A musing from a grumpy old git.

I'm wondering if people set their expectations and goals far too low these days and why.
My last horse went from having done one intro (not with me) to a top 10 placing at BD regionals in 6 months.
Current horse 8 weeks ago was bent like a banana, charged her fences and nose dived over them generally taking the poles with her. Now I would most likely get her round a BE90 without disgracing ourselves too badly.
Now I dont consider myself a talented and gifted rider. I seen some of those and that aint me :( but I set and expectation of the horse and then work dam hard to achieve it. Next season we will be starting eventing. Plan is to skip BE80 and go straight in at BE90 with a view t be doing BE100 mid season. Perfectly reasonable to my way of thinking.

On the flip side I see post after post about people schooling their horse for 12-18 months and feel they might be able to do an intro test soon. Taking years just to jump 70cm. Stick at the same level eventing all season, think getting over the last fence SJ is an achievement even if 6 poles have gone down during the round.

Why?

Is it a lack of rider confidence, are instructors not pushing their pupils anymore, is the pat on the back mentality we have for the slightest of success lowering expectations or do people just not want to put the effort in anymore? Have people lost sight of what can be achieved with correct training and effort? I just don't understand why the horse world seems to be sinking in to mediocraty.

Would be interested in how others think / feel about this.

Because it's about having fun. If I bought a 3* eventer and "just" wanted to hack, but it made me happy, why not?! Some people are happy just to be "mediocre". What a terrible attitude to have. You must look down on everyone.

You don't know enough about the people who are happy to have finished when they have knocked 6 fences down at "just" 70cm. Maybe they were injured, and have made massive steps just to get back on a horse, and getting round was a huge achievement. Maybe they were sick with nerves, and shaking, but they did it anyway. Maybe the horse had come back from injury. Maybe there is a story there you don't know.

Please don't judge everyone like that and label them unambitious and mediocre.
 
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I agree with PM about one thing. The standard of instruction around my area is not mediocre, it is dire. The worst part is that the riders don't seem to realise how awful it is.
Another friend was given two blocks of lessons at a very prestigious equestrian centre as a gift. Twenty lessons. She was no further forward at the end of them. She did suspect 'they're just telling me what I want to hear. Not pushing me'. Waste of time and money.

In my area too. I rent a field for my 2 from a riding school and the quality of tuition is shocking. The trouble is the instructors don't really have any formal training and so they are just passing on their style and their way of riding. They also don't want to teach on the more challenging ponies in case the kids fall off, so the kids only ever learn on the push button versions. Parents wanting to see their kids doing something 'exciting' also don't help because they don't get the ground work in the basics. Plus lessons here are only 30 mins long whereas it was standard for an hour's tuition when I was a kiddie so you really did get stuck in (60 mins of sitting trot anyone???)

Incidentally the biggest achievement for me this year will be getting my recently diagnosed PSSM mare hacking. Low expectations? Absolutely. But from where we were in Feb it would feel like a ****** miracle!
 
I've just got back from a dressage camp at Addington. My greatest achievement was going into a warm up with other horses and having lessons with other people around me. I had a bad incident at a competition in a warm up arena 18 months ago and because I didn't deal with it at the time it just developed into a huge phobia. I still couldn't take Mr B into a busy warm up and I'm not sure we could achieve that but at least it's a start! Did a test in the "international arena", not the best I've ever done but he coped with the arena really well, I was so proud of him!
 
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