Larry Brinker – Chair, American Driving Society Dressage Committee

March 2009

If you want to be in the ribbons at a Combined Driving Event, the surest way is to be in the top 3 after the Dressage. Then only two people have to screw up more on the Marathon and Cones course than you. To be in the top of the Dressage you have to impress the dark figure in the box just behind the letter C (the judge) and it really is not that hard!

Remember that the Dressage test is not a thing to be survived; but a chance to show the world, and that dark figure in the box behind C, just how much hard work you have done and how impressive your horse really is.

Having been that dark figure staring out from the box, as well as the nervous driver heading down the center line, I’d like to share some of my insights into what will give you the best marks possible.

The test starts at the initial halt, yes… but Wrong!! Your test starts as soon as you enter the outside surround. You may not be being judged, but you are likely being watched and first impressions count big time. You do a lovely Pleasure "Slow trot" around the ring and the judge nods and thinks "Oh dear, now we will be late". By no means does that mean that you should race wildly around the ring, but Impulsion is a big part of every movement in the test you are about to drive…so make the first impression a good one…get your equine moving forward into the bit, with energy. As you pass the judge at C say Good Morning, I’m # what ever you are, and if you are the first into the ring in your division say (Preliminary test 2), it reminds the judge that the test has changed and saves a sometimes embarrassing situation with ringing bells and all that confusion.

Most gate people will let you know when the bell has been sounded. If you are concerned that you may not be able to hear the bell because of noise ask the ingate to let you know, or ask the judge to make sure you can see their hand move. It’s a reasonable request that says you want to do it right.

The Dreaded Bell rings and the Dark figure in the box is ready. Your entrance is important, now you really want to impress! Mostly if you enter at a nice working trot and get a nice square halt you will got a 6 or a 7. If you enter at a strong, almost medium trot and get a fairly square halt then you get an 8. That first strong impression is worth an extra mark from most judges.

The halt has to be immobile for the salute so if you have a fidgety horse, don’t doddle, salute and get out of Dodge. If the horse starts to move off, likely you have the salute basically done and maybe your reins are still in one hand - you will again get a better mark if you don’t call attention to it by trying to make the horse stop and stand. Your going to get a 5 or a 6, if you argue with the horse and he starts to mess around stepping out or sideways the mark goes down and often drastically.

Smooth and flowing will win the day; remember that the level you are competing at will dictate the amount of connection that is expected. A Training horse crammed into an Intermediate frame is or should not be scored as high as a horse willingly moving forward and accepting a light contact. A Training level frame or at the most an almost Preliminary frame is all you want. You don’t want or need a frame above the level you are showing.

Corners, nasty little 90 degree turns – Training, don’t go too deep into the corner, start your turn on the quarter line and touch the long side at the letter. If you go too deep and the horse loses balance and drops its shoulder, or worse counter flexes to stay upright, lowering your mark 1 maybe 2 points depending of the amount of lost balance. Better to be a touch too shallow and smooth. Remember to steady the horse into the corner; that will shorten its stride which puts the horse into a slightly shorter frame and makes balance easier. And please remember that the outside rein serves a purpose in balancing, so keep it soft but connected and steady. If you lose that outside rein, the outside shoulder pops out and the horse drifts and runs to keep its balance.

Coming out of the corner you have two options, the long side or the diagonal. If it’s the long side remember the horse is straight on the long side before you are, so stop turning when the horse is straight. If you wait until you are straight, the horse is 2 feet off the wall and has to be brought back, then the turn looks like a gold fish going across its tank and your mark tends to be with the gold fish. If on to the diagonal, start smooth and keep the turn going through the corner and onto the diagonal, don’t wait for the letter. If you’re on the diagonal a couple meters early you’ll have a smoother line (and besides the horse and carriage hide the letter so the judge can’t really see it anyway.) If you straighten to the letter and then turn onto the diagonal exactly on the letter, you risk the gold fish syndrome again. Your horse has by then decided that it’s supposed to go down the long side and you have to pull it off its line and it likely will lift its head and crank its tail. There goes that smooth corner for naught and probably the loss of some submission marks at the bottom of the test too.

Circles, you know those supposed round things with bends and no sharp pointy things anywhere. Here let the horse do his job, set it up and let it happen, don’t micro-manage every step or you get a lumpy, bumpy egg shape that likely misses every mark you aim for, and several marks the judge wants to give you. If you draw a 40m (30m, 20m) circle and mark out about an 8ft section (approximate lengthen of a horse), that is how much bend there is supposed to be, very little. Okay maybe you can sneak in a bit of extra bend at the start, coming off the line but again smooth and even will get you the marks. Try to look for markers well ahead of where you are to keep the circle even. I can cover these ‘focus’ points that I find helpful in a later discussion perhaps.

Lengthened strides, those pesky things that the horse interprets as, get across the diagonal as fast as possible, short of out and out galloping. The best way I have found to get the best mark is to cheat a little. Let’s say the test calls for MXK lengthen stride. Coming past C, lift your chest by breathing in and stretching your chest open side to side and cluck to the horse (vocal aids are allowed in driving dressage). The horse moves forward stronger but meets a soft resistance caused by your open chest that shortens its frame and increases the balance and power in the hind quarters. Keep softly pushing the horse for more and more energy, maintaining the resistance across your chest, the horse will take shorter steps (collection is not called for BUT…) as we straighten onto the diagonal call trrrot! and try to keep a soft flexing through your fingers in the exact rhythm that the horse has been trotting around the short side and through the corner helping the horse to keep the tempo and the lift. The stride increases in length and looks even bigger since it was slightly shorter to begin with. Call trrrot! again crossing center line and again on the quarter line to keep up the energy. Head for a marker about 3m in front of K. When the horse is about 3m off the long side, again consciously breathe in deep and stretch your chest and feather tap the brake and call steadyyyy! Again bring the horse back into a touch of a shorter active stride so it accentuates the downward transition. Once through the corner softly let the trot out to working again. I have never had a judge comment "there should be no collection" but I often get 7 or better!

Accuracy, Accuracy, Accuracy, it can’t be over stressed. When a dressage test only has 12 to 15 movements that are marked, you can’t afford to lose marks needlessly for being inaccurate. However, smooth and forward will trump an accurate but jerky test. Smooth will usually be accurate because you are thinking ahead and looking ahead. A transition a step or two early will get a better mark than one that is a step or two late indicating that you have obviously not prepared early enough for the transition! Where is the best place to put the transition? On the mark or where the dark figure in the box sees the mark which sometimes that is not exactly on the mark. Remember, as mentioned earlier, sometimes the judge can’t see exactly where the marker is, this is where smooth is better comes in.

If you have a driving friend and you have access to a dressage arena, take turns sitting at C and watching test patterns - watch and watch and watch…. that’s what judges do. You will soon see where the lines are, what looks smooth and correct and what looks jerky and unbalanced. It’s a great education sitting at C.

A basically successful test is one that enters at A, goes round and round, back and forth and exits at A. The rest is gravy.

And always remember, no matter what stupid thing happens in the ring to you, all judges can likely top you for stupid….. mistakes. I’ve made most of them and some of them were apparently so much fun I made them again…… math teachers are also slow learners with little or no understanding of geometry.

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