I use dressage tests to check my horsemanship progress, you too can use different ways to check your own progress.
For me this checks all my horsemanship and each time I do it I am checking specific things such as working on our transitions until they’re smooth and light, checking our flexibility through working on curves on circles, checking our impulsion until our whoa is as good as our go with light almost invisible cues.
You can check your techniques in many ways such as hacking out, dressage tests at home or away or just creating patterns in an arena from groundwork into the saddle, what you’re looking for is not so much the dressage test, it’s the all round balance of light cues, self carriage of you and horse, flexibility, impulsion (not impulsiveness) and connection from you to your horse so that the harmony between you grows and grows.
Whatever you do with your horse remember to learn from mistakes and have fun 
- Shelley – HorseSavvy
