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Pure Dressage
What is pure dressage?
What is flat work?
Pure Dressage Competitions
Dressage originated in flat work.
What is flat work?
Every horse or pony needs to build up muscles to stay healthy. Muscle cells die all the time and when they are not re-built the muscles will deteriorate. Horses were not designed to be ridden and if their muscles are not exercised for riding on a regular basis they end up with a crooked neck, a back that looks like a hammock or other problems that will eventually cause the horse/pony to be in pain and become unridable. Remember: if your pony is 'naughty' it could actually be in pain! So if you love your pony you should do flat work regularly to keep him/her healthy.
Flat work is comprised of special exercises designed to keep horses'/ponies' bodies healthy and in working order. A lot of it is riding curvy lines and the likes, which is very good for horses. Also they must be taught to carry their weight on their hind legs since this is where all the muscles are, and where you find the joints that can flex and carry the weight. Young or untrained horses/ponies are inclined to 'fall' on their forehand, i.e. let all their weight be carried by their front legs, which are not well equipped to carry this weight plus the extra weight of the rider. So by doing flat work with your pony you help him/her to carry his/her weight properly and to be well balanced. This will also help a pony when it is jumping since a well balanced pony can jump better!
What is pure dressage?
Pure dressage is a competition that uses flat work exercises. The word dressage actually means something like 'obedience trial'. Doing lots of flat work will help to make your horse/pony more obedient. Obedient horses/ponies, i.e. those that don't fight the rider are likely to score better in a dressage competition than disobedient ones. Other than that the more accurately you ride your lines in a dressage, the better. Also your transitions have to be very accurate. So if you can ride accurately without fighting your pony you can ride a dressage competition. If you can get your pony to carry the weight on its hind legs and be relaxed doing this you should actually score very well in a dressage competition!
Pure dressage competitions are a bit harder than the dressage needed for combined training or eventing, just as 'pure' show jumping is a bit harder than the show jumping needed for combined training or eventing.
Pure Dressage competitions
IPC Pure Dressage
There are pure dressage competitions at your regional area qualifiers and at the IPC championships. For competitions and competition ages please consult the IPC Guide to competition ages.
- U12 + Novice (Area competitions only)
- Individual (U23 - C standard)
- Teams of 3/4 (U21 - C standard)
Dressage Ireland
The IPC is cooperating with Dressage Ireland (which is the organisation for pure dressage in Ireland) so when you enter in Dressage Ireland preliminary or novice (the two easiest classes) competitions you are covered by the IPC insurance. You can also send your best three scores (not placings) to your IPC area rep and the ten best riders from each class in each area will go forward to the IPC national pure dressage finals. You can find more information about this on the IPC website.
BD tests
When you participate in Dressage Ireland competitions or sometimes also in IPC pure Dressage, Combined Training or Horse Trials competitions you will find an expression like e.g. 'BD 10' or 'British Dsg. Test 10'. This refers to a commonly used dressage test - in this case the British Dressage test no. 10, which is a preliminary test. So whenever you come across the expression BD in a Dressage context it usually means 'British Dressage'. Their tests are also used in Ireland and you can order the entire set e.g. from the Dressage Ireland secretary. However, if you only need one or two tests this is probably too expensive since DI charge about €50 for the lot and it includes all the tests of the higher classes as well, which you won't need. Contact us if you only need one or two tests.
BD tests starting with numbers under 20 are preliminary tests (lowest class), the next class up (novice) starts with 2, the third one (elementary) with 3, and so on. (By the time you get there you'll have worked this out yourself.) Usually a rough guide is that the lower the number the easier the test is thought to be. At most shows they will offer two preliminary classes, two novice classe, and so on and you can choose which class you want to enter in, i.e. which test you'd like to ride. If you have never ridden a dressage test before start with a preliminary class.
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