BD question

[mrsh2010]

I am a newbie to BD and still trying to get my head around everything. So any advise gratefully received.
*I have enough sheets for Petplan but i could potentially get the remaining prelim points required for regionals before the cut off.*
So my question is which one should i aim for?*
Thank you in advance

 

[meardsall_millie]

If you're getting the %'s required for Regional qualifications, then go for those!

 

[PaddyMonty]

You could always adopt my plan. Get qual for regionals at prelim then move up and get pet plan quals at novice.

 

[Fuzzypuff]

Petplan is generally thought of as being slightly less competitive, due to the qualification requirements being lower. So often people do as PaddyMonty says and aim for Regionals at one level and the Petplan at the level above.

If you don't think you can manage Novice this year then you could just aim for Petplan prelim this summer and then try and do prelim Regionals next winter. If you were to get through to the Petplan finals you would be fine to do the regionals, but then if you got through to the winter champs from the regionals you would have to do those and give up your place at the Petplan finals.

It depends on your scores really and how much you want to be competitive.

 

[kc100]

I guess it depends on a few things - the sorts of percentages you are getting (the requirements are lower for area festivals), your experience in high-profile/high-pressure competitions, your ambitions....if you can qualify for regionals then most people would generally say go for it as with horses you never know what is going to happen - you could get an injury next time regionals come around and miss out. But equally if you are not used to these larger competitions, if your horse hasnt experienced a high-profile show before with a bigger atmosphere then maybe areas would be best as it is slightly less pressure and a nice way to ease yourself in.

Or as the others have said, can you do Novice areas and prelim regionals?

Ultimately it boils down to your ambitions, how competitive you feel against other people (i.e. what are your scores like vs others you are competing against, where are you being placed?), and whether you feel you and your horse are ready for the added pressure of regionals or want to take a slower pace and do petplans first before you think about trying regionals.

But either way congratulations on doing so well as a new BD member and good luck!

 

[eggs]

Pet plans won't be until much later in the year so you can have a try at getting summer regional qualification. If you do get it you can then decide whether to do regionals or PP areas.

 

[nikkimariet]

Petplan is generally thought of as being slightly less competitive, due to the qualification requirements being lower

The requirements to qual may be lower, but the standards are still incredibly high. You still need to be working at a higher level and have a very correctly trained horse in order to do well at the Champs.

Those that are only just getting AF scores, are unlikely to win. The ones that win are the ones getting Regionals scores and aiming for the Champs.

 

[Joandripple]

You could always adopt my plan. Get qual for regionals at prelim then move up and get pet plan quals at novice.

We r gonna aim for points for PP coz we did not do it last year....and we've got til Oct this year! but that is a brilliant idea PaddyMonty. But to be honest I get sooooo nervous at shows and even doing a long arena test is giving me the collie wobbles at the moment. My plaiting needs a lot to be desired! At the moment we have had set back with four weeks of hacking (on week four now!) only due to having Bilateral Bone Spavin diagnosed and course of Cartrophen jabs!

Best of luck to all in whatever you are aiming for for this year.

Xx