Ep 6: You don't get better scores by competing more

You know, there's no point just doing the same old test every single show that's on and hoping that you're going to get a set of judges that miraculously give you better scores.

From performanceriders.com this is the Parbury Podcast. I'm Nat Foxen, and each episode I challenge World equestrian Games top 10 dressage writer Brett Parbury to explain and discuss. Discuss what I call a pabraism. That's a pearl of wisdom I've written down over the years of working together in our performance writers programs. Brett doesn't know what today's pabraism is. Let's get into it. Okay, Brett, are you ready for your Parburyism today?

Far away.

Okay, today's pabrism is you don't get better scores by competing more. You don't get better scores by competing more. Okay, first thing that comes to mind, what do you think you meant by this particular parism?

It depends on what it is. So if, if you need more ring craft, more miles in the tests and more exposure, then I think there is a, you know, there's a lot of validity in competing more to increase your scores. But I don't think that doing more shows necessarily adds up in, you know, getting better scores. Like, the whole plan is to bring your training to the show, and the better your training gets, technically, the better you should perform at the show. But, you know, if you're finding that you're going in the test and you're going cold and sort of freezing during the test, then certainly you'll get more comfortable by doing more competitions. But I, what I see quite often is riders that are going to nearly every show that runs, you know, there's some of them are doing 15 shows a year and oftentimes at the show, doing two tests per, per show. And that's just way too much like your horse will get way more sort of clever in how to not work in the ring by doing lots of shows, then it actually will get better at being a competition horse. So, yeah, I do think there's, there's an argument for both sides. But, but at the end of the day, that comment was made in the context of the training will make you, your scores better, not competing more.

So, you know, you mentioned that example of someone who might be going to every show that's on, you know, once or twice every single month. Is that something you're seeing from your writers that you coach that, that they can be going to one or two shows a month every year and just be getting the exact same Score pretty much all the time.

Yeah, I've seen it a lot. I mean, I still see it a lot and I just can't work out. I mean, okay, there's a social element to it and that's great. And I'm not trying to say that don't want people doing that and you know, you want to support your local shows but, and competitions but the end of the day have a purpose. Like enter the show with a purpose. And the purpose might be, I want to try, I want to try this in the test. Not, not every single show has to be written the same way. You know, you might try some new stuff, you've been working on some stuff in training and you want to try that stuff. You might want to try out something new in the warm up. You want, you know, there's no point just doing the same old test every single time hoping for a better score because it won't happen. You know, if you're sitting between 6 and 7, well, you're going to get 65, one show you might get 66, one show you might get 64, one show you might get 67. Like it's, you've got to move the needle more by taking one movement to an eight or a sequence of movements to an eight, trying to get a sequence of movements that you're not scoring well in to minimum, sort of six and a half. They're the things that move your score. Not necessarily just going and doing the same old test every single show that's on and hoping that you're going to get a set of judges that miraculously give you better scores.

Right, okay, let's dig further into that then. So if our strategy for getting better scores isn't just competing more, what is the strategy for getting better scores over time?

Well, the, the strategy would be first of all, train, train to do the level you're going to compete. Once you feel like you are capable of doing that level with no mistakes, then enter the show. And the day you enter the show, learn the test. Like don't wait till the night before or week before. Learn the test the day you enter the show. And that gives you two weeks, a month to train the elements of the test that you're going to compete. So you then start to train with more focus and more intention and way more specific to what you're going to compete. Once you do that, go to the show with the goal of, okay, I want to try out this new thing in my trot work. I want to get bigger trot, I want to Be able to come back more in the corners, get my horse off the ground and active and try this way of resetting my trot in the short sides and in the corners for each movement and try and get a bit better scores in my trot or whatever it might be, might be candor, whatever it is, could be warm up. But go to the show with that in mind and once you've got a feel on how you can, how you can actually ride all elements of your test really well, then you go to the show with the view of right now I want to really score like a good score. I want to ride this part of my truck work. I've been practicing that. I've tried that out at the show. I'm going to ride my truck like that. Then I'm going to ride my walk like this. Then I'll ride my candle like this. Try and put that all together and then get that judge's feedback from the show and, and don't think that the highest judges are always the right ones either. Like sometimes the lowest judge is correct. So take a view on your score.

Are you sure every single writer in the world that the top, the top scoring judge is the one that's right. Brett, what are you talking about?

Exactly? We always love them and it's like, oh, look at that one. They gave me 62. And well they could have been right, you never know. But the idea is to take the feedback from both judges, particularly look at the feedback from the lowest judge and try and work out well, they obviously saw something they didn't like and I'm going to have to now work on that. So then you take, you take all this feedback from your, from your competitions, the competitions that you're specifically choosing to go and ride through certain things. And what you're essentially doing is you're putting together a game plan of how to, how to do the best test you can do for, for you and your horse, right? And, and that's what you're trying to do by competing is, is fine tuning the test so that you can get to a championships. And that's what I mean about not doing lot thousands of shows like, and not doing them all. To ride the one test over and over. Like save your, save your, save your test where you're, where you're really concentrating on everything you're doing according to your training and your feedback throughout the season. Save that for the championships and then, and then save that also for your qualifying attempts. And then in between if you're going to go to Shows go there with a purpose to try and work on things and if you muck it up, that's fine. Like that's part of advancing yourself and growing is to try things and make mistakes and, but then learn from that and then try and perfect it so that when you do go to the championships, you're at your best. And, and there is something in that, you know, like the, the whole thing of aiming up for a specific day and competing and doing well on that day, I think that's a true sports person and a person that understands the value of, of performing on a day and time. You know, the, the, the, the local shows that happen throughout the year, they are there to achieve qualifiers and they're there to help you get feedback, to change your training and alter your training and improve your training according to what the judges are seeing.

I really love this idea of using different shows in different ways and like you said, having a purpose for each show and that when we're going to smaller or local shows, we might have a really specific purpose to test something that we've been working on within that test. So we might not even, we might not even care that much about the overall score.

Right.

We might be looking at. Well, I've been really focusing on the trot work at this level and my purpose is to compete like I train, like I've been practicing at home and let's see how that goes. Very strategic.

Yeah, very being very strategic about it and that, and that's, that's a really smart way to engage in dressage. In the sport of dressage. Just, just engage in it in your own personal journey. Don't let you know the other people persuade you into sort of, you know, go into it your personal journey. It is a journey towards Grand Prix and then with that use competitions for different things and, and you know, no one really minds who wins or comes second or comes last or whatever at the mid month long local dressage event. But, you know, so, so don't think of it as the end all and be all of your existence. Is that, is that local dressage event that happens every month or every two months? Try to go there like, okay, I'm trying this out in my training. The judges gave me feedback on this last time. I've been working on that. I'm going to ride that with a lot of focus and see if it improves me if I get a better score for these elements and keep using it to advance yourself and your knowledge.

Maybe it's useful also when you go into a competition with that approach, to write that down for yourself so that at the end of the competition, you don't get caught up in that emotional roller coaster of, oh, I'm down the bottom of the scoreboard, and what does this mean about the value of my existence? You know, that you can refer back to actually the plan. The purpose for this was xyz, and let's measure the outcome against that, not what's on the scoreboard.

Yeah. You know, the scoreboard's an amazing place because you can have the worst ride and all of a sudden your score pops up and you get a great score and you're like, well, that wasn't so bad. And you go home happy. You're like, it's amazing because you're like, oh, that wasn't so bad. And you're. All of a sudden you're happy, even though it might have felt awful. And on the other side, you can come off feeling great, look at the scoreboard, and all of a sudden you're disappointed. So the power of the scoreboard is. It's enormous. And by going to these competitions with the goal and with a purpose and with some strategy behind it, it will stop you riding the scoreboard roller coaster. You know, of course, we all want to go home with good scores, but even better, if you can have a purpose, go there, focus on it, perform it, get some feedback on it, you'll go home with feeling like you've achieved more than just a great score or a bad score.

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Yeah, look, I think that's definitely the case. Like more exposure for, for the horse, more so for the rider, though. I think as well that when they go in the, in the gate at the day oftentimes, and I did this a lot when I First started, too. We go in the gate and we're suddenly feel like the whole world is looking at us, and we go cold and we go frozen, and we're virtually not game to even blink on our way around the test. Well, we have to change that. Like, when you're riding the gate today, you've got to eventually get to a point where you feel like it's just another arena. I'm just riding down the center line. I feel as calm and as casual as I was when I was on the outside. Of course you're focused, and of course you're, you know, you're on show, but you're riding all of the same setups, all of the same transitions. Everything feels normal. And you don't feel like you've just all of a sudden frozen because your horse will feel that. They'll feel when you disappear, they'll feel when you freeze, they'll also start to feel like, oh, I can cheat here. I can do less. And I'm not getting, you know, I'm not getting asked to do more. And they'll feel that you've gone and disappeared and gone frozen on them. So they'll learn little things in the test subconsciously, because we then disappear. So I think if. If we need more mileage in the ring, that's also a good reason to compete a lot. I mean, the. One of the reasons why I feel very comfortable in a competition arena is I've done a lot of competing over the years, so I do understand if that's the stage where you're at, well, you do need to do lots of it. I was. I was lucky in the sense that I had a lot of different horses, so not one specific horse had to take on all of the. My competing miles. But the only thing I'd say is by competing a lot on one horse, they will get arena smart. And that's something that. That then you have to. Then what created it in the arena has to also uncreate it in the arena, which means you have to do things like protocol days, and you have to correct that mistake in the protocol day or somewhere where the horse thinks it's at a show and you're not. So you can feel the horse go to cheat, and you can be there to correct the problem when it happens.

So for anyone who's not familiar with protocol days, these are training days are also called, where there's a judge there who gives you feedback. But it's no competition per se. And so the advantage with that kind of situation, then Brett Is that like you're saying you can, well, you've got more liberty I suppose, to train the horse within that test situation, that you're not so much on show or on the record like you are at a competition, right?

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. They're very valuable. The judge will give you feedback and, and, and they're very valuable for training horses, especially the ones that have become that little bit clever in the arena.

So that's definitely a disadvantage of competing too much. Are there any other disadvantages do you think of over competing?

Yeah, look, I think there is. I mean dressage judges are humans like everybody and they, you can't discount human nature. Even though I find that most dress sized judges are very fair and it's no matter what riders say about them, like, oh, they don't like my horse and they don't like this. That, that's not true. They, they may not like the way of going and if you keep turning up with the same way of going, they're not going to like it like it does. It's just they don't specifically not like your horse or not like you. It's just that you keep turning up doing the same thing. So they're just going to keep giving you the same mark. So you do risk the getting pigeonholed, I suppose, you know, oh, that's a six, seven. And you can't, I mean as a judge and I'd be the same if I was judging, like you can't help but having some preconceived idea on, on what's about to come down the center line at you, you know, and that obviously the more they see you, the more preconceived that idea will get. So I think, you know, if you do feel like you are getting in the situation of, you know, judges are forming a fairly strong preconceived idea of you, give yourself a break, go away and train, take on their feedback and try to find ways to improve. They will notice it. Like when you come out again and you come out with a specific part that you want to improve on, you know, they will notice it on the day and if they don't notice it on the day, I'm sure they'll notice it within a couple of times after. And because improvements are noticeable and it's up to you as the athlete to take that into your hands, don't just take the easy road of the complaining, you know, that's, that's an easy road. Anyone can do that or you know, judge doesn't like me and blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, we'll do something about it. Make yourself better and, and, and get better at it. And that is the only way. And even if, like I said, even if there is a delayed response, I'm sure that you will get, when you start improving and working hard and only coming out when you've got a specific thing to work on and working on elements, you will see your score go up.

What about in terms of when we're talking about the disadvantages of competing too much, so to speak, would you get concerned with any one horse about wear and tear, especially if there's travel involved?

Oh, 100%. Like that's the other thing. We are on a journey to Grand Prix and we all know how long that takes for a dressage horse. There's a reason why the Grand Prix horses really don't get there. I mean, the earliest they'll get there is around that nine to 10 years old. But usually they're getting there around 11 and 12. And then once you're there, you've got two years at Grand Prix to try and get the horse to understand it and be good at it. That's in the test. And then you've got the remainder of its career. So if you're getting there at 12 and you've got two years to get good at it, well, then the horse is 14. And then you've only got a very short window between 14 and whatever time the horse can't go anymore to enjoy the Grand Prix. And what will make that window bigger and longer is wear and tear in the early years. So soft tissue injuries will happen a lot more often in the older horses. So therefore, and the wear and tear on soft issue, soft tissue, sorry is done in the, in the early years and that can be done on, you know, some poor surfaces and miles in the floats, miles of competing over and over and over again. No, no breaks. So what I'd say there is just have give some thought about the, the wear and tear you're putting on your horse. It might feel like the horse is fine now, but usually these things are delayed. The, the, the, the outcome of over competing and going everywhere and going up and down the highway and, and all these things are a delayed response. Something will happen later that will tell you slow down and, and whether it's a horse being injured or horse getting sick, they will tell you to slow down somewhere. And I know the mistakes I've made over the years of, of, you know, having some of those horses that when they've been in their later years of Grand Prix. And you're managing some issues, I always think back to, you know what, we could have just made our chances better of not having this problem just by taking it easier in the earlier years and not going to all of those different shows that we probably didn't need to go to, and all those different surfaces and all those different miles, because now we're paying for it. And. Yeah, so that'd be the other thing I'd say is that's another reason to have a purpose behind. Yeah. Whatever you're doing. Because then you know full well. Well, the reason I'm going here is I need to try this out or I need to get qualified, or I need to try and do really well in this championship because it means something to me. And having a really good purpose behind everything you do, then later on, if you do have a problem where you go, well, I couldn't have got here without that. So, you know, I needed to do that. And now I'm managing the issue. But there's no, you know, I didn't go to 15 shows in a year because I felt like I needed to just be seen at the show. Yeah.

What do you say to writers who are going hell for leather competing event after event, in order to achieve that particular score, they need to. They feel they need to achieve in order to move up to the next level.

Yeah, look, I think I. I don't think there's a certain score that you need to achieve to. To feel comfortable moving to the next level. I. I do believe there's a. A level of competency and a level of, let's say, excellence that you want to get to before you then go and test yourself at what, technically is a harder level? The competency is more relevant than the score. Certain levels of dressage will reward certain things, and the lower levels always reward the horses that naturally move better. And the higher levels will reward the horses that have been that. That are more trainable and. And are in a better training system. So the better the training system and the more trainable and the more structurally adequate the horse is to perform the higher levels, then the higher levels will suit that horse, but that won't necessarily. That horse may not necessarily do well at the lower levels because the lower levels is just purely movement and look, and it's just not enough to challenge them. So if you are at the lower levels on a horse that is competent and at performing every single movement and you feel like you've got what you need to go to the next Level, then just go there and make sure that you're training at home. Make sure you can perform everything at home, mistake free, back to back. I feel like you've got the next level completely, completely trained and practiced and you know, you've got a game plan and then go and enter a show and move up to the next level because you might find that the higher you go up through the levels, the more competitive your horse might become.

Okay, so the part reason we've been discussing today is you don't get better scores by competing more. So finally, Brett, I know that everybody wants to know, well, what is your ideal competition schedule for a horse? How many competitions do you like to compete at in a year?

Well, you know, I don't know if I'm the best one to ask that because my answer there would be the minimum. But look, I only do I do minimum on horses until they're about six, unless I've got a horse that needs exposure, then I'll do a few more. But once they learn half passes and changes, then I'll start doing more because I feel like I'm starting to get a level of training on them where it's worth me going to the shows to test, to test it out, to get some feedback from the judges as to how my training is going. What I do find with that strategy though is I'm taking horses to shows that are doing technically medium work, but they're actually in their, in their exposure, they're like four year olds. So I do get a little bit of behavioral stuff. Yeah. But I would prefer then put more miles into them slightly later, like around that 6, 6 and 7. Because the dressage show is not.

You.

Know, there's never usually a great deal of atmosphere. You know, you haven't got the big whirligig rides going around or anything like that. So fundamentally, once they learn what a flower pot is and a few people moving around on the edges in a car with a windscreen, they kind of, and a judge in a judge's box, they kind of come around anyway and the more you train them, the more they will focus on you. So yeah, their concentration's better. So. But if I had one that had to go to shows because was really a problem, I'd probably do more. But technically I don't do that much until they're six. I'll do a couple, a couple of things. But you won't see me at the, in the elementary at shows that much or the novice.

So let's say you got a six or seven year old. How many? Like just put a round number on it. How many shows in a year?

So basically my plan there would be I want to do some young horse classes and the reason I like those is because they're a little looser in their structure. So I can take the six year old horse that's not been exposed that much into like to a show and the structure of the six year old test is a bit less strict than a medium. So the first half of the year I'll focus on six year old classes up until Sydney CDI which is mid, mid year May and then the second half of the year I'll focus on medium level and then, then try to make some championship shows like New South Wales State Championships and the nationals in medium level and that's with the change in a half pass and that would be my goal. So the, that the tests suddenly become a little bit stricter and then in the 7 year olds then I'd do the 7 year old classes because they're quite good. They're like advanced tests and I would do the same. I'd do the seven year old class at the start of the year and the advanced try to qualify for the advanced championships in throughout the year.

So you could be. I'm just trying to put a number on that. That could be like even as low as six shows a year.

Yeah, it could be four because. Because I only need to get one qualifier to make a young horse competition. Sometimes two for, for that, you know. Dressage with the Stars in Australia. For those listening abroad. Dressage with the Stars is our main young horse class. You need two qualifiers for that Sydney CDI which is another big young horse class for us. You'd only need the one. And so if I was to get one at Sydney and then go to Sydney and then go to two or one competition and get two scores for medium. Yeah, look, it might, you're right, it might be six shows a year. Six, six or seven. And that's not because I think that's optimum, that's because I spend the other weekends of my life coaching so. Because that's what brings in the income for our business. So if I'm sort of trying to pick the minimum amount of competition weekends so that I can have the maximum amount of opportunities to earn an income.

But also you're giving yourself opportunity to not be competition focused and to be training focused in between.

That's right, yeah. Look, and I find that's enough. It, it would be good to probably do one, to have one or two more up my sleeve. And. And I have made this mistake over the years when shows get canceled that all of a sudden I'm panicking because I. I haven't. I've booked a clinic in every other weekend, and I haven't made room for a show.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden I'm. I'm running short. But, yeah, six shows, I. I would say for me, eight show. Eight to ten shows would be optimum. And. Which is virtually nearly one a month. You take January and December out because they're dead months. It's almost one a month.

Which, I mean, that's plenty. That is plenty.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Great.

Great discussion. All stemmed from that little thing you said one time that you don't get better scores by competing more.

Yeah, I know. Which is. Which is true. So I hope everyone put that on board and can think about the way they engage in competing and all the elements that sit outside of that. You know, like horse health and development and rider and horse development. Training with purpose, all those things. Because it is. While the competing is the fun part, it's the social part. If you use it wisely, it's actually the best way to keep guiding you in the right direction in your training.

Awesome. Thanks, Brett.

Thank. You.