I wanted to share the strategies I’ve employed to learn the Eventing Beginner Novice tests, as well as the Introductory and Training level tests in dressage. I assume that as I move up I will find different challenges learning the tests, and when that happens I will share how I figure that out, too.

I learn this in two different ways. I try to understand the shapes and where the transitions are, and I am able to talk to myself about the test. Then I go ride it and overlay it in real life. There are also a few other strategies I will mention below.

First, you are going to have to learn what a dressage court looks like. I’ve included a diagram here in case you need a reminder. You usually enter at A, across the middle runs E, X , and B, and the judge’s box is at C. You can get a long way just knowing that, believe me. 🙂

Next you will need to acquire the test you need to learn. You can get them off the official websites. For the sake of this how-to, you will want to print out the 2018 USEF Beginner Novice Test A, which you can download here. Grab some colored pens, pencils or highlighters, too. I used five colors.

Okay, we have our print out of the test and our highlighters. Pick a color for walk, medium walk, trot, canter, and transition. Go through and highlight each of these words in the appropriate color. I chose blue for “walk” and highlighted the word blue in each movement. “Between” is the word you will highlight as your transitions. I started with yellow but actually went with pink,. You can select the image here to make it larger so you can see what I did.

click to make bigger
I think this is the fifth one I made while working on this.

Next, print out this sheet of arena diagrams. You are going to draw each movement in the corresponding color. I chose green for trot, so I drew out the shape for 1. A-X-M Enter, working trot. M Track left. Then I drew out 2. E Circle left 20 meters. The tricky thing is learning your transitions, which I marked in pink, and it’s everywhere it says “between” on the test. There are different ways of thinking about transitions, sometimes I might think to myself “I need to be cantering by A.” Other people might say to themselves “I’m going to canter in the corner.” Play around, see what sticks. Just keep drawing out the test, movement by movement, talking to yourself about it, over and over until you feel pretty confident about it. Yes, I said talk to yourself! Make it so that you can pretty confidently recite most of the test at this point. Look at the test and try to visualize what you are doing. I even sort of bounce when I think about the trot sections.

Moving along you can take some the papers you drew the shapes on and make yourself some letters to put on the floor and walk out your test now that you have a pretty good idea of what you are doing. Walk, trot, and canter around, talking to yourself and imagining what the arena looks like. Look at the letters and use them as your anchors, that’s what they are there for.

Letter C
some of us need to be reminded where the judge sits.

Hopefully you have a pretty good idea of what you are doing now. If you are fortunate enough to get yourself to a dressage arena, get your horse tacked up and head out. Stand for a few moments and imagine what you are going to do, just like you did at home, only this time looking at the actual arena markers. If you aren’t lucky enough to have an arena, you can get some cones from amazon for about $15 and put some letter stickers from the hardware store on them. Ride your test, ride it often. And by often I don’t mean drill it into the ground for two days before your test, I mean ride it a few times every ride for weeks, until you know it and feel good about it.

These come in handy for marking out the short court in our full-size court.

So now you can ride the shapes of the test, at the correct gate, with transitions in the right places. Bonus round: you can read the directives! Good luck with that, I’m just happy to remember where they heck I’m going!

Other things that help:

  • Have a friend call the test while you are riding. In regular Dressage you can have a caller, but for eventing you have to do it on your own. Learning with a caller can help though.
  • Have a friend video you and watch the video while reciting the test movements to yourself.
  • Have a friend call the test while you are riding it and record it as a voice memo. You can usually play it back while riding and it’s like having a caller with you all of the time. They can also add helpful comments.
  • Record yourself “calling” the test, with any reminders you have for yourself, and listen to it when you are cleaning tack or doing other things.

I hope you’ve found this useful, and I hope your next test goes smoothly!

I may also do a post on “how to read a test” and “how to read your score” for my own education. Check back and see! Until then, here’s a sheet of 60×40 diagrams, too.