Judging Criteria for Freestyle Dressage

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avthechav

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I did my first freestyle this weekend- prelim and novice and it was SOOOOOOO much fun :-). However I am confused about the scoring criteria(..and this isnt sour grapes as I am very ready to accept deserving scores, and thrilled with Av anyway!).

I used the same music for both tests. Prelim judge gave me 8's for the artistic mark at the bottome of the page but Novice judge only gave me 6's. Music fitted better in the novice as we were both a bit nervous in the first but we did make one big mistake as Av changed legs in the counter canter.

The novice test sheet was very disspointing- 6's all the way through, comment for 15m circle was 'Very Stiff', and judges comment was 'Well Tried'. I felt that four words +6's wasnt very constructive so I spoke to the judge after to see what I could improve. I made it very clear that I wasnt complaining I was just looking for improvements. She told me that me music and floorplan were good but she had to take marks off sections of the collectives including artistic impression due to the change in the counter canter, so I got marked down compared to the others....hmmmmmm. I dont think that this rings true? What do you think?

p.s. I actually got higher 'techical marks' than some people who ended up beating me by a long way!
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My view as a judge is that an error like that would be marked down in the second collective (harmony between horse and rider) and also in the mark for choreography.

The mark for choreography not only relates to the actual ground pattern but how well the horse has been able to carry it out so an error such as changing in the counter canter would reflect the fact that the horse struggled with that part of the choreography.

The music mark should only relate to the quality and suitability of the music ie is it well edited and does it fit the horses footfalls and type. Also we take into effect whether the transistions between the paces are with the changes in the music. A change in the counter canter should not IMO be penalised in the music mark.

The first collective (rhythm, energy and elasticity) should reflect the type of marks that you've got for the movements in the test, so if you were mainly getting 6's then you would epect similar for the first collective.
 
yup that makes total sense...I was perturbed that she took marks off my music mark as well as the others for a ridden error, especially as she told me that my music was actually well fitted to the horse and test (if you see what I mean)- I can quite see what you are saying about the other collectives...Thanks very much :-)
 
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