Below is a description of the Shadow Town Agency, what it is and how it works. It is very unfortunate, however, until this site has been completed to function properly for the agency, we are not yet ready to accept applications for students or examinees. When we are ready, links will be inserted for interested parties to put in their applications for which service(s) the Shadow Town Dressage Learning and Testing Agency can provide.
What is the SHADOW TOWN AGENCY and how does it work?
The Shadow Town Agency (STA) is a North American club on the Night Star server that serves as a place where SSO riders can go to learn and or be tested for dressage; starting from understanding the basics all the way up to the moves of the elite.
This site has been set up so that riders have no need to be a member of the Shadow Town or the Agency. It is set up this way so that riders can learn and be tested without having to leave their home club. However, in the case that more than 4 riders are being instructed at once, grouping in SSO will not be a sufficient means of communication, and using SSO Global or Say chats would allow for too much distraction and disruption, hence riders will be required to register on this site to use its text group chat for the duration of their tutorage or testing process.
Please keep in mind that member registrations will not be approved unless we are expecting you, so you will have to complete the enrollment process before member registration approval will be given; please do not register until you are instructed to do so.
Once a rider is enrolled and registered, their enrolled SSO name will be entered into the STA Dressage Examination Database. Any time they successfully pass a test of a given dressage level **as expected by the STA, the date of the test given will be entered in the field that corresponds to the level completed. Be aware that the STA Dressage Examination Database is displayed on this site as a public record; anyone visiting this site will be able to view the progress of all riders that have been enrolled as a student or examinee.
DRESSAGE AGENCY ROLES:
– Students –
are those who are learning (or practicing/refreshing) the dressage moves. Even if a rider knows all the moves in a set level, it would still be wise to stay the course to ensure the moves are performed **as expected by the STA. It is also strongly recommended to start from the lowest level and work upward through the levels – say for example, you are being tutored for intermediate dressage and you cannot complete a move because it requires knowledge/use of a beginner or fundamental move, the instructors are NOT to hold up other students to regress and teach/refresh you of a lower level dressage move, instead you will be referred to another instructor and or told to return after you are able to perform the lower level move.
Though students are registered on this site for the chat box to be available to them, if they are not actually Shadow Town members, they will not have access to pages intended for members only.
– Examinees –
are those who are taking a dressage ability test. Any given test will be of a set level which consists of a preset list of moves. An examinee must be able to complete every move **as expected by the STA within the level being tested without fail to pass that test – if a move is performed differently than **as expected by the STA, it will be marked as failed, and thusly the entire test is considered as failed. This may seem harsh compared to succeeding a set percentage of the moves, but it ensures that any entry in the STA dressage examination database indicates that it was witnessed by a proctor of STA that the rider was able to perform ALL the moves listed in the level they succeeded **as expected by the STA. However, if you fail a move, although it’s optional, you don’t have to quit the test, if you continue the test, the proctor(s) will continue to mark each move you fail, then a full list of failed moves can be mailed in-game to your SSO character account so that you know what moves you may need to work on to pass the test at another time. If the examinee fully passes the dressage test, the date of the test will be placed on the examinee’s record under the column of the appropriate test level in the STA Dressage Examination Database.
Examinees are not required to be students first, anyone can enroll directly as an examinee. However, it is strongly suggested to at least view the moves in STA Dressage Testing Moves by Level to be sure you understand how the moves are expected to be performed.
Though examinees are registered on this site for the chat box to be available to them, if they are not actually Shadow Town members, they will not have access to pages intended for members only.
– Instructors –
are those who teach and instruct the moves during training and testing. Instructors are only allowed to instruct levels of dressage to which they have passed the test for and have been assigned. Instructors are actual members of the STA (and by extension, also members of ST) and have leadership status. Since they are of leadership status, they must also qualify as an ST/STA leader. Because of this, they are often people who have been a member of ST for a while before becoming an instructor.
– Proctors –
are those who monitor the student(s) during their testing to ensure they perform the moves **as expected by the STA and to bear as a witness when the test has been fully succeeded by the student(s). When the student fully passes the test, the proctor reports the examinee’s succession with a date to be entered into the STA Dressage Examination Database. If an examinee fails the test, they will receive a list of all the moves that were considered as failed so the examinee can know which moves may need practicing for testing at a later time. The proctors of STA consist of those who are of leadership rank within ST or STA and have been determined to have the knowledge to appropriately judge the given level being monitored. When at all possible, we try to have multiple proctors in such case that if a proctor believes a move was not performed **as expected by the STA, they can consult with the other proctors to confirm whether it was a failed move or a case of lag for the individual proctor – especially considering that the proctor has to report according to what is viewed on their screen, if the other proctors didn’t view the move as a failed move, then the one proctor can waive the occurrence as lag instead of a failed move, therefore passing the student on that move. And with the lag we often get, this serves to favor the examinee. Multiple proctors also helps to ensure non-bias judgements for or against the examinee.
SPEED FACTOR (BREED, GEAR, and uh … oh yes, HORSE MOOD):
– Students and Examinees can select any breed/coat of horse or any color/style of gear during tutoring or testing, as there is no particular dress or appearance code other than that which will attain an appropriate set speed score; all riders will be required to have a set speed score total. To get your current speed score total: use the C key on the keyboard to bring up the character and horse stats, take the Character’s Total Riding score (the one in the large rightmost box of the riding score row), and add it to the Horse’s Total Swiftness score (the one in the large rightmost box of the swiftness row), these two numbers combined will result the riders Total Speed Score. To make any adjustment to the total speed score, you can alter the riding score (by changing fit items) or alter the swiftness score (by changing tack items) to manipulate the total score as needed to result the required set total. Although precision is not always perfect (due to misaligned agility and discipline scores), having all the riders attain the same total speed score will help maintain gaps regardless of line orders.
Since an unhappy horse causes so much mayhem in the line’s gapping, timing, and precision, the instructor can and may rail a student outside the arena that arrives with anything other than a max happy horse. Furthermore, any examinee making an appearance to a testing with a horse that is anything but max happy will automatically be disqualified to take the test at that time, though each rider is tested individually and not penalized by the mishaps of others, it is still important for riders to be synced, such as for moves that require partners, and so on.
** As expected by the STA =
Even in the Official Star Stable Dressage Dictionary (SSDD), it states that move definitions can have different interpretations. And though some clubs may perform moves differently than we perform the moves in ST or STA, a rider must perform each move as the STA expects them to perform the move to pass a dressage test given by the STA. Why so harsh? Because it would be way too demanding of us to go around to each and every club to find out how they perform each move so that their members can pass a test. Just know that we, in ST/STA, try to teach/test riders in the way we have come to understand as the most popular interpretation of the moves. We are working really hard to link picture diagrams and video examples of each move so that all riders can know exactly how they are expected to perform each move.
Also know that some rules/regulations from the SSDD may have some alterations, not because I feel they are wrong, but because their end results are different than the results I desire; any such alteration will be identified in the move definition along with an explanation of why it is altered.
LEVELS:
— dressage basics (arena map, meter system, directions, movement, gaps, alignments, rules, etc.)
— fundamental moves (includes formations, halts, exits)
— follow moves
— beginner moves
— intermediate moves
— advanced moves
— elite moves
> for purposes of the agency, circle moves are moved into level categories as follows: fundamental moves performed while in a circle are beginner moves; beginner moves performed while in a circle are intermediate moves; all moves performed in a rotary are advanced moves.
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