Every dressage test starts in the same way, which is either entering in the canter or the trot and coming down the center line towards the judge. Discover the importance of making a good impression at the start of a dressage competition with helpful advice in this video on horse training and dressage.
We're going to go through a test now, or the beginning of a test, because every dressage test starts the exact same, and that is either entering in the canter or the trot, coming down the center line towards the judge. The judge would be sitting at C. We're actually coming towards A, but just so we can come towards the camera. And a halt on the center line. And then what we do is we salute the judge by dropping our hand, nodding our head, and taking back the reign. Now, male riders have an unfortunate disadvantage where they have to actually remove their hat, but women are lucky that way, so we don't have to do that. And then we start off. The horse has to stand nice and quietly. You salute the judge, nice little smile, good impression, and then trotting on straight towards the judge. And that whole movement in itself is one mark out of ten. So it's very important to make a good impression to start off. So all the different letters in different tests represent different things. So in a lower-level test, they might say, "At B, you would do a 15-meter circle," which would be almost to the end of the arena, but not quite because remember, the arena is 20 meters in width. So that movement right there would be out of 10. You would get one mark for that movement. Then they could have a movement where you would go HXF, changing reign across the diagonal. So you look to F, straight line from H. X is the center, which I'm crossing over on the center line right now. And that in itself is, again, one separate movement that you would be marked out of ten for. So every test is very specific to that level, and it starts and ends with your halting on the center line, coming straight towards the judge so that they can really see the horse, see the rider, see the quality, what you're presenting, and that's your start and finish.
