Starting out in Dressage

with Ann-Maree Lourey

What level do you need to be to start competing in dressage? No level at all, really! We have had kindergarten kids start dressage, and we have had ladies in their 60s competing in dressage for the first time. For the most basic test, which is called a ‘preparatory’ test, you only need to be able to walk and trot. There isn’t even any canter, though you do need to be able to walk, trot, steer left and right, and stop! Straight lines would be handy, too – but I’ve judged lots of beginners without them! We usually tell people starting out that the aim is to stay on and stay in the arena. Anything else is a bonus! Imagine, if you like, that the preparatory tests are to dressage what preschool is to big school.

Can any breed of horse compete in dressage? Absolutely, it can! My first horse was an Arab cross Quarter Horse, which these days would be called a Quarab. No one told me he wasn’t supposed to be a dressage horse, so I took him right up to international level. My next one was a Thoroughbred. He went to the same level. Now, I have an imported Andalusian stallion as well as Warmbloods. But at Byalee, we have had lots of ponies and horses do dressage: all shapes and sizes. I have judged Stock Horses, Quarter Horses, Friesians, Appaloosas, even Standardbreds (trotters), Clydesdales and all kinds of crosses, as well as Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds and Andalusians. It is rare to see something other than a Warmblood or Andalusian at the Olympics, but that’s okay; not everyone is going to the Olympics! Allow yourself to figure out how to do it first!

What are the levels you start at? Dressage starts at preparatory level. There are three tests at preparatory. Two are just walk and trot, and the third one has a ‘try canter’ circle each way. Not a lot of clubs use the one with canter in it, so mostly, it is a walk-trot level. There is a Preparatory 1, a Preparatory 2 and a Preparatory 3 test. After preparatory, you can move up to the preliminary level, which also has three tests that clubs can offer. Preliminary level has canter and 20m circles, so if you are feeling just as confident in canter as you are in walk and trot, you can start at preliminary level instead.

Where do you find these competitions and the different tests? Each state has a calendar for each year, with a list of all the approved competitions. For example, in NSW the calendar is organised by Dressage NSW, so you would find it on their website. There is one calendar for official competitions and one calendar for unofficial competitions, like t-shirt days, winter woolly days and fundraisers. You can also find most of the competitions on www.nominate.com and enter them there. As for the tests, you can find them on the Equestrian Australia website, or just Google them, and they’ll come up. Make sure you put in 2024 so you get the most up-to-date version. And of course, you can also do dressage tests at pony club sometimes and at Interschool competitions.

What equipment do you need? To compete in dressage, you need an English-style saddle; a dressage, show or general-purpose saddle will do. Yes, it can be synthetic. No, it doesn’t have to be leather, and it definitely doesn’t cost thousands of dollars! You will also need a bridle, with a noseband. Just one noseband will fulfil the rules, so if you don’t want to have a flash on the bottom as well, you don’t have to. You will need a white saddlecloth, white/light joddies, a riding jacket, an approved helmet that has been tagged, and a shirt and tie or shirt and stock. Actually, no one will be able to see the shirt, so if you only have a cheap K-mart t-shirt, no one will even know once you are on the horse! Oh, and you will need some plaiting rubber bands and, at the very least, some super-hold hair spray to keep your plaits in. There are lots of products at Horseland, but if you are doing it on a budget, hair spray or mousse will do. You will also need gloves; you will be eliminated without them, but again, if you can’t afford white leather, then white fabric will do. You will also be eliminated these days if you don’t have a bridle number on both sides of the horse, either on the bridle or saddle cloth, so you will have to buy a set of numbers at the saddlery. Again, there are expensive leather ones with diamantes, and there are cheap plastic ones!

Do you need registrations/memberships to start out in dressage? Your horse doesn’t have to be officially registered with anyone to compete in low-level dressage. It can be a neddy from the back paddock (though you might want to wash it the day before!!). The rider, however, will need to be insured, so you can either become a member of the club that is running the competition (but you would need to join each club you compete at) or you can join EA and pay a yearly membership to pay for you to be insured everywhere. If you decide to get serious about dressage, and you want to compete officially and try to qualify for State/NSW Championships or AOR Championships or Youth Championships, you will then need to be a member of EA, and your horse will need to be officially registered too. The one thing that you WILL need is a bridle number – just ring your State EA branch and ask to be allocated one. You need it for any dressage competition, and it will belong to your horse forever, whether your horse is registered or not, whether you compete officially or not.

Tricks to remember your tests … and can you have someone call the test for you? Even professional riders forget their tests sometimes, so don’t panic if it happens to you. Just go to a CDI and see how many people forget the Grand Prix Special! First of all, you can definitely have a caller unless you are riding at an international level or at a ‘posh’ competition like the State Championships. So you can get used to it all with a caller and gradually go without the caller as you find some spare brain space! And when you DO learn your tests, just remember, the tests that end in a ‘1’ or a ‘3’ turn left, and the tests that end in a ‘2’ (like the preliminary 1.2) turn right! The other trick is to know your arena letters backwards (yes, literally!). Once you know your letters, learn your test as a pattern; for example, enter, halt, track right, circle, diagonal, and walk at C: the fewer words, the better. I always recommend that my students draw the test over and over again on a little whiteboard and then, at the competition, walk it on foot next to the float before mounting your horse. Who cares how silly it looks if you remember it!

How do you prepare on the day of your first test? The same way you prepare for the day of your second test. And your third … be super organised! Timing is everything. One of the great things about dressage is that you have a set time to go into the arena, and it doesn’t often change. You will have the ‘draw’ a week or so before the competition. So you can look at your time and work backwards. Say your test is at 10.20 am. You might want to warm up your horse for half an hour, so that brings you back to 9.50 am. Let’s put in a 10-minute walk for you both to calm your nerves, and you are back to 9.40 am. If it’s a scary place, you might want to lunge first, five minutes each way and five minutes to swap from lunging to riding, so that brings you back to 9.25 am. You will want to tack up at 9 am, making sure you have your correct bridle numbers on, that you are dressed, that your horse has a brushed tail, and that you are both clean and tidy. So you probably want to be at the grounds at 8.30 am to give you time to get your horse off the float, clean it out ready for home time, hang up a haynet and fill up a bucket of water, get your gear out neatly so you can make sure it is all there when you want it, and quickly run off to the toilet! Oh, and make sure all those pesky plaits are still in and didn’t rub out on the way. Don’t forget to run through your test in your head.

What happens if you forget your way or your wheels fall off? Sadly, it happens to us all. Your horse suddenly forgets how to canter left, or it imagines it is a direct descendant of the Spanish Riding School. Or it thinks there is a prickle under its beautiful new sparkly white saddlecloth and bucks like a bronco. The golden rule for my students is that you do the best you can with what you have on the day. You might have a unicorn at one competition and a wild (seemingly) unbroken Brumby at another. You can’t always change it; it’s part of the challenge. If something goes wrong, remember that it is only one movement. Remember that you are just trying to see how close you can get your test at the competition to the test you had when you went through it at home.

When you enter the arena, you ONLY salute to the judge at C, because only the judge at C can let you in or eliminate you! If you make a mistake – like forgetting to go across the diagonal – the judge at C will toot the car horn or ring the bell, and you get to go around and do it again. Don’t panic, don’t cry, and don’t let it wreck the rest of the test. It’s just a minus 2. It’s not a drama, and you’re not riding for an Olympic medal. It’s about the journey.

What is the best thing about dressage? The best thing is that it involves another mind, another thinking/worrying, happy/sad, confident/anxious brain. I love making it look like the horse is doing it by itself because I have persuaded it that it wants to do what I want it to do. I think the best thing about dressage is being able to make a 17hh stallion pick up canter from walk by just flexing an inside calf muscle. Or maybe the best thing about dressage is the feeling of riding the passage. It is the best buzz you can have on a horse … or maybe it is one-time flying changes … or is it the thrill of extended canter back to collection without touching the reins … I think the best thing about dressage is recreating what the horse does in the paddock when it is excited, but doing it confidently and calmly on the arena, and on the aids.

Ann-Maree Lourey is an Equestrian Australia Coach Educator, Level 3 Dressage Specialist Coach, Level 1 General Coach, and Advanced Level Dressage Judge. She is a qualified counsellor with a degree in Psychology, currently finding time to add a Masters in Counselling to extend her coaching. Ann-Maree has been a coach and competitor for almost 40 years, operating from Byalee Stables, and has so far produced three Grand Prix horses of her own, as well as countless other FEI horses. She is currently competing two medium/advanced level horses and training up the next generation. Ann-Maree is the president of her local dressage club and has literally lost count of the number of students she has set on the path to achieving the dream.

Byalee Stables is sponsored by WOW Saddles Australia and by Performa Ride, and is proudly supported by Kirkwoods Produce at Rutherford, Maitland Large Animal Vets and Shannon Norley, Master Farrier.  

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