Dressage beginner

[NoviceNic]

What sort of things do you need to be able to do in your first dressage test?? I like to learn new tricks and thought I might give dressage a go at local shows.

[Haphazard]

At prelim you need a consistent rhythm in the paces and to ride the test accurately. Its amazing how many people don't ride a straight centre line and cant ride a 20 metre circle accurately

[Pink's lady]

Pretty simple really but can take a long time to get right.

Forward, active paces (but not charging round)
Horse listening and not fighting you
straight lines
even curves/circles
accuracy (trotting AT C, not somewhere in the vicintiy of it;))
using the full arean (no cutting corners)

Working in an outline will get you extra brownie points but isn't essential at prelim level. They only need to be relaxed with a resonable head-carraige (i.e not a giraffe impression) and bending left and right easily.

You don't even need to be able to canter in the eariler tests, but if you can canter a 20m cirlce without Captians legs getting in a knot, you can do all of them.

[NoviceNic]

Gosh I know you said pretty simple really but there is no way Captain or I are ready. :o Getting better at straight lines. Dreadful at 20m circles. :eek: My fault. And as for cutting corners, well that is an absolute must for a lazy cob. :rolleyes: Practise practise and practise then. ;)

[DITZ]

even if you dont think youre the finished article it can still be worth doing a test so you can see how far you've come further down the line.

[NoviceNic]

I see your point there DITZ. I could "have a go at dressage" and then see how my score is and then practise and see what scoare I may get next time.

[domane]

But think how Captain will benefit from all that pre-dressage practise though....

I have my eye on the very basic stuff for me n Chez

[DITZ]

Exactly;) . Like a 'before and after'!

[horsemad]

I think you are ready to do a dressage test, but just don't know it yet! Why not give it a go - you might be suprised at how you do! I've been doing a few prelim tests recently with my old girl - I'm a far from perfect rider, Cindy is a wee bit stiff, and can be lazy, so our circles are far from perfect and we always get comments like 'needs to be more forward-going' etc. But having said that, we have managed some ok scores, and the odd nice comment from the judges (some more sympathetic than others!):D I do wish I could tell the judges that Cindy is 23 though, so their comments could be a bit more realistic - I'm not sure that my wee ned really has 'potential' at her age :p

So give it a go and let us know how you get on :)

[Mehitabel]

your best bet would be to have a lesson and ask the instructor to assess you for being able to enter an unaffiliated prelim. if you can walk, trot, canter and steer you will be unlikely to be the worst in the class!