After the recent chat about dressage scores in Equiteam Connected, Equiteam’s coach, Liz Daniels, shares her own experiences.
It was November 2022 and I trundled off to the Scottish National Equestrian Centre to do two BD dressage tests. One at Novice and one at Elementary.
They were both tests I had ridden before, on my amazing mare (I am biased), who I knew inside out, and I was looking forward to a nice day out with my pony.
Everything about the day was lovely, I had done my homework before getting to the venue, I saw some friends, I stuck to my plan in the warm up, Cianti went well, I watch Liz S do an amazing test on Splash, I had some lunch and then boom… the scores are revealed… and they were terrible.
I’m normally an annoying glass half full person, the scores and feedback inspire me to work harder, work smarter, and give me a hunger to learn more, but there was just something about this that left a really off feel inside me.
The tests had been marked by two different judges and in two different arenas. On paper it looked ‘ok’ as we got third and fifth in our classes, but the scores didn’t reflect this. Were the judges seeing something I wasn’t, or were they both frugal on their scoring?
Cianti had dropped off my leg in the first test (novice) and I knew I was going to get pulled up on this (quite rightly), but the rest of the test had been nice. The elementary test was an easy one in a short arena and Cianti had been amazing. I was pleased with her, it was in front of the leg, accurate and a really nice test (I had thought).
What was I missing? Why was I so deflated? After soooo much hard work, why were we so crap?
I looked at the videos – I thought the tests looked nicer than our marks which didn’t help me feel any better, so I watched and watched again – and it dawned on me, the reality check I had probably needed.
My pony and I both looked like we were just going through the motions. In fact, if I’m really honest, Cianti looked thoroughly pissed off. She was not enjoying a single second of it and it was a far cry from the videos I had watched of us a couple of months before with her ears forwards and us both smiling.
Had I been making her live my dreams?
Now I felt REALLY terrible. She isn’t bred for dressage, she is conformationally challenged for the job I am asking her to do, but usually she always had her ears forwards and tries her heart out.
I felt beaten and like I wanted to say balls to this stressage malarkey… and that is exactly what I did!
I had booked to go to Netherton the following weekend, this time to do two elementary tests. I went because we had entered and I also wanted to put my demons to bed. Cianti was fabby, and the scores (I felt were fair), reflecting where I thought we were on our journey. The day felt much more enjoyable, but I still had in my head that she was a bit stale.
I listened to my horse and my gut, and I gave Cianti a couple of months off competing and we just hacked and went to the beach. I think I schooled once. There was so much other things going on in my personal life that I had lost that burning desire to complete, but knowing that my pony wasn’t loving it was worth more than a test. We were a team and we are in this together.
Giving her a couple of months off from any schooling, right before the Petplan Area Festival was probably a bit daft – but in my heart it felt right.
By the end of January we dusted off our ever tightening competition wear and went to the Petplan Areas. She was like a different horse and we were one place and 0.2% off qualifying for the Nationals. One judge had her down to win. I was elated. Her ears were forwards and she smiled, as did I.
Naturally I was a bit disappointed not to be going back to Hartpury, but more than anything I was so very proud of her. Proud of us for pulling this test out of our rides on the beach.
After reading all of the recent chat in Equiteam Connected about dressage test marks it gave me the chance to think back on my own experiences.
Did I feel deflated because the marks at SNEC were rubbish and I am naturally competitive? It would be a valid point – but on reflection I actually think for me it is about my perception of the marks feeling fair.
Although I am competitive, I watched my class at the Petplan Areas and knew the last horse in was going to beat me. She did a beautiful test and deserved to win, it was better than mine, and at no point did I feel deflated.
If I had been beaten by someone who, in my view, did a test of a lesser standard than ours would I have been upset? Very possibly yes!
Dressage is so subjective and in my opinion so much harder than jumping for this reason. So many people choose it as their sport, but I don’t think anyone really talks about the amount of resilience you need for it.
We hardly ever (in fact I have never), score a 10, so we are already setting ourselves to be below standard by aspiring for something that is almost impossible to achieve. How can that be good for the mind-set?!
But the judge is only commenting and marking what they see on the day. They have no idea what your test was like last time, how much work you have been doing, or what is going on in your life outside that arena. When you feel so passionate and invested it can be hard to remember that it is not personal.
It’s so important to set other parameters to benchmark your success – was my test accurate, was my horse in front of my leg, did I remember my test?
Success is measured in many ways, so instead of focussing on the final percent – which is largely out of our control, set other goals before your competition which can also help to map your progress.
With the exception of the Petplan Festival, I competed twice last year. It wasn’t just for the reasons above, but Cianti feeling stale, and those feelings from SNEC played a big part as I knew my own mind-set needed those gut wrenching feelings of deflation and defeat as much as I need a sparkling/blingy browband.
Will the time off have done us both good? I think so, because now I feel excited to get back out having built my resilience back up again
Liz x
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