Tips to help a tense horse at competitions

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mudmonkey17

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As title really what do you all do to settle a tense horse at competitions?

Really struggling with horse when competing on grass. He isn't too bad in arenas and is scoring between 62 and 70% at prelim. He is probably ready for novice tests but on grass he is a nightmare. Last outing scored an all time low of 44%

Wondered about trying a calmer? Anything to help him settle.

Any tips greatly appreciated x
 
I always schooled mine on grass in their own paddocks. If they will do this with other horses around them (get a friend to canter around too, though you might need to start small and build up to this), then i would progress to schooling everywhere there was a grassy patch where i could circle on a hack, then i would try doing showing shows (e.g. riding horse) where they are competing on grass. The idea is to transfer what the horse has learnt in the artificial arena to other situations.
In my experience, calmers work better on the rider than the horse; yes you can dope a horse down (and any calmer that does actually work is actually a drug, whether or not it is synthetic or herbal), which means they can restrict the horse's ability to learn. But basically, dressage tests are about testing how well trained the horse is, so if it isn't behaving then there is something missing in its training. In the long term, i think it is much better to fill in the training gap than to look for short term solutions, but this is just my personal opinion.
 
I agree with wkiwi about working on grass if you do not already do so, the other thing to consider is whether he lacks confidence due to slipping or the fear of doing so, as this can make them tense up and shorten their stride so the use of studs may make a difference.
 
Thanks for those. Our schooling field should be open soon so will be schooling in there and plan to take him to some lessons which can be on grass
 
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