I still miss the GRC Photography days — where they’d sell you a thumb drive on show day with every single photo taken of you for $99 ($79 if you brought an old thumb drive with you….). But I try to support this next generation of photographers.
They’re out there all day long, capturing the moments, ya know? The current business model doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, as prices vary wildly across different vendors and prints are somehow cheaper than digitals… C’est la vie tho! I actually kinda like getting the prints anyway!
So here’s a collection of my favorite shots from our Loch Moy outing earlier this month, used with purchase from the excellent team at Erin Gilmore Photography <3 <3 <3
proof that we chilled: that is an actual honest-to-god-almost-loop in the reins after we’ve already entered the ring for show jumping!!
lolz and perhaps we were too chill (note the knocked rail) but the feeling was good!
getting into a nice balance in the middle section on xc
So! If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know that Doozy and I rode two dressage tests at a schooling show over the weekend. Technically two different tests — Starter and Training 1 — but practically identical in pattern.
It’s my impression that our efforts in each were reasonably equivalent, give or take. And while there’s no video of the Starter test, we do have past evidence of general consistency across multiple tests.
All that to say, you’ll have to take my word for it that our execution between the two tests was relatively similar, but the final scores differed by more than 3%, a remarkably high margin all things considered.
tests with more scoring opportunities (ie larger count of total movements) are less susceptible to having one blown movement wreck the whole score
As is my occasional habit, I decided to dig into the numbers from both of these tests. I want to understand exactly why the scores varied so much, especially if there are takeaways that can be integrated into my schooling sessions.
Tho I’ll also admit right off the bat: part of my hypothesis is that the actual design and scoring structure between the two tests is responsible in part for the score variance, beyond just how we performed and executed each movement.
Training Level Test 1 score before collectives: 59.47% ||| collectives alone: 59.29%
Because even tho the pattern for these two tests is nearly identical (slight variation in location of canter-trot transitions, trot-walk transition, and free walk — short instead of long diagonal), the scoring structure is a bit different.
Most notably, eventing dressage tests did away with the suite of collective scores in 2022 — reducing the overall judge’s impression score down to a single metric: Harmony. Dressage tests, meanwhile, retain the original block of 5 ‘collective’ marks that give judges an opportunity to add nuance to their impression beyond just scoring the movements as presented.
trotting: needs more of this more quickly after transitions
The Training 1 test also breaks out individual scores for working canter, so the canter receives 4 total scores compared to the Starter test’s 2. On the flip side, the Starter test scores the medium walk both before and after the free walk, for a total of 3 scored walk movements compared to Training’s 2.
For Doozy, the differences in canter scoring opportunities didn’t have much effect in these tests — our overall canter averages across both tests varied by just 0.3%. The addition of that second scored medium walk, however — the walk right before transitioning back to trot — definitely does not work in our favor.
Starter Level Test score before collectives: 57.31% ||| collectives alone: 50.00%
Doozy has a generally lovely free walk that so far most judges have been happy to mark as a highlight. But the tension increases as soon as I start picking the reins up, so our average walk scores for Starter are more than half a percentage point — 0.6% — lower than average walk scores for Training.
The biggest variation in scores by far, however, came in the collectives. While we earned just one movement score of 5.0, the judge (imo) crucified us with a second 5.0 (with x2 coefficient, natch) for our single overall collective in the Starter test — which had an enormous impact on final score. Ouch.
free walk: proof that the mare can learn to play the game
Charting both tests by looking at the running average as the tests progress kinda makes it more clear how those slight differences can have cumulative effects on final score.
For example, in the below chart, both tests start out identically — a conservatively ‘satisfactory’ 6.0 first impression upon entry, then ho-hum continuing on thru the first trot and canter circles, then the wheels start coming off a bit as we shift into downward transitions to arrive at the walk work.
progression of overall average score as test goes on
The free walk is a high point in both tests, but the bifurcation in running average happens at the point of that third walk score in the Starter test. Then we see relatively parallel downward trends as we work back toward the second canter (low points in both), before the final exit.
Here is another difference in test pattern — Starter does that weird broken line from the corner letter back to X then to G, whereas Training does a traditional 10m half turn onto the center line at A. Considering all of our canters in this test happen in the corner after CL, it’s no wonder that Doozy is maybe thinking about canter instead of halt at this moment — whereas a true CL turn is another one of those ‘trick’ patterns that horses learn to recognize.
click for full size if you want to see comments
Anyway. Again, after the movements themselves, you can see in the chart above that the Training test running average perks back up again with the addition of collective marks, whereas the Starter test lands with a thud.
Naturally it’s any rider’s tendency to dismiss that sort of thing as just a harsh judge biased against tense red mares lol. Which, eh, ymmv.
Realistically, tho, there are still some useful tidbits for me to chew on from this analysis. Namely: transitions. Dear lord. Up, down, all around. Our transitions are ultimately what’s getting us into trouble, and the design of the Starter test leaves virtually no place to hide from them.
final halt: everybody is happy when it’s over lol
It’s something I’ll admit to not focusing on a ton in our schooling sessions too, since at least in my experience doing a lot of transitions can significantly amplify tension and fizziness. So we probably won’t just start doing 8 million in a row, or something crazy like that.
Instead, I might try to identify some baselines — like counting strides between a transition and when the gait feels “established.” How many strides does it take from when we pick up canter to when the canter feels balanced and organized? Right now that answer is… Well. According to these tests, more strides than can fit into a 20m circle LOL.
And how many strides does it take from when I first ask for a canter-trot transition and when we are in fact trotting in a steady rhythm? I think focusing on shortening those distances, while incrementally increasing the number of transitions we do, could be a big help.
Bc… Well… Obviously my hope is that we’re just about finished riding this test forever. But we’re not quite there yet. And I’d like our last few attempts at it to keep getting better lol.
I semi randomly browsed Strider last week looking for interesting opportunities, and stumbled upon basically exactly what we crave: A low key schooling dressage show that was:
- Close to home
- At a nice venue
- With a respected judge
- And affordably priced
Bingo! Ding ding ding, sign us up!!! Interestingly, it was hosted by (and held in benefit of) an organization that’s not familiar to me, the Baltimore County Horse Council. So I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect — but guys omg, it really did tick every box!
do we look ready??
We really got into our dressage groove over the past week too. First with trying out all the new kit I wrote about last week. Then had an excellent lesson with Trainer C on Friday, where we really got to work on some of my and Doozy’s lateral imbalances.
Then I spent Saturday morning scribing at a different schooling show in order to polish off my volunteer requirements for another organization. That was also a lovely show, tho sadly is not quite “close to home” enough for my preferences for this sort of activity. Ymmv.
chillin in the parking lot, spying on golfers lol
But anyway. Both Doozy and I were basically fully “in the zone” for dressage. My goals for this show were fairly straight forward and ultimately extremely fundamental: We need more mileage between the boards. Full stop.
That’s been true for a long time, and in fact my ‘winter boot camp’ plan last year was to get to as many schooling dressage shows as possible… But ya know. Horses are what they are, and those plans never came to fruition.
idk guys, but the uterus pad is kinda growing on me!
I honestly really believe that Doozy is the type of horse who could benefit from ‘learning the test.’ She’s such an anticipatory creature, to the point where it feels like “dread” — like she’s waiting for the worst. So I’d really like to shift her paradigm, and make the experience more recognizable and predictable and easy to hopefully help her breathe and relax more in the test itself.
technically it’s stitched crowns… but we allllll see it lol
To that end, I signed up for two tests — Training 1, and Starter. Which, it turns out, are virtually identical tests. Some transitions happen slightly after a letter vs before in T1 vs Starter, and T1 free walks the short diagonal instead of the full. And obvi Starter has those weird broken center lines (and no entry halt). But otherwise, the pattern is exactly the same. Perfect!
Tho for scheduling reasons, the show was running Training level in the large court, so rather than having a weird giant gap between tests (they weren’t changing the ring size until lunch), they let me ride Starter in the large court too. Maybe it would have been better for us to do both in the small v large, but, eh, I think for our purposes the large actually suited my goals of having more space to take a breath.
remembering to halt for the training test! also: see what i mean about the ‘understated’ look we’re going for?
Anyway. Let’s get to the good stuff, yes? Doozy actually warmed up quite nicely. The tension was absolutely still there — for example, we were not quite successful at managing walk-trot transitions in warm up, and instead mostly just got walk-canter.* But fine, right? Let’s just go ahead and work the canter!
But really, we were able to pick right up where our lesson left off, working on correct bend, straightness in my own posture and balance, and more half halts on the right rein than I expect (while simultaneously remembering to find moments of release on the left side).
(*Aside from that one walk-bolt we got right before our turn, that was…. unfortunate…)
anyway. cherry-picked is as cherry-picked does. see the video below for the full picture.
Doozy was a little nervous when it was our turn to circle the ring — the judge was under a pop up tent, and there were folks moving around in the grandstands etc… But she honestly kept a lid on it. There was a ton of space around the ring, including a wide enough strip for circling between the court and the warm up area, and the schedule was such that riders got a very generous ‘familiarization’ period before the judge range the bell. Nice!
blergh, ain’t even got a cherry to pick here at all
And once that bell rang, we were ready! Honestly I was super proud of our first test. It wasn’t perfect, obviously, but we didn’t have any accidental canters — and it felt like I was able to find opportunities to soften and let the mare carry herself.
I mostly just focused on riding as steadily and consistently as I’m currently able to do — staying in one spot in the saddle, trying to feel both legs long and feet evenly in the stirrup footbeds, hands in one place, tall and tits chest up, not twisting or collapsing down one side or the other.
free walk continues to be among our highest scoring movements
I’m obvi still not perfect either — in fact the judge dinged me numerous times in both tests for being crooked — but I feel like I can see improvement, and like Doozy is having an easier time meeting me where I am, vs the two of us kinda constantly bouncing around off each other.
No major blips in the first test, and actually what I would consider more than our normal “nice” moments. To the point where I actually considered just calling it a day with that, and scratching the second test. Except… Ya know. This is what we need. Doozy clearly expected to be done after the first, but… No mare, let’s just do it again, and then be done.
idk tho, guys, i really believe she’s getting it, even if the overall picture is still kinda bad
So we chilled for a bit in the warm up before I picked her up to get ready for the second test. There was a bit of a snafu with the judge finding our scoring sheet (since they’d shifted our time to the large arena) so it felt a bit like I wasted some of our best moments while waiting for the bell… But, eh, Too bad, so sad, go and do the test anyway.
always feeling like we could bolt at any moment lol
Second test was maybe less good, but maybe only by a fraction. I honestly think if I’d gotten that test out of the mare at Loch Moy or Waredaca, I would have been thrilled.
can’t wait until we can do normal center lines in our eventing tests too, she does them nicely!
It scored a bit worse, tho we had a little interpretive dance blip into the right lead canter, plus I fudged some of the geometry bc realistically in the smaller court I need to be ready to do it sooner — like the final halt, G comes up very fast after the broken center line in the small court. The judge just scored what she saw tho, which ya know. Fine.
good mare, i was proud of her the whole day <3
In both tests, tho, our scores were decidedly worse for the second little tour after the free walk. I *know* I’m anticipating Doozy getting strong and strung out. And ya know, she is.
And it tracks, right? Like, if you think back to warm up where we kept reencountering tension after walk breaks, maybe it’s getting a little ‘baked in’ right now. I have a tendency in a ride to get into a gear and just keep working it, which is common, I think. But maybe we need more random short walk intervals interspersed to improve flow and fluidity thru all the gait transitions.
It’s also the case that we often break into canter in that second trot circle in the test, so I intentionally did fairly big “whoas” to bring down the tempo in advance. That paid off in terms of rhythm on the circle, but cost us on topline softness. IMO, it’s a price worth paying at this moment to achieve a better rhythm even if the scores are basically equally bad.
wonder of wonders!
i finally coerced an innocent bystander into grabbing video!
Anyway, tho, I’m immensely grateful for the video, not gonna lie. It’s so so so helpful for me to connect the feeling of a ride to what it looks like. Bc realistically, my perception of our performance is… vastly different from the generic outsider.
click for full size
And it’s hard at this moment in time to reconcile all the various competing truths in my head.
One truth being: I’m SO proud of the mare for her performance on this day — it finally felt like we were ‘doing it,’ like we looked like we were meant to be there riding that test. Another competing truth, tho, is that… Well. It’s still a bad test. And the scores reflect that. And to me, that is… frustrating and honestly disappointing.
But with the benefit of video, it becomes easier to reconcile these two truths — bc I can easily see WHY *I* feel so happy about the test, even as it’s clear why the *scores* are what they are.
fancy biscuit <3 <3
So in the grand scheme of things, it felt like an extremely beneficial, educational, and also satisfying activity with my sweet little mare. Another bite-sized adventure, another notch in the belt of figuring this game out, learning how to play by the rules.
And it was also great for meeting new folks from the BCHC — they did such an incredible job with this event, I have legit been evangelizing about it to anybody who’ll even pretend to listen LOL. Who knows, maybe there will be more outings like this in the future!
Happy Friday, folks! It’s been a nice quiet week around these parts, but per usual I still managed to take an inordinate amount of pictures….
why yes, we do occasionally hack about in fly boots lol, why do you ask?
I’ll start with the “trees” half bc honestly, what is there really to say about another jaunt out thru the hayfields and woods surrounding our home barn? We’ve got a good “normal” circuit routine at this point, and try to get out as close to weekly as possible. Tho, realistically, it’s usually more like 2-3x a month.
you can almost see the start of changing seasons
We go with friends whenever possible, but often we’re solo. Which is nice in its own way. Doozy is a lot like Isabel was to hack: she is **marching, ma’am!** — and any attempts at slowing her roll are met with anything from mild annoyance to straight up indignation lol.
dropping down the valley to enter the low side of the woods
So ya know. Sometimes it’s nice to just hit the hills at our own speed lol.
hints of yellow already in the brush!
There’s been a log down by the creek bed for a couple weeks now, but actually we’ve been enjoying the “new” trail that’s cut into the high side of the woods. It’s still got a decent grade, but no straight up-or-down paths, plus the footing is loamy soil vs creekside rocks.
suspicious cabbage finally dying off for the season, much to doozy’s immense relief!
Anyway. After a couple days off post horse trial, we got going again with a relaxing evening hack, and then straight back to the salt mines while testing fun new consignment tack!
a strange purple-y pelt coming up thru the hay fields gives greater contour to the hillsides
Long story short, I finalized purchase of the Veritas Eximo. I like it and Doozy has gone well in it (especially compared to our various disastrous attempts at prior dressage saddle trials). I’ve wanted to get us into black tack for a while now, so. Here we go!
anyway. tack. imo this bridle looks more or less ok from the left side
Next stop was naturally to Maryland Saddlery to browse for appropriate accessories and accoutrements to complete the kit. Namely: Bridle, reins, bit, and saddle pad. And…. idk. I was happy walking out of the store, but am less sure now.
buckles and straps ‘n shit seem jankier from the right tho?
The bit is a very similar Myler to what we’ve been going in, tho it’s slightly longer (which I like) and actually has a very very small port (to which I’m more or less indifferent). The length factor, tho, really kinda puts me in a bind with bridle sizing. Doozy is technically a full / horse size — but could probably do better with cob cheek pieces.
i like the sorta luxe flat black look of this noseband tho
I also don’t really like the crown piece on this bridle. For some reason, Doozy has kinda a weirdly large poll and I’ve ultimately preferred almost aggressively anatomic cutout / flexible crowns for her. Oh and the straight browband kinda bugs me too.
somewhat amazingly the consignment shop had almost the same spec myler we’ve been going in!
So idk. I like the simplicity of this bridle, and the leather is lovely… But it’s probably getting returned to the shop. Let me know in the comments if you think that’s a mistake tho!
oooh and a super nice pair of squishy soft Thinline reins that are a tad short but good ‘nuff!
I’ll probably keep the reins I picked up, tho. They’re technically the wrong length but that’s also probably why they were such a good price. They’re in great shape and feel lovely in the hand, so that’s good enough for me.
vote in the comments: is this color “ugly” or “elegant”???? (pls to ignore the brown stirrup leathers, thx!) ((am i the only one seeing uteri??))
The last bit of kit I picked up in this particular shopping trip was a schooling dressage pad. And I dunno guys… I like the fluffy quilting, and I think I like the color? Less sold on the gold trim, tho, ngl — esp paired with the white boots. Basically my goal is to be more or less understated.
she puts up with so much <3 <3
What do you think — should it all go back to the shop? Or would you keep some of it?
And let’s not forget, I still need to think about leathers, irons, and maybe a different girth so those billets stop popping loose….
I was browsing Maryland Saddlery tack shop & consignment the other day — as a proud owner of a new-to-me dressage saddle, it’s time to complete the kit, right??
More on that later tho (hint), bc while I was there a sales associate directed me toward a crate of free horse-y themed books. And there was some fun stuff, including this little gem that came home with me!
Basic Coursebuilding by Maureen Summers, illustrations by Carole Vincer
Basic Coursebuilding was originally published in the UK in 1991, with several reprints over the years. It’s a thin lightly worded but beautifully and insightfully illustrated guidebook on the construction and design of safe, educational and fun show jump exercises.
contents
Course construction and design is one of those topics that becomes increasingly intuitive with increased experience — the more you jump, the more you understand what makes a good jump (or combination) good. And as such, there isn’t necessarily anything “new” or unexpected here.
philosophy: keep it safe and fun
But it’s excellent reference material — just thru the illustrations but also the accompanying text. I personally really appreciated this note on jumping at home. How often have we seen it happen that if someone has limited resources for their equipment (esp when it comes to building xc jumps), they opt for something a bit aspirational size-wise, or something “spooky” to desensitize the horse.
You know it when you see it too — a schooling field with a collection of somewhat rundown, hodgepodge jumps, and then one jump that’s nice but completely out of proportion to the rest. This author’s philosophy seems to instead focus on a schooling field that keeps jumps approachable and confidence building.
excellent illustrations
Safety takes up a huge portion of the book, especially as it relates to arranging filler material in ways that improve the horse’s perception of the jump.
best practices with clear reasoning
Again, while much of this is maybe “known” to most jumping riders somewhat intuitively, the author provides clear reasoning and logic that helps us as riders better understand risks.
Like with the leaning gate above, or using heavy unyielding standards for the back rail of an oxer (top right — this guide book clearly pre-dates innovations in jump cups like the quick release safety cups that are now required for all back rails).
handy distance guide!
I also personally love the little reference chart for selecting optimal distances in combinations based on height of horse, type of jumps used (vertical, oxer), and arrangement of those types. Similar charts exist in the eventing guidebook, and I actually really appreciate that they explicitly call out the specific arrangements and distances that are ‘not used,’ ie not great design.
guidance on horse-first design
Since getting into eventing, where safety is perhaps the most front and center of all jumping disciplines, it’s been interesting to learn how a rider perception varies dramatically from horse perception. Like the jump on the left, that may appear imposing to a rider but is actually more easily understood by the horse than the plank jump on the right.
how to make room for lower-consequence errors
The book also reviews the somewhat cascading nature of errors around a course — especially when related distances are involved. You might have an error at one fence that you pay for at the next. By adding an extra stride length into the combination, or arranging jump types thoughtfully, the designer can help ensure that a mistake isn’t catastrophic.
I’ve also heard this thought process used when explaining the relative rarity of 3 stride combinations, esp on cross country. They aren’t explicitly forbidden (and in fact I’ve personally encountered them plenty of times), but there’s a perception that three strides is long enough to get on a bad half stride (vs a shorter gymnastic distance that gives you fewer opportunities to alter stride length) but short enough to not have much room to save it.
you’ll see a very similar graphic repeated in most guideline / rule books
Graphics like the above are also super useful in kinda just reinforcing what you might already sorta know intuitively about building the jump itself. Like say, if you wanted to introduce a new piece of filler material, or a liverpool for example, you’d want to start by arranging it in the easiest configuration possible so that the horse is likeliest to have his best most comfortable jumps.
ta da! a lovely flowy test for horse and rider!
There’s also a whole section on plotting out a course on paper, including how to make choices about orienting the start and finish lines proximally to where the judge sits, and also how to prepare the various metrics and measures the judge might need.
But overall it’s a super cute book with nice reference material that I’m happy to add to the library. It’s interesting to see what’s changed in design over the last 30 years - for example, the new quick release safety cups, advances in how horses perceive color (they are red/green color blind) and contrast, and the role decorations play in helping horses read the full height and spread of a fence (decorate the edges and top spread corners).
That said, tho, not a lot has changed haha — at least for the basics. Anything new to you in the above? Or other tips and tricks you’ve devised for setting up good safe fun exercises at home?
