how do you decide when you are ready to move up a level?

[diggerbez]

She mentioned the word "intermediate" yesterday and I laughed in her face Thank goodness I can use the "getting to grassroots with Billy" excuse

hahaha this made me smile...i too am clinging on to this excuse...even though my dressage is clearly not good enough!

 

[diggerbez]

One thing I think is really worth mentioning is once you have moved up it doesn't mean you have to stay there! So many people I know say make the move from Novice to Intermediate and the first one goes well, so they stay at Intermediate and over the next couple of events they progressively get worse until the horse has majorly lost confidence. Nothing wrong with playing around with the levels, doing one event/test at a higher level, then dropping back down for a couple, then back up again etc.

It's less about the status/kudos of the level you are competing at, and so much more about the horse and what they are finding in front of them. And soooo many people I know seem to have a real issue with dropping back down a level for a confidence boost. It's not about failure, it's about being sensible with your horse!

totally agree with this!
also completely agree that lots of people get to a level and because they want to tell their friends that they ride at X level they stay there instead of dropping down and consolidating. strange people! i would rather win at PN than fall off and die at N (extreme example i know...but you get my drift )

 

[KatB]

Completely agree with Saratoga on all points (baaaa!)

I like to feel prepared, but also slightly challenged! I moved madam upto PN for her first run this year as she needed something to think about, but she had done 2xBE90's last year with easy DC's in both. Se will do one more run at BE90 as her next run and then be back upto BE100 until we are happy over ALL sorts of fences XC.

Eventing wise, it does amaze me how quickly some people do move horses up who are not established enough jumping to cope with the bigger tracks. Between Intro and PN isn't a biggy, but I do think Novice with a relatively inexperienced amateur rider on a still not properly educated horse is a recipe for disaster, regardless of how forward thinking or scopey the horse is.

 

[star]

Star, you are good at the stressage stuff, and a comlete fruit loop cross country.(I have seen you drag hunting Its the showjumping you need to work on. If you are taking all the fast routes xc it is all well and good, but your type of horse tends to be good at that stuff (they get it from you). Your weakness will be the show jumping and you need to get that sorted before you move up. PS love to llewy

I think that's what I said lol. I have ridden up to Medium dressage, I like the look of Novice XC and he's schooling over Novice XC and yet I cant get round a 90cm SJ course without ballsing it up in some way. My horse keeps baling me out but I'm determined to get better at it before I move up and scare us both. And when I do move up I'll probably alternate between 100 and 90 for a while to make sure we keep our confidence.

 

[eva]

I have decided that in my dressage if I qualify for the Regionals at every level that means we've cracked it more or less. Then I start thinking of the next one seriously.