rinse repeat

I listened in on a webinar last week with a Q&A session hosted by an FEI dressage judge who had some, hm, strong perspectives on the future of the sport. Granted, a lot of horse people have strong opinions, and judges are quite literally tasked with, ya know, judgement. 

welcome to another episode of two dozen pivo screenshots!

So it’s not surprising when they take advantage of a presentation platform to get up on their soapbox and expound upon the issues they see as most critical. All that to say — as with anything, we listen with open ears and open minds and also a grain of salt at the ready.

here’s the video if you’d rather see it in motion. 

only about ~8min this time

It was timely for me, tho, bc I’d actually just recently scribed the dressage at a USEA event for a judge whom I’ve known for years. Lovely lady — witty, clever, and realistic about horses and riders presenting at all the various levels of skills and experience. 

not sure what it’s going to take to make me shorten my reins LOL

Naturally she and I chatted throughout the day about all sorts of topics. Our impressions of the 2026 tests, the various local pros and their up and coming horses. Her past experiences, my experiences with Doozy and our dressage struggles etc. All the things. And the change in scoring formats for the test collectives came up too. 

happier about my posture in a lot of these moments tho

I may or may not have even whined about how Doozy and I consistently get nailed in the “Harmony” collective. That instead of the score reflecting more or less our test average, judges often use it to make a point about their overall impression of how we go. Which this particular judge (having, ya know, not seen us go but just chatting with me) agreed seemed harsh and maybe unfair. 

lots of halt transitions throughout the video

So fast forward a couple days to this webinar with the FEI dressage judge who… Honestly kinda blasted my whinge right out of the water. She got up on her soapbox and practically shouted at us that “the harmony collective isn’t going anywhere!” And that even in the FEI classes (she was particularly preoccupied with pure dressage in the Olympics) the general impression scores are shifting to prioritizing harmony.

then right back into forward again, really pleased with basically all of our canter transitions

She predicted that judges at all levels and in all aspects of dressage will be increasingly using that collective score to “make a point,” and that the “wow factor would not win over harmony in the future.” Short necks, open mouths, BTV frames, a lot of tension… The more prevalent any of that is in a test, the lower the score will go. 

we’re still mostly bracing and above the bit, but she was decently relaxed anyway

Which. Ya know. It’s so funny how the world works sometimes, right? To go literally from one day complaining about how the scoring seems unfair or impossible for our sensitive reactive hot house flowers… To just days later sitting in on a webinar where the message is a loud and clear, “Buck up, buttercup, and do better!” 

emma. shorter reins WILL help you communicate better, i swear!

And so. As one does, I updated our “vocabulary word of the day month year lifetime” exercise with Doozy. Now we have two vocabulary words: Composure. Forever, obvi. And the newest addition: Harmony.

trying to ride forward into organization, not backward!

And a new measurable goal to go with that: I’d like to ride our dressage tests such that the Harmony collective actually DOES represent a more positive reflection of our scores. So like, if we ride a wild ‘n woolly test that nets us a 45% penalty score (55% in pure dressage), then yea a Harmony collective of 5.5 is expected. 

i’m actually happy with some of our canter moments for once!

But historically, a lot of judges have rounded that down to a 5.0 for us, based on their general impression of how we go. Looking forward, I’d like to prioritize a style of riding that makes it more likely for a judge to round up to a 6.0, with some sort of sympathetic comment like, “Unfortunate tension today!” lol. A girl can dream, right?

doozy thinks the halt transitions are stupid, but she squared up anyway!

Right lol. To go hand in hand with my new goal, I’m bringing a fresh newfound zeal to my persistently terrible upper body posture. Bc damn, it just seems CRAZY to me that despite literally a decade of bitching about it here on ye olde blogge, zillions of lessons, and now doing yoga basically every damn day… I STILL sit like a friggin potato on the horse.  

and forward again, good girl

And it turns out… Most dressage judges are all too eager to blame the rider’s poor position and use of aids for a messy test or horse who isn’t going well.

don’t look now, but somebody is developing a little elasticity! 

Now it IS true that part of the problem is just my own personal conformation. I have a short torso, short arms, and the sort of bust line that, when taken all together, really amplifies any impression of slouching. But… It’s also true that even when I really am trying so god damn hard to sit up straight with shoulders back… I’m just like, not. My body is lying to me, I swear!

lol @ her face….
“halt is my least favorite speed” — doozy, 1,000%

Recently, tho, one of the yoga teachers at my studio did a multi-week class focused on “grounding,” emphasizing a strong energetic connection and downward flow through whatever body part was in contact with the ground in each pose — feet, hands, spine, sit bones, etc. 

we hit the block, whoops

And it brought a different awareness and feeling for me. Most often, I’ve thought of stretching ‘up,’ sitting ‘up,’ feeling lifted and tall. But this yoga flow was all about the energetic push down to find the full expression of the posture. Ymmv, but for me, this is a really helpful new way to think about finding that strong open and tall core — pushing down into the sit bones to find the strength and stability to lengthen into a taller frame.

“false alarm, everything is fine!” — doozy, composed just one step later <3 <3

It’s not a silver bullet, obvi. At this rate, so many of my muscular postural habits are very very deeply ingrained. But maybe it’s helping? 

proud of the pivo for coping despite not being alone in the ring!

Idk. All that to say, this most recent Pivo-recorded ride had a few fundamental areas of focus: 

- Riding forward, in front of the leg — not trying to fix rideability problems by slowing down

- Lateral suppleness with lots of inside leg even when Doozy tries to convince me I should take my leg off lol… 

- HARMONY

- And, lastly, sitting tall (but-i-fucking-mean-it-this-time) for the camera

determined to work on my canter lol

Oh. And not shying away from working on the canter haha. And transitions too. Bc apparently none of it gets better if we don’t practice. Go figure!

pretty much satisfied with our how we finished the ride

And guys, Doozy is loving my newfound embrace of riding forward. There’s a lot more smoothness in all of our transitions — particularly trot to canter, but also the downwards too. Especially if I remember to keep my leg on, she really seems better able to get her legs up under her and hold a more comfortable balance — vs spurting off onto the forehand or snowballing into an avalanche of a pulling match.

one last halt with lots of pets, obvi

We still see a fair amount of bracing especially through the underneck, but I’m inclined to think that’s mostly a strength thing in the downward transitions, and maybe a lack of good preparation + reins too long for the upwards. 

still lookin pretty relaxed after all that! <3 <3

Again, tho, that’s also kinda the beauty of the Pivo LOL. Like, to spend as much time studying / editing / screen shooting that video as I do, and be thinking ‘ugh Emma shorten your reins!’ the whole time? Perhaps that’ll be the lesson that sticks lol. 

We’ll see, I guess! Anybody else working on any positional breakthroughs, or general feelings on the future of judging in the sport?