Tuesday, May 12, 2009

That darned training scale -- need a mneumonic!

http://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/multimedia/images/full/363605.jpgAt a recent dressage clinic I attended, the clinician asked one of the riders to recite the dressage training scale. The rider drew a blank, and my heart went out to her. On a good day I might be able to cough up the basics, but not, I fear, in the right order. I'm trying to think of a clever mneumonic for the training scale...



  1. Rhythm
  2. Relaxation and Suppleness
  3. Contact
  4. Impulsion
  5. Straightness
  6. Collection
Here are the ones I came up with -- totally lame...


  • Recently Ravel Came In and Smoked the Competition
  • Roguish Riders Can Ingest Southern Comfort!
  • Respectable Retailers Contain the Impulse to Strangle Customers
  • Rhinestones are Rarely Classy In Show Clothing


But so many of the terms start with the same letter, this isn't that useful. Can anyone do better or tell me a different tactic for remember this scale?


Labels:

13 comments:

  1. njemacreativeMay 12, 2009 at 9:15 PM

    it's okay if it's lame, as long as it's memorable, right? most of the well known ones are lame.. (like for the planets, and moh's hardness scale for minerals - the gypsy came from the orange quarter to cut diamond: talc, gypsum, calcite, flourite, orthoclase, quartz, topaz, corundum, diamond) lame, but they work! :D
    I just came across your comment on my "dreaming in the garden cuff" blog post that you left a couple days ago. Thanks for the kind words on it! The cuff is actually for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24303922
    and I'm always happy to take custom orders for similar pieces. :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 12, 2009 at 10:04 PM

    Here goes:
    relaxed rider sits comfortably in saddle collected. This gives you the final one. Or you could try Rhythm rider sits comfortably in straight saddle collected, this give you the first one and the last two within the sentence. Just a thought.
    Kim

    ReplyDelete
  3. lumiMay 13, 2009 at 5:01 AM

    Ha, the same thing happened to me yesterday!

    I was watching a clinician who mentioned the training scale about four times before I realized that I couldn't recall it myself. Searching my memory, I pretty much had it right except that I totally forgot "contact." How could I forget "contact," when I ride with too much of it anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 13, 2009 at 7:56 AM

    Hi Stacey!
    I'm a big fan of your blog - great work! Very helpful!
    However, something looks wrong with your scale - and after looking around a bit, I've come to the conclusion that most references to the training scale only have 6 'steps'. I took wikipedia for being the most authoritative (don't really know where to look)... 1.Rhythm,
    2.Relaxation (or supplenss depending on the translation of losgelassenheit),
    3.Contact,
    4.Impulsion,
    5.Straightness,
    6.Collection.

    Sorry If I'm totally wrong! Am a beginner! What is your reference?

    For fun: Rhythmically Relax your breathing and quickly Contact (in an Impulsive fashion) the Collections agency!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Flying LilyMay 13, 2009 at 7:56 AM

    Ha I like the Southern Comfort one! They're all good though. I also like Anonymous' idea about including 2 of the actual steps...

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 13, 2009 at 8:51 AM

    Hey again,
    so please disregard my comment as I of course realized, shortly after having sent it, that you had just split up losgelassenheit into two pieces - relaxation and suppleness. Yeah, got it now:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kitty BoMay 13, 2009 at 9:26 AM

    This is wonderful! The training scale will never be the same! I think I"ll be able to remember it now.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stacey Kimmel-SmithMay 13, 2009 at 9:48 AM

    Plottinghorse, I'm not a fan of wikipedia but I think you're right, there are only six elements, I think relaxation and suppleness/looseness are generally considered together depending on how much description there is. But there are discrepencies from reference to reference! I had been referring to Dressage Today which I don't have in my office. I quickly combined them in the scale, but now the mneumonics are wrong. I'll check when I get home. Thanks for pointing this out early in the game.

    ReplyDelete
  9. manymisadventuresMay 13, 2009 at 10:18 AM

    Well...when you're Riding RacehorSes, you Can't Ignore Scary Cougars! (/insert any thing that starts with a C which a OTTB may be afraid of...)

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousMay 13, 2009 at 12:59 PM

    FUNNY!
    Love the "Respectable Retailers Contain the Impulse to Strangle Customers"
    R = Remember
    R = Remember
    C = Clinician
    I = Invoked
    S = Scale
    C = Crap!
    This is my brain on free association...

    ReplyDelete
  11. billieMay 14, 2009 at 8:18 AM

    I tend to follow Walter Zettl's training scale, which goes:

    Rhythm
    Relaxation
    Contact
    Schwung
    Straightness
    Suppleness
    Collection

    My personal theory is that the ones we can't remember are the things we need to work on. :)

    I most often forget contact, which is definitely where I'm at with my own riding.

    ReplyDelete
  12. UnknownMay 14, 2009 at 5:30 PM

    HA ha, that's good, I always go blank on this when asked!

    Here is mine:
    Rhythm
    Suppleness
    Contact
    Impulsion
    Straightness
    Collection

    (R)iding (S)ome (C)amels (I)n (S)addles would be (C)omfortable

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousMay 18, 2009 at 12:08 AM

    Not a mnemonic but might help..

    Rhythm relaxes contact, impulsion straightens collection.

    Who knows perhaps it is even true!

    ReplyDelete

Hi Guys, Your comments are valued and appreciated -- until recently I never rejected a post. Please note that I reserve the right to reject an anonymous post.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)