Novice or Experienced??

[Mahoganybay]

What would you class my riding as??

Background, got my first horse 10 years ago, 20 year old New Forest X school mistress, who was push button, bought a 5 year old Standardbred Mare 3 years ago, who is not push button.

My Standardbred struggles to canter and trots as fast as most horses gallop, tis a choppy trot and quite hard to sit too, she is nappy, spooky and fast, difficult to hack on her own, but does not rear or buck.

I never in a million years thought i would ever be confident on a horse like her, but surprisingly i am, she does not worry me at all, i have regular lessons.

I would have classed myself as novice, but wondered what other people thought??

What sort of horses do you have (i.e. ridden issues) and what do you class yourself??

 

[jrp204]

Wouldn't class you as a novice but maybe not experienced either, somewhere in the middle?

 

[PucciNPoni]

I've been riding since I was 12, had several horses (my sister had lots, I rode them all). I have worked on studs, show barns etc in the States (til my mid 20's). I never had formal lessons then. I gave up for ten years, went on the odd hack in that time. Came back to riding regularly five years ago when I bought a Welsh D mare who is bolshy, strong, jumps the moon, canters on her head, tows you all over the countryside but together with lessons we have managed a few dressage tests with decent results (high placing in large unaffiliated classes at low level, eg WT/Prelim). Placed in the odd WH class, showing classes, tiny SJ (2'6" max) etc but nothing to write home about. Not brave or savvy enough to do XC. Love my dressage.

New horse is a been there, done it ex-showhorse that has all the ability but isn't really pushbutton (he'll do it cos he's polite but you still got to work to get it right).

Upon filling out an application for a RC, I asked my RI what the level I should put down for my ability, her answer was "intermediate at least, but for jumping novice cos you don't like it". She's usually very critical when it comes to assessments so I guess I'll take her word for it. I would have figured novice all round.

 

[BeckyX]

i would say novice as i class myself as intermediate as i have ridden many JA ponies and competed on my own at 90cm-1m although we practice upto 1.20cm i have also done open hunter trials (xc) and won
some of my freinds have grade A's and are v goood so i class them as experienced

 

[spotty_pony]

I would probably class you as Intermediate.