Competing Someone Elses Horse

Tempi

Tempi

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Mum and i were having a heated debate last night about the point of competing someones horse for them.

Mum thinks its pointless and cant understand why people would want to ride someone elses horse, after all theres no real sense of achievement.

My point was that when you ride for an owner you dont have all the bills that go with it, and you can still get a sense of achievement on someone elses horse.

This whole thing was sparked by the article about Carl and Lecantos in this weeks H&H and how Lecantos is owner by Sasha Stewart. Mum dosent see why someone would by a horse, only to have it ridden by someone else - i also dont see why people do that either. Why buy a horse in the first place if you arent going to ride it? I know Sasha will eventually compete Lecantos, but alot of other owners never ride or compete thier horses.

views please
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My daughter used to event and show jump other peoples horses and it meant we could enjoy competing without so much expense. The owners,well one bought a foal at Stow fair and just hacked it until it was 10 then I went to give her a lesson and my daughter got on ,discovered it had a great jump and went up to grade B on it. The other bred her horse to event but lost her nerve so asked a mutual friend to recom. a rider, he went up to intermed eventing.
All enjoyed themselves.
 
Alot of owners like to be involved with the sport at a high level that they know they themselves would never get to, so give the horse to a pro, and enjoy watching its progress at events, and seeing their investment increase in value!!
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people seem to get satisfaction from either providing talented riders with a mount, or simply from owning something which is competed to a much higher level than they themselves could take it to. i would love to be rich enough one day to be involved in the highest levels of competition which i would never be able to get to myself!
 
I hadnt thought of it like that, i suppose it must be rewarding to watch your horse competing at a high level - but then id rather be riding it myself at that level than someone else competing it.
 
good answer - i think its great that owners buy rides for our talented riders, whom otherwise might be without a top ride (like Carl and Lecantos, after Escapodo was sold he was without a top ride for a while).
 
Lots of people like to see their horses ridden at a higher level than they feel able to do.I used to event horses for other people (just friends) and it gave me the fun and experience without the expense. It gave them the satisfaction that the horse was doing what he loved. They did all the hacking and lower level stuff.
 
I agree with KatB, I am not a talented rider, but there are 2 girls on my yard who are. If I had the money I would buy a horse for one of them to SJ as I love going to shows and watching them compete, even though I only compete once every couple of weeks myself. I would probs ride the horse once or twice a week, just hacking, to help keep it fit tho, and help out as groom at shows.
 
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id rather be riding it myself at that level than someone else competing it.

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just because you've got the ability, show off!
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YEp i completely agree, but there are alot of people out there that will never be more than just an adequate rider, so would prefer to watch whilst a not so adequate rider does the competition stuff on their talented horse?! Look at JW's Welham, his owner got him back every winter, but she liked to see her horse at all the bigs shows with JW
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id rather be riding it myself at that level than someone else competing it.

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just because you've got the ability, show off!
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If everyone thought like your mum there would be no professional riders.

Nearly every olympic rider is riding for an owner so if they win gold does that mean there is no sense of achievement from a gold medal?
 
I have been on all sides of this fence. Every single one of them is fun.

I have mainly ridden my own.

I have ridden others and the achievement of clicking with an unknown horse is marvellous. I also feel it impoves your riding no end. You can get stale riding your own all the time.

I have also stood back and watched my horse being competed by someone else. This is such a lovely experience. This may be an option I will take in the future with my youngster depending on how she turns out.

You have to remember that everyone has horses for different reasons.

I can totally see why Sasha has taken this route. Imagine having a horse that can perform to that high a standard,,,she knows her limitations and she chose to give the ride to Carl.

Thank goodness there are quality owners out there giving quality rides to quality riders. This country needs more of the same.
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i'm lucky cos i have and had ridden for owners and i still get sense of acheivement if we do well, i my eyes no different from riding own horse.
I've also paid for people to compete my horses and i personnally got get enjoyment out of what my horse compete. i also gave me a great insight on what i could achieve - that why i did it.
As for Carls level if i had enough dosh, yes i would defo buy very good horse and watch my horse been riden by top jockey-cos what a fab day it would be, out to lunch and then watch a few dressage tests
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and just think no mucking out
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A compete a few of my clients horses. They enjoy hacking them and spending time, but admit that they are not able to take them any higher but enjoy watching them go out and about. It also provides experience for the horse, so if and when the owner would like to try more, the horse has "been there, done that"
And it's great fun for me!!!!!
 
This king of system actually made me a better rider, the year after I let my old pony compete with another rider, and win a points league trophy, I won it myself, as knowing the pony had done it already inspired me to get my confidence back and compete again
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I think some people enjoy watching their horses compete at higher levels. Our YM has alot of clients who buy his horses for him to ride. In most cases the owners love the social side of the events, they love following the horses progress and travelling around the country to watch them compete!

One owner is currently Primary (jumping 70cms) and he loves nothing better than watching his GP horses compete. He knows he will never jump that height but this way he still gets to enjoy it!
 
Lots of reasons why someone else would compete your horse.

I know of an eventer that has just gone advanced. As it rose through the grades it became increasingly too strong for it's lady owner - so has now been put in a professional yard with a man on top. She gets an enormous amount of satisfaction seeing the horse continuing with it's competative career. Especially knowing how big a part she played in it.

For me, I would love to have a horse seriously on the competative circuit. However, I am simply not a good enough rider to be able to do it myself. I would still get a kick out of seeing someone else take my horse around Badmington, say.
 
All the horses I ride belong to other people and they all have different reasons for wanting someone else to ride for them.

One of them hates competing but loves to see her horse go out and do well, some of them also compete but at a lower level and are keen to see just how far their horse can go with someone more capable and some of them compete but in different disciplines ie showing/jumping.

I'm only too glad that there are plenty of people out there who want to pay someone to ride for them or I'd be out of a job!!

It can also be very hard when somone suddenly decides to take a horse back or sell one on when you've put alot of time and effort into building a partnership with it.
 
it must be really difficult if you do have to hand a horse back if it gets sold etc.....Thats one thing i wouldnt be able to put up with, but then if its your living i guess its just something you get on with as it comes as part of the parcel of not riding your own.
 
Im with you on this one, I would rather do it myself.
I know someone who had 2 horses with Damian Hallam. She origionally bought them both for herself but then either never rode or they got too much for her so they got sent away.
She used to enjoy watching them compete and was quite happy watching Damian ride. It was a social thing for her, she got a chance to mix in the right circles. She recently bought another horse for herself but after getting low dressage scores she sent it to show with a proffesional.

I have ridden for a few people and still got satisfaction from it. I have learnt so much from every horse I have ridden.
 
I have had and still do have horses with professional riders. Its an absolute thrill when they do well and you can still be very involved but without so much of the stress, when you have a young family and husband to support sometimes you just dont have the time to get your horse to the same level as a professional does, but that doesnt mean that will always be the case!
 
I'll use Bria as an example for this.
Bria's owner is happy to hack her, and flatwork school her, but doesn't enjoy jumping or competing - shes had her time competing and doesn't want to anymore. However, she realises how talented Bria is and wants to see her competed by someone else (me). So she still rides her, just I compete her and train her.

Now from my point of view - Bria is like one of my own, and when I have my own yard she will come there and be even mroe like my own. When i got the ride on her in december, she wouldn't hack alone, wouldn't walk trot or canter anywhere near correctly and had never jumped. Now she is schooling beautifully, jumping lovely, hacking out alone and is totally transformed and improves every day. The sense of achievement in that is immense and I can't wait to have her on my yard and competing BE at a high level - her owner will pay the bills and i'll be doing the training and competing, whilst her owner still maintains the non competitive riding as well as myself.
 
I love competing others peoples horses. No costs and free experience and fun. To be honest I put less pressure on myself. I can only afford to compete 2 of my own and would love to do more so if anybody asks I am delighted.

With the boot on the other foot I could not be an owner. When I broke my leg and Rags went to Lucy to compete and sell I didn't like it. I liked it even less when he did well in first competition with her as I wanted to do it myself.
 
I have a horse who up until about 2-3 years ago only I had competed. I was told by the Chiro not to ride for 3 months and so decided to let me YO take over the ride of my horse as I didnt want to have him not competing for that long. I use to feel like I wanted to do everything with him, but I really enjoyed being an owner. When I was back in the saddle I enjoyed working him in the week and having no pressure, then having a lovely day out watching her compete. Never thought I would like it but I did it for a year and a half. In March this year I took the ride back, but still miss some aspects of it.
 
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