equestrian competition

Okay, another day off for B and Belle (and Volare, who is happily retired and fat as a sausage)--crappy weather, and lots of work deadlines. I'm never sure how I should prepare for a dressage competition. Practice the tests? Train hard and then taper off? For eventing, it was always pretty easy--jump a few jumps a couple of days before, school the dressage test, throw in a rest day and then ramp it up again. Wondering how other people prepare for competition, both mentally and physically (human and equine). I'm learning my tests (who knew You Tube could actually be useful other than as a substitute for mindless TV? That dang left hip is pretty irritating right now. Totally locked and sore. Maybe because I sit at my desk with my legs crossed. This can't be good for me. I've started to use my Swopper chair (which is a bouncy stool, really) to practice various hip exercises that may help the problem I'm having. So, basically I'm asking my Swopper to pick up the left lead canter whenever I think I'm feeling crunched up and sore. It seems to be helping, at least in the office. We'll see if that translates to the saddle. Which brings me to...Eckhart Meyners. Don't know if you've seen the ads in the horse magazine for the Balimo chair-it is essentially a swopper, only it's not padded and probably swivels more in the seat. Meyners invented it, and he is a is a German sports physiologist who has taken a special interest in the movement required to ride effectively, even though he isn't a rider himself. You can read about one of his symposiums here, as well as a couple of interesting exercises, here.