# Driven Musical Freestyle Dressage



## targetsmom (Jan 3, 2010)

The first I heard of this was in my driving club's January Newsletter. They say there is interest in this around the country and have invited a Musical Freestyle RIDER (Ann Guptil) to speak at our next meeting. They will also gauge members' interest, with the idea of possibly holding a clinic for this later in the year.

Is this something else we could do with our driving minis??? Anyone on here interested??? Ideas???


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## MiniatureEscapades (Jan 3, 2010)

I don't see any reason why this couldn't be done with a mini. I board with a 4th level dressage rider and her trainer and have discussed this very idea with them before, only ground driving instead of under cart (durr self, wouldnt driving them be easier




).

Anyways they thought it was a stellar idea. After all, if you can do in-cart dressage then why not put it to music? You'd be limited in the movements you could do but it would still be very fun!


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## hobbyhorse23 (Jan 4, 2010)

Yep, it's been offered as an additional "class" at some of our local CDE's although almost nobody enters. Too much work and too little guidance available!



There are some great books about how to set a routine to music and those would apply every bit as much to driving as riding; my local English tack shop carries them. I'd be interested in doing a driven Paux de Deux or drill team but doing it by yourself with a mini is a bit slow IMO. Of course some of that opinion was formed because the only ones I've watched had the music barely audible and started late so it didn't match what the Training level horse was doing. That might have something to do with it!



It's also hard at the lower levels because the only maneuvers you can do are circles and straight lines at walk and working trot- I imagine it would be much more interesting on long-lines or at upper levels as you could incorporate a lot more "dance moves" that would liven it up.

Leia


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## RhineStone (Jan 4, 2010)

Harvest Moon Carriage Classic used to have what they called Designer Reinsmanship, not exactly Driven Dressage, but basically a self-designed Reinsmanship pattern that could be put to music if desired. There was a two-minute limit, and certain elements had to be included in the pattern, such as walk, slow trot, working trot, strong trot, halt, back, salute. I always did it to music, b/c I was so worried that I would forget a part, or run out of time, and so I choregraphed the test to the elements of the music.

Spider, being the big Pinto Arab, would look silly performing to a rich classical piece, so we picked Copland's Rodeo, you know, the "Beef, it's What's for Dinner" music. That worked for him. We even had Chad's salute timed on the last three low notes of the song. We had to cut the whole first part of the song out, and just use the last two minutes. In the rules, it said that music needed to be cued to the spot in the tape or the track needed to be listed so the announcer's stand didn't have to fumble with the music. Wouldn't you know, Chad had the first go, and they decided to check the sound system using his tape, and then rewinded it. So much for the cue!!!!



I ran up to the stand and told them that the music was cued to a certain spot, and the announcer said that it didn't matter, that the music was not being judged, but with the look on my face, the judge figured out that it was choregraphed, and she let Chad come in the ring at the point the music would have started.

The year that I showed my little chocolate mini mare, MW Stout's Hello Dolly, I chose Louis Armstrong's Hello Dolly for the music. The problem was that the announcer's stand screwed up my music and started Mack the Knife, and I had no idea where I was in time. I didn't do very well, because I ran out of time before I got my rein back and salute in. Goodbye 20 points



They had it in the rules that if there was a music screw up, there was no "do overs", so I was SOL.

The next year, we ditched the music and just planned a test that we could finish in 1 1/2 min. That way, we had "fudge" time. Chad had a really nice test, I watched all of them, so I thought he would do really well. He ended up 5th of 7, and we were disenchanted. We always place in the upper ribbons of reg. Reinsmanship classes against the same competition, but something about Designer Reinsmanship dinks us over. (Then, from that class, he ran Pick Your Route, and the show organizer blew the whistle after he finished his course. He went over to her, and she said that he missed a gate. He asked her which one, and the one she picked he said that he went through first. So then, she CHANGES HER MIND and says that he missed a different one! :arg! By now, he was irritated, so she called over the TD, who basically said there is no crying fee in Pleasure Driving. Three other Open Horse division drivers were also eliminated on that same course. You don't get yourself in the Open Horse division by eliminating yourself in Cones! We think the course was set up so tight, that the volunteers couldn't keep track of what the drivers were doing. We always try to videotape Pick Your Route from now on.)

So at the end of the show (that he could have at least went Reserve had he not been eliminated in Cones), we asked the judge what he could do better in Reinsmanship. We didn't complain about the placing, just asked a question without any crabbiness in the voice. She said that his posture, rein handling, and whip handling were great. In Reinsmanship, she JUDGES THE HORSE! We were flabbergasted! Yes, the horse has to look good, but where in the rules does it say that 75% is on the horse? We thanked her, got in the truck and while we were on our way home, it occured to us that she placed him 1st in two different Working Pleasure classes, his divisional class and Gentleman to Drive. If the horse was judged, and he was bad enough to be placed 5th, why did he win the other two classes? You could say because it was a different class, but if Spider is one thing, it is very consistent, especially when he is "on".

Nevertheless, no more Designer Reinsmanship for us.



There is way too much subjectivity there, with everybody doing something different. At least with a standard dressage test, the judge can compare rationally which horse did the test the best.


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## hobbyhorse23 (Jan 4, 2010)

Rhinestone, I think you ran into what most of us deal with in driving shows all the time. It's frustrating, isn't it?



We have no Pleasure Driving shows in this area, only CDE and breed shows, so there's nowhere else to go if you want to compete. That's why I put so much focus on having fun and hoping my horse improves his go each time out; if I depended on the ribbons for feedback I'd be disappointed very frequently. Judges are only human and sometimes their decisions are just weird.





Leia


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## RhineStone (Jan 4, 2010)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> That's why I put so much focus on having fun and hoping my horse improves his go each time out; if I depended on the ribbons for feedback I'd be disappointed very frequently. Judges are only human and sometimes their decisions are just weird.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


OK Leia, you sound just like my husband!



What do you mean you go to shows to have FUN?








Most of the time, I don't take issues with judges. It drives me crazy when other people blame others for their poor placings without really looking at the class objectively. You ARE asking for one person's opinion on one given day. I review classes over and over in my mind. Last year, I got a fourth in a Working Pleasure class that initially I felt that I should have won. The horse that won didn't have much for gaits, and the 2nd place horse was a "stargazer", so I was pretty bummed. It cost me the division. In hindsight though, the ground was pretty squishy from rain, and my Phaeton Cart is not light. I bet that Alax looked like he was pulling harder than the three horses ahead of me. That white ribbon on my wall was like a "spur" to get my tail out in the barn. At a later season show with the same competition, the ground was good, Alax had lots more training time, and the judge pinned us 1st. What did I learn? Well, I like that comment, "practice so hard they think you are lucky" (I forgot who has that on their "signature", sorry. If I go look now, I'll lose what I wrote



), and if the ground is squishy (again



) next year, take my lighter cart, even if I don't win Turnout!

The later season shows were a whole lot more fun and relaxing for me, because I KNEW I had a good horse for both the arena classes and the obstacles



. It's a whole lot easier to have fun when you don't have to "worry" about whether your horse is going to perform well, and you can tell he is enjoying the event, too. That really helps in the confidence department, something that I really struggle with at times.

To get back on topic, really I think that the Designer Reinsmanship/Freestyle Dressage class is just that hard to judge. It is done on a points system, and with everybody doing the same thing totally different, how do you judge it? One of the required elements of the test was a one-handed circle. One of the competitors got a Dr's note to not have to use one hand, so she got to use two. I would have liked to see how you give points for one competitor driving a circle with one hand, and the other not? A Reinsmanship pattern and reg. dressage test are all the same thing in the same place, so you can tell if one person does this 20m circle better than that person. You can even give points easier when you know what is next in the list of elements and where it is supposed to be. I think that is why Harvest Moon dropped the Designer Reinsmanship from the class list and now have just regular Reinsmanship. When we asked another (nationally known) ADS judge how we could improve in Reinsmanship, she also said that we had great hands, etc. but then gave some



gesture about Designer Reinsmanship, that it didn't always cater to the best drivers. It's just the nature of the class.

Myrna


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## targetsmom (Jan 4, 2010)

I know we are way off topic, but is anyone else attending the ADS webinar Thursday on Super Reinsmanship? All this talk about Reinsmanship (which I do lousy in anyway!) had me wondering....


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## RhineStone (Jan 4, 2010)

Thank you for the reminder of this Thursday. Yes, I will be there.

Sorry about all the Reinsmanship, but I found that particular class to be more like driven dressage than anything.


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## Peggy Porter (Jan 5, 2010)

Yes, I am signed up for the webinar also (even though I took one look at the title and presumed it was a new ADS class all about rein handling! Geesh!!) Ah well, I am always open to learn something, even if it's not what I thought I was learning! VBG!


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