This week, we’ll be bringing you a breakdown of each phase and its Olympic nuance with the help of several experts who were gracious enough to lend us some of their time and knowledge. Let’s kick things off with the Olympic dressage test, which you can view yourself here for reference.
Phillip Dutton and Z in Tokyo. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.
As we mentioned in our scoring guide to the Olympics published last week, the dressage test for this weekend, while still considered a 5*-level test, is quite different from the tests we typically see in competition. The major difference is its length: while the four existing CCI5* tests average about 4:45 to 5 minutes, this test has a run time of 3:50. There is one anomaly here in CCI5* test D, which we don’t see too often in competition but has a similar run time of 4:05.
Time crunch
Why is this test so much shorter — nearly a full minute shorter than most of its counterparts? This change came down from the IOC, which approached the FEI and required all eventing dressage to be completed within one day to aid in spectator-friendliness, among other reasons. Generally in 5* competition, you’d see rides spaced at about 7 to 8 minutes apart. With this new requirement, this would no longer possible. It was decided that the newly-written test must come in at under 4 minutes to allow upwards of 80 horses to complete dressage in one day.
“To get everybody in, in one day, we had to do the four-minute test — or we were out of the Olympics,” Marilyn Payne, who most recently served as president of the Ground Jury for eventing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and was on the committee that wrote the new Olympic test for the postponed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“So we had to get creative,” she explained, describing the decisions to cut out lengthier movements such as a large amount of walk work or a canter stretching circle. “There’s no halt on the first centerline, which saves you about ten seconds. But we had to keep all the compulsory movements. We had to have four changes, half-passes in both directions, medium and extended gaits. So it was a lot to cram into four minutes.”
An intense test of skill
Doug Payne and Vandiver. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
The lack of a first halt will serve the competitors well, Marilyn says, as it allows them to establish a vital forward rhythm right off the bat. An extended trot immediately follows the first centerline. The riders then go straight into their first lateral movement, a shoulder-in to a steep half-pass. And once you’re into it, the test is unrelenting.
“Everything comes up so quick. It’s hard,” Marilyn said. “When we were drafting the test, we had to ride it ourselves or have our students ride it. And let me tell you, they struggled. Even pure dressage horses, for one they weren’t used to doing these movements, but it was really interesting because you couldn’t get a winning ride out of what I judged as a test.”
Another interesting component of the test comes at the start of the canter work. After completing the extended and medium walk work on short diagonals, riders must pick up the right, counter lead at A. This is not a movement we see in typical 5* tests, and it was put here intentionally by the test writers in order to fit in the compulsory amount of lead changes.
“In order to get four changes, two of them are normally singles done on a diagonal line. So what we had to do is put two changes on the same diagonal, but we didn’t want to make them sequence changes so we spaced it out so it was on each quarter line. But in order to do that, you had to start on the counter lead, or you’d finish on the counter lead. That was very creative, I thought,” Marilyn said.
Another interesting fact about this test is that it marked the addition of a “Harmony” mark, replacing the former collective marks found at the conclusion of each test. While this addition has many roots, one of them was simple: by replacing a cluster of collective marks with a single additional score, it saved the judges time at the end of a test, therefore aiding in the adherence to the 4 minute timeframe.
So we could have a proper visual of the test, we asked German Olympic rider and dressage score record-holder Bettina Hoy for her help. Watch the video below with sound to see Grand Prix dressage rider Annika Korte with her horse Fürst zu Bentlage demonstrate the test with commentary from Bettina:
For her part, Annika, who competes in pure dressage, found the test intricate and challenging, even if it’s not a Prix St. Georges or Grand Prix equivalent. The steepness of the half-passes and the strike off in counter canter are two elements that are particularly challenging within this test.
The evolution of dressage in Olympic Eventing
It’s no secret that dressage in eventing has evolved for the better. As the types of horse bred for and used in eventing trended toward quality movement and the tests have demanded better riding, scores have lowered and become increasingly influential in the final standings.
“Oh, it’s improved leaps and bounds,” Marilyn agreed. “I can remember a few Olympics ago when I was coaching and I couldn’t believe what those riders didn’t know — some of the basic things they didn’t know. And when we introduced the stretch circle in, that was a big deal. They just missed a lot of basics because they were trying to do three things so they never really delved that deep into dressage, but now they are. They get the top dressage trainers to help them. When you make the test harder, they step up to the plate and it makes them work at it more.”
So while this test is challenging and intense, yes, it will certainly serve its purpose, Marilyn believes. “It’s really going to separate them,” she said. “And it’s the Olympics. It should be the top. There are some countries that aren’t as strong in the dressage but the horses can run and jump. It’s not going to be easy, and you only have three scores to count.”
How can riders best prepare for the Olympic test?
Francisco Gavino Gonzalez (Spain) and Source De La Faye. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
“They’ve got to not practice the test,” Marilyn emphasized. “The horses will start to anticipate. You keep changing it up, you mix it up so the horse is not anticipating. The riders themselves do need to practice the test so that they don’t even have to think about where they’re going, but this can be done on other horses.”
Really, the test does what any dressage test is supposed to: tests the responsiveness of a horse to the rider’s aids. This test, at the Olympic level, does so in spades.
“Practice to get the horse going better, get the quality of the gait better and the quality of the connection better,” Marilyn continued. “And you’ve really got to practice that walk to counter canter. Get yourself into the space where you can really focus on the horse that’s underneath you.”
Coming next, I sat down with Derek di Grazia, who designed cross country for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, to talk about what we can expect to see on an Olympic course.
