
Dressage Basics
GAPS:
â™› NTT - Nose to Tail; Your horse's nose should be touching the horse's tail in front of you.
â™› OT - Overlapping tail; Your horse's head should be overlapping the horse's tail in front of you.
â™› HI - Halfway inside; Your horse should be about halfway into the person in front of you, easy way of knowing this is if your horse's front hooves are barely in front of the horse's back hooves of the person in front of you.
â™› FI - Fully Inside; Your horse should be fully inside of the person in front of you.
â™› BOS - Back of Saddle; Your horse's nose should touch the saddle of the person in front of you.
â™› Split Spacings - Keep the spacing of about 1 horse in between you and the person in front of you
ALIGNMENTS:
â™› Comb Alignment - Always use the lines/dots in the arena and pick a line and stick to it. Also always have your back hooves match with the leader's front hooves, this is due to screen delay.
â™› Slant Alignment - Always use the slant lines in the arena and do not veer off them. Be hoof to hoof with your partner.
â™› Crossing-Through Alignment - When crossing through someone, make sure to cross through their rear-end, due to screen delay.
SCREEN DELAY:
Screen delay causes you to be ahead of everyone on your screen. You need to maintain gaps and alignments so you look aligned on the instructor's screen.
ARENA MEASUREMENTS:
â™› Mid Line - Bright line in the middle of the arena(runs across A & C)
â™› 8th Lines - 2 bright lines on both ends of the arena(check picture)
â™› Quarter Lines - 2 bright lines to the left of the 8th lines(check picture)
â™› Wide Tier Lines - 2 bright lines to the left of the quarter lines/2 lines on both sides of the midline(check picture)
â™› X - The very center of the arena
â™› Mids - All your mid's are A, C, E, B
â™› Dyes - Cut the letter H, F, K, M to go diagonally across the arena to the other letter.