chapter 13
Straightness & Veering
1.
Straightness
Riding Straight
In dressage it can be common for entire rider lines to veer and wiggle, to avoid this, each individual rider can focus on their own straightness using the methods below. Straightness helps ensure accuracy in dressage routines and moves.
Setup For Success
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When lining up for dressage, or starting at a specified marker, riders will check to make sure that their horse is straight on the sand line or marker that they are on. This will prevent veering once the rider begins moving.
If the rider lines up crooked, they will instantly veer once picking up their gait.
Line Use
When riding in a rider line, every rider should base their straightness on the sand lines that they are riding on, not the rider ahead of them.
If each rider in line bases their straightness off of the sand lines and not the other riders, this will prevent the entire rider line from wiggling or veering.
Sand lines, letters, and markers can be used to help ensure the rider is straight and not veering or wiggling throughout their performance.
Gentle Tapping
When performing dressage, riders should never hold down their directional keys (turning keys) as this will result in harsh wiggling and veering.
Riders should only gently and lightly tap their directional keys when needed, unless making a turn or performing a move.
Practice straightness by following specific sand lines or visible markers and avoid touching the directional keys as much as possible.
2.
Veering
Avoid Veering
Veering in dressage is when one or more riders begin to move away from the sand line they are riding on, or when the rider line as a whole wiggles. Veering is something riders want to try and avoid as veering can negatively affect many aspects such as timing, gaps, formations, arena timing, and more.
Avoid Keys
While moving in a straight line, riders are encouraged to avoid excessively touching their directional keys, as this can be a common habit in dressage.
Horses only do what the rider asks of them, and so a horse will not veer on it's own. To avoid veering, riders should only gently tap their keys and only when needed.
Fixing Veers
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If a rider happens to veer, they are encouraged to gently tap their directional keys only a few times until the horse is straight again. It is recommend to try and tap their directional key around 3 times to straighten out.
Riders should never hold down their directional keys to fix a veer or to over-tap by pressing the keys too many times, as this will cause the horse to veer even more and it is highly noticeable.
Others Veering
Due to riders basing their straightness off of the sand lines and not the other riders, if the rider ahead veers, the other riders are encouraged to not follow that rider into the veer and instead continue straight on their sand line.
This method can also be used for alignments, if another rider veers into a rider - the rider should not veer away and continue straight.
Veering Demo
In the video, the rider first demonstrates a proper veer fix as they have veered off of center line. To do the proper veer fix, they gently tap their directional key a few times and then straighten out. Afterwards, the rider demonstrates an improper veer fix where they aggressively hold down their directional key.
practice together
A great exercise to practice straightness and fixing veers is to have the riders line up NTT flat along a wall (preferably on a easily visible sand line) and trot across the arena to the opposite side, focusing on doing the two following instructions...
First, the riders will trot across the arena but will be instructed not to touch any keys on their keyboard, even if they veer. Once they reach the opposite side, halt and see how much they veered.
Second, the riders will trot across the arena once more, but this time they are instructed to tap their directional keys only a total of 3 times if they happen to veer.
This exercise can help demonstrate how veering works in game!
