So you are doing a W/T test because

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eahotson

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You have a new young horse, rather a nice young warmblood and you want to give it some easy and stressless show experiences.Fine.Why then, when you don't win do you throw ALL your toys out the pram?
 
Thats a thought but actually I wasn't the one who wasgrumpy.Thought it mildly amusing.\he was the one on the phone to his trainer complaining bitterley.
 
Def funny then, would give me a chuckle too! Just because you have entered the w&t thinking it is a little beneath you doesn't mean you are certain to win!! Ha Ha!
 
Be careful! MY OH who started riding on/off a couple of months ago will be entering the walk trot tests on my horse this coming winter :D I'm sure this will raise a few eyebrows. I can't wait to see their results :D
 
Oooooh now just cos you're in my area I'm going to have to scour the schedules to see what's on today to see if I can guess who it was!
 
I did one walk and trot test on Axel when he was 4, his first time out ridden and he was horrendous!! We got 30% and came last!
I thought it was funny, although slightly mortified that my Mum and Dad, Hubby and loads of people came to watch, they've never been since and we do a lot better these days!!
 
I did a number of W/T tests when I first started taking my welsh cob out. A couple of people complained as I won a couple of times, and was 2nd or 3rd the others. Admittadly his walk and trot were very very good. They hadn;t however, until about 3 shows into the series, seen his canter.

Wall of death is one way of describing it! If I had waited until his canter was properly established, I wouldn't have taken him out for a good couple of years more! He always settled in the canter but the strike off was a little alarming.
 
Yep, my mare will be doing W/T tests when she starts going out. Just to get her used to going places without any stress and also to keep me sane! I'm not bothered about winning, it's just a case of getting them out there to experience the white boards and the arena...
 
well, obviously its a warmblood, so is entilted (sp) to win ;)

I am not even doing a walk/trot test because there is none on :( so instead, for our first dressage test, we are doing prelim 13. ****.
 
Ive done 2 of these because my mare is a spooky,silly 15yr old who has just got over (and still is getting over really) a bad tear to her DDFT last year. Takes the stress out doing canter work when all she wants to do is a runner out of the arena. Not done much canter work yet in the school since we re-started our lessons so its steady away for her.
 
Brandy said:
I did a number of W/T tests when I first started taking my welsh cob out. A couple of people complained as I won a couple of times, and was 2nd or 3rd the others. Admittadly his walk and trot were very very good. They hadn;t however, until about 3 shows into the series, seen his canter.

Wall of death is one way of describing it! If I had waited until his canter was properly established, I wouldn't have taken him out for a good couple of years more! He always settled in the canter but the strike off was a little alarming.
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Snap! Same breed, same problem, same reason for doing W/T tests. :D

I did cry with pride at his score sheet from the first one :o It wasn't about where we got placed, but the fact that he'd tried really hard and did really well. Welling up just thinking about it :o :rolleyes:

I am not even doing a walk/trot test because there is none on so instead, for our first dressage test, we are doing prelim 13. ****.
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Have fun :D if the worst comes to the worst you can always just carry on trotting through the canter bits.
 
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all these reasons are absolutely fair enough.
Its the ones that enter a w/t test for a warm up for the next class up that really get my goat.

I think it would be very hard putting restrictions on who and what can enter, bbut maybe something like you are only allowed to enter one level, i.e if you do w/t you cant do prelim, or if you enter prelim you cant enter novice.
 
I have never in my life done a W&T test, have done dressage to Medium, however I'm riding a clients very very green horse on his first outing into the big wide world and she entered me into a W&T tomorrow - I would much rather have done a more involved prelim or even had him attempt a Novice very badly, as I find some of these tests so deathly boring and also very easy for horses attention to waver when just wandering around the arena! But ho hum - I am a "walk and trot test virgin" up until tomorrow morning!


ETA having seen above post, same horse is also doing a prelim but he is terribly hit and miss in canter (retraining racehorse), can either grasp it or will give in, stick head up and piss off. Hence why I am on it not owner!!
 
One of the shows I went to last winter had a girl in the group who was 9, maybe 10. Horrid pony, horrid girl. When she came 3rd in one class, she said to the judge, "but I'm only 9, I'm the youngest here, I should always win".

Oh dear...!
 
But sometime son that the judges dont help!!!
A young girl I know went into her first ever test, rode fairly well, but the test was slightly spoilt by wiggling up the centre line.
If my horse had gone up the centre line like hers did, I would prob have got a 5 at the most, and comments like, drifted from CL.
Her comments for that movement was something like, nicly ridden, and had a score of..... 9.
Her overall score was 70%. This was a prelim test, not aimed specifically for children or adults. Fair do's to her, she won the class. But I feel very much on 'cute marks'
So of course now, if kids are being marked like that, they will expect to win everything.
 
I must say I agree wholeheartedly with you on the point of people entering W&T tests as a warmup, considering it beneath them and their horse and being mortified when they don't win. I don't think there's anything more annoying than trophy collectors....those who only enter things they feel they're guaranteed to win!

However, I'd be gutted if there were rules that said you could only enter one level. I always go and do the W&T test and then usually go and do the Prelim....depending on how he's behaved in the W&T. Not because I feel the W&T is beneath us (far from it! He may be a big flashy warmblood but he's a showjumper not a dressage horse....it's damn hard work getting him not to attempt to leap the judge car or the white boards never mind anything else), but because I like to push myself a little and see what we can improve on for next time.
 
i do w/t cause my horse is backward and cant canter undersaddle.... (shes a baby..) lol

i plan to affilaite her when we can actually go forward :D lol.
 
its not the babies doing walk and trot tests that annoy me after all that's what they are for.
young horses and less experienced riders !!
and anybody else who cant canter for whatever reason!

what really gets my goat is people/persons who enter w/t ,prelim and novice all in the same show on the same day FFS.
and is it me or are the scores inflated in w/t I'm not sure this encourages riders as when they move into prelim thier scores would slide. i regularly see scores of 70 +% in a w/t.
 
I've only just taught my horse to come off the leg into canter, he keeps it for about 30 seconds, nice and successful for our early days but he's no-where near ready for a Prelim.
He's got a nice walk (collected and working through his back well) and good trot (he's collected but inconsistent and not very forward, so he still needs work on that) so I'm planning on doing a W/T test sometime this year. It's not below us, infact it'd benefit him so much, for me it'd just be a nice day out :)

It thoroughly p*sses me off to think anyone could be like that about it though. Don't get me wrong I know it happens but it just, annoys me.
I know of some judges who mark the higher level riders and horses like everyone else and sometimes lower then adds the comments "Nice test and horse, shame it's above walk and trot level" :D
 
I think judges do mark w/t tests on the kind side of fair, however I think that they do that for the genuine novices whether horse or rider for encouragement BUT do mark the more experienced much more realistically and this doesn't always go down well.
 
MizzPurpleKitten said:
I don't think there's anything more annoying than trophy collectors....those who only enter things they feel they're guaranteed to win!
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My old share horse owner is like this :o She came 2nd in a Prelim test (can't remember which one) and read the score sheet, disagreeing with everything the judge said and then proceeded to rip it up along with the rosette :eek:

On another occasion she entered a class because she was the only one in it therefore guaranteed to win :rolleyes:


For me doing a dressage test is to find out how well the schooling is coming along and what we need to work on. When Bella is backed and going ok I shall enter her in the local show to do a couple of walk and trots and hope not to die :p :D
 
I must admit, I was absolutely horrified when I entered my OH for a w/t test having never seen/done one myself. There were people plaited, good riders on older horses etc. I think he came last and it was a real job getting him out again. Mind you I often came last on Mouse too. Since then I have done them on my baby when he was 4 cos I was too scared he would buck me off into canter. He won most of them but I didn't feel bad because there was a genuine reason for us being there (my loss of nerve!).
 
...he pony is newly backed and my daughter can only just manage rising trot, steering is still a major issue!
I think we can enter walk/trot as a warm up for prelim only, but seeing as we haven't started canter yet we are a while off doing one of those!
 
I can't get my head around the W/T Tests, far too compliated and too long for just walk and trot. I can remember prelims much easily and will therefore enter prelims when my girl is more re-trained. She is an ex racer.

I will enter for exposure only to get her used to going to parties and know full well I will have a hot headed beastie on my hands and canter will probably be pants. The first few outings will be to test the water and I whole heartedly expect to get low scores.
 
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