Silent dressage

By Mistress Lycia M73

1. Hints

• The presentation should be done like a ballet dance performance. Trainer and Pony should show perfect harmony, fluid motions, understanding without words or gestures.

• For a perfect dressage, you will need a lot of rehearsals.

• When a Pony doesn’t stop perfectly on the yellow square, do not try and correct. That looks silly.

• Trainer needs to be considerate of the Ponies approach to the yellow squares and of the way it will walk the figure. Stand where you are not blocking the path of the Pony, and avoid corrections.

2. Entering and exiting the field

Trainer and pony step to the bottom of the field, not yet entering, just below the Letter A. Once both are settled, the Trainer gives the pony a signal and they enter the field in unison at the A sign. Once in position on the field just above the lettered A sign, pony and trainer bow for the judges.

After the bow the trainer should move into the first position given on the dressage course card. This card will only be given to you moments before the event. During training, simply decide ahead of time what progression of movements you will use and guide the pony as you would in an event.

Each step is followed until completion of the course listed on the card, or until you have completed working with the pony on the progression of movements.

3. Transition between the figures

There are three different ways to transition between the starting points, listed here in order of difficulty.

3.1 Straight Line

This transition is the most straightforward. After finishing a figure, the Pony waits for the trainer to stand at the starting marker for the next one. The pony then turns towards the start marker of the next figure, walks there gracefully, stops and turns to face in the correct direction for the current figure.

3.2 Curvy

This approach is similar to the straight line, but more graceful. Instead of walking a straight line, the Pony walks a graceful, curved line in such a way, that the pony arrives at the next start marker facing already in the correct direction. In short: No turning on the spot in this transition.

3.3 Traverse

Traverse was developed to recreate RL dressage. In Traverse, the Pony always walks inside the outer rectangle to reach the appropriate letter. To reach the first figure, the Pony must always start in a clockwise direction (unless the first figure is the figure 8).

The Pony must gracefully walk along the outer edge without touching the rectangle. Once it reaches the letter that corresponds to the figure indicated by the trainer, Pony turns 90 degrees, walks towards the starting point, then turns 90 degrees again to face the correct direction.

If the figure is the circle, the Pony must enter the field facing the correct direction. 180 degree turns are not allowed, so walk around the field and approach the starting point from the other side if necessary.