To those winning the dressage...

[Ritazza]

.... how many times a week do YOU school dressage? I don't mean just general riding that happens to not be jumping, but real dressage work. What level do you event at, and what corresponding level of dressage are you schooling/showing? And what are your scores?

Eventing is such a delicate balance of all our three phases, and sometimes it just feels like there's not enough time in the week to do it all and be successful at all three parts!

[rabicon]

Well I just started but I'll answer. We showed amoebia and tadpole last year. The dressage was intro B test, we schooled dressage 4 times a week and jumped 1 day a week. Now we do tadpole with is intro B at one show and BN at another show and we keep on the same schedule. We usually come out first going into jumping because we do work hard on the dressage.

[deltawave]

I'll argue that EVERY ride contains "dressage": responsiveness to the aids, suppling, asking for straightness, lengthening/shortening, transitions, etc. Even trot sets and intervals incorporate this, and jumping CERTAINLY does.

That said, out of the 4-5 days per week that I ride, 3 of them are with a dressage saddle on, doing specific stuff focusing on the dressage tests we use in competition. I school my young horse at 1st-2nd level dressage mostly, we compete in Novice/Training eventing.

One thing I really need to do more is do this work IN A DRESSAGE RING and not just my trainer's arena, the side field, or the pasture. I don't have one, but it's on my list of projects for this summer--somewhere in the shape of a 20x40m box, no frills but something to force me to ride inside those dimensions.

[3horsemom]

dear daughter and her sweet mare are always working on dressage. she rides 3 or 4 times a week on the flat, has one flat lesson a week most weeks. we try to get in a jumping lesson at least once a week as well and altho that has proved a bit difficult, the jumping is just "dressage with fences". lots of lateral work, transitions and bending happen in the jumping lessons as well. they are competing at training level.

[Lisa Cook]

My schedule with Linus was the following:

1 jumping lesson a week. No jumping outside of a lesson/competition.
1 trail ride a week. A real trail ride...1 to 2 hours usually with long trot & canter sets, not just a hack around he block.
1 day off a week.
1 dressage lesson a week.
All remaining days = dressage schooling on my own. And that would be focused dressage schooling, not half-hearted hacking.

This winter I kicked it up to 2 dressage lessons a week because we were really getting into the whole dressage thing.

We evented at Novice level last year and got some good scores...we won a couple of events with scores in the 20's, including a 24 at one of the events.

In dressage showing last year, we did one USDF recognized show, competing at at 1st level test one (came in 2nd of 18) and 1st level test 3 (came in 1st out of 12). We were schooling 2nd & 3rd level and were planning on introducing a double bridle this winter.

Sigh. I miss that horse.

[Ajierene]

I like to work 4 times a week in dressage, one or two days jumping. One of those jumping days may translate into a trail ride, if I have the time (I have to trailer out to trail ride) or may turn into a fun/easy bareback ride if I go up to the ring when the barn owner is giving beginner lessons. Her ponies are generally really good, but I still don't want to test fate by cantering around a bunch of kids that have yet to master steering, let alone real riding.

Sometimes that jumping day is a lesson, or a cross country schooling. I like to cross country school whenever possible and this year I plan on trailering out to some stadium jumping lessons. I want to move up to Training and the jumps where I am barely make 2'6", let alone 3'3" for Training! I really need to practice real oxers and real combinations, etc. Most of my lessons are currently dressage lessons - alot because of the limitations where I board.

When I was in hunter jumpers, we were always taught that a horse only has so many jumps in them and jumping to be limited. Usually once, maybe twice a week and no more than about 20 jumps in a session.

[deltawave]

Must add that I almost NEVER am "winning the dressage", unless the rest of the division doesn't show up, etc. :lol:

[asterix]

Um, I think this might be better titled "to those who are often in the top 5 in dressage" or "win once in a while" -- I am not sure anyone besides Mara Dean is consistently "winning the dressage"

However, I am often in the top 5 and have, once or twice, "won the dressage" on both my horses, so I guess I qualify :lol:

Horse 1: came to me with LOTS of serious dressage training, but hated it. But definitely has the natural build and gaits of a more typical wb dressage horse, and can be very nice when I don't overdo the dressage work. So this is an atypical horse for eventers!
In the winter we usually do dressage 3-4 days a week due to weather. In the season it'll be no more than 3 days a week, as little as possible in the indoor. He really won't tolerate more than that.
He has been off for several months rehabbing but before that had just moved up to Prelim. When fit we are generally schooling 2nd/3rd level, but, again, he knew that stuff before I bought him. I NEVER take him to dressage shows. He would consider that a serious breach of contract. :D

Horse 2: green young draft cross, knew zero ring work when I got him. He tolerates dressage a lot more than the other horse and may get as many as 5 days a week in winter and 3-4 in the season. On a really good day we could do a 1st level test, probably not incredibly well. He is going Novice at the moment and won't be ready for Training for a while.

I agree with you -- there are NEVER enough days in the week. Sometimes it is frustrating to think how much better we'd be if all we did were dressage...but with my big horse, he would NEVER stand for that, so it's kind of moot. I'd also be afraid I'd ruin my young horse's eager work ethic with too much ring work.

On the bright side, it's never boring, right -- when weather is good there is always something fun to do and it's never exactly the same thing. I think I'd die if I did hunters...

[mjrtango93]

Well barn wise we are generally top 8, and the upper horses are top 5, normally 1 or 2 after dressage so I will answer as well. Horses do 2 days of flat a week, generally 1 lesson day and one day on your own, they jump once, do 1 day of fitness, and hack out the rest of the time. Being on hills 24/7 promotes self carriage and balance so luckily they all kind of do that on their own. We tend to have the more sensitive warmblood/or TB type so over doing it is a bigger fear then not having enough time to do flat. They obviously flat slightly more in winter due to crappy weather, but even then we do alot of just "play days" letting them trot and canter around the arena with not a ton of stress. Leading up to the bigger shows they might do a 3rd day of flat, but generally will do that as warm up for a gallop so it isn't terribly long.

[jumper19]

This thread has made me feel extremely guilty.
Tomorrow the jumping saddle gets locked up and my dressage saddle gets put up on the first rack. :yes:

[Stay Gold]

When I was showing (been laid up for 12 weeks with a broken collarbone that refuses to heal), I was schooling dressage 4-5 days a week. The horse was ridden 5-6 days a week. Because I kept him at home, we had no real jumps, and only ever practiced our courses in competition. (hah, not the greatest plan with a green jumper, but we did what we could). For me knowing that dressage was the one phase I could really nail before the show, and get a "head start" was a big motivator. Some of our dressage schools included cavaletti work, or a trot set after or before (sometimes I'd trot him out in the fields to open up his stride and get him thinking forward before our dressage school).

We were showing 1st/2nd level dressage (with scores up to 73% at First Level) and schooling 3rd while competing Novice in the eventing world. We were never worse than 2nd after dressage, and always had scores in the mid-high 20's.

[nc_eventer]

we have won dressage only 2x at the training level with a 29 and a 31. we just moved up to prelim in october and scored a 36.3 which put us in 4 out of 23! (i was very happy!) But we are typically in the top 5 after dressage.
i really enjoy dressage- the fruits of your labor sort of thing. that glimmer of a collected trot that is brilliant, a balanced trot halt transition, a straight obedient and uphill simple change these are a few of my favorite things ;)
we school dressage 3-4 times per week, i alternate jumping and dressage lessons each week, so most of my flat work is on my own. we are working on 1st/2nd level, hoping to do some schooling shows at 2nd this summer.

[Jagged]

I am 95% of the time in the top 3-5 after dressage.

I have been lucky enough to have horses that enjoy, are are naturals in this phase.

I also encorporate dressage in my jumping and fitness work... it is a daily thing.

Get a horse that is willing, and work hard to get those 7's and 8's... and 9's!

[purplnurpl]

dressage 4 times a week
jump 1 time a week
trot set 1 time a week
trail ride 1 time a week

When I was running novice my horse had leg yield
by training he had shoulder in/travers
mean score was probably around 27ish and he was usually 1st after Dressage despite me.
now he's up to Prelim and working half pass, collections, and mediums and canter pirouettes. Time to start working on the changes and on some half steps.

He is a very rideable horse though and will give it his all and never get upset when things aren't perfect. Just not 'up' enough yet to pull off respectable scores in the dressage at prelim unfortunately. We are stuck in the mid to high 30s. We'll get it soon though. : )


**********

The horse I showed novice last year with was working on actually cantering off my leg and not just a cluck. No lateral work.
nice eh? NOT. He was NOT my type of ride. Cute and all but I like to be able to put the pressure on my horses.
In one season:
BN 31
N 40
N 40
he was a smart little jumper but not rideable enough for anything over training level.

**********

My first horse was running training level.
she did shoulder in/travers/just started working on some pirouette.
she was a smashing 3' jumper.
scored in the mid 30s always.

For some reason I am a hellava consistent rider. Not sure if that is good or not. lol. Must be the glasses. They make me look more accomplished then I am.


http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p189/xckaboom/nerd.jpg

[JER]

My horses that would always be near the top in dressage did not require much dressage work at home. They were good at dressage and knew what a test was about. One of them even saluted the judge at the beginning/end of every test with a showy nod of his head (he was a very intelligent ham).

My horses that would always be near the bottom at dressage were well-schooled at home -- I would work with them on almost every ride, even if it was just small amounts at the walk. These horses liked to gallop and jump and didn't care for the dressage phase. If I tried to school more at home, they'd get sour and irritated by it, so I learned not to push it. BTW, these horses were responsive to the aids when they needed to be, especially if a jump was involved -- and I really respected that quality in them.

[I<3Sleepy]

My horse is a TB and we've been doing Training level for the last 5 years. He is a very consistent horse and for a while we were in 1st after dressage at every event we entered (both N & T). Usually he is no worse off than 3rd. For him, he likes the work but I can't drill it into him or he gets sour. Usually I try to do 2 days of actual dressage work in the ring, 1 jump day (if I have a ring person & footing is good), 2 days with some sort of conditioning (hills/trots/gallop sets) and a nice long hack on the buckle. Even out in the fields I ask him to move off my leg, be supple in his body, and lengthen/shorten within the gait. He can never really escape ;)

Sunday - off
Monday - flat
Tues - jump/conditioning
Weds - conditioning/jump
Thurs - flat
Fri - conditioning
Sat - hack

This is what I aim for but not always what I get. I've found that mixing things up keeps him sharp and enjoying the work. Usually my first flat day is easier since he had the previous day off, so we work on things like transitions and suppling. I mix up my lessons between flat and jumping which I think really helps.

[Tucked_Away]

Only one season under our belts, but (knock wood!) we were first or second after the dressage at every three-phase we did last year. School it usually ~3x/week--sometimes a little more when I feel like we need it, but truth be told, we seem to do our best work when I feel like we're not practicing it _quite_ enough; we do of course play with dressage elements while hacking out, jumping, etc., too--1 of those rides a lesson, at least 1 of the others out in a little sloped field that we have.

Going BN, confirmed Training Level dressage, flirting with First--reliable leg yield/stretchy trot/TOF/10m circles and changes of direction and consolidating a fairly respectable but better some days than others shoulder in/lengthenings/TOH/shallow canter loop. Lowest score last year was a 30, highest was a 35 (and first after the dressage). Making good progress over the winter, so I'm hoping we can break 30 once or twice this year.

Horse (TB-y Paint x Anglo-Arab) is a bit of a know-it-all at home, but generally a rock star off the property where he's a little less convinced he knows best. :lol: Bold cheerful jumper, too, and the switch flipped midway through last season--he figured out how to gallop properly and spent a while not wanting to do anything else. I didn't buy him for eventing--we're hunter-world refugees--but I seem to have really lucked out.

[Dawnd]

This thread has made me feel extremely guilty.
Tomorrow the jumping saddle gets locked up and my dressage saddle gets put up on the first rack. :yes:


Oh jumper19, then you'll have to change your COTH name :)

(btw...since I once came last in dressage, the only answer I can give is obviously not enough. Oh well, I like to jump. :lol: )

[yellowbritches]

dw- cheap, easy dressage ring. Cinder blocks and landscape timbers. We have corners set up and sections along the long sides. It totally resembles a dressage ring and it is nice to have a REAL dressage ring feel to practice. It is set up in our lower field that is border on one side by a big creek bed, and we even have C set up along the creek side, so that end is nice and spooky, just like a judge's box!!! :lol:

I hardly win dressage, though if I get to compete both boys this year, I might actually have two very capable horses that can and should place well. And, my two follow along purplnurpl's. Vernon was consistently doing leg yields and shoulder in last year at novice. Right now as we prepare for training, his shoulder in is improving and we are starting travers and he actually has some really good counter canter. Paco is broke to death, laterally, and will do good movements all the way through half pass...we haven't mastered counter canter yet, though, as somewhere along the line he was taught auto changes (argh).

However, winning can often be the luck of the draw regarding the judge. I haven't ridden VERY GOOD tests on some very good movers and been killed. I've also ridden some ok tests on average movers, and scored quite well. Then there are the times when you just have no clue what the judge was thinking, like when Ralph and I actually got our act together and did a decent prelim test for once and got a 52, then a few weeks later he bucked and reared and acted like the total ass he was and I scored a 40 something. :confused: Judges can be really weird. :lol:

[yellowbritches]

I never answered the real question. I might ride once a week in a dressage saddle. Maybe that's why I don't win. ;) But I much rather ride in my jumping saddle than my dressage saddle.

[Ritazza]

However, winning can often be the luck of the draw regarding the judge. I haven't ridden VERY GOOD tests on some very good movers and been killed. I've also ridden some ok tests on average movers, and scored quite well. Then there are the times when you just have no clue what the judge was thinking, like when Ralph and I actually got our act together and did a decent prelim test for once and got a 52, then a few weeks later he bucked and reared and acted like the total ass he was and I scored a 40 something. :confused: Judges can be really weird. :lol:

Tell me about it!!!!!! Second recognized show of the season last year, had a very good dressage test and scored a 22.0 (awesome!!) and got a 9 on my trot-walk transition. Next show, exact same transition, exact same quality, exact same location - scored a 5 with the comment "Prompt transition! Cut corner." WTF? That 5 knocked my score of all 7's and 8's down to a 32.0 and into 2nd place - first place was a 31.5. D'oh!!

But we're good at that kind of thing. At the AECs our 7's and 8'd had a lovely 2 thrown in there for good measure after a very, erm, ungraceful transition because maresie was in heat and somebody was screaming to her. Lovely. Somehow still scraped by with a 33.0!

[Catalina]

I have a lesson once a week which is the only time I jump. The rest of the time I am in my dressage saddle, weather it is in the ring or going for a trail ride. At least twice a week I practice my tests, but not too much or he starts to anticipate.
My horse came to me getting 40s and 50s in dressage. We now are consistently in the top 6 at Novice and have won several times with our best scores being 27.4 and 21.6 and lots of scores in the low 30s. Our worst test was 39.5, which was in a scary indoor ring where the test went something like trot, trot, spook, canter, spook, trot trot, spook. We still finished in 4th :lol:.

This was us in May of last year:
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL930/1750828/17957437/320152243.jpg

And then in November after 6 months of dressage drilling ;):
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL930/1750828/17957437/342822666.jpg

[Bobthehorse]

I school dressage 4 times a week for about 20 minutes, but since I hack out 4 times a week too, often times I flat school and then go out for an hour of walking after. Ill have a dressage lesson on Bob about once a month, but have them on AJ once a week or so, but he is neither winning dressage nor do I ride him as well as I do Bob ;).

I hear Canadian dressage scores and American are different, so I wont post mine because I have no idea how that works. I will say that out of divisions of about 35 or so, I am nearly always in the top 5, and often win dressage. My horse is no great dressage talent, he is a front heavy freight train of a QH, but we have worked very hard over the years and it does pay off. We always have very nice shapes, especially loops, oh man does Bob do a MEAN loop! He does try really hard to be less grumpy in dressage at shows, he is such a good boy, he even comes back after canter lengthens haha.

[SecondRabbit]

While I've only evented Elementary, I've always done well in dressage. In my last event way back in the fall, I think I placed very well with a solid ranking. In fact, I went home with a 2nd in that event despite one refusal in stadium mostly because my dressage score put a comfy gap between me and my competitors. I saw the girl who won in dressage---her ride was equal to some of the Novice rides I saw that day! I was really proud to place 2nd next to that!

Anyways, I mainly will ride in the dressage saddle. Love it, love it, love it. Its probably due in part because I have limited access to jumping, much less courses! (I've only done a course outside an event twice in my life.) I also really enjoy dressage. Truly! I feel that every minute in the dressage saddle in worth a bijillion in the close contact---I ride better in the close contact after riding dressage for a while.

Dressage has taught me to feel, to know, to completely 100% understand the equine body and mind underneath me. That, obviously, carries over well into jumping both in and outside the ring.

[tlw]

My girl is ridden by my wife (4th level dressage rider) 4-5 days a week in a dressage frame. I get to ride on the week-end and generally ride one day dressage and one day jumping. When we get close to a competition I will jump a bit more (one day stadium and one day x-country) just to make sure we are working as a team. Last year (I think 5 recognized events) our dressage scores ranged from 27 to 33 or thereabouts. We are always (except at the championships :mad:) in 1st or 2d after dressage. Last year we had no x-country or stadium faults. All this is at training level. We also compete at 3 - 4 recognized dressage shows a year where I show my girl (a 14 yr. old Cleveland Bay/Eng. TB cross) at 3d level. Year end average at 3d 3 was 62%.
We did a mini move up last month and tried the Prelim/Training class. 32 in dressage, 2 (silly) rails (my fault) and double clean x-country. It was fun and confidence building. This reply is kinda long, I hope I answered the original question. :lol:

[Rabbit351w]

We are consistently top 5 at novice, and generally top 3. I am lucky that my boy really does enjoy dressage and I think he knows he is good at it. However, we do work hard on it as well.

I ride in my dressage saddle every day that I am not jumping, and I only jump once a week (and in the winter sometimes not even once a week). Maybe once a week he gets to just hack around, but that still leaves at least 4 days a week of actual dressage work. We spend 15 minutes warming up in all gaits on the buckle and the remainder of the ride of actual dressage work.

He schools all 1st and 2nd level movements (leg yield, shoulder in, renvers, tranvers, medium and collected gaits, turn on the hauches, etc.), and is learning consistency in the half pass.

Our scores have ranged between a 24 and a 35. Most often around a 30 or 31.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

This thread has made me feel extremely guilty.
Tomorrow the jumping saddle gets locked up and my dressage saddle gets put up on the first rack. :yes:


LOL....yeah, I have to force my self to put the dressage saddle on.

As for the OP....it really depends on the horse on how well I do. Dressage is MY weak area. I have had horses where I've done very well...and others...well others where I was happy if I wasn't last! (novice-Prelim)

In eventing....you need to work on your horse's and your own weak areas, but also you just plain need to work on everything. Right now...I have one horse getting ready for Prelim. She is galloping/cantering every 5th day. Day after is either a day off or a light hack. Then a jump day or dressage day (depending on whether or not she had the day off), dressage day (IN the dressage saddle), jump day, dressage day (in dressage saddle) ...then gallop again. She hacks on top of her normal work outs...so we ride in the ring/field and then go out for a 30-40 minute walk (all that I have time for).

For me...it is the opposite....I don't feel like I'm jumping enough!


But is isn't about how much you practice....it is about how WELL you practice. What is that famous saying...something like practice doesn't make perfect, only perfect practice leads to perfection.

[WakeRider]

I have an intermediate and a training level horse right now. I have to agree that I try to incorporate dressage into every school. A typical week includes one jump school, one day off, one day 'fun hacking' (trail ride, outside non-conditioning riding), two days dressage ring school, two days conditioning --> Not in that order of course. While both horses aren't dressage queens ( I have to let my younger sister beat me in something, right??), they usually do score in the 30s at their levels.

Even when I'm doing around and around the field doing canter/trot sets, i'll include leg yielding, lengthening, shoulder-ins, regulating and improving their gaits, etc. I use my dressage saddle for dressage days only, b/c my tush loves my jump saddle more :lol: I rarely practice the full tests themselves, but rather a movement here or there when riding (again not just the 'dressage' days). I find that making them work (even if its nothing more than a little shoulder-in on a trail ride) on a trail ride, makes them much more focused on me, rather than the three-headed monster in the bushes.