How to determine the level of a rider.

Going off Jo's on the other thread im an Intermediate horse person.

Going off my own back im a novice. Ive been riding (properly ie lessons etc) for 9 years. Looking after horses during the week for a ride etc. Then loaned a well psycho for 2 years when i lost ALOT of confidence. Ive had Alex for the past four years. As a youngster ive tought him what he knows. Any i can safely say that anything he does wrong is my fault! And i need to improve to therefore let him improve.

To some people il be seen as a beginer, and to others advanced. I think its all a matter of perception.
A girl i know who worked all the way to her AI you would think was 'int./advanced' yet she managed to over feed her horse to lami .

I think im starting to wonder a little :)
 
Trying to classify someones riding ability only works if the comparison is directed at their peer group. As an example, when I'm out eventing against the names then i would be classed as a novice but when out competing at a local unaff comp I would be classed as advanced. Similarly, if I went to local riding school i would be again, classed as advanced but if I went to a top comp yard to train i would be back to a novice.

All of which makes the statement "not novice ride" completely useless.
If the person making the statement about their horse classes themselves as intermediate / advanced based on their peer group then meets a buyer who works / competes horses at a reasonable level but is a novice against their peer group, does that mean they wont handle the horse?

See what I'm getting at?
 
Of course I appreciate the fact that bringing on horses is an art and a satisfying one, in itself Jessica. I would also agree that if all you ever ride is a push button horse, then your riding will only develop along the lines of riding push button horses.

But that said, there are certainly times when as a rider studying a particular area of the sport (whether that be dressage or jumping), to move up a level you are going to HAVE to have the chance to ride horses higher up the level too. After all, if you were learning to play classical guitar, you aren't going to be able to do so with a £20 instrument from Woolworths are you? Likewise, if you really want to perfect your classical riding, you won't have a chance on a 15 year old RS pony who is as stiff as a board. See what I mean?

The best riding education is to ride as many DIFFERENT types of horse as possible - including high quality, school master types who are better than ourselves. Unfortunately, they really are in scant supply.

As for my horse, he competes at affiliated elementary level, with marks in the high 60s more often than not, but he's about as far from push button as you can get. That said, as I take most of my lessons on him and ride him most of the time, with the occasional lesson at a riding school on their horses, I still feel the need to broaden my riding experiences, again not easy when effectively you're a one horse owner.
 
I would describe myself as a confident novice - happy to w/t/c and pop VERY small jumps and to hack out alone or in company...... on the 'right' horse.
 
I know what you mean showqa. I was lucky enough that my instructor used to give me lessons on her Andalucian schoolmaster as well as on my own horse. That way I could improve my own skills and be more efficient when training my mare. Before I had my own ponies/horses I was lucky enough to get lots of experience on other people's horses and various RS horses (both well trained and not!) and to be honest I would say that these experiences contributed more to my riding than I have on my own horses, because you have to learn to adapt to the horse individually.
Having said that, training and riding one horse can help you to improve as you will naturally have a closer bond and better understanding of the horse, and I have learned a great deal from the horses I have had over the years.

ETA: Ultimately I agree with the comments above that you can't clearly define levels of riding experience/skill - they are all relative!
 
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How to determine the level of a rider

Sorry, but I would say the word "novice" or the rest, has nothing to do with competing, but more to do with having the ability to ride a horse competently. I think I have said before that I have watched some riders who I know consider themselves advanced riders and make me wince when I watch them hauling on their horse's mouth, whipping them when they won't do what is asked, and don't seem able to differentiate between what is fear, and what is naughtiness.

I have also seen so-called "novices" handle a horse beautifully, and with natural ability and style. (Just for the record, I'm not one of 'em :( - I'm competent but probably not very stylish!) :( :)

Anyway, all these categories are all very well, but belong only in the competition arena, and that is not the Be All and End All of riding, and no-one outside of competition should be judged in this ridiculous way - and if any of you feel you are, ignore it - you can take lessons to improve, if you feel you need to, but just enjoy your horse otherwise - there will always be "experts" who presume to know who is, and who isn't worthy of being anything other than a novice, even after 25 years (?) as another poster said of herself! Frankly, after that length of time, wouldn't you have killed you or your horse if you were still a "novice"?!

Roseanne xxx
 
Haha, this is a tricky one!
One woman at work managed to really annoy me by saying I was "obviously a novice" based purely on the knowledge that I've never competed or hunted, she'd never seen me ride or even around horses :eek:
I agree with other people when they say it is a lot to do with confidence, I think they should almost be measured on 2 different scales, like with myself ability wise I still have difficulty getting horses working round, I don't know weight aids that well so if a horse is a sensitive "dressage-y type" then I tend to have some difficulties getting to grips with riding them, but I can jump (have done 3' single jump, but course-wise would feel comfortable doing 2'3"-2'6") and I frequently hack out alone without problems.
When it comes to confidence I'm a very confident rider, without being cocky (though I know this sounds really big headed) there really are few horses that come to mind that have ever actually scared or really phased me. I have a fairly secure seat and I've always been quick to hop back on on the 4 times when I have fallen. All my RIs have noted that I just don't panic, I just get on with it.

But still, I think I'd avoid horses that were advertised as "not a novice ride" is buying or loning purely because although I may have the seat and confidence to sit whatever playing up they might do (in RS scenarios I LOVE riding "silly" horses lol) I just don't have the schooling knowledge to correct that behaviour in the long run, I may be able to sort it out and get them over the jump or whatever that lesson, but I wouldn't be able to get to the root of the problem and improve the horse themselves.


Jeez, I am so longwinded!!! :eek: well done if you got this far!
 
Also (if you'll put up with one more post from me lol) I think a big issue here is with the riding schools. At my old RS the focus was on just getting on the horse and making it do what you wanted, be that a 20m circle in canter or a 2' jump course. There was no real attention paid to getting the horses working round or other such things.
Because of this the judgement of a "good rider" seemed to be with whether you stayed on when one of the youngsters started playing up lol. So at my last RS I was in the second to top ability group, and fairly high up within the group itself.

At my new RS nearly all the horses compete, mostly dressage AFAIK and riding them is a completely different kettle of fish. Suddenly all I know about riding has been turned upside down and I'm actually really quite low down when you start comparing ability, frankly next to their riders I just plain suck!

So yeah, it seems to me like everywhere has a different judgement.
 
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