Dressage competition

When you were saying about higher marks for a well turned out horse, I have a friesian gelding and am going to be taking him to a schooling show end of Aug and a USDF show Sept 16-17. He is a faded black (kinda looks paint like because he is spotted black almost) even though we give him Black as Knight. His fur is a tad long conpaired to other horses at the barn and is extremely dense and wavy. Will I get points off (well they not score me high) if he looks like that? Or should I get Shapley's.

Also, does anyone know how many competitors there are normally in USDF two days shows at intro and lower training level? My instructor is taking all weekend away from the barn (she is the manager) and her drill team practice to take just me to the show and I don't want to pretty much waste her time. Is there anything they really look for? Like ways to get more points?

If you are to get drug tested you will be eliminated as Black as Knight contains paprika (a banned substance). Feed a copper supplement and/or use a fly sheet with UV blockers to help his coat instead. You might analyse his diet as a whole anyways as a long coat is indicative of something missing in the diet, or pre-cushings.

As long as your tack is clean, the extra leather on your bridle, saddle, spur straps, etc is tucked in neatly, your saddle pad fits, your horse is very clean and you are neatly attired, your horse's long coat should not affect your score. Looking professional in the ring, while not a requirement, will sway a judge only because they are human, because judges are to be impartial and not judge a rider based on appearance.

About the long coat, my instructor said it is just because he is a friesian and his dad is from Holland. He is fed good food and is on Cosaquin and Black and Knight. What is the other thing you mentioned? Is it serious?

If you have other questions you can start a new thread or PM me.
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Nice horse, crappy video (gave me a headache just looking at it so had to start/stop it several times to be able to evaluate your riding).

What I saw:
1.) Your seat needs work. You lean forward and pull your knees up at all 3 gaits. Then you use your heel to get upward transitions - you are supposed to use your calf. Using the heel ensures that you will continue to pull up your legs (it's not just the heel rising, sometimes it's slight, other times your entire leg is out of position - it's a wonder you stay on!).
2.) The connection to the horse needs work. Your elbows should be on your waist UNLESS you need to give - and your entire body need to follw the horses movement. Especially at the walk the horse will "bob" it's head up and down - you arms need to follow (back and forward) appropriately. When you fix this the horse will stop "shaking" her head.
3.) Several times when I stopped the video (more towards middle of ride) I noticed your legs are too far back (WELL behind girth, not just back to retain canter lead or turn).
4.) Look where you are goiing, not on the ground. That means looking forward (or if you need to look at horses head/neck position ONLY use your eyes).
5.) Lift ribcage (REALLY helps in upward transitions) and engage your core (stomach muscles).
6.) Front of horse moves nicely, back end didn't "track up" until around 1:14 in the video. That means horse is probably behind your leg and you probably got comments on needs more impulsion. Horse was using back nicely (evidenced by the wagging tail).
7.) In a few spots horse was tilting head (nose to inside, ears to outside) - fix contact and that will probably fix itself.
8.) Corners - when you turn a corner take your inside hip forward and use the ouside rein (squeeze/soften) and leg (no push just blocking to prevent horse from throwing haunches to the outside) to turn.

Other non-riding things I noticed:

• Pocket was out of jacket
• Hair was messy and hanging out of cap - get a hairnet
• You need a longer whip - you's is short so to use it effectively you'd really have to move your arms out of position
• Around 3:11 horse "fell" into canter and looked like she gave a small buck?

You'll get there - some sort of feedback (like a good video/mirror/...) will help you get there sooner. Good luck.

The video seems crappier every time I watch it, sorry for that :P . But I can't help my friend's shaking hand, and I'm glad I at least have something.

1) I've realised this, and I think my seat is even better now than it used to be, although I know it's still not good yet. I've never liked my seat :P
2) I already knew this, sort of, but I don't always think of it (it's difficult, minding all those things at the same time :P)
3) I've never noticed this before, but my legs used to be far before the rest of my body, like if I was sitting on a chair. I saw this on pictures so I started to move my legs backwards, so maybe I've moved them too far backwards. But on the other hand I've always learned that the heels have to be in a vertical line with the head and the hips.
4) It's true that I'm looking way toom uch at my horse when I'm training, but in the test I usually do look where I'm going, otherwise I couldn't ride my figures right.
5) I'll try, but this is probably the first of many things I will forget, until I get all the other things right :P
6) I indeed never get many point's for impulsion, although for this test I got a 7 for impulsion and no remarks
7) I'll try
8) I'll try

In the film my friends are talking about how it's typical for me to have my pocket hanging out :P (I had just taken the camera out of it) .
I'm a messy person, I've never paid attention to my hair either.
I have a gift certificate for a nearby riding shop, so next time I'm there I'll know what to buy with it.
And she didn't buck, she slipped (the ground was a little difficult for there had been riding horses all day long and it had been raining a lot.