Why is bad behaviour a sign of good riding?

I think there are two interpretations going on here!

I think there is a misunderstanding here with people thinking that good riders working hard to train difficult horses are being slated, which is not the case.

The op (I think) was referring to the trend for people to have perfectly nice horses, feed them up, bit them to the eyeballs, and spur them on to buck and rear Nd prance and snort purely with the intention of looking cool on the back of an impressively dangerous horse that can only be ridden by them as they have such superior riding skills!

Very different to the genuinely good (great) riders who can sit a difficult horse and work it through the problems to produce a nice, well behaved, well mannered horse. These riders, IMHO, are the true greats, whereas people who just like to wind a horse up to prance and put on a show I do not have the time of day for!
 
That is exactly what i meant trouble :)
And I do get irritated aswell when people think you are soooo lucky to have such a well behaved horse. I used to get girls making fun of me (in my pony club days) for riding my seemingly easy little pony while they were on their "naughty" ex racers. They never knew how much work I had put in to get my pony to behave. In my experience it seems to be naughty horse - good rider. Well behaved horse - you just got lucky
 
It never is, although with notable exceptions. Vibart for instance and his kickback, Ryans Son with his bucking habit and the incomparable Uncle Max who was the biggest show off of all time. No one can dispute the skills of messrs. Fielden, Whittaker and Edgar, they had equine egos to contend with which could not be contained on occasion. These partnerships, along with some others of the time were a joy to watch.
 
Not read through this, my view is that a horse which is difficult to handle in any sphere, has massive holes in its training.
Just managing to get round the course is not good enough. It's not good riding either to keep a horse in this state.
Still, lots are impressed with the wrong things.
 
And worse still someone riding a perfectly mannered and well schooled horse is seen to be inferior as a rider.

The best riders for me are those who ride their horse so they are happy, comfortable and willing; showing no sign of resistance and being worked within their current level of training and ability.
 
There is something to be said though for someone who ends up with a challenging horse, for whatever reason, and quietly and calmly sticks it out rather than selling on and buying something else that would win them more rosettes immediately.

N.B Don't count myself in this as technically by putting Bree in schooling livery someone else is quietly and calmly teaching her appropriate behaviour.

The more I read threads about shows these days here, the less I want to compete . . .

Paula
 
My horse bucks some times, there is nothing cool about it with regards to me , 9 times outta 10 I end up slam dunked pretty hard into the dirt.

I more get the sympathy vote of OMG is she still alive ;-)

I'm trying to stop the bucking and it is few and fair between now.

Last time was in the ring at local BS comp, landed a fence he decided he was going left I thought right, dam saddle sliped so I was hanging off side a bit and to be fair I was going anyway but to add insult to injury my boy thought it eject me with large amounts of force, bucking me right into the air flipping me over and me landing flat on my back across the arena fence, lucky for my body protector as I think I'd of broken it.

Result was a very winded me, lying on the deck for about 5 mins.
Never got any " what a good rider" comments though - bummer ha ha ;-)
 
Bad behaviour from a horse is no indicator of a good rider to see if the rider is good you need to look at what the riders doing .
Often good riders will have badly behaved spoiled horses out and about but often it badly trained horses being ridden by brave but uneducated riders and I think that's the sort OP I'd talking about.
Paulag the older I get the I can be bothered with shows it's like the extra years makes it ok to say I train these horses and spend a fortune because I love it I dont have to justify doing it by competing.
I have spent three years backing and trying to train a very difficult ex driving horse he had his first trip hunting yesterday its a mad way to spend your time but I have enjoyed seeing him change.
And I also look so old when I go to competitions now !!!
 
I wouldn't say that people praise the rider for having a badly behaved horse. Maybe praise their ability to stick on if its a horse having a bad day. And there's a big difference between a well trained horse having a playful moment when it doesn't matter, & a badly trained one doing so all the time. The former I have rode plenty of. The latter I wouldn't be taking out in public till I'd resolved the training issues.
I'm yet another one who is 'lucky' to pick horses who are born well mannered & schooled!
 
Training a horse to go from bad to good is part of what makes you a good rider!

People often say to me "You ride Ned so well! I could never get on him!" No, you could! I'm not the only one who can ride him, I'm the only one who wants to.
I pride myself in getting him so far, especially over-coming our latest little tiff at the gate. I found it so embarrassing when he was rearing and striking out. Also in shows when he was going sideways at jumps and being an absolute twit. I was so proud of myself when we did the entire course without a refusal and without going sideways and getting 2nd place!!

We had some kids who thought riding a naughty pony was big and clever, they tried to make Archie, who was such a good soul, to look naughty, so they'd look cool, but of course they didn't win.

It's something that bothers me too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top