Dressage BD Intro Silver

[abbijay]

I was just wondering why there is no Intro Silver section yet. As Intro becomes a more accepted part of the BD structure why they are still limiting it just to Bronze/Quest. It is ridden at the Associated championships (in most categories) but the only qualifying opportunities are through Quest or Bronze.
I have just retired my horse of a lifetime who I gained a massive 6 points at Novice on (over 3 tests scoring whopping 63.something% every time) I am no longer eligible to take my newly broken horse to Intro. I appreciate it is aimed at those starting out in dressage but if there are silver level championships surely they should offer silver level qualifying too. In every other aspect we would qualify as a Bronze pair but now we're not eligible to compete intro at all.

 

[oldie48]

TBH I doubt there would be many takers. I think most people take their recently backed horses to UF comps to gain experience, whereas Quest and Bronze Intro classes seem to attract very inexperienced riders on older horses, many of whom have little intention of moving beyond prelim. That's my perception anyway.

 

[Littlebear]

TBH I doubt there would be many takers. I think most people take their recently backed horses to UF comps to gain experience, whereas Quest and Bronze Intro classes seem to attract very inexperienced riders on older horses, many of whom have little intention of moving beyond prelim. That's my perception anyway.

I agree with this also! They want to keep it absolute grass roots. I am not eligible to ride in any level at quest for that reason never mind intro, i have a baby horse that i will have to start higher and i think that's perfectly fair. The horse hasn't got experience but i have quite a bit that may be seen as an advantage against less experienced riders.

 

[milliepops]

I understand where the OP is coming from, Darcy is about ready to go and do an intro test as the trot is broadly under control but he's not ready for prelim, as the canter really isn't. I want to start getting him out to some little shows so that by the time the canter catches up, he's ready to hit the ground running (so to speak, he is *always* ready to go running )
But I'm only eligible for PRELIM gold, so definitely not able to do Intro! I will have to go unaffiliated, and HC in order to be sporting, despite riding probably the greenest horse there.

It may seem like an intro test shouldn't be of much interest to someone whose other horse is at small tour but it will be a huge milestone for Darcy so it feels a bit of a shame!

I agree that the demand probably isn't there though. If he was a normal baby horse instead of a rather enthusiastically zoomy racehorse he'd probably be OK to welly round a dodgy Prelim instead.

 

[Ossy2]

I think the purpose BD see with intro make the level must applicable to bronze only riders. Maybe an unpopular opinion but I think it’s perfectly reasonable of BD to expect a rider having completed at novice to not want or need to complete at intro, intro should really be for true grassroots

 

[abbijay]

I think it’s perfectly reasonable of BD to expect a rider having completed at novice to not want or need to complete at intro

I suppose my view is that if this were applied to other levels it would be very restrictive. If the same was the case with a rider who has ridden medium they should not want or need to compete at Novice, just get the horse up and running to Elementary more quickly. I thought the whole idea with B/S/G was to mean people didn't have to worry about appropriate levels and young horses weren't disadvantaged in their experiences.
I completely accept it might not be a hugely popular section of competition there are still those of us for whom it would be a good stepping stone or jumping off point. I'd be joining back up now if we could do intro but as I'll have to wait for prelim it will be 4 - 6 months before I join up again and register the new boy.

 

[milliepops]

Totally agree abbijay, I currently don't have a horse registered with BD as I got Kira's cancelled when she got injured in the summer. I would have been quite happy to cough up for Darcy now, because I like affiliated shows I took Salty out unaff for her first show and that day it was just full of kids zooming round the warm ups, yikes! I packed up and went home without doing the test, and then affiliated her to avoid that happening again.

I'm not being sniffy about unaff, I know it works for lots of people. Round here it's very busy and I prefer a quieter outing for a first timer.

As it stands we are a few months off canter being civilised enough for a test but as K is staying home until the spring it's a good time for me to start taking him out and about.

If you weren't able to ride a new horse 2 levels below your last competitive outing I woudn't be able to compete Darcy until he had learnt his changes and was ready to go AM he might never get there!