The Real Purpose of Competing

With today's modern dressage, it is hard to not get caught up in the ribbons and winning mindset. It is sad that I see so many riders just competing for the ribbons. I'm not going to lie, getting a Highscore Champion does feel good after a hard day's showing, but the real purpose of showing is tracking your progress and improvement. We are training horses in dressage. The overall concept of dressage is to teach the horse to develope a natural athleticism,   not to be machines and win ribbons.

I see so many riders competing back-to-back, weekend after weekend. What I don't understand is how someone can improve their horse in just a week's worth of rides between shows. For example, if I score a 5.5 on my lengthenings, I would want some time between shows to improve them so I can have a fair chance at scoring higher next time. The outcome, however, of showing back-to-back is that the scores will remain the same because there has been little to no training to improve them. Especially at the lower levels, improvement is key to a successful horse. 

I compete once a month, and the shows are 2-4 days. Everyday, my trainer and I set a goal before each ride and I work to achieve it. This allows me to improve a little bit each day, so that at the end of the show, I can look back and see a huge improvement from my first ride. Then, inbetween competitions, I can take the next step towards perfecting those goals. I can take the 6 on the downward transition and make it a 7 by incorporating extra transitions in my next rides when I'm training. 

When you start looking at showing in the right mindset, you start to see the improvement that can be done to train your horse the correct way. For example, I have a large poster in my room that tracks every show I have gone to since last summer. The graph tracks my scores at Training Level (I'll have to make a new chart for First Level soon). From last summer I can see a difference from getting mid-sixties to, now, high-sixties. I have a similar poster for Training Three, specifically, and the movement scores. This makes it easier for me to break down the test and see what needs to improve the most. 

I'm going to admit, I can find myself being pretty competitive sometimes, but I have to remember why I do this. It all comes back to the fact that I love my sport and I love training horses in the art of Dressage. Once I remember that, I feel more successful as a rider because I'm looking at training and not just winning. This is a very competitive sport, and 100% agree with wanting to do well, but you have to go about it the right way. 

            Before Meadowlake

                    After KDA

Weeks between these shows have given us room and time for improvement to alter his weight, topline muscles, and rideability as well as my mental and physical strength.