Gaps and Alignments
PURPOSE
Due to screen delay and lag, you must always keep a different spacing, or alignment, within your line.
In a practice or routine, a line is expected to maintain consistent gaps and alignment without an instructor reminding the team. This webpage is going to cover how and when to adjust or shift your gap or alignment.
The Gaps
Riders use gaps to maintain spacing throughout a line, routine, or pattern. With no gaps or alignment, the line would have uneven distances between the riders. A gap is the spacing between you, and the rider in front of you on your screen. Due to screen delay, you do not appear both in time and in proper positioning to your commander.
Gap Size Markers
ONE HORSE
When you turn you camera you should see a substantial distance between yourself and the person in front of you.
HALF HORSE
When you turn your camera you should appear about 1 dot spacing behind the person in front of you.
NOSE TO TAIL
Your horse's nose should be just barely hitting the person in front of your tailbow.
BACK OF SADDLE
Your horse's nose should be 'sniffing' and touching its nose to the saddle of the person in front of you.
HALFWAY INSIDE
When you go to turn your camera you should see your horse legs coming out of the stomach of the person in from of you.
FULLY INSIDE
Your hair, skin, arms, and animations should be inside of each other, almost in sync.
Adjustments
Over time, due to lag differences in speed, you may start to fall behind. This is known as a "falling gap," which is the distance that grows between you and the rider in front of you. If you don't keep up your spacing, you will lose time and alignment with the rider in front of you. Below is a video that demonstrates what a falling gap looks like.
Although in a perfect world, our gaps and alignments would maintain perfection, they do not, and thus it is crucial to pick the proper time and place to adjust our gaps and alignments.
WHEN TO ADJUST
During straightaway riding;
During gait shifting moves (extend the shifted gait to catch up, or to fall behind); or
After finishing a move.
WHEN NOT TO ADJUST
During any move set being called;
Belts;
Merges and Splits;
Corners; or
On any sort of curl-over or curving move (a faster gait will change your trajectory).
Gap Correcting Methods
With the knowlegde of gaps, and gait specific delays, we need to counteract this 'falling' by continuing to adjust our gaps. Here are our 3 adjusting methods.
Quater Strides
(Catching-Up Method)
The term quarter strides can be applied to truly any gait. As the main gait in dressage is a trot, the next gait up is a canter, but this works at the walk to trot, or canter up to an extended canter as well.
For this method, you will hit your gait increasing key (either up arrow or W key) and then immediately come back to your prior speed by hitting your speed decrease key (either down arrow or S key). This extremely fast up-and-down motion can be seen as about a quarter of a canter stride (hence the name), or a small hop from gait to gait.
Gait Jumping
(Slowing Down Method)
The term gait hopping refers to slowly tapping your gait speed keys (W & S, or up and down arrows) up and down to create a hopping-type move. Within TRR, we would prefer riders gait hop as opposed to wiggling. This method can be seen as a reverse of quarter strides and will slow you down, by dropping gaits, rather than speed you up by increasing your gait.
Wiggling
(Slowing Down Method)
The term wiggling refers to gently tapping your directional keys ( A & D, or left and right arrows) back and forth to slow yourself down. Within TRR, we would prefer riders walk as opposed wiggling. Wiggling, if done incorrectly, can push riders off their assigned line, or encourage veering. This is a more advanced method, as it takes a much for skillful hand and understanding of the arena. Wiggling is however a great method for minor adjustments. We recommend wiggling to those intermediate+.
The reason you would use the adjusting methods above, as opposed to endless cantering or continual walking is to provide more control to the riders. Any gap can be so quickly misadjusted, so keeping in mind all the fundamentals of screen delay and lag will benefit you greatly.
The Gap Checklist
You should be constantly asking yourself these questions. Although it won't feel habitual at first, you will eventually gain comfort with this checklist, and how to check off the boxes.
Feel free to refer back to this list if you are ever in a mid-practice break and are looking to check in with yourself.
Alignments
In the same way, you use gaps to counteract screen delay, you also use alignments. An alignment is a way of aligning with others within your line during specific moves or arena shapes. A gap is a spacing kept by each individual, whereas an alignment is needed for an entire line.
Gap & Alignment Math
Think of a gap or alignment as a percentage of your closeness to others around you.
Adding or subtracting from that percentage will move you into a different position, and when you add back that amount it will put you back to the prior number.
When you split you are cutting your gap in half.
Say you are trotting in a BOS gap (about 25% in closeness to the other horses) and you split into half-horse gaps, (-50%) it is important you maintain that 25 percent so when you remerge you fall back into a proper BOS gap (25%).
Merge/ Splitting Alignment
Just like stated above, when you split you will keep the gap you are left with after a split, so when you remerge, you fall back into the same gaps.
Trotting in BOS gaps you split into multiple lines at the wall, you would keep a half-horse gap.
Whether you need to wiggle or utilize quarter strides to manage your alignment, that is on an individual basis, but for the most part, you should be able to work from what you have.
If you have good gaps in one line, you should have good gaps the more, and further you split.
Just make sure to keep track of your alignment.
You can make up pretty much any alignment understanding these calculations!
Comb Alignment
Comb alignment
You sit about one horse ahead of your lead.
How far ahead you sit depends on the gait you are going, following the same pattern as regular line work. Half horse at the walk, one horse at the trot, two horse at the canter.
This will make you look next to all the people in line on the commander's screen due to screen delay.
you have good gaps, when you enter the comb you should fall into the right alignment during the comb. If you have good comb alignment, when you collapse back into line, you should have good gaps.
Tier Alignment
Tier alignment
You fall into comb alignment with the person next to you.
You will be about one horse ahead of the person next to you, and very close up to the person in front of you.
This will make it look like you are in a 'double comb'.
A tier typically takes place along the outsides of the dark on the mid or center.
Waterfalls
Staggered alignment
You fall into the windows of the around you.
This is by keeping up the gap designated per gait (NTT, BOS, HI) with the person across from you.
It will leave you looking staggered and in between the windows of the two people opposite of you.
This is called windows, just like you see in dance; ballet specifically.
When you emerge you should fall back into line perfectly, just like with a regular split.
Unspoken Adjustments
SPLITTING/ MERGING
WATERFALL
TIER
COMB
SLANTS
There are certain gap and alignment adjustments you should be making that are known as unspoken adjustments.
These types of gaps and alignments are not usually needed to be spoken by the commander so what you are doing is managing your gap and alignment yourself.
Below are the adjustments that you should always make, despite a commander's words or callings.