4 - 7 September 2025

Harry Meade Away Cruising DBHT 97157

Thursday

The Dressage phase of the Three Day Event tests the basic training of the horse, which helps the horse to develop an improved posture for carrying a rider and increases his obedience and calmness.

Thursday - Timetable

07.30Gates Open
09.00 – 17.30Shops Open
09.15Main Arena: Dressage Guinea Pig
09.45 - 17.00Main Arena: CCI5* Dressage starts
Lunch BreakMain Arena: Henrietta Knight on 'Re-educating the Racehorse' Masterclass

End of Dressage

Main Arena: William & Alice Fox-Pitt on 'Preparing for Burghley'
Masterclass
09.00 – 17.00House Arena: LeMieux Pony Club Team Jumping Competition
18.00Showground Closes

Please note: all the above times are provisional.

About Dressage:

The Key phrases used by the judges in their critiques of the tests are: Regularity and Rhythm of the Paces, Impulsion (i.e. energy), Acceptance of the Contact (i.e. is the horse’s mouth and head steady in response to the aids), Engagement (i.e. do the hind legs appear to step under the horse’s body or trail out behind), Lightness of the Forehand (i.e. the appearance of the horse carrying himself and not leaning on the rider’s hand) and Uniform Bend of the horse’s body on circles and during the lateral movements of Shoulder-in and Half-Pass.

High marks are awarded for those movements where the horse shows all these qualities. Judging is a subjective art and not an easy task as one rarely sees perfection and often some good aspects have to be weighed up against weaknesses.

The initiative and boldness of the highly conditioned event horse often makes it difficult in the atmosphere of the arena, to show all these attributes consistently. But the winning combination will demonstrate harmony between the rider and horse whilst the movements are performed boldly but accurately showing some elements of brilliance.

The Dressage Test is divided into movements for which the judges award a mark from 0 to 10. The Judges marks are averaged and shown as a percentage, to keep them in balance with the cross country and show jumping. In order to convert the Athletes percentage into penalties, this must be subtracted from 100 with the resulting figure being rounded to one decimal digit. The result is the score in penalty points for the test.