Flossy is well known to many on the British Dressage Forum as a teller of interesting stories and perhaps the odd joke or two. We have selected a few tales for your pleasure.

Writers marks

Writer marks
 
Junior Trainer   asked Senior Trainer  to talk him through  his first ever   FEI  dressage test  sheet.
All the guide lines,  theories  ,lessons,  scale of training   ,every thing he  learnt  over the years   and still  he could not understand  the sheet of paper he was holding.
The  FEI   paper  was so different to  what he was used to  from British Dressage  competitions  score sheets,  while BD test sheets were decorated with smiley  yellow faces   with a line of  flowery  kisses  along the judges signature,  all making one feel good about  one self, the FEI sheet  on the other hand  was stern looking   dark   document  with hardly a drop of ink on it.  Junior  Rider   was  at  complete  loss  why one of the judges referred to his  position in the saddle as perfect skiing  posture  when every one knows he hates water sport of any kind, including un necessary showers.
Senior Trainer  knew exactly  where  Junior was coming from  , it took him years to become proficient how to operate the enigma  dressage  deciphering machine,  how   to make sense of judges comments, so he went  over  movement by movement,  comment by comment explaining  to  Junior  trainer what is  actually the judges message.  By the end of the sheet  Junior  got the gist of things  which are  , the more subtle the comment  more crucial  the fault.
And then they got to the final mark the riders mark, Senior Trainer explained  that historically  it is called the  rider mark  but according to the enigma machine it is coded word for  the   “writer’s  MARK”.
“WRITER  as the one  that helps the judge ?”  Junior  asked    
“No  No   you don't get  IT  “       Senior  Trainer   interrupted.
Junior   tried  again “ Writer as  a novelist  you mean”  
“Ohh  for heavens sake  you daft individual   no wonder you cant win a BD walk  halt test   WRITER  as  THE ONE THAT WRITES  THE CHEQUE”  Senior Trainer  said  in  exasperation .
“I GOT IT    now I understand why  I always get comments like      not ENOUGH!,  a little   MORE!  required for a   HIGHER MARK , and when the judge comments about  poor  BALANCE  it is not the horses balance   HE IS REFERRING TO.
Senior Trainer  acknowledged  “Son you have just learnt the most important  element from the scale of training   YOU WILL MAKE IT”