Shedding the 'Novice' Tag!!

[Redwind]

Hey all first post right here!!

Recently got into riding and have been doing so regularly since august and damn me if I havent got the bug!

Thing is ive started pole-work at this point and can do the whole walk-trot-canter repitour without issue, I have no idea however how long it will be before i can take my first fence and shed this accursed novice tag!!!

Any ideas???

 

[traceyann]

As long as you are around horses i still call myself a novice as im still learning everyday there no shame saying your a novice it means you admit you dont know it all and iv been round horse thirty plus years. Still learning

 

[Jazzy B]

problem with horses is when you have learnt one thing another door opens and there are millions more things to learn I've been riding twenty years now and still have tons to learn!

 

[appledoberman]

think you will be waiting a long time, maybe soon you will drop from being a novice riding school rider but before long you will become novice horse owner

 

[Alphamare]

Since August!? It will be a while!!

I've been with horses for over 20 years now and three are still things Iconsider myself novice at, disciplines I have not tried for example.

I have a friend who considers herself an intermediate rider since she has been having lessons for a couple of years, but she struggled to ride my horses. I think of her as a novice.

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

I've been riding for 25 years and consider myself a novice (although probably a "competent novice")!!

The way I see it, unless you are an international or Olympic level show jumper/eventer/dressage rider, then you are a novice

 

[PucciNPoni]

Nothing wrong with a novice tag. Having the idea that you're more than novice means that you think you know more than you do (very often), and that's when you're bound to fall off the perch with a mighty thump. Horses are very good at reducing one's self image when we pat ourselves on the back too much

 

[Redwind]

well here is to going stirrupless till i learn more then! seriousy though so much to learn and i want to know all, been hooked this bad since my first stirrupless canter!!

 

[Alphamare]

What the heck does going without stirrups have to do with it?

 

[rhino]

I was jumping in my 2nd ever lesson but was still most certainly a novice!!

A large number of years later and I'm still nowhere near being an 'experienced' rider

 

[NativePonyLover]

It honestly doesn't matter - as long as horse and owner/rider are both happy then who cares if you are a novice rider or not! I don't go around thinking 'they are doing x, y or z' so they must be an intermediate rider! As long as you are enjoying it, that is the most important part of having horses as a hobby

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

You're always a novice imo, as soon as you think you are competent at one thing, another comes along that you're novice at.

 

[Redwind]

What the heck does going without stirrups have to do with it?

ultimately it makes me sit deaper in the saddle, aids my posture and helps me maintain balance

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Riding schools tend to have a slightly different meaning for 'Novice' IMO.

As they will try to group learner riders with similar abilities together for group lessons, they will have the 'novice' group, the 'intermediate' group and the 'advanced' group. However, if you took the 'advanced' group off the RS horses and put them on a normal horse (for want of a better term) out of the safety of a sand school/arena they would really still be 'novices'.

 

[Mrs C]

I rode for a number of years as a child/teen then started up a couple of years ago. I realise now I was very much a 'passenger' and am only now learning to actually ride. I think I'll always class myself a novice. But very much agree with nativeponylover - why the need to tag as anything

 

[maresmaid]

You're always a novice imo, as soon as you think you are competent at one thing, another comes along that you're novice at.

^^ Too true! I have been a horse owner for over 25 years and would consider myself "experienced" at Prelim and Novice dressage - I have never mastered jumping and am very much a wus at it so I am definately a beginer when it comes to jumping, if I was going to have a flatwork lesson and someone wanted to know what level I usually ride at i would say I was experienced in movements up to elementary level. Someone may well be having regular riding lessons and become quite competant at jumping, but if taken out hunting or in a large group, hacking, their limited experience in this situation would make them a novice. The joy of horse owning and riding is that it is a many faceted subject and there is always something new to master.

 

[Alphamare]

I mean with being a novice or not!!

 

[Alphamare]

Meowy catmas you and I are on the same page!

A person still at a riding school is still a novice. Like my friend. Considered herself an intermedient rider but couldn't handle any of mine very well.

 

[NeverSayNever]

i think the term is open to interpretation. As someone else said, riding schools have a different way of using it tbh; as a riding school rider you could be novice, intermediate, advanced or whatever - but given you are still riding at a RS in terms of the greater horse world you will be a novice for a very long time to come! Even then, if you venture into the world of horse ownership it takes rather a long time to gain experience and shed the tag. You will find that riding privately owned horses is a different ball game to a RS mount. Maybe the term 'beginner' would be more appropriate to you, (since the horse world use the term novice across such a spectrum) and Im sure you'll shed that quickly Horses are the best levelers and it never pays to want to get ahead to quickly. Ive learned to ride when i was 8, Im now 35 and for the past 6 years have been a horse owner; having had shares and the ride on friend's horses until then. So I guess after all these years and having ridden many different horses and competed across all disciplines, I'm experienced, Im not a 'beginner', Id still class my riding as very novicey in many ways however



Rhino, lol, I rather think after over a decade of horse ownership, and doing all the things you do you surely class as experienced by now?

 

[rhino]

Rhino, lol, I rather think after over a decade of horse ownership, and doing all the things you do you surely class as experienced by now?

Have you ever seen me ride?

I don't think I can class myself as experienced as I don't school/compete at a very high level, I can happily bring on young or problem horses to a certain level but then I tend to hand them back... I think some schoolmaster lessons would be in order - better get saving!

I also think growing up in a completely non horsey family is a disadvantage - I didn't start riding until I was 16 so all the learning has had to be very 'active' whereas lots of my friends have the background knowledge and experience they have obtained subconsciously

 

[NeverSayNever]

Have you ever seen me ride?

I don't think I can class myself as experienced as I don't school/compete at a very high level, I can happily bring on young or problem horses to a certain level but then I tend to hand them back... I think some schoolmaster lessons would be in order - better get saving!

I also think growing up in a completely non horsey family is a disadvantage - I didn't start riding until I was 16 so all the learning has had to be very 'active' whereas lots of my friends have the background knowledge and experience they have obtained subconsciously

lol, not personally but I do believe you have ridden with some good friends of mine On a serious note, maybe the term 'experienced' is open to interpretation as well but I dont think you need to school or compete at a high level to be experienced. Experience comes with time served and you wouldnt put a rider lacking experience on a young or problem horse.