What IS a School Mistress?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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After a comment on an earlier post I made just wandering what IS a Schoolmistress. How do you define one?

I'm not sure if Millie is or not, she schools well, jumps nicely but would that make her a school mistress? She's not a push button as such but if she is asked to do something in the correct way she'll do it.

Answers on a postcard please
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I would say a school mistress is a mare who has been, there done that... and is safe and pretty quiet and reliable and not crazily whizzy....

I would say Mill probably is one... depending on how easy she is to ride?
 
Pip is driven
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You ask him 1/2 correct he will try his best to do it right for you and is forgiving as anything to mistakes
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Would never take the P.
 
Could you put any plonker on her and she will go around and aound and around just doing what they ask?

If not then no
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Thankfully none of mine are like that
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Id rather a child had a challenge, not nasty behaviour but a pony with a bit of spark in an enclosed space does help kids learn to ride better!
I'd never put my child on a pony that rears/bucks/naps etc
 
Well Millie hadn't been there and done that until this year, but now she'll do it all without an Issue.

LJ finds her easy to ride in the sense she doesn't pull her arms out/try to buck her off etc but she needs riding. LJ has improved a huge amount in the 6 months she has been riding Millie, which I think has surprised everyone as she was always a fab rider, now she is technically better though.

Will try and find some before and after pics to show you what I mean
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A horse that has all the buttons established so you must use the correct aids. However must also not get confused oe "de-schooled" by someone using the wrong aids.

Been there, done that, got the t shirt horse but also one you can't muck up!
 
I take it to mean a mare who is well schooled and forgiving enough for someone to learn on - although I think the horses that teach us the most are the ones you have to work harder with, people generally tend to describe complete push-button ponies as schoolmasters/mistresses. In my experience, anyway. I have to say though, I'd only ever ridden schoolmasters until I got Scooby (who, while safe and lovely and despite trying his heart out, does have his fair share of schooling issues), and I have learnt more in the last month than I did in six years on riding school ponies!
 
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Could you put any plonker on her and she will go around and aound and around just doing what they ask?

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See I wouldn't say that is a school mistress. I would love to ride a school mistress to improve my riding, but that wouldn't involve going round and round in circles like a numpty
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I guess what I am asking is are school Mistresses and Beginners ponies the same thing?
 
A schoolmistress is a mare who is a teacher not a student - ie. forgiving to mistakes (within reason obv) and will show a rider the ropes at whichever level of competition they have been schooled to. I wouldn't expect a schoolmistress to win a competition with an inexperienced rider, but I would expect one to be calm, sensible, forgiving and generally an educational presence with an inexperienced rider and get a middle range result. You should be able to get on a schoolmistress and get a reasonable outline, or a reasonable jump, or a reasonable day's hunting... a schoomistress/master is a push button with the meaning that if you know how to press the button, she will do said button's function nicely, however she will NOT press the buttons for you (that is a a true push button for an incompetent rider.)
 
Ok, here are a couple of piccys

This was in April this year

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And this was in July
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I'm sure you will agree that LJ has hugely improved (hadn't even had lesson by this point) which has also improved Millie's way of going.

So if you ride her correctly she knows her job, if you don't she goes around like a giraffe
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I bought my mare as a school mistress she is not a complete beginners ride she is the next level up, she as done a bit of everything.
When she realized i had got better on her she found new gears for me she is forward going in a lovely calm way, a school mistress is a horse that as experience under her belt and will forgive little mistakes and just keep going for you.
 
mine is like this - will quite happily work in an outline ,jump fillers,combos etc,stand to be tacked up and booted up,load for me but give him to most other people and you find yourself with an out of control giraffe who is harking back to his racing days!! So for me he is almost there schoolmaster wise (we do have the odd arguement regarding hacking
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) but he is nowhere near ready for other people . It is quite satisfying though when you have had people who comment on how push button he looks and how simple he must be to ride actually get on and get about 10% of his potential
 
I think you can get different types of schoolmistress/master- there are the beginnery type ones, who you could, as said above, plonk anyone on, and they would be quiet, sensible etc. But then there are also horses who would not be called a beginner's ride, but are 'schoolmasters' in a specific field- eg eventing or showjumping. IE I know a 14yo who has been to Advanced, and is now doing JRNs with a younger rider, but is definitely NOT a beginner's ride!
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I think Millie probably is a schoolmistress (IMO
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) just because from the grin on LJ's face in all your photos she is obviously feeling very safe and confident
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Apologies, major rambling...i was thinking aloud
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Lol, did you edit that last bit or have I had to much to drink
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I was about to reply and say, she's 11 now so practically grown up
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Wow! the difference between April and July is amazing. If you had asked me I would have said it was a different horse and different rider.

We viewed a horse today for a second time, it looked fabulous when ridden by an experienced young girl, went down a gear for me but still moved up to trot and canter when asked - very nicely, was not as responsive to my daughter when she tried her and then finally when handed over to an 8/10 year old (not sure of her exact age), turned into a complete safe kick along who would only move up to a slow trot.

Holly B
 
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