that pace!.

or roughly see how long your horse us against the fence then walk for that length, give you an idea if how many strides it is for your horse!
 
Thank you very much everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it. Good luck to you too katastrophykat! Well done Nannon!

I had a practice tonight in the school. Reall need to do some serious work with my free walk - it's truly appalling! Has anyone got any tips encouraging a youngster to stretch down? xx
 
Between 3- 5 steps (a step is each time a front foot hits the ground). A good judge though will be looking for the clarity of the transitions rather than fixating on the exact numbe of steps you take. Make sure you show a clear walk, not a shuffle jog. Good luck and have fun.
 
Rudey said:
Thank you very much everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it. Good luck to you too katastrophykat! Well done Nannon!

I had a practice tonight in the school. Reall need to do some serious work with my free walk - it's truly appalling! Has anyone got any tips encouraging a youngster to stretch down? xx
Click to expand...

Not for a youngster but what I do to get a stretch on the free walk -

1) don't throw the reins at the horse, let him take them through your fingers as you release contact and he stretches

2) it's free walk on a long rein, not a loose rein, so don't have washing lines

3) if he doesn't stretch down himself, whilst your reins are long give each rein a little wiggle (as if you're asking for an outline) and this wiggling sensation usually encourages my horse to reach down for the bit ..... wiggling is very slight though, think little twitches of your ring fingers getting slightly stronger if they're being ignored.

4) most importantly keep the impulsion, don't let him 'die' into the walk.

Best time I find to ask for a stretch is after a good 5 minutes of hard work in a proper shape. Horse will naturally want to stretch down so keep the impulsion going and reward him for taking the reins. They just keep repeating :) but again, don't let him get into the habit of 'dying' into the walk and throwing your reins at him!

Hope that makes sense! Good luck xx
 
Thank you **Vanner** and SophieBailey for your responses on this thread - muchly appreciated. Admittedly I have only just read them now, however, your advice will be of assistance in future. I will do another thread by way of an update of how the competition went for us. xx :)
 
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