Thoughts I Had While Reading Old Dressage Tests

I'm doing this dumb data entry for my dumb project that my dumb brain thought would be amazing. JK, it is amazing but wow data entry is a pain. I'm averaging 10-15 tests a day depending on time and whether I need to record the test into the database (I rode a LOT of the Training and First level tests from 2003 which was helpful) or not. I'm over half way done at this point! 

I've just had some general thoughts while going through my tests and figured I'd write them down. I started back in 2004 and am working my way up to 2020, so these are mostly from 2004 through 2009 (no tests in 2007 or 2008). 

You could say he had potential! 

We totally needed the half point system, the judges were all using +s and -s before they implemented that! I'm excited to compare before and after to see if scores went up or down (again I'm only one rider though so it won't be accurate) 

I forgot how spooky Rico was as a young horse! There was a test where I apparently couldn't get him near the judge's booth. I always thought he was a bit more solid of a citizen than TC was but TC is now the same age Rico was when Rico was at Second and we were still having "playing" comments in the tests. 

I was a very inaccurate rider in the beginning! I'm dead on accurate now unless there's a problem (like a certain former bolter), I wonder when that changed.

So First level used to be all in sitting trot but they would specify that you had to post the lengthenings in the earlier tests and then I believe in Test 3 it was either optional or you posted the first and sat the second and then Test 4 (T-2nd used to have four tests) you sat both. I found that interesting and very good information for harassing current First level teenagers with.

Why did my trainer let me show Rico when I definitely couldn't ride him?

On a related note, I'm bringing Rico a giant bag of cookies when I see him next. 

My left hand issues started early! Hahahaha oh no. The first trainer who addressed that was in 2010 but the comments started in 2004. 

Also it's super obvious that Rico was draw reined given the number of "behind the vertical" and "needs to stretch more" comments I got. 

Also judges DO comment on that shit, some people think that the judges are satisfied with modern dressage that tends to be ridden behind the vertical, I got TONS of comments to let his nose out and get his neck longer. 

I actually did manage to get some 7s and 8s on my rider scores back then. Sooo now any 7 I receive feels kind of like a let down because I KNOW that I'm a better rider now lol I did get my fair share of 5s (see above I could not ride Rico) though. Plus they've now split the rider scores so that could be why, making the judges thinking more about the rider these days. 

Old second level tests were hard as FUCK. Canter stretch circle; simple changes on centerline toward the judge; shoulder-in to renvers transitions; E turn left, X turn right, G halt salute; simple change on the rail to counter canter half circle to medium canter on a diagonal; and so much more. I'm glad they changed it and made it a smoother transition from First to Second. Although I have half a mind to ride some of these tests on TC to see how they ride! 

Every time the judge commented that Rico had potential, I think about how he made it to Grand Prix and it makes me smile (even if often times it was like "horse has potential if rider would ride him correctly" it took me a while but I did get there!). The judge who gave us our Gold Medal (it's Rico's too, let's be real) actually judged us at First level and made a nice comment about his quality. Unlikely she remembered us, but still! 

Bend really matters and apparently I didn't realize that for like, years. Same with the fact that you have to make the strides longer in lengthenings and that you can't just haul the horse into the halt. 

On a related note, it is not apparent that I ever read any of these comments. 

I found a judge who didn't give me any overall comments or comments in the collectives, that's unusual! It was a test at the end of the day and they also didn't give me many movement comments so maybe they were tired of watching mediocre Second level. Or maybe they looked at me and were like "that's a kid that is absolutely NOT going to read my comments" lol!

Rico started kicking in the changes very early! And it wasn't addressed until I started riding with my old trainer in 2013 and it wasn't fixed completely until my current trainer pointed out that my leg was in TC's way in 2020. 

I was SO bad at lateral work you guys. Like my positioning and my riding in it. 

So many judges didn't give comments for 6s! The lowest score you're allowed to leave blank is a 7, up until then you MUST tell the rider what they should do for a higher score. I wonder if this was a rule that was added in later for judges or if judges graduate from programs and are like "I do what I want" 

You can see Rico going downhill in our early years together. My trainer was young and focused more on getting the tricks down so we could move up than working on the quality of the gaits or the basics (I got a lot of "rounder" yelled at me). We start with these big scores at Training and First, then the scores trickle down as we move up. This happens when you don't train for the gait quality. I'd put in a clean test and get a 63% vs on TC if it's clean it's almost always in the 70s. 

Speaking of, I can't wait to get to TC and see how the scores stay the same throughout the years (he's hit 70% at every level except Second because pandemic). PLUS TC is a much lower quality mover naturally and I scored higher on him than I ever did on Rico at the same levels. I wonder if the average collectives will show that, Rico getting higher scores on gaits vs TC getting higher scores on submission? You'd think that but I kind of made Rico's gaits worse and TC definitely bolted through his fair share of tests. 

I haven't hit the upper levels with Rico yet, I'm posting this at Third and Fourth level in 2009 prior to his injury and surgery in 2010 and break from dressage until 2012. I'll be curious what changes in my scores and comments as we start riding with a trainer who valued the basics more. Will submission go up? Rider scores? 

I did get better!

It's honestly been so fun to go through the tests one by one. I'm excited for the analysis as I'm already seeing patterns. The SO actually put a linux instance on my computer so that I could download MySQL, make a database, and actually write queries on my own data! Then I'm going to import it into Tableau (PowerBI doesn't have a completely free version and I also have less experience in Tableau so it'd be good to be able to feel equally as strong at both) and start designing the dashboard! 

I haven't figured out the layout yet, I have a rough ideal of it though. An overall page just about scores vs levels vs horses vs year. Then I'll dive deeper into individual scores. And a page for just judges. I think I'll keep judge's names private but may assign them a name or an ID so you can experiment between judges without me being really rude. And then a text analysis page (just a word cloud I think) with some slicers that let you slice by horse, by year, by test, whatever. I think this thing could get ENORMOUS if I really wanted to.

Highly recommend ruining a vacation to analyze dressage scores. Even if it's a bit tedious!