Dressage tests training level: How to improve your scores.DRESSAGE TESTS TRAINING LEVEL: HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORES Training level riders typically lost points for errors or lack of quality in halts, circles, diagonals, corners, and free walk. THE HALT: The most important thing: Straightness and quality. Your horse should walk or trot on a straight line, and halt straight and square. If your horse weaves, fidgets, or falls apart at halt, you will lose points. The “invisible” letters X or G should lie between your horse’s shoulder and your leg. If you mentally plan to halt when your horse’s shoulder (or hooves) land on X or G, you should be in the proper place once the halt is completed. It’s OK to walk into and out of the halt. CIRCLES, CORNERS, AND DIAGONALS: Dressage tests at training level all build upon a 20 meter circle But training level riders often have no idea what a 20 meter circle actually looks or feels like. That’s because they don’t know the geometry of a dressage arena, and try to rely on the letters as guides for forming circles. That means that they use RSVP in the middle of the arena as a guide and end up making a huge lengthwise oval in the middle and tiny flattened ovals at the top and bottom of the arena. A full arena is comprised of 3 twenty-meter circles, and a small dressage arena is comprised of 2 twenty-meter circles. and the letters don’t mark these off. So riders can get ensnared by visual illusions that cause them ride incorrectly.) You will lose points if your circles aren’t geometrically correct. Why? Because it takes skill to keep a horse moving rhythmically and evenly on a circle. You also need to take your horse deep into corners or you won’t have time to set up the next movement properly, particularly if you next move requires moving on the diagonal. Your horse won’t be straight when he completes the turn. And you will have trouble getting good scores on this movement in dressage tests training level.
(Click here for more tips and techniques for riding perfect circles and corners.)
FREE WALK: Many dressage riders think the most important thing about the free walk is how low the horse drops his head. But that isn’t what the judge is looking for. She’s looking for how much ground the horse covers in his strides, how rhythmic the walk is, how much activity there is in the walk, and how relaxed the horse is. When you release your reins for free walk, your horse should stretch his neck out and down, and his body should move freely from haunches to nose. If you watch from behind, he should look a little like Marilyn Monroe sashaying down a runway. If your horse shows tension or stiffness, you will lose points because it indicates that your horse training is creating stiffness when it should be creating suppleness. To set up the free walk, make sure you go deep into the corner so that your horse is straight as he starts on the diagonal, immediately release the reins to as light a contact as possible, then don’t take up the reins again until the horse’s nose reaches the next letter. You will have plenty of time to re-establish contact, connection, and forward impulsion before your next figure. Don't overlook the important of the free walk when working on dressage tests training level.
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