Mette Rosencrantz arrived at The Mane Event in Red Deer, fresh from the Las Vegas World Cup Dressage championship. Rosencrantz has represented the Swedish National Dressage Team on two occasions. She currently lives near Los Angeles, where she continues to train horses and riders for competition.
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Swedish Dressage champion Mette Rosencrantz at Friday's lecture
Photo: Christine Sweet
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Rosencrantz took the time to talk to the audience in the Lecture Hall Friday afternoon. She shared her thoughts on how to prepare for showing and also took the time to answer questions.
"In order to be successful at showing you need to have a goal and a plan. Competing at a specific level in the year-end dressage show may be your goal and to reach that you need a plan."
Rosencrantz suggests selecting a dressage test that you want to ride and then dividing it into sections of the required movements or "tricks." Those tricks will be the step-by-step things you will practice over and over again, and build on. The end result of the plan will be the ability to do the test well, she said.
Rosencrantz highly recommends using a cross-training approach to preparing your horse for competitions.
"Cross-training will keep you and your horse interested, and it will increase the options for conditioning along with improving the training," she said. "The end result will be a healthier and happier horse and rider combination that is ready for competition."