Question about medium paces

[Cowpony]

I have a question for you experienced dressage people. My horse and I are competing at Prelim and Novice. We can get a decent medium trot when she is in the mood (which isn't usually in the arena, sadly) but I think our medium canter in a test is OK. However, in our last Novice test we got "No difference shown" for both our medium canters. Now, I felt that we had a really powerful, ground-covering canter both times, and for the first time my horse came back to me nicely when we were supposed to go back to working canter (she loves her medium canter so much she often doesn't want to stop ). The judge was at C and both canters were going away from her up the long sides of the arena (ie from C to K and C to F respectively. I did decide not to try for the medium pace immediately after C, but to wind it up around the corner and let fly once we were straight, just to make sure that my horse was balanced enough around the corner.

So my questions are:
Have I totally misunderstood what a medium canter is (ie do we need more elevation rather than ground cover)? Or do I need to get her more back on her hocks for a true medium, and that is what the judge is looking for? My horse does tend to use her shoulder to pull herself along rather than her back end to push.
Should I have got the medium going earlier so the judge could see a difference straight away (the test only asks for "some" medium strides, not the whole length between the designated letters)?
Or was the judge just in a difficult place to see the difference? In which case what do we do next time?

 

[milliepops]

What was the specific instruction in the test? That's a good place to start.
I'm asking because you mention from C to K and C to F - so even if it just asks for 'some' medium strides, you'd expect those to begin at the C marker as specified, which would also be the easiest place for the judge to assess the difference.

My younger horse has a bit of a modest medium canter but a well balanced collected one, so I try to show a definite transition to medium strides, and then a definite transition back again. Often at this level, people sort of dribble into medium canter and dribble back to working or collected - if you make it really clear then you can claw back a mark or so even if your medium strides aren't that great. You mention winding her up round the corner so I wonder whether she actually lost the clarity in the transition while you did that. I want my horse to spring forward enthusiastically on cue, not for the canter to gradually get bigger.

You need both elevation and ground cover - the horse should lengthen his frame slightly, and have a longer stride that comes off the ground more, in an uphill frame. So if yours is pulling herself along then you've already identified 2 issues - you're running a bit downhill, and also probably losing some of the jump.

So for next time, practice really making a difference between your working and medium canter with a clear transition each way. Think of riding your medium canter up hill, getting big bounding steps rather than just flat faster ones. Also practice riding it on different lines, around circles and turns - you should be able to keep her in the same balance as you do on straight lines (in fact, doing this should improve the medium canter as you should find it easier to engage her inside hind - straight lines to encourage them to get a bit long and running).

 

[Cowpony]

Thank you, that is really helpful. Yes, we did wind it up and back, and the test sheet said that the preparation for medium was within the movement, so I thought that would be OK, but as you say, it probably made it harder for the judge to see the difference. Also if I ask for a return to working canter too strongly I get a trot instead, so that doesn't help. I think the answer is more practice! Thanks for your reply, it's given me a lot to work on.

 

[milliepops]

I think the answer is more practice!

^^ yup! Like everything in dressage, you need to practice every element. It's tempting to think 'oh, just kick on a bit' but if you want to get a good score, each tiny thing needs to be good, prepared, understood by the horse, well presented, and then well executed! It's a lot to take care of

Also try to read each individual movement in the test. Not sure which one you did as I don't have my sheets to hand, but see where each movement starts and ends, for those 10 marks. Sometimes the movement will include the transitions, sometimes it will also include a bit of trot work - as riders you think that's 10 marks for your medium canter but there is actually other stuff included within it.

The directives printed next to the movements will also tell you a bit about what the judge is looking for, easily overlooked when you are learning the floor plan but worth a squizz - it'll usually be something about ground cover, balance, transitions, quality of the pace, regularity etc for the movements with medium strides in.

 

[Batgirl]

As a judge I would not expect to see any Med at C. FOr that movement I would expect to see the lengthened strides somewhere on the long side.

If your ground cover is coming from the shoulder and not the hind leg it would not have looked like medium. It needs to carry weight behind, lengthen the frame and cover the ground. A lot of medium canter I see is actually a good working canter.

Also try not to think about 'winding' it up. It should be a transition - in and out of a different pace. Now at novice that transition should be progressive but if you are dribbling in and out that will also make it difficult to see any difference. As most horses at that level change their canter from balancing in the corner to bowling on along the long side you really need a visible difference -get someone to video you transitioning from med to working cater and back and have a look at how it looks from the outside -when trying for medium we often drive more and it feels like more is happening when it isn't.

 

[Micropony]

Haven't got as far as this yet with my current horse, but with my last one I was unpleasantly surprised by our marks for our medium paces not being what I expected. Mystery was quickly solved when I watched video of the test: on board the difference between working and medium felt really quite pronounced, but from the ground it wasn't nearly so evident. Asking for too much would leave us unbalanced in the transition back to working, so I concentrated on really containing the working pace before showing the lengthened strides to really show a difference.

My trainer explained that in most of the novice tests they are looking for some lengthened strides somewhere between the two specified markers and that it's okay for the transition to be progressive. At higher levels they require a much cleaner and more accurate transition right on the specified marker.

Don't know if that helps or not!

 

[Cowpony]

Thanks all, that's really interesting. I will try to get somebody to video me before the next one.