So who honestly believes THEY could ride round Badminton or Burghley?

Baggybreeches

Baggybreeches

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If money and horsepower and luck were all forthcoming?
Could you?
I have to say if you asked me 5 years ago I would say I could, but actually now I realise I couldn't.
I very much doubt I could ride one side of a proper 4* horse, and live to tell the tale!
And out of interest which horse would you choose and why?
Mine would be Miners Frolic *swoon* because I am shallow and he is beautiful!
 
.. I'm fairly sure my nerves would say goodbye approximately 5 metres from the jump and then I'd have to bail out or close my eyes and cry and hope for the best while clinging to the mane ... but then again I'm not known for my nerves of steel :lol:
 
If you glued my ass to the saddle, my hands to the reins, gave me the most honest horse in the world who was capable of guiding himself around a course, gagged me so the crowd could not hear my screams of terror and blinfolded me, and gave me an injection of drugs to calm me down.......maybe...just maybe I could go over one jump :D
 
Not if my life depended on it.

I have enormous respect and admiration for anyone who has the guts and determination to get to that level - and I am very envious at the same time - of their guts and determination - and the amount of trust that there must be between horse and rider.

That really is something.

I will keep working at my very basic, novicey level and try to get my nerves under control over fences!


'til then, my only claim to fame will have to remain once mucking out an ex-Olympic 3DE'r...
(That's the horse!)
 
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I am 30 in about 3 weeks and still living in the denial that my childhood dream of getting there isn't out of reach!!! :D N.B. I have now extended my deadline to 40!!!! :D :D :D

In all seriousness I just don't know. I don't think you can know until you move up the levels. I'm only just moving up to Novice next season for the first time, we might find this is our ceiling or that Int or Adv is if we ever get to that stage. A few years ago Novice was my life goal, but now it's starting to look realistic and we know the horse has the scope for that and more, we may decide to aim a bit higher!! ;) I think you have to take each step at a time and you will know when you hit your ceiling.

If you sat me on Lenamore tomorrow, though, for sure I couldn't do it.
 
If I had my old girl (the grey in my siggy back) then I would have a go, and I sincerely hope we could. She made our first 3* (CCI long format) feel really easy tbh, easier than the Advanced 1-days we did. The dealer I bought her from, when I said I'd had to retire her, said he was really sad that we'd never got a crack at 4* cos he was sure she'd have done it, and he's a far better judge than me. I know I'm brave enough, my accuracy comes and goes but she was scopey, honest, and generous enough to cope with it and never hold it against me at the next fence...! Our dressage would have been horrendous because she had physical problems (chronic atlas/axis problem) but the jumping parts would have made up for it.
As for whether I could ride someone else's 4* horse round, it would depend absolutely hugely on which horse and on how scopey and generous it was. I don't kid myself that I could ride one side of a lot of them, put it that way...
 
There is no way I could do it. I know my limits!!!

The more I do and the more I learn when Im eventing at intro/pre novice I realise just how good you have to be to ride at that level. If you get the stride wrong the consequences are so much more serious.

Plus I think I would need to be winched into the saddle because my legs would be like jelly and I would probably be in the toilet until the last second - brown jodphur time!!!

Im pretty sure there is no such thing as a horse to take you round at that level - if only!!! If I could pick any horse it would be Spring Along. I may do fence 1 if I had a stiff drink first!!!!;)
 
Nope far too big and scary!

I'll admit to looking at novice fences (while I'm safely standing on my own two feet) and thinking yeah with the right horse I could jump that, but realistically... probably not, especially not a whole course of them!

I've given up on the childhood ambition of going round burghley, and exchanged it for some far more modest goals!
 
Oh, please can I add, since I seem to be the only self-delusional nutter around here who thinks they could, that imho both TableDancer and Baydale could, if mounted on a horse who was brave, scopey, straight and honest. (and they're both much better than me, but probably also more modest!) ;) ;)
 
Oooohhh!!! Interesting...... My boyfriend is always asking what would happen if Sharon Hunt and I swapped horses. I sometimes think my horse might be capable of 4*. With someone who could actually ride, obviously.

Erm, no. I don't think I could. I say this because I tried to get as far as I could when I was a teenager and I had a good horse. I entered the Junior Open Intermediate at Belton and when I walked the XC, I thought I might die. I was eliminated at the last SJ, after being clear until then. That was my one and only brush with Intermediate, so if I was going to go above Novice, surely I would have done it then, when conditions were pretty optimal for me to do so.
 
I'd give it a go, but would probably miss out those REALLY steep drops. And the ones with the huge scary ditches. And some of those enormous corners...

So, could probably manage the first and last jump :D
 
Interesting replies, and thanks for being so honest K and hellsbells. I know that I could actually drag Sovereign out of the stable and physically jump each fence, but I don't think I have the 'sharpness' any more to deal with the speed and intensity of actually doing the 4* xc. I qualified my own horse to run intermediate and 1* but thankfully it was at the limit of her ability, so we didn't take the plunge. What I don't think people grasp is the state of mind required for that level of riding. I now get just as much pleasure from watching horses and ponies I produced go on a do well. Maybe my competitive days are numbered?
 
kerilli said:
Oh, please can I add, since I seem to be the only self-delusional nutter around here who thinks they could, that imho both TableDancer and Baydale could, if mounted on a horse who was brave, scopey, straight and honest. (and they're both much better than me, but probably also more modest!) ;) ;)
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I think BD has actually been most of the way round Badders XC ...... :)
 
I like to think I could, but i very much doubt it in real life, i would have a go at the dressage and sj bit but the xc, urm no thanks, but who knows maybe one day............... I might get to ride round a novice :p
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I defo have a go.....it is my ambition and I am aiming high but hey ho you never know....have just bred two wonderful talented youngsters.........:)
 
With lots of valium I probably could get round (technically I have pretty good glue.. not a politically correct rider but i have got some superglue.)

But honestly.. nope.. i would fall off in fear!!

Lou x
 
I was at pony club in a neighbouring branch, at the same time as Mary King (or Thompson as she was then) was competing on Butterboy. So hey, us lot didn't do so bad considering we had to compete against a future champion!!! Makes me feel a lot better!

I'm a total disgrace to the horse world, just slop around hacking on a loose rein, and I think if my sweet little man even so much as saw a jump like they've got at Burleigh, I think he'd probably spook at it. We've popped a log in the woods out hacking, but that's about it.

I don't think we could do it, not ever. No way.
 
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