Getting other people to ride/compete your horse

Bernster

Bernster

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This is more of a musing/discussion topic as I had a quick ponder and then decided against it, for now anyway. But it got me thinking about getting someone else to compete your horse for you. And whether people do it or recommend it. Do you have someone compete your horse, or you are one of those who does the competing? Does it work for you and what are your reasons for doing it (if you're the owner)?

We're aiming for a BE 80 for the Wobbleberry challenge and neither me nor the nag have done anything like this. We both have fairly limited competition experience and, worryingly, I have more experience than him as I got him at rising 5yo so pretty much everything he's done has been with me, riding-wise. I've done unaff comps for the last 7 years on and off so I'm not a total numpty, although on occasion I do appear that way.

As I'm also a bit of a wuss, I wondered whether I should get an event rider/instructor to take him round a few 80s first of all, to give him experience without me interfering. Would that make me feel better or not really change anything as it's got to be us two who get round on our own. On the other hand, I know him better than anyone, and we are doing loads of training together and I feel like we can tackle it, with the right prep and training. After all, it's only an 80...haha...hahahahah (cos to me 80 is mahoooosive).

ETA I do get my ins to ride him (flatwork), so my qu is more about competing.
 
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Personally I love it!
Over the years I've come to accept that I'm not a brilliant competitor. I'm a bit of a wuss, get quite nervous and have to manage an old back injury. So whilst I love the eventing scene I get far more pleasure from being an involved owner than I do forcing myself to do it!

Currently I own a leg with a pro. Previously I have had young horses that I have paid a pro to take round their first few. I have a yearling waiting to come through and my plan would be that I do the fittening and basic schooling and a pro will do the rest.
 
I've done it now and then for different people, in different disciplines. I think it can help if the usual rider is either nervous or inexperienced and it is helpful for the horse to have some more miles before they tackle something together.
For example, relevant to your situation, I took a little arab to some PC eventing when the usual rider hadn't competed that horse before and was keen for it to have a good experience & for her to see him go well (hopefully) and therefore feel more confident to take him herself. She subsequently took him to BE80.

Whether it works for you or not is probably a personal decision. Would your own confidence improve seeing him go round with someone else, or would you not be able to actually transfer that feeling (or worse still, feel more pressure on yourself because he'd done it before?)
Would you be better off spending that time and money on more training, or a run round a low-pressure unaff event, or even better getting your regular trainer to accompany you to an event to coach you through it?

I don't think you need worry about you having more experience than the horse - many many of us have been in that position before and it's not a problem as long as you are both well prepared for whatever you are going to tackle :)
 
Hmm, well those are interesting perspectives and have made me think a bit more about whether it is something to consider for my boy. I feel like we can manage it, but part of me wonders if our mutual greenness might create some issues. Not sure if seeing how he goes for someone else would make me feel better, but it might be a nice way to test how he does in a comp without me being on board!
 
I have done both, ridden for owners and have put a real pro on one of mine, with my SJ having the pro ride him first really helped, I then had a lesson from him and got on with competing myself feeling more confident in what I was doing, it helped that the rider was often at the same competitions so often walked the course with me knowing how the horse went.
I think if you can get your trainer to take him out it would do no harm and may be really beneficial to his confidence as well as yours, if your regular trainer does not event find someone and go for a lesson or two before deciding whether or not you want to pursue the option of asking them to compete him, you need to be compatible so they will ride him in a way that will be useful to you and so you can continue to train with them through the process, a one off day out following a ride or two at home may not be so useful.
 
My plan is to send Cyprian round xc schooling at least with my friend who is a proper eventer. I think it will help me to see him do it with her and it will help him to go round with someone who isn't a nervous wreck. My SJ coach has jumped him over scary fillers and walls for me a couple of times. I found that far more beneficial than trying it myself and riding it so badly he might stop. From a confidence perspective the more I know he will go the more I ride him like he will go so the more he goes...
 
Cool. So not a bad idea after all! I have someone in mind so will chat to her, she doesn't teach us at the moment but she knows us both and I was thinking of getting some sj lessons with her. I'm planning on doing our first hunter trial of the year this weekend so that's also a kind of check point on how we're doing.
 
Competing for owners is what I've done for the last 15 years.
Some of the owners didn't want to compete themselves but wanted to see their horse competing. Others it was using my experience to get the horse through the early wobble stage which can easily destroy both horse and rider confidence. Last owner (horse in avatar) was in this group. Horse was huge, inexperienced and had quite a few moments at comps which would not have ended well had the owner been on board. Seven months on I handed the ride back and owner is now out competing him herself and having a ball.
Sometimes it's better to get one of the partnership up to speed first.
 
Would it be better for the horse to have an experienced, strong, sympathetic, confident rider on board? Yes, of course it would, every time. Would it it be better for you to see how the horse goes, deals with the various challenges and plan how to help him/her progress? Well, I certainly would take that opportunity rather than deal with rider nerves and potentially scare myself and the horse half to death.
 
It depends on the person involved. some horses do get a bit on edge when they first go out and if the rider is suffering competition nerves then it can make them worse so then it is a good idea to have someone else ride for them and either get the horse through that stage or if the horse has the attitude of ok nothing interesting to see here then the normal rider will take confidence from that. the only time I can see that it would not be a great idea is if the owner is the sort to think they are not good enough and the chosen rider is someone who would try to reinforce that (even if its not deliberate) as then if they felt tey did not do as well as the other person it could mean them thinking they are not dooing their horse justice or it goes better for x and then they lose what little self confidence they do have. but for the purpose of discussion although its not applicable to the op and its not going to happen often its worth keeping in mind if the owner is that sort of person.
 
Thanks Cortez, obv makes a lot of sense. And PM, I can see how beneficial that would be. I often wish you were closer as you sound like a fab stunt rider!

CM, that's a good point about the impact on the owner, depending what they want out of getting someone else to ride.

Oddly, F is often fairly oblivious to what I'm feeling - he gets tense when I'm fine, he can be calm when I'm nervous, then occasionally we both get tense/nervy together.
 
Bernster said:
Thanks Cortez, obv makes a lot of sense. And PM, I can see how beneficial that would be. I often wish you were closer as you sound like a fab stunt rider!

CM, that's a good point about the impact on the owner, depending what they want out of getting someone else to ride.

Oddly, F is often fairly oblivious to what I'm feeling - he gets tense when I'm fine, he can be calm when I'm nervous, then occasionally we both get tense/nervy together.
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The second line is why I said you need to get a going relationship BEFORE committing to a rider, the wrong rider/ trainer will have a negative influence on someone who is already having some doubts, the right one will give you a boost as well as helping to educate and give the horse a good grounding, one girl who rides for my liveries at times is great at pushing the owner without them feeling inadequate, she is not a pro and never feels the rides are "hers" she is simply getting them going and having fun and I suspect PM would be similar with "his" rides.
 
I've done this when my TB was a 5yo. My trainer at the time took her in her first two intro classes before I got on board, and it did give me confidence to know I wasn't riding a 'first timer' any more...

He knew her well, and had her to stay for a week before the first one so he could get used to her.

Fiona
 
I had a friend ridemy mare and she did a lovely job in a elementary dressage test but she was a good horse anyway to ride and very easy.
 
PaddyMonty said:
I think the phrase you are looking for is 'Crash Test Dummy' :p
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Hah. Do you bring your own pillows (or other buffer related items) ?!

BP - yes, I can def see how important that is. The person I'm thinking of I do know fairly well, and she's said in passing some quite intuitive things about me and how I learn. Maybe not rocket science but I had a lesson where someone gave me options/choices and said I didn't need to do anything I didn't want to - which seems perfectly reasonable but made me strangely nervous. This friend said I need to be told what to do and then I'll do it (she's right but I hadn't really thought of that before), so I suspect she may have a good approach. I might have a few jump lessons first, get her to ride, and then broach the subject.
 
I had always planned for Dangerous Brian to go to my trainer's before I got back on him but finances and stuff got in the way and although it's still in the pipeline, I'm starting to wish that I had pushed ahead now after my splat.

I think your plan to see you how this other person rides and gets on with your horse seems like a good way forward.
 
Bernster said:
Hah. Do you bring your own pillows (or other buffer related items) ?!

BP - yes, I can def see how important that is. The person I'm thinking of I do know fairly well, and she's said in passing some quite intuitive things about me and how I learn. Maybe not rocket science but I had a lesson where someone gave me options/choices and said I didn't need to do anything I didn't want to - which seems perfectly reasonable but made me strangely nervous. This friend said I need to be told what to do and then I'll do it (she's right but I hadn't really thought of that before), so I suspect she may have a good approach. I might have a few jump lessons first, get her to ride, and then broach the subject.
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Sometimes having options or choices works but for most people they then think too much about those options and lose confidence in their decision making, being told what to do and how to do it means less thinking more getting on with it, xc riding needs thought but a fair bit must be intuitive as things happen too quickly to waste time having option a, b or c to choose between.

It sounds as if the rider you have in mind could be ideal, they already have an opinion of you and if you have a connection/ feeling that is as good a place as any to be starting.
 
Wimbles said:
I had always planned for Dangerous Brian to go to my trainer's before I got back on him but finances and stuff got in the way and although it's still in the pipeline, I'm starting to wish that I had pushed ahead now after my splat.

I think your plan to see you how this other person rides and gets on with your horse seems like a good way forward.
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Quite. It is no coincidence that I first thought of this when I went splat out xc training a few weeks back! I hope you're ok though and get your confidence back soon.
 
be positive said:
Sometimes having options or choices works but for most people they then think too much about those options and lose confidence in their decision making, being told what to do and how to do it means less thinking more getting on with it, xc riding needs thought but a fair bit must be intuitive as things happen too quickly to waste time having option a, b or c to choose between.

It sounds as if the rider you have in mind could be ideal, they already have an opinion of you and if you have a connection/ feeling that is as good a place as any to be starting.
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Yep. And I am also a bit of a swot, do as I'm told, kind of person - if someone tells me to do it, I assume I have no choice but to suck it up and get on with it!
 
This is exactly what I've done with B. I want to event, but I'm a huge wuss. My friend is an eventer and offered to help us out, so for the last 2 years she's been coaching me and has been eventing B (both unaff and affiliated).

For me it has many benefits. I just love to see my horse go further than I could possibly ever take him (and to see him enjoy it, too!). He's got so much more potential than I could ever help him realise by myself.

It also gives my own riding a confidence boost to see him jump round difficult SJ courses and fly round a challenging XC with no real issues. So when I come to do it, I know there shouldn't be anything that he wouldn't jump or that he would find too difficult etc.

It also makes me insanely jealous to see my friend have all this fun with MY horse, so it gives me more motivation to get cracking and get on with it myself :D not as simple as that of course, when you're constantly battling your confidence demons... but it definitely helps!!

Plus, it is SO good for the horse to go round with a very able and confident rider.

:)
 
I get someone to show one of mine at the bigger shows I find them a bit daunting especially when the class is full of pro's, I can do it but he does a much better job than me and I quite enjoy not having the stress of having to ride it's nice to just relax and watch him go round looking lovely, I would definitely recommend it especially if it's a nerve issue it really does help you get the confidence to want to do it yourself.
 
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