Stooopid Q about dressage

MontyandZoom

MontyandZoom

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Sorry for another stupid question.........

I was practicing the prelim for next week with Zoomy last night and, when she gets fizzy (which is 60% of the time at home and 100% of the time at parties), she often strikes off on the wrong canter lead. She is very difficult to contain in canter and stopping and starting can lead to sitting on an unexploded bomb.

Sooooo.......if she does it on the day, should I just continue on the wrong leg or try and correct it and risk the pony exploding?
 
You will get a better mark if you try to correct her. If the worst comes to the worst it would be better to bring her back to trot try asking again and if you strike off again wrong come back to trot and stay in trot
 
If you strike off wrong, you'll probably get marked down either way. If you continue in canter on the wrong leg they'll think that you don't know you're wrong. If you break the canter and then continue in canter on the right lead then you'll still get marked down. If you do then canter trans, are wrong and then continue in trot you'll still get marked down for not doing the required movement.
Sorry you can't win either way! But just do what you think you and the horse will be most confortable with. If it's local unaff at prelim level I'm sure you'll have a lovely sympathetic jugde who would be more than happy to give you some pointers if you ask after the class.
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Stay in canter on the wrong leg. When writing for a judge she marked 1 error for wrong leg, then 2nd error for breaking canter and 3rd error for repeat wrong leg leading to a very poor mark. She told me to stick with what I had and do more work at home.
 
Thanks guys.

My plan is to stay calm and not really worry about what Zoom's doing for our first time. She really is nutty so I just want to get through the test.

Now my new plan for the canter is try to get right lead twice and then give up and trot round. She only does it on one rein, she is ex-polo and quite one-sided, and only when stressing.
 
Rabatsa that's surprising! I think that judge was a little unfair, "2nd error for breaking canter": did she expect the horse to do a flying change to correct the wrong lead?

Back to the question, I think that most judges would mark you down for not correcting as they'd think you hadn't realised the horse picked up the wrong lead, so I'd say your plan sounds fine..
 
I have always always without doubt been made aware you CHANGE the lead through trot no matter what. It reflects horrendusly on you as a rider for not correcting (or attempting to).

Out of interest Rabsta what list was the judge you wrote for?
 
You should try and correct the canter as this is more favoured in the judging, however, when I was training my youngster she would always strike off wrong on the left lead and rather than stress her out I made the decision to go around in counter canter and sacrifice those marks as the next movement would be ok but that was my personal choice, think about the test as in chunks of riding and not as a whole each movement is marked on it's own merit
 
I would always go for correcting lead if possible as when I judge if they dont correct or attempt to i deduct a mark from the riders mark at the bottom of test as i have to assume they didnt realise they were wrong and as this is a double mark is in fact two marks off plus i would give no more than a 4 for the canter so is in effect a two hope that helps
 
Definitely correct the lead. If this fails then try again. If this still fails then stay in trot and calm her down before next movement. If you interfere with the horse too much in canter you will stress her out and the following movements will be tense and marked down.
GOOD LUCK!!
 
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