Sitting trot in Dressage tests?

[SuperSketch]

I did Dressage with my boy today, Prelim 18 and Novice 30 and was wondering if someone could advise me on whether sitting trot in a Prelim test is frowned upon?

Recently, our sitting trot (Thanks to heaps and heaps of lessons and no stirrup work) has improved tenfold so I did that as opposed to rising and the judge said I basically shouldn't be doing it in a Prelim! I thought the manner in which you presented the tot - obviously within the given pace on the test sheet, was down to you until you reached Medium or above when sitting trot becomes compulsory.

Can anyone advise me on this? Anyway, on the bright side, we came 3rd in Prelim with 68.4% (Despite judges comments) and we won the Novice with 71% Am as proud as punch with my boy, all our hard work is finally paying off!

Cookies and ice-cream to all who finish.

 

[carthorse]

Well done. You need to have the horse really forward if you are going to do sitting trot. It is very easy to give the judge the excuse to say they are not forward.
We have been doing some mediums and so have had to sit, he is getting better marks because Claire holds him up more when she does sitting and she is now doing sitting in the elem.

 

[SuperSketch]

Thanks I am rather confused though with this whole sitting trot business. Surely if, like you say, your horse is going forward well enough and is carrying himself well enough that sitting won't interfere with it then there shouldn't be a problem? I've done sitting trot in Prelim tests before (Albeit a little, ahem, bouncy lol) and never had anything said. The Prelim was mainly a warm of sorts before the Novice and I'd like to attempt an Elementary before 2011 if possible. Dressage has always been our weakest phase...

 

[Santa_Claus]

well done indeed.

sitting trot is entirely optional at prelim to elementary mainly due to the fact a large number of riders are not sufficiently balanced with independant enough seats to maintain the rhythm and balance and forwardness of the trot when sitting. And because these are the three most important parts of the trot and prelim-elementary are very much the 'training' levels the rider is allowed to rise in order to correctly train the horse.

The ideal is that when you do start to sit in tests that the trot is not affected in anyway and if anything actually improves as you can hold the horse together more with your seat and back. If there is no change to the trot when you sit you should not be marked down at prelim or any other level. Only if there is a notable change to the rhythm or tempo should marks or comments be affected accordingly.