‘If you’ve got one that’s lovely and soft, you’re already on the back foot’: Laura Tomlinson on piaffe, the new stretch circle and what dressage should reward
On the latest episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, Olympic gold medallist Laura Tomlinson asks whether dressage scoring matches the sport’s focus on softness – and what she hopes judges will look for when the new grand prix stretch circle arrives in 2027
With the new FEI grand prix test and its stretching circle arriving in 2027, Olympic gold medallist Laura Tomlinson has been thinking about how dressage tests are marked.
In her recent H&H column, Laura reflected that scores have become stuck around the average marks, with good tests struggling to break 70%, and called for judges to use the full range – lower scores for real mistakes, but eights and above for brilliance.
On the latest episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, she shares her hopes for the new movement, and reflects on how the balance of marks shapes the horses that rise to the top.
Is piaffe weighted too heavily?
Asked how the current marking affects the way horses are produced, Laura points to piaffe, which counts double in the grand prix.
“Sometimes you watch the scores and think, well, I’m beating this one, beating this one – and then a horse gets eights for its piaffes, is lower than you everywhere else, and it’s above you immediately,” she says. “Your test might have been more accurate or more soft and supple the whole way through, but the horse with a better piaffe is immediately going to beat that.”
She stresses she isn’t calling for the weighting to be scrapped. “I haven’t thought about it hard enough,” she says. “But it’s interesting how those nuances change which horses come to the forefront and what kind of pressure you have to put on them. It becomes a piaffe battle, basically. If you’ve got one that’s just lovely and soft and does a nice piaffe, you’re already on the back foot.”
That, she says, sits awkwardly with the sport’s recent messaging. “The party line for the last couple of years has been that we’re going for softness, suppleness and less tension,” she says.
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“Often the top five horses in the world have got it all. But in the next 20, you’ve got horses with different strengths and weaknesses. If we want the priority to be softness, suppleness and harmony, it’s something to think about.”
What should judges look for in the stretch circle?
That balance is set to shift slightly in 2027. The new FEI grand prix test keeps the existing movements largely intact but adds a stretching circle, ridden rising or sitting, near the end. It is also weighted double, which Laura says “is going to mitigate at least one piaffe”.
She is a fan. “I would almost wish it was at the start of the test,” she says. “I think it’s a great way to let the horse relax over the back, feel comfortable again and take the pressure off for a moment.”
She knows what she would reward if she were judging. “A horse that is able to be let go of in the reins, that follows the rider’s hand, so it doesn’t stay curled up or too overbent, but the nose stretches forward and out,” she says.
“It shouldn’t suddenly dive from its nose to the floor – it should still be in self-carriage. The rhythm shouldn’t change, and the hindlegs should still step nicely underneath, rather than getting left behind because the rider isn’t riding into a strong contact.”
How the judges agree to mark it will be crucial. “It’s all very well having a theory on paper as to what equals the perfect stretch on a circle,” she says. “But every horse is going to do it slightly differently.”
What does this mean for young riders?
Laura’s concern about what the marks reward extends to the next generation. “I’ve seen it the last few years at the home internationals with the junior and young riders, and you just think, crikey, what do they have to do?” she says.
“If they’re on a fairly normal horse but riding quite a nice, clean, soft test, that’s not good enough to get over 70%. Not everyone, especially at under-21 level, is going to be on a super-flashy horse. I feel like we should be rewarding other positives, like softness and accuracy.”
She has felt it herself. Laura won an international grand prix special in the Netherlands last year on 69%. “I actually had quite a nice clean test,” she says. “I’m not saying I deserved 75%, but it could easily have been 71 or 72.”
She is also quick to acknowledge that scoring has moved in the other direction in the past. “There was a time when the marks were getting almost a little bit too out of control – the 80s were flying maybe where they shouldn’t have flown,” she says. “I don’t envy the judges’ position. I’d much rather be sitting on my horse, moaning instead!”
To hear more from Laura, including her thoughts on the National Championships’ move to Hartpury and the new British Masters, listen to episode 182 of The Horse & Hound Podcast here, or search “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your favourite podcast app.
● Do you think the new stretch circle will change which horses rise to the top in grand prix dressage? Let us know your thoughts at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your thoughts published in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).