Thrilled to watch such a ride but a little bewildered and envious you wander off, thinking "why not me?" What gives this rider the competitive edge?

I am going to show you how you can be that prepared, focused, confident rider. There are some things you can do that will change your test riding immediately and you will wonder why you didn't think of them yourself. Other suggestions will take more hard work and practice but you will see the results in future shows. Showing is important; it gives you evaluation deadlines which promote progress. Some very well- schooled, self- motivated riders with strong training backgrounds or working under a strong trainer progress fine, but most of us need these deadlines.

Showing also gives you great outside feedback from well-trained professionals (if you go to shows that hire rated judges) and can be fun. The way the dressage tests are now written gives you a systematic, progressive approach to training that tests what you need to be accomplishing at each level. It literally gives you a road map to the training scale.

With show season approaching you must do your homework. I assume you have been working hard on all the dressage movements with your trainer, at the level at which you want to compete.If you have a young horse you have already taken him places and have done basic schooling and exposed him to sights and sounds so that showing will not be a traumatic time for him.

Now you must get together with your trainer and decide on a level and a test or two at that level. Be realistic, it is good to challenge yourself but it doesn't do any good to over-face yourself and your horse so that the judge is forced to give obvious comments (not in the right gait, lead, arena etc) rather than more technical ones that could help you improve such as: this horse puts his hind quarters to the right and when you have him straighter he will be going very well.

These kind of comments are very helpful and worth the entry fee that you are paying.

Show the judges what they need to see! Once you choose your test learn the geometry. I know it wasn't everyone's favorite class in school but this is basic geometry.A 20 meter circle in a 20 meter wide arena must touch the rails. Judges would really like to give you good scores but no matter how wonderful your horse is going, if you don't show recognizable movements we can't give you that wonderful score. So let us reward you! Slight miscalculations are only given slight deductions but if the figure isn't close to the correct size or the movement isn't executed close to the right letter it is a severe deduction. These are what I consider the "easy" points. Learning to ride is hard; training your horse is hard. In relation to that, practicing a 10 meter or 20 meter circle is easy.

Now take out the test that you chose and look through it. Pick out thegeometrically difficult movements in the test. When working out how to ride exact patterns it will help to remember that the letters are all 12 meters apart except the ones at the ends are 6 meters from the corners. You can tell the patterns that are going to be tough to ride precisely, for instance in training level test 3, the two 20 meter circles at "X". For these circles, find the points at which you need to touch the rail. Remember a 20 meter circle must touch (only touch, it is a circle) the sides of a 20 meter arena. So you can think you would touch the rail for the first circle 2 meters before "R", at centerline touch 4 meters below "G", at the next rail 2 meters past "S" and then head to "X" and change your bend for the circle to the right. Practice touching these marks until the circle becomes round and flows.In first level test 3 one of the geometrically difficult movements is the 10 meter half circle left, followed by the 10 meter half circle right. Remember, if you get the first half circle wrong the second one will be wrong also and that is two scores.

Now here is a secret that will really give you a competitive edge. While you still have your test out look at the "directive ideas". Yes, these are meant for you too.Judges are taught to look at them and use them as "directives" but they are printed on the test so that riders can see them as well and know what is being emphasized in each movement. There is no secret as to what the riders should be showing to the judges and what judges should be scoring. Think of these directives as you practice your test movements, are you showing the judges what they need to see to give really good scores? Judges are on the competitors side and we have all (most judges) competed and know what it is like to ride down centerline. We love to see those rides that we can give the really high scores to, so show us what we need to see for those 8,9,10 scores.

Now here is your get out of jail free card: corners. Most riders ignore corners, many riders even despise them having had many comments on tests such as counter flexed in corner, too deep, too shallow in corners and so on. Even when you have comments about your corners, they are not specifically judged UNLESS you do something to really draw a judge's attention to the corner, breaking gait,counter flexed consistently, irregular etc. Generally a judge wants to judge the main part of movements and anything that happens in corners unless extremely disruptive, is a modifier or not even considered in your score.

So here is where you fix things: make them better, rebalance your horse, get his attention, get him more active, improve his engagement, and make him better on the bit. Get things done in the corners. Use a little leg yield through the corner to set up for a lengthen coming out of the corner, or a shoulder in. Set up you next movement. This is the most valuable part of the arena and riding your corners is something that you can change in your test riding immediately that will give you instant results. Don't use corners as your resting place. You can rest at the end of your test, NOW is the time to ride.

Visualization is an important and useful technique in dressage competition.Dressage riders are usually perfectionist, we spend much of our time thinking about how each movement went wrong and critiquing our ride. I know I often even find myself judging and scoring my own test while I am riding it, so I use some of these techniques to help keep myself focused. There are many good books on visualization and meditation and it is important to find something that works for you and use it for competition to help focus and stay away from self - defeating prophecies. Visualization techniques have been found to work especially well in this type of competition where you can take your self through the whole ride moment by moment using meditation and imagery along with trigger words and relaxation techniques. This will take some dedication and work but is worth the effort.

When you arrive at the show be sure to give yourself enough time to get your horse relaxed and settled in. Often in northern California we have one day shows, so it is in and out, we need to allow our horse time to get his land legs. Every horse warms up differently so learn how your horse likes to warm up. One of my FEI horses always had to warm up at home and then just a very short warm up at the show. (He was not a fan of showing, but still won the USDF championship at 4th level freestyle, because I managed his warm up how HE wanted it.).

Be polite to the show manager they don't get paid enough (probably nothing). They will appreciate it and you will be welcomed back. If you have questions or need help, the Technical Delegate (TD) is a very useful person, she or he is there to help. The T.D. protects the interest of the competitor, the judges, the USEF, the management, the sport and the horse.