Have Fun While Learning

Educational Crossword Puzzles

At The Dressage Show

A growing list of crossword puzzles will continue to be placed on this site for your education as well as enjoyment. When Tom Dorrance worked with people, privately or at his clinics, he always carried around with him a booklet of mind-teasers that challenged those he worked with to think outside the box, to reach for an answer, and to be mentally stretched in the process. He felt it helped folks do the same with their horses ~ as well as in their personal life. It is in this spirit of broadening awareness that these mind games are provided for you. Work them right from your computer screen, or print them out and work them on paper, or both. Enjoy!

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Helpful Tips!
for the unseasoned puzzler:

~All words to this puzzle are ones you know, but most of them will probably not be obvious to you from the clues given. For many of us that is a recipe for frustration. If that becomes true for you, treat this puzzle like you would a horse you're trying to figure out. Start with what you know. Those answers will give you clues to more answers you thought you didn't know. Sometimes you won't be able to imagine what it is you're supposed to come up with, but if you just stick with it (not necessarily all in one sitting) something will occur to you. Try it. If it turns out not to be the right answer, try something else. Tom used to say, "In my life I've tried quite a few things. Once in a while, I'd find something that worked." He was still saying that at 93.

~There is no hurry to finish this puzzle. If you get stuck, leave it and come back another time. You might be surprised at what else occurs to you when you see with new eyes.

~The answer will only be obvious after you've figured it out.

~The answers are purposefully not shown on this page. That's to make the answers something to reach for, to think for. All of the answers are in your everyday language, but if you must peek, several of the answers can also be found in the book, True Unity, by Tom Dorrance, the USDF Directory, and/or in the USEF Rule Book. Yes, merely more "puzzles" you'll need to go through to get to the answers you thought you wanted. The good news is that by following up on the resource links, you might find the answers to some other questions you had. ;)

~PLEASE NOTE: When you leave this page, any answers you typed in the puzzle will not be saved! Printable Version

"You are the starting point. You are the destination. Enjoy the journey." ~Bruce Smith

ACROSS

1. Individual or collective mark on a dressage test (USDF Directory)
4. Falling off your horse in a test, leaving the arena before finishing your test, and lameness during a test, to name a few (USEF Rule Book)
15. This horse color usually comes in red or blue
16. Number 8 in 2007 Training Level Test I (USDF)
17. Centerline
18. What a horse has on you when he's paying attention
20. Side of the horse that's toward the bend
22. Type of hay
23. Don't focus on this if you want to be
25. Where you enter for your dressage test
26. Time of yr. when most dress. shows take place
27. Caused by either a hard or soft chew
28. Word before jaw or after head, referring to a horse's "frame," as if it were concrete
29. Action of a rude person, or disrespectful horse
31. Hair eddies on a horse's body
32. Hopeful reaction after completing a dressage test
34. Short diagonal in the middle of a long court, and back again

AT THE DRESSAGE SHOW
What you might find there

DOWN

1. Studs' offspring, in human-speak
2. 3-beat it by A, perhaps
3. Very bad, wrote the judge (USEF)
4. You get -2 for each one on a dressage test
5. What horses are to humans who understand them
6. Things listed on a show list, e.g.
7. State in USDF's Reg. 8 (USDF)
8. Is strain advisable at a show?
9. First word to fill out on an entry form
10. Entry to a dressage court
11. With 9 Down, ID at a friendly dressage show
12. Good to have for swelling on a horse's leg, or your head if you take a fall
13. Overall appearance required at a dressage show
14. Five types of required bits (USEF)
15. Competitors
19. What the person rushing the tests from the judge's booth to the office where the scores are tallied did
21. What one does when their horse's leg bandages fall down
24. Where the Intermediate I rider transitions to trot (USDF)
27. For thought, or for the hungry
30. One half of a post
33. Where one goes after a fall

36. Word after just, referring to show etiquette, maybe
37. Field of plants and animals (abbr.)
38. Full diagonal, in a short court
40. Collective mark referring to the rider
45. With 60 across, undesirable carriage for a horse supposed to be on the bit
47. Direction for no. 4, 2007 Third Level, Test 1 (USDF)
48. To place something, like a saddle perhaps?
49. What many judges do to indicate you may proceed after your salute
50. Part of an 8, 10 or 20 meter circle
51. State in USDF's Reg. 8 (USDF)
52. The tension at dressage shows _______ most novice competitors out
55. Scribe-speak for "Circle at S"
56. What a blue ribbon can do for the winner
58. Scribe-speak for "Circle at L"
59. Sound effect of a longe whip, perhaps
60. See 45 across
63. Scribe-speak for a circle in the middle of one of the long sides
64. What a dressage professional does for a living
66. What all gaits in dressage need to be ridden with
67. Refers to the international levels of any discipline
68. What a competitor might feel the day after a lot of sitting trot
70. Direction from # 4 to #5 in 2007 Tr. Lev.,test 4
72. Path between two show arenas, perhaps (abbr.)
73. A conjunction that keeps us curious
74. A
75. Performed "Uberstreichen" in Third Level, Test 1
77. Spat between horse and rider at a show, perhaps
79. Starting point of ext. walk and ending point of coll. walk in 2007 Fourth Level, Test 2
81. Direction for Travers right in 2007 2nd Lev, Test 2
83. A distance of 10 meters from the wall to the centerline in a full-sized court
84. A horse executing a backed off walk, perhaps
85. x 2 the points for a movement in a dressage test
90. Just a little more than 2/3 of the centerline
91. A state in USDF's Region 5
92. "At the middle of the long side, make a circle," writes the scribe
93. A quality of response we'd all like to experience with our horses more often
95. A state in USDF's Reg. 3
96. Only you, or the bottom of your horse's foot
98. "Letting the butterflies out," said Tom Dorrance, referring to a really good sign of relaxation
102. 3/4 diagonal from the wall to the centerline
103. Stirrup
104. What a minor should do to resolve a dispute with a dressage judge, for example
106. Required attire at all recognized dressage shows
110. Riding from one letter in the direction of another
111. Suffix for the word that refers to a horse who has good amplitude in its stride (USDF Directory)
112. Riding in the now
113. Our habitual inclinations, with our horse, perhaps

35. With 82D, temp underneath a wool shadbelly during summer shows
36. Dressage riders do it at collected trot
39. Shallow diag. from the wall to the centerline
41. Where "longitudinal stretch" refers to on an equine
42. What engaging in animal cruelty at a show will do to your membership in USEF or USDF
43. Four on a score (USEF)
44. Double circle, in scribe-speak
45. Preparation for piaffe
46. Heyday of the Spanish Riding School, for example
51. Zero on a test (USEF)
53. Word to agree with
54. Where you extend the trot in 2003 FEI Grand Prix Test B (USDF)
55. Slang for a person having no feel for a horse
57. Half a dressage court and back again (USDF)
58. #12 in 2007's First Level, Test 4, in scribe-speak
61. Direction for #10-12 in 2007 Training Level Test 3
62. Nutritional drink that sounds like a dressage saddle
65. One of several shortest possible diagonals in a full sized dressage court
69. Circle at a secondary letter, in scribe-speak
71. Makes a knee-high boot easy to get on and off
73. The thing we're all looking for
76. Impulsion is the _________ of push from behind
78. A European sys. of training in dressage, other than the Ger. system
80. An aspect of athleticism
82. With 35 Down
86. Training Level compared to Fourth Level
87. A word describing some dressage competitors
88. A circle re-ridden, perhaps, in scribe-speak
89. Tying it down merits elimination
94. Court entry
97. What second place is to first, to some
99. It matters in the junior's division
100. Half a diagonal from the wall to the centerline in a full sized court
101. What's needed to get a satisfactory score over a sufficient score
105. Missing letter?
107. S and V are their link, in a full sized court
108. Astride
109. What is "saved" in spring and summer (abbr.)