I was trying to explain, to a person whose knowledge of horses is limited to ‘big, bites and kicks’, what is involved in learning and riding a dressage test.
I failed in my attempted explanation.
This evening I’m sitting on the couch trying to familiarise myself with the dressage that will be the first phase of Tom’s and my first one-day-event in four weeks time.
So bearing in mind I couldn’t describe what’s involved to someone in person earlier, how do I write down here what’s involved?
Hmmm.
Here are the primary components:
- The test (BE 90 Dressage Test 91) takes part in a 20 x 40m arena
- The test should take approximately 6 minutes
- The test comprises 15 ridden movements that are marked, and four non-ridden marks
- Each movement will be marked out of a maximum of 10 points, to a total of 200
- The layout and markings of the 20×40 arena look like this:
And if you’re interested in the exact movements, they’re here:
BE90_-_DRESSAGE_TEST_91_(2009)(1)
So, we’re clear now?
I have absolutely no idea of horses either, so all your horse posts fascinate me (I’ve lived a sheltered city life)! The closest I get to a horse is a police horse and they scare me (I always think they’ll poo on my shoes or kick me).
Keep the horse posts coming, it’s like I’m peeking behind the curtains into a different world..
It could be worse, I’ve seen some really hideous dressage tests before. Still challenging mind you. I used to attempt to do dressage on a lively young horse called Star. All went well until you’d cantered, after that you couldn’t get anything slower than racing pace. We were never a huge success…Tom sounds like a much better behaved gentleman though so I’m quite sure you’re going to be fine.
I love dobbins, me. I am at one with nature.
Your dressage sounds pretty interesting, but aren’t you going to reverse Tom at all?
Cyn, poo, bite *and* kick, yeah, they do all that.
Vi, Dressage and Cross-country will be a breeze, it’s the SJ that will be the bogey. 🙂
Annie, There is a rein-back in some of the advanced dressage tests, but not at our level. But show-jumpers do a few steps of rein-back before executing halt-to-canter. And they do it so naturally it almost makes me vomit.
Is it hard to remember every requirement or does your horse remember if for you?
To Cynical: Getting stepped on by said horse really hurts as well, from one who knows.
Yep, it’s v.difficult remembering the movements in their correct sequence. And you can’t rehearse the Test because the horse will remember the movements and will anticipate them – and you’ll get heavily marked down for ‘anticipation’.