Honestly, I am soooo not a holiday person, so I will let the pros take care of that, as far as seasonal posts. But I have been storing a little gift for you, regardless!
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| Tools of the trade |
You all know that I am a huge
demander advocate of volunteering (DO IT! PS, it doesn't have to be a weekend, call your organizer today!), not only would our sport be impossible without it, but it's fun even for non-riders and incredibly educational at so many levels. Kudos to Seema over at
The Florida Chronicles for starting
this thread recently on COTH about everyone's volunteering plans for the year -- a great idea and call to action, as well as a fun way to network!!
I've
chronicled my efforts to support the long format 3DE's at Waredaca and Southern Eighths with everything I have; not only do I believe in the format as the eventing I grew up with, I also watch, every year, as it works its magic, teaching horses and riders things they didn't even know they didn't know.
At the 2013
Waredaca T/N3DE, I had 4,327 jobs (LOL, this is what happens when you become part of core staff - and if you even whisper that you might not make it, you must live in fear of a posse hunting you down in the night) over the weekend, but on dressage day, my main assignment this year was score running. It was nice to change up, as the past couple of years I have stewarded the warm up ring, which I enjoy, but variety is the spice of life!
First rule of volunteering: expect the unexpected! Due to a mis-communication and my getting peoples' names confused (which is about as difficult for me as inhaling), one of the dressage judges was missing a scribe after lunch. I don't get to scribe all that often, but
I love it and have shared it before (well, the learning part, it balances out the
OMG, USE FEWER WORDS BEFORE I HAVE AN ANXIETY ATTACK FOR FEAR OF MISSING SOMETHING part). And no problem, we had another awesome person who could run scores until another scribe was found.
Settling into the passenger seat (hey, it's freaking windy in that arena and Waredaca has it's own special weather system of wet/cold/hang on to loose papers), I was doubly excited because the judge was someone I knew when he was often a TD at our competitions and now holds his FEI card. So I already knew he had a very experienced eye both as an official and trainer.
He didn't let me down.
We all have heard the 10,001 urban myths, rumours, theories, stoutly professed convictions, and rant about the wholly subjective nature of dressage judging, "good" judges, "bad" judges, how to improve scores, what is most important...need I go on?
Now that I have had the opportunitiy to help run these events and spend time conversing with some of the top event judges in our region (and country), as well as those moving through the program, I have realized how massive the committment of time, money, energy, more money, and education it takes to earn that title. And yep, there are bad ones out there, but most are working very hard to make split second decisions about a pair in motion according to a long list of standards.
Due to this experience and my own extremely
nerdy extensive study of, well, things that have the word "horse" in them, I know when I'm sitting next to a good one. And I know when I'm sitting next to a great one. And while there is not a lot of time to watch the horses,
once you know the test, even with the occasional peek, you start to see a pattern; in other words, there are certain words and phrases that you wish you had a rubber stamp for.
Those, my friends, with a painfully long buildup, are my gift to you, as you putter about in the winter looking for bits and pieces of projects which undoubtedly includes "how to hate the dressage ring less." You will probably read them and think, "well, duh!" but I honestly wrote each of these many times, all or in part, on almost every test.
From an excellent, correct dressage judge to you:
The Most Frequent Ways To Screw Up Or Improve Your Dressage Tests -
- GET THE DAMN POLL UP. Do we have your attention? LOL. But seriously, it doesn't matter how arch-y your horse's neck is or how well you've mastered that fake frame without a true connection to his hind end or how much you paid for that fancy trot -- the judge knows the difference. The poll still needs to be the highest point, with a fluid, steady connection through the horse's topline to his hind legs.
- On that vein, make sure you keep pushing your horse forward so his poll STAYS up in the corners and turns.
- Transitions are important: the most important qualities are balance and forwardness, even in downward transitions.
- Keep your forward in every. single. step. This is critical in movements like the stretchy circle or the free walk; just teaching your horse to shove his nose to his ankles when you drop the rein is not good enough. He must march forward with his nose poking out (Encore gets dinged on this one, he loves to admire his own ankles).
- Be straight. Yeah, yeah, but how much do you REALLY hold yourself and your horse to a higher bar? Don't let the haunches fall in at the canter, don't lose the shoulder in a leg yield or a bend, really ride his whole body.
- On extended gaits, you should definitely go for the gold at trot and canter, but know your partner: a conservative, but balanced and correct lengthening will score better than a quick and unbalanced attempt that breaks to canter. Also be very critical in the quality of your lengthenings. Start small at home, but start CORRECTLY. Your rhythm should not change, but then stride should increase in both length and lift of the horse's body.
- Common tattletale signs of lost connection that you will be penalized for: (a) head nodding, indicating the horse is leaning on the inside leg or rein, (b) hanging on the inside rein, losing the outside shoulder, my personal favourite, and (c) the horse tripping behind due to lack of impulsion.
- Common myths that really need to go away: (a) it's not a nazi camp, if a ring panel blows down or a dog runs into the ring or whatever, and your horse spooks, a good judge will not penalize you and (b) they REALLY DON'T NOTICE OR GIVE A CRAP about your hair or your horsie's hair as long as they can see the crestline of the neck and things are clean. Really.
