From: Davida
Dear Jessica! Help me again please! I will be going to a dressage show in three weeks and I am so afraid that I'll forget my test and go off course. My instructor really wants me to memorize the test. She can't come to the show, so I'll be on my own with another rider from our barn. My instructor says it's more professional to ride the test from memory and I know she is right but I am just so nervous about it I could scream. My friend Kelly is willing to come and read the test for me. Please tell me what to do!
Dava
Hi Dava! First, relax. WE DO THIS FOR FUN. If you're ready to scream, maybe you're too tense and worried to ride in this show. If you're going because you want to ride, fine -- go and have fun. If you're going because someone else is pressuring you to ride and you just don't feel ready, then leave your horse at home and just go and watch.
There's nothing wrong with having someone call the test for you. It's not allowed at FEI levels, but it doesn't sound as though you're quite at those levels yet, so this shouldn't present a problem for you. If having a caller will make you feel secure and let you focus on your horse and your riding, then have a caller. If having a caller will make you focus on the caller and the test, rather than on the horse and your riding, then don't have a caller. Either way, I suggest that you do two things before that show, starting NOW:
1) Try to memorize the test, even if you plan to use a caller.
2) Practice riding the test with your friend calling it.
If it turns out that you can memorize it after all, or if it turns out that your friend isn't a good caller, you'll be prepared to ride the test on your own -- or to help your friend practice so that she can call the test well.
It's not just a matter of reading the test -- she has to read each movement separately, without adding or leaving out any words, and without obvious inflections that sound like directions aimed just at you. She also needs to read each movement in plenty of time for you to prepare for it -- and she needs to make herself heard.
A good caller can be a great help. A bad caller can be worse than useless -- if she calls the movements so that you can't hear them, or just as they are supposed to be performed, you won't ride the test well.
There's one more thing: callers DO make mistakes sometimes. If you are counting on the caller to ensure that you never go off-course, think again.
Nervous riders can go off-course even when the caller is telling them the correct movement, and nervous or inexperienced callers can skip a line or even read from the wrong test. So even if you know that you're going to use a caller, do your best to know your test!
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.