Affiliating BD

[Pink Gorilla]

How do people know when to affiliate for BD? Should you be getting a regular basic percentage in unaffiliated? It's so hard to gauge though, as marks vary so much judge to judge! Or can you go straight in from scratch BD? There seems to to a lot more BD shows about and they seem to be a lot less busy. Looking at My Quest to start with.

 

[Madali]

If your horse has 3 correct paces there is no reason not to try your hand at BD. There are all sorts of horses competing and if you ride an accurate test with a pleasing rhythm you will have a nice day out. Depending on the judge

 

[silv]

How do people know when to affiliate for BD? Should you be getting a regular basic percentage in unaffiliated? It's so hard to gauge though, as marks vary so much judge to judge! Or can you go straight in from scratch BD? There seems to to a lot more BD shows about and they seem to be a lot less busy. Looking at My Quest to start with.

Do you have a trainer who can advise you?, or go along to some local BD shows and watch the classes which you would have entered and see what the standard is like compared to you.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

If you can do a nice accurate test, in a nuce rhythm and a nice outline then you can do BD!! I'm always of the thinking do it while you can . The horse might be lame tomorrow!! I think you can still do prelim on a ticket, that might be a good measure.

 

[eggs]

I used to think that I wasn't good enough to affiliate and spent a lot of time doing unaffiliated shows with my previous horses until my friend/trainer gave me a kick up the backside when my 5 year old was ready to start competing. The very first test I did with him was affiliated - ignorance was bliss and we won the class outright.

Don't worry about percentages and believing you have to be getting a certain % before moving up a level. My current horse has been a mid 60's horse all his career and has competed to Inter 1. If I had waited for that elusive 70% I would still be doing Preliminary on him. We are never going to worry the leader board but have had a lot of fun.

 

[TheHairyOne]

Quest is the stepping stone into full BD and comes with a much cheaper price tag for starters. It also in my experience comes with a much wider range of competitors but with the wondeful thing that is BD organisation and ofc the chance of the regionals/nationals at the end of the season.

Give it a go. If you can do everything the test requires in mostly the right places, in a nice rhytmn and a consitant shape you will have a nice day out doing Quest.

 

[Pink Gorilla]

We're not quite there yet with the consistent shape. We're accurate with our school movements and transitions, great rhythm and lateral suppleness. The contact is coming, but he's not consistently taking it down and working round. At my recent unaffiliated however, there was almost a 10% difference in opinion between two judges!

 

[McFluff]

I went straight in at BD. I never intend to sell my horse so his ‘record’ isn’t a concern to me. There wasn’t quest then (and even now it would be too far for me) so I went for club membership (cheap and you don’t need to pay full unless you do a championship) and just went for it.

My previous horse was a steady mid 60 horse (accuracy helps overcome plain paces) and we had a lot of fun starting from wobbly intro and working up to novice. My current horse has more potential, but is also a lot harder to keep consistent so we are still mid 60s (but use a wider range of scores LOL), currently at novice. We rarely win, but we still have fun and generally find the judging fair and consistent.

In my experience unaffiliated can be more generous in the marks, but also a lot less consistent. So if you’re using the tests to measure progress then I’d go BD.

 

[Birker2020]

Is the horse an import by any chance. I'm only asking because the rules are quite complex if this is the case.

 

[Pink Gorilla]

Is the horse an import by any chance. I'm only asking because the rules are quite complex if this is the case.

He's from Ireland...

 

[humblepie]

He's from Ireland...

Mine is an Irish bred ex racehorse. Initially I thought he was going to have lots of points as an imported horse but it’s a shared studbook so was fine. Not sure position on other Irish stud books. I’d agree with the above - go down the quest route and see. Good luck.

 

[Matafleur]

Mine is an Irish bred ex racehorse. Initially I thought he was going to have lots of points as an imported horse but it’s a shared studbook so was fine. Not sure position on other Irish stud books. I’d agree with the above - go down the quest route and see. Good luck.

I have an Irish Sport Horse, no points applied for him either. You should be fine OP.

 

[whizzer]

I was consistently getting mid to late 60's at unaff(prelim & novice) so with much pushing from my instructor I affiliated. I decided not to bother with quest just did full membership. Not got out so far this year much due to lorry issues but did a few last year. My %'s are definitely much lower but I've enjoyed the challenge plus classes are smaller so get home quicker! It wasn't as scary as I thought & definitely regretted not taking the plunge a few years ago.

 

[Birker2020]

I have an Irish Sport Horse, no points applied for him either. You

Think it applies to horses from the continent.

 

[Matafleur]

Think it applies to horses from the continent.

Yes, it does. But OP's horse is from Ireland.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

How many BD’s can you do on a ticket before it’s worth becoming a member?