mean ol' dressage: Charlie edition

At the close of each season, I often like to reflect on where we've been and what we've done. You may have noticed that there has been a bit of a "recap / summary" theme to a lot of posts lately.

There's a couple different ways to slice and dice, to measure progress and plot Charlie's growth and development as an event horse.

handsome dressage horse

Today, I want to look at dressage. Charlie's final show of the year was by far his strongest. Over the course of the year he showed nothing if not steady improvement. Sometimes incremental, other times by leaps and bounds.

Overall, tho, what did the entire picture look like?

Test Ridden	# Tests	Average Score	(Penalties)
USDF Intro B	3	64.8%	(35.2%)
USDF Intro C	2	59.9%	(40.1%)
USEF BN A	4	58.6%	(41.4%)
USEF BN B	3	61.2%	(38.8%)

looking the part is half the battle

Well? I reviewed the scores from the 12 judged tests* we rode in the past year. Directives from all the tests were categorized by gait and combined where possible, tho naturally some movements are scored meaningfully differently in different tests. Like, for instance, where the walk-trot transition score is combined with the score for turning down center line in USEF BN B.

I did my best tho to organize movements in a way that makes sense and can provide insight on Charlie's strengths and weaknesses in the dressage court, and how and where we've seen improvement over time.

*This excludes the first tests from Charlie's first ever shows: the Nov 2016 and March 2017 schooling dressage shows, where we rode the same test twice in a row. I only included the second test from each outing since the first tests were.... often more about just existing in a dressage court. 


Also worth noting: The trend lines below are not exactly in chronological order, as we switched back and forth a little bit between tests. It's close tho.

Findings:

Overall:

We enter well and set a good first impression, then fall apart a little bit. And life was decidedly better in USDF tests where our center line entrance was scored separately from that tricksy turn at C, instead of combined as they are in USEF tests.....

Usually by the end of the test, we're a little frazzled and just trying to survive in once piece. Strong collective marks suggest judges think we could do better tho.

Trot Work:

The left circle average is artificially suppressed from that one time we got a 4 (#stillbitter) but generally our circle scores are stronger than transitions.

The walk-trot transition is particularly an area for improved focus. That's a difficult move for us since it typically follows a free walk and shines a bright light on Charlie's resistance to me picking up the reins. This same aspect is then reflected in our submission score in the collectives.

Diagonal changes of rein are a strong spot and provide a nice boost to otherwise indifferent scores.

Walk Work:

Best score here naturally is one that doesn't get scored separately in eventing tests -- the medium walk. In eventing tests that score is often combined with the free walk score.

Charlie's got a great walk but we haven't been able to show it off to much advantage in these tests. I'm thinking it's still due in part to tension that arises when I go to pick my reins up after a free walk.

The free walk score itself is fine as a 6, but considering it's often the coefficient score in many eventing tests, it would behoove me to bring this score up. The horse has a good free walk -- we just need to brighten it up more. More march, more over step. Looser over the back.

Canter Work:

This is another area where Charlie's natural abilities haven't really been shown to their full potential. The horse has a great canter. But he's big and the small court called for in low level eventing is... small.

The scores stabilized and improved over the course of the season as the horse became stronger and more able to carry himself around 20m. Downward transitions merit more attention tho (the upward transition score was marred by some instances where we picked up the incorrect lead).

Collectives:

Charlie's gaits have always scored well (much to my surprise!) and most judges give me a reasonable rider score (tho, not all).

My impression from the collectives is that judges often think we haven't shown our true potential or ability in the dressage ring - that they think Charlie's got more to give.

In an ideal world, I'd like to see our average scores get closer to Charlie's gaits scores. Suggesting that the horse is executing each movement to the fullest measure of his own ability.

future elegant horse, right?

The big #1 finding from all this? Well? Charlie is pretty freakin' average as a dressage horse. He's not gonna wow the world. He's basically a solid 6, 6.5 on a good day.

But there are 7s lurking below the surface if I can tease them out. And, likewise, the 5s (and, ahem, 4s) are hiding in there too. We'll earn our best scores and continue to see improvement overall if I can focus on riding Charlie accurately and correctly through each movement and gait.

Over the course of this winter, I'd like to keep on plugging away at the work we've been doing. And looking forward to next year, I'd like to see more test scores that mirror Charlie's gait score. Meaning, if he gets a 6.5 on gaits, I'd like about a 65% on the whole test.

To that end, more movements from each test will have to reflect his best possible way of going, without interference by resistance to the bridle or tension over his back. We can dream, right?

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Important Note: To all 2017 Two Point Challenge participants -- Final times are due by midnight tonight!! Do not forget to leave a comment letting me know your longest time! Winners will be announced before the end of the week!