# flatwork/dressage critique



## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

hi all,

my horse is currently out with an injury so i'm not really riding at the moment but this was a photo of us at our last competition together.

it was just an in house competition at my pony club and my friend was using my dressage saddle so please excuse the all purpose and my therefore slightly short stirrups....










i know i need to lift my chin, roll my shoulders back and lift my hands.. but is there anything else that i'm missing??


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## LoveTheSaddlebreds (Jul 9, 2009)

He looks to be moving out nicely! He is a little teenie bit behind the vertical, however. If you were to move your hands forward a couple inches, I think that problem would be fixed. Nice horse, hope he gets better soon!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I agree. all in all , you look super and the horse is moving sweetly. his face and head is just a bit scrunched down into his neck. if you can leg him have an inch or two of rein and keep him moving energetically into the freedom, that is the only improvement i can see from one photo. how did you do?


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

won our hack class and got 2nd in my rider class  didnt do so crash hot in the sporting since he kind of loses his mind doing it (i swear it's the arab in him!) and we got 2nd overall in the showjumping.

i've always had a bit of a problem with his head set. i had to train him to be ridden with a bit as he'd always been ridden in a hackamore. for nearly 6 months he'd just chuck his head every which way and try to avoid the bit but eventually he's accepted his - sometimes he tucks his head too much though. work in progress still


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

this was us not all that long ago. first ride back since his injury










sorry for the shocking angle - my friends arent all that good with cameras lol


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## LoveTheSaddlebreds (Jul 9, 2009)

I actually like his head and overall look in the second picture. Glad to see he's getting better!


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

he's a bit more relaxed when he's not at shows  we had our first competition back on the weekend. just did a led class and a presentation class but the photographer is a friend and i think she might have gotten some of us warming up. when i get them i'll post - i already know i was looking down and my stirrups were too short >_<' i've got to break that habit!


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Lovely horse 

He does however definitely look to move like a hack and not a dressage horse. A video would be useful, but from looking at these photos, I can see quite a lot of tension and I would say that he's moving his legs, but not his back - very much a hackie thing  
If you want to get into dressage as well as hacking, it would be useful to find a good dressage coast - you won't have too much trouble doing that considering your location!
Once he starts using his back, you will get a lot more length of stride and freedom through the joints.


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

Kayty said:


> Lovely horse
> 
> He does however definitely look to move like a hack and not a dressage horse. A video would be useful, but from looking at these photos, I can see quite a lot of tension and I would say that he's moving his legs, but not his back - very much a hackie thing
> If you want to get into dressage as well as hacking, it would be useful to find a good dressage coast - you won't have too much trouble doing that considering your location!
> Once he starts using his back, you will get a lot more length of stride and freedom through the joints.


thanks Kayty  he's only been worked with a bridle on for a year so i've had a lot of trouble trying to accept the bit when he's been ridden in a hackamore his entire life...

this was one of the last times i rode him and was filmed:






it's over the space of less than a week with the two clips. sadly my coach got snapped up by a lady who's trialling for the olympics so he moved down to sydney  was such a ****** he's the first trainer who's actually been able to connect with Star.

also please excuse the dog awful jumping clips at the end. he's a maniac to jump. throws his head, trys to grab the bit and bolt etc... dont get me wrong i kind of enjoyed it lol but i had a hard time just sitting still and letting him do his thing... i was always getting in his way trying to correct him >_<'


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

He is a really lovely horse - is he TB? Reminds me of my old boy, very nice paces, but tight through the back. That's the biggest challenge with the TB's!! As I said in my previous post, if you can get him swinging that back, I bet those paces will be pretty **** speccy!


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

lol definitely not  he's arab x quarter horse.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...67378963478_1211161992_32268649_5224808_n.jpg


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Wow I would never have picked that -he is very thoroughbredy!!!


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

i cut his gorgeous long mane off on the weekend so he does look more like a tb but he's only 15hh and he's registered qh x arab. he's a stunning fellow. absolutely gorgeous movement and has natural extensions to die for but he's so high strung he cant hold himself together half the time lol


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## Can He Star (Mar 9, 2011)

such a hackie. pretty boy though


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

Can He Star said:


> such a hackie. pretty boy though


yes he is  won reserve champion beginner hack at our first show and champion led galloway at our second. we were preparing for royals when he was injured... sadly royals is next weekend :-( will just have to go next year when he's better.


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## yourcolorfuladdiction (Feb 19, 2012)

I'd actually suggest, for the jumping, because my mare does the same thing with her head, to always be sure to get in two point and give a release. You're riding very defensively (which is common with a quick horse, especially a head thrower), but they tend to do better if you give them their head over the jump because some of the head throwing comes from wanting their head over the jump. Also lots of sitting trot to jumps and then a nice easy halt on the other side, turn and jump in the other way, and keep going back and forth until your horse cools his jets. When you get back to jumping that is, because if he's anything like my mare he's going to be at mach 5 the moment he sees a jump and realizes he's going over it, and might even be flinging spit in your face with the head throwing :shock:.

Also gymnastics or a simple ground pole in front and after the jump. This should be helpful: Slowing Down in Front of Jumps

As for your flat work, overall I would like to see more leg to push the horse into the bridle a little more to correct being behind the vertical. It might also help with some of the contact issues, although most of them seem to be fixes he still seemed a bit resistant in the test (in the video) and I think a little more leg with a quieter hand might aid in helping him find confidence in working into and staying in the bridle.

Overall he looks like a fabulous horse and I'm very sorry that he has been injured, and I'm glad he's getting better.


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## wingana (Mar 15, 2012)

thanks so much for that yourcolourfuladdiction 

this is a clip of us doing gridwork with my former instructor (he moved to another state )






he seems to be a lot calmer when we're at home schooling or even at pony club. those clips were taken at my pony club for a show.. he just seems to flip out on show days regardless of location. 

this one is from my first ever time doing a jump course on him - i'd only jumped him once over 2 jumps the week before. i went for the dressage competition and was planning on scratching from the jumping phase but my friend talked me into atleast giving it ago.
since that day he hasnt been the same with jumping. maybe you can spot the difference and clue me in as to what i've changed with my riding? it has to be something i'm doing


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## BooBear (Mar 23, 2012)

A little critique / comment on your body position: I know you didn't specifically ask for ittt, but I thought it might help. When you're posting at the trot, it's very loud, if that makes sense. Not noise wise, but it looks as if you've been riding a long time, so the actual action of posting is second nature to you, so you just do it instead of concentrating on doing it precisely. At a few points, it looks like you're throwing yourself up and plopping back down- even getting a bit too forward at times. It especially seems to happen when he's doing something to distract you.

My old trainer used to comment on how all of the riders she saw seemed to have this problem eventually, so she would have us imagine that there was an egg on the saddle we were trying not to break, in an effort to post more softly and quietly. Maybe I'm just seeing things, but I thought it might help you out. I know that sometimes if there are multiple other things I'm focusing on (trying to get him to slow down, stop tossing his head, stop whinnying at his buddies, etc...) it still happens to me, so that could be the issue with you. But I think your horse will appreciate the time put into adjusting the form. =P


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