In the Driver’s Seat with Elisa Marocchi
How to Improve your Dressage Score Without Having to Get a New Horse
(and without your horse having to get a new driver!)
Do you love driven dressage, or is it “that thing you have to go through to get to the fun part” of competitions? Love it or hate it, improving on your driven dressage score will pay off, no matter how you feel about it.
F
ew things are more disheartening to a dressage judge than those moments a competitor has to be penalized for inaccuracies. These are completely unnecessary marks to lose, and in many cases make a big difference in placings. Well executed transitions that take place at the wrong spot in the arena will sometimes garner a lower score than an average transition that is completely accurate in timing. Circles shaped more like eggs or rectangles will also lose marks. In the first of a two-part article, I will share with you some easy ways you can improve your dressage score simply by being accurate and paying attention to a few important details.
10 • JUNE 2021
SADDLEUP.CA
Get out your dressage test, grab a cup of tea, find a comfortable chair and read your test. Get a sense of the flow of the test, the gaits asked for, and the places transitions happen. Eventually of course, you’ll need to memorize the test, but for now, just read it over. Pay close attention to the “Directives.” They indicate specific things each movement is meant to highlight. Of course, the judge will look at other parts of the movement as well but the directives will help you concentrate on the most important features. Let’s look at an example together: American Driving Society (ADS) Training Test C, movement 5 directives state “Suppleness in change of lateral bend, accuracy of figure” (Diagram 1a). So from this, you know that correctly changing from the left bend we hope you will have during movement 4 to the right bend in movement 5 is especially important. In particular, the directive is telling you that it should be a nice, supple, smooth change. The importance of driving a round, symmetrical circle of the correct diameter is also indicated by the directive. Make sure you understand what the movement is telling you to do. A common mistake people make is not following the directions properly. Let’s examine another part of the same ADS test. The first part of movement 8 indicates “Btw (between) C-H Transition to Working Trot” (Diagram 1b). Pay attention to word “between.” This means that in this particular test, the transition should take place AFTER you have passed the letter C, and BEFORE you get to H. Many times, in tests with this instruction I have observed drivers start the trot as their horse’s nose is at the letter C. Transitioning to trot at C is, in this case, an inaccuracy and should be penalized by the judge. Other tests may ask you to transition at C, but it isn’t the case in this test. Paying attention to the details means extra points! Another bonus to carefully following the test instructions is that in this particular example, you are able to choose when you make the transition. Does your horse tend to pop his head up during transitions? Many horses that will do this while moving in a straight line are much steadier if asked for the transition when they are in a corner and bending. If this is the case for your horse, waiting until you are moving through the corner to ask for that gait change can result in a much smoother transition and a better mark. For some horses, transitioning while straight might work better. You know your horse, so use these sorts of movements - where you have some leeway - to get the best results. Another common and costly error is failing to show enough
