Dressage levels explained, and how to pick yours

The levels get talked about as though they were school years, with everybody quietly working out whether they are ahead or behind. They are not that.

A dressage level is a description of what a horse can physically carry, and how much of it he can offer on request. Each rung adds one idea to the one below. That is why you cannot skip a level and get away with it for long: the thing the level above asks for is built out of the thing you skipped.

This is written for Australia, where affiliated competition runs under Equestrian Australia, and it is written just as much for the rider who never intends to enter a competition at all. The ladder is a sound training plan either way.

The ladder, in order

The lower levels run, from the bottom up: Preparatory, Preliminary, Novice, Elementary, Medium and Advanced. Above those sit the international levels, run under FEI rules, starting at Prix St Georges and rising to Grand Prix.

Almost every rider I have taught spends their competing life in the first three or four of those, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. The gap between Preliminary and Elementary is a great deal of horsemanship.

What each level is actually asking

Preparatory is the introduction. Walk and trot, large shapes, and the question being asked is a simple one: is the horse going forward in a steady rhythm, and can the rider steer him accurately. Nothing clever. It exists so a green horse or a new rider has somewhere sensible to start.

Preliminary adds canter and asks for the same qualities in all three paces. Big circles, straight lines, changes of pace at markers, a free walk on a long rein. The judge is looking for correct, forward, rhythmical basic paces and a horse who accepts the contact without fighting it. That is the entire level, and it is a lot harder to do well than it sounds.

Novice is where accuracy starts to bite. The shapes get smaller, the transitions come more often, and lengthened strides appear, which is the first time the horse is asked to show that his paces can be adjusted rather than merely maintained. Lateral work in its simplest form appears here too. If Preliminary asks is the pace correct, Novice asks can you change it and get it back.

Elementary asks the horse to start carrying more weight behind. Smaller circles, more demanding lateral work, counter canter, rein back, medium paces that are genuinely different from working paces rather than just faster. Riders often find this the biggest step on the ladder, and it is usually because the horse's balance, rather than the rider's skill, is what needs to change.

Medium builds on that carrying power. Collected and extended paces are asked for properly, half pass appears, and the first flying changes are wanted. By now the horse is expected to be genuinely adjustable, straight and reliably through to the contact.

Advanced asks for more collection again, changes in sequence, and canter pirouettes. This is where the work starts pointing at the international tests above it.

Above Advanced, at Prix St Georges and upward, the tests run under FEI rules and the movements that most people picture when they hear the word dressage, piaffe and passage, arrive at the top of that ladder rather than anywhere in the national levels.

The pattern, if you want one sentence per rung

It is worth seeing the shape of it, because the shape is what tells you what to school.

• Preparatory and Preliminary: are the paces correct, forward and steady?
• Novice: can the paces be adjusted and put back?
• Elementary: can the horse begin to carry weight behind and stay balanced in smaller, harder shapes?
• Medium: is that carrying power real enough to produce collection and extension, and to change lead in the air?
• Advanced and above: how much collection, how accurately, and how easily?

Each one is the previous one with more weight on the hind leg. That is genuinely most of the theory.

Choosing your level, honestly

Here is the part that matters more than the list.

Ride the level where the work is comfortable at home, not the one you could just about get through. The standard I use is this: if a movement only comes off on a good day, in your own arena, with nobody watching, it is not ready for a competition, where your horse will be more distracted and you will be more nervous than either of you are at home.

That sounds conservative and it is the opposite of a limitation. A confident test at Preliminary teaches your horse that competitions are calm, ordinary places where he already knows the answers. A scrambled test at Novice teaches him that they are places where he gets asked for things he cannot do. The second one costs you months, and it is much harder to undo than it is to avoid.

Two more practical points:

You do not have to move up. There is no clock on it. Plenty of good riders stay at a level for a season or two, get properly good at it, and move up with a horse who is genuinely ready.

Moving up is not permanent. Dropping back a level to rebuild something is a sensible piece of horsemanship, not a defeat, and I would far rather see it than watch a partnership grind away at a level neither of them is enjoying.

If you never intend to compete

Use the ladder anyway.

It is the clearest training plan available for flatwork, it is free, and it is written by people who thought hard about the order things should be learned in. Work out which rung describes what your horse can do now, then school the questions the next rung asks. You get a structure and a way of measuring progress, without ever putting a number on a saddle cloth.

That is how a good many of the riders I teach use it, and their horses are all the better for it.

Where to get the actual tests

From Equestrian Australia and from the schedule of whatever competition you are entering. Tests are revised periodically, so download the current sheet rather than riding one you learned a couple of seasons ago, and check the schedule for what is running on the day. If reading the sheet itself is the part that is unfamiliar, how to read a dressage test goes through the columns, the coefficients and the marks.

Frequently asked questions

What are the dressage levels in Australia, in order? Preparatory, Preliminary, Novice, Elementary, Medium and Advanced, and above those the international FEI levels beginning at Prix St Georges and rising to Grand Prix.

Which level should I start at? Whichever one describes work your horse does comfortably at home on an ordinary day. For most horse and rider partnerships new to competition that is Preparatory or Preliminary, and starting a rung lower than you could manage is rarely a mistake.

How do I know when to move up a level? When the questions at your current level are consistently easy rather than occasionally successful, and when the horse is showing the next level's ideas at home. Scores are a guide, but how the work feels at home is the better signal.

Do I need to be a member of Equestrian Australia? For affiliated competition, yes, and the requirements vary by state and by competition type. Unaffiliated and club competitions have their own rules and are often a gentler place to start. Check the schedule for what you are entering.

Can I use the levels if I never compete? Yes, and a lot of riders do. The ladder is a well-ordered flatwork syllabus. Working through the questions each level asks gives you structure and a way to see progress without ever entering anything.