when to affiliate??

[3mily]

my daughter is 12 and has been doig lots of local unaff dressage with her pony.
she has recently qualified and competed at the RDA National Champs and came 2nd junior in her test, although she wasnt at all happy with that result!!! (we were) within RDA she is graded as a gradde 5 which is basically fairly able bodied so she has been talking of wanting to move onto doing more ablebodied which she also does do quite well but only unaffiliated.

when would you say is the right time to move on ? is there a certain level we should be at first?

she is very very keen and focused on bringing out the best from her pony and herself

[Lgd]

She can do affiliated prelims without her or the pony being registered. Just enter the open section. Ideal way to dip toes in the water. if she has a dispensation requirement for tack just send a copy of her RDA letter in with it. Once you affiliate BD will supply you with a dispensation letter that you copy and send in with the entry.

You can get an entry form from the BD website and the schedules are also on there www.britishdressage.co.uk

Also worth noting that BD do run para dressage classes. Each region has a para dressage rep who you can get contact details for from BD. Northern region has a very active BD para group - not sure whereabouts you are geographically.

There is also a talent-spotting competition in February at Vale View in Leicestershire - well worth a trip to that one as it is a great experience and they get a training session with one of the top para trainers.

For straight dressage training there is also BYRDS (British Young Riders Dressage Scheme) who are organised regionally. They have loads of subsidised training opportunities, have inter-regional competitions and I know northern region run camps a couple of times a year (I assumt the other regions do so as well). Info about BYRDS can be accessed via the BD site.

If you need to chat to someone about it PM me a contact number and I will try to help. I compete actively with BD and I'm BD & RDA judge trained.

ETA - don't worry if you don't get a response from me for a couple of days as I'm at KWPN keuring at Myerscough until late Saturday

[andreaB]

i would say that if your daughter can score mid 60's plus consistently in able bodied unaff competitions to give it a whirl

consider the judges she has been judged by an unaff comps , are they BD registered judges? or what standard are they?

also bear in mind that her scores may well drop a few % under BD comps , i recently did a judge training course with a BD list 1 judge who fully admitted that she will mark more generously at say pony club level so as to be encouraging to the youngsters

if your daughter wants a go at a class higher than prelim she can still try it first without paying for registrations by buying a class ticket for £6 (pd in addition to class price)

the BD website has lots of useful info & if you have any queries the BD staff can usually deal with them quickly & satisfactorily

on the subject of BD para classes unfortunately there are not that many about so the general classes would give more competition options

[3mily]

thanks for your advise. she is scoring on average 63% with most critiscm being on the forehand, not enough bendand poor trot to canter trans.
she is not able to compete in para dressage i am led to believe as her grade would ahve to be 4 or lower. (so unless i chop off her leg!!!!!)
so that would mean that there would be a level that she could achieve within rda and she is almost up to that.

i think i will consider giving an affiliated class a whirl with her see how she likes it, how she feels at that level etc. have enlisted the help of a well known trainer in our area Kirsty Parrish so fingers crossed.

[Lgd]

Ah! If you are going to Kirsty then you are in Northern region so get in contact with your BYRDs rep as well.

http://www.britishdressage.co.uk/uploads/File/Squadding%20info%20for%20website.pdf

Hannah Moody (BYRDS rep) hannah@moody-dressage.co.uk 01226762074

Sarah Huntridge (assistant BYRDS rep) sarahhuntridge2@hotmail.com 07970902708

[3mily]

thanks all she has just had her first lesson with kirsty who said byrds was her next step so will perhaps get in touch soon.