Novice BE tracks

[george4eva]

Heya everyone,
Im a bit nervous about going round a novice B.E track. I havent been PN before either. Im a member of the pony club and iv done pony club senior opens, Is novice much different?? Im not to bothered on the height but the technicality????!!!!
Any advice or tips much aprec.

 

[eventersrus]

l would say do some PN first

 

[LEC]

I think sometimes PC is worse than BE as they have some really odd choices of fences. I would say do one PN just to get used to it all and then go novice if it all goes well. At least you will know what you are dealing with.

 

[MagicMelon]

Do PN level until you're perfectly happy to do a Novice. Like lec says, some PC XC's are a bit weird - Ive done a few unaffiliated Opens which Id say had fences which could easily have been in a BE novice, but I think that PC courses tend to be beefy but simple tracks. Whereas novice tends to be more technical with more related distances / narrow fences etc. When you do your PN, try to walk the Novice track as well so you can get an idea of what's expected.

 

[henryhorn]

I would definitely do Intro or PN first, we have found many of the local competitions are over BE tracks, but they add the weirdest fences into PC comps, it's not unusual to find Intermediate fences in an Open PC ODE or HT.
CCJ has jumped plenty of Novice fences un-affilliated in PC comps so I reckon you will find Novice well within your capabilities.. one year Bicton had the Intermediate water (over a big log dropping into the water) in their Open PC ODE, and as hardly anyone got round my daughter moved up from 9th to 2nd..

 

[poggio]

If you're that worried about it why dive in at Novice ?? There are two other levels that can 'ease' you into the standards at BE so I wouldn't push yourself to go straight at Novice... even if you are riding something experienced with loads of points there are Open classes at PN and now also Intro. PC opens are generally thought to be on par with Novice BE but I wouldn't rely on that tbh... good luck whatever you decide!

 

[BroadfordQueen]

I would deffinately drop down a level before going straight to novice for your first BE event. I have been competing at intermediate pony club height (which is the equivilant of pre novice height) with the odd opens, and havent done a PC novice since our first ever competition, however i am joining the BE next year and am going to do a couple of intros, just to get the hang of this whole BE malarky!

 

[george4eva]

Thanks everyone for your help. Ill do a PN before going into Novice. Is it a big step? Iv heard people saying the biggest step is PN to N. Is this true???
Thanks for all you advice!!
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