Driven Dressage Revision

[Argent]

Since driven dressage is judged primarily as a dressage competition as opposed to a driving competition, I believe that Strength should not be the most important stat evaluated. The strength of the horse is only a factor insofar as it is required for the horse to pull the cart, so Movement-Balance-Strength-Tempo might be a better format.

[Deslumbrar]

But strength should still be more important than in a regular dressage competition, where you need the strength to pull off nice movement with a cart.

[Nate]

Argent's suggested order would still make strength more important in a driven dressage competition than a regular dressage competition. Not by a whole lot, but by some, and even ridden horses need a great deal of strength to perform upper level dressage. I believe it should occupy the second or third slot of importance rather than the first how it does now or the fourth like ridden dressage has.

[Argent]

Driven dressage horses are not being judged on their strength. They are being judged on their responsiveness, fluidity of movement, balance, impulsion, and so on, just like a ridden dressage horse. Like I said, the only reason strength is a factor is because the horse must pull a cart, but a ridden dressage horse would arguably need to be stronger because they perform more demanding movements.

[Deslumbrar]

I understand what you mean, but i still feel that a horse competing in Driven Dressage needs a greater amount of strength to show off great movement. Without the strength behind it, the movement would not be so nice. Strength might not be what they are specifically judged on, but if they are not strong enough to fluidly pull the weight plus themselves, they will not appear to be moving effortlessly in a way that a ridden Dressage mount would be able to skate by with a bit less relative strength but still appear quite fluid. Driving also requires a more front-end strong where Ridden is more back-end strong, so pushing strength back in importance would seem to make them a bit too similar in my mind.

As far as ridden dressage, I'm fairly certain that even high level Dressage horses would not be able to pull off the strength needed to move nicely in front of a cart the way better Driven Dressage horses do. Yes, ridden requires quite a bit of strength, but its used in a different way than Driven, the whole front-end versus back-end thing again. Ridden Dressage horses also must have a lot more lateral bend and agility in order to do well in their tests where Driven is pretty much opposite... there isn't going to be much lateral bend at all in-between the shafts of a cart and their overall strength is going to hold more weight than agility.

Game-wise, I feel like it makes more sense for all of the Driving competitions to be heavily judged on strength as the breeds that typically compete well at Driving competitions tend to be heavier, stronger animals - of course there are exemptions, but this isn't really about exceptions.

The stats shouldn't be so similar for the game to where individuals could easily cross-over and do well at both Ridden and Driven Dressage.

Just my opinion.

[Argent]

Not really. A ridden dressage horse requires a lot of strength to perform the upper level movements. A driven dressage horse never completes a movement more complicated than a canter circle; 90% of the tests are done at the trot, primarily working trot (the tests, even at the highest level, are literally just trot circles and movements toward and away from the center line). So, like I've said, the only reason strength factors in is because the horse is pulling a cart. Which actually doesn't require much strength because the sort of cart used is generally rather light, and once it is rolling it doesn't take much energy to keep going. Driven dressage horses are not heavy type horses; again, this is more a dressage competition than a driving one. At the lower levels you might see ponies and various other light or small breeds (after all, any horse can learn to pull a cart), but the upper levels are almost exclusively warmbloods (there's one guy who drives a pair or quad of Lipizzans). A draft horse would be more than sufficiently strong to compete in one of these events, but it would lack the grace and balance to actually be competitive, because strength is not actually an important factor.

[Argent]

Because visuals are helpful, an upper level driven dressage competitor. Strength clearly isn't on display here, but these are definitely a set of very balanced horses with excellent movement.

[Argent]

At the least, Movement should be the highest priority, with Strength shifted down to the #2 spot

[Argent]

Still think this should be done.

[larissar]

I'm adding this in today with the conformation buff changes. I'll make a post on the homepage once this happens.