Not on centre line - The rider undershot or overshot the centre line.

Halt not square (can be shortened to Halt not □). Forehand and hind quarters not in alignment.

Proceed at working trot.

C - Track left.

Cut corner. Rider didn’t take horse deep enough into corner but rather allowed the horse to ‘shave’ the angle.

E - Circle left 20m diameter

Circle not round. Fairly self-explanatory. There are no straight lines in a circle!
Circle too large / too small / square. Know what size the circle in your test should be!

E K A - Working trot

Losing rhythm. The clear two-beat gait of the trot is broken, usually through the horse being ridden too fast.

A - Serpentine 3 loops, each to go to the side of the arena finishing at C on the left rein.

Loops not equal. Loops of unequal size. They should be half circles connected by straight lines, not egg-timer shaped.

Between C & H Working canter left.

Jumped into canter. Horse starts his first stride with a visible ‘jump’. Some judges, confusingly, may write “needs more jump in canter” to describe a horse that is flat!

Flat canter. Usually means the horse has no suspension in his canter.

A - Circle left 20 metres diameter

Not enough from behind / lacking engagement. The horse isn’t stepping far enough under with his hind legs.

A F B - Working canter

Between B & M - Half circle left 15m diameter returning to the track between B & F.

Loop on two tracks / quarters leading. Horse lost straightness and moved his quarters over. (Shows loss of balance and ‘throughness’.)

F - Working trot.

Leaning in transition. Judge can see that the rider has too much weight in the reins as the horse bears down on the hands through his neck.

A - Medium walk.

Early to walk. Horse has anticipated the transition and walked before the marker.

K X M - Change rein at free walk on a long rein.

Not enough stretch shown. Horse may have lowered his neck but has not extended it forwards.

Wandering. Not staying on a straight line from K X M.

Tending to lateral steps / Two-beat walk. Incorrect walk when left hind and right fore move almost together and then right hind and left fore, so that the horse is ‘pacing’ rather than walking.

Not tracking up. Hind feet are not stepping well over the hoof prints of the fore feet.

C - Working trot.

Above the bit. Horse came high in the head with nose too far in front of the vertical.

E - Circle left 15m.

Falling in. This can apply to corners as well as circles and means that the horse is putting to much weight on his inside shoulder and is lying on the rider’s leg.

Falling out. The horse is escaping through his outside shoulder.

Quarters out means that although the forehand was following the prescribed line, the quarters had deviated.

K A F - Working Trot.

F X H - Change the rein and show some medium trot strides.

Tight -or short - in neck. The neck is either being held back by the rider’s hands or the horse is very tense.

No lengthening shown / No difference. Judge is unable to discern a clear difference between the transition from working trot to medium (lengthening) and back to working trot.

Running / Rushing rather than lengthening. Horse taking quick short steps instead of slow long ones.

C M B - Working trot.

Unbalanced. Weight too much on the forehand.

B - Half circle right 10m diameter to X.
X - Half circle left 10 m diameter to E.

Irregular half circles. One half circle too big making the other one too small or vice versa.

A - Down centre line.

Horse Hollowing.. Horse’s head came up and his back dipped; no longer on the bit.

G - Halt. Immobility Salute. (Despite what you may see at top level competitions these are required!!)

Unsteady halt. Horse fidgets; shuffles legs; tosses head.

Resting leg. Horse standing on three legs and resting a hind one.

I hope you will never receive a score sheet quite as negative as this one, but it never ceases to amaze me that many marks are literally thrown away because the rider hasn’t paid enough attention to exactly how the movement should be ridden and so they are penalised on technicalities such as size and shape of circles.

We’ll look at the test again in the next section on Arena Geometry - and this time see how to keep those, so easily lost, points.

Horsemanship is not merely a matter of bodily skills, but is based on scholarship and, therefore is a matter of the mind and intellect. Good horsemansip is based on proper character development and, therefore, is also a matter of mentality and spirit. Without the correct attitudes and insights, there cannot be the right sport.

Nuno Oliveira

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