The Importance of a good warm-up
Adriana DiGenakis and her horse “Tidy Up Cowgirl” have been riding with NAWD for about 3 years. They’ve done everything – Six Feet on the Ground, NAWD Trail, NAWD and WDAA Western Dressage, NAWD Ranch Horse, and NAWD Freestyle. They always show up well turned out with tests memorized and obviously have developed a fantastic partnership.
Adriana’s scores have steadily climbed from the 50s through the 60s and into the 70s. They have won quite a few versatility championships in the virtual shows and are becoming rock-solid competitors. I was surprised to see a score of 52.619% on WDAA Western Dressage Introductory test 4 for our Midsummer Celebration virtual dressage show. Especially when she followed up with a 72.258% on NAWD Foundation Test 3 and 72.069% on her Six Feet on the Ground Test 5.
I watched both videos. Throughout the WDAA test, Tidy was coming behind the vertical but during the NAWD Test, she was reaching for the bit in a better way, resulting in better flow all the way through her back.
How could the same horse and rider at the same level receive such a wide variance? I contacted Adriana and she said, “That 52% was a really cold shower!” So, I began to ask questions and found out that Adriana had ridden the WDAA test and then the NAWD test on the same day but when she reviewed the video prior to sending she saw that there were movements during which the video was too dark to see. So, she rode the same test again, a few days later. It was a cool and rainy day; she was in a hurry to get the test done, so didn’t spend a lot of time warming up. The result was a loss of around 20 percentage points.
We all know that it’s important to warm up our horses before the test and each horse takes a different amount of time. Weather can also be a factor – when it’s cooler it may take longer to loosen those muscles. It’s important to figure out your horse’s ideal warm up time and Adriana’s story shows us that your score may benefit.
