From: Sean
Dear Jessica, I'm hoping that you will be able to settle an argument that I'm having with my instructor. I'm an event rider who hopes to go very far, maybe even to the Olympics someday. I haven't been doing eventing for very long but I think I have a lot of ability for it. My instructor says I have natural talent. Right now I am competing Novice. I went to three events this summer and did pretty well at all of them. The first one I got eliminated on Stadium because we knocked over a fence and I fell off, then I forgot to jump both parts when I jumped it again, but we got to finish the course anyway. That was pretty cool. Then at my second Event I placed 15th and my instructor said that was good because there were 23 people in my section. And at my third Event last month I placed number 10! I was pretty happy about that. There were only 14 people in my section but I think that 10th is still better than 15th. What my instructor and I are having an argument about is that I want to compete Training now, because I already spent all summer competing Novice and I did pretty well. I know my horse can jump the Training jumps and do the dressage, because he did all that stuff at Prelim before my dad bought him.
So I feel like I am wasting time at Novice because I have talent and my horse already knows more than just Training level. My instructor wants me to spend the next six months doing dressage and gymnastic stuff, and then she wants me to compete Novice next summer again, and maybe but not for sure go Training at the end of the summer. I feel like she is holding me back. I already proved I can do Novice, and my horse used to do Prelim. How can I make her understand that it's time for me to move up? The jumps are not that much higher. We can handle them. She is a big fan of yours and is always quoting you, so it will have a big effect on her if you agree with me on this matter.
Thank you in advance, for your advice, Sean
There's much more to moving up a level than just having survived a few competitions at your current level. Yes, the horse does count for a lot, but if you're a rider with talent and ambitions, you want to be more than just a passenger! You need to learn to be the best rider you can be, and that means that you'll need to "graduate" from each level legitimately and honestly, by mastering all of the skills needed at that level. Your horse already has the skills, the knowledge, and the experience - that's great. Now it's time for you to acquire all of those things. Spending a year, or two or three years, at a level isn't unusual - not everyone acquires skills at the same rate. This doesn't reflect on your innate abilities, either. Riders who have two lessons a week and compete every other weekend all summer long on several horses will make progress more quickly than riders who have a weekly lesson and a single horse on which they compete two or three times during the season. That's reality. But the nice thing about eventing, if you have a good instructor (which you apparently DO) is that what matters is how well you do what you do, not how old you are or how long it took you to reach any particular level. Think of the process as "eventing school". It's the way school OUGHT to be - the focus is on skills acquisition, not on a lock-step promotion system.
In too many school systems, there are students who are promoted from seventh grade into eighth, and a year later into ninth, etc., for one reason only: they've spent a year "at" (not WORKING at, just REGISTERED at) one level, and the lock-step system says it's time for them to move up. They haven't acquired the skills at any level, and they can't function at the new level, but at the end of the year, they'll move up again. Eventually, they will probably graduate from high school, with no skills at all, lacking even the most basic ability to read and write and calculate. They'll be in trouble in the real world, and the fault lies, to a great extent, with the system that passed them from grade to grade just because they were a year older each fall.
There are eventing (and other) instructors who are ruled by this same lock-step concept, and who "promote" their riders every year, based on nothing at all but the fact that the rider competed at the previous level LAST year, so it "must be time to move up." Instructors who do this may be stroking their students' egos, but they aren't doing them any favours. For one thing, they're putting the riders AND their horses at risk. For another, they are letting riders imagine that they are actually competent to do things that they are NOT competent to do. It's dangerous, and it's irresponsible. Instructors LIKE having their riders move up, but good instructors have their riders move up only when they are legitimately ready to do so. It's a little like a school, again - every school administration LIKES having a high pass rate, but in GOOD schools, that pass rate is tied to the students' ability to meet the standards of each level. In the world of horse shows and competitions, not having mastered the skills at one level means that you're likely to be in trouble at the next level - and in eventing, the difficulty and speed increase with each level.
Let's talk about fence height for a moment. Again, I'm quite sure that your horse can handle the height of the jumps you would encounter at Training Level, but this isn't about your horse, it's about YOU. You need to learn how to ride a Training Level course. At Novice, it's often possible just to point the horse at each fence, in the proper numerical order, and kick on. At Training, there are a few more demands in terms of turns, terrain, and combinations; at Preliminary, the course designers begin to get serious. The height of the jumps is the least of your concerns. Any really talented course designer could design a 3'6" course that most Novice eventers could sail around easily - and that same designer could put together a 3' course that would stop seasoned Prelim horses and riders in their tracks. The height of a jump is much less of an issue than the appearance of the jump (inviting or forbidding?), the approach to the jump (on the level, uphill, downhill? straight or turning? over grass, over gravel, through water?), the position of the fence, the landing, and the distance to, and position of, the next jump. As you go up through the levels, all of these factors come into play. Yes, you might be able to send your horse around a Training Level course and just hang on while he makes all the decisions, and that would say a lot about the quality of your horse - but it wouldn't do anything for you. And if you ran up against a difficult course that made it necessary for you to help your horse, and you were just a passenger, you could end up getting hurt. And once again, you wouldn't be learning anything useful.
My advice: listen to your instructor. Take your time to master the skills. If you want to ride in the Olympics someday, begin NOW by getting a riding education that isn't full of holes. Take the winter and early spring to work on dressage and gymnastics, as your instructor suggested. Then, in the spring, you can compete at Novice a time or two and hone your cross-country skills. When your instructor says "Okay, I'm signing you up for Training Level," you'll know that she thinks you've mastered the skills and that you're ready to move up.
If it's any comfort, here's a thought to contemplate this winter whilst you're schooling: The first years of ANY discipline are the ones that involve the most effort and the slowest progress. Mastering the principles and techniques of ANYTHING takes time and effort. But there's a payoff: the more time and effort you invest in the beginning, the more smooth and easy everything will be for you later. If you're a really solid Training Level rider with a good background at Novice events, and you work hard to become an equally solid Preliminary rider, then you won't find it hard to move up to Intermediate and eventually to Advanced. Meanwhile, the riders who thought that they didn't need to master the skills at the lower levels will get "stuck" at Prelim - even if they don't get injured, or injure their horses, both of which are very likely outcomes.
So, I'm going to agree with your instructor, because I think that she is wise. If she sees real potential in you, she'll make it her business to see that you "earn" your progress every step of the way. I don't doubt that you will - and I'll look forward to seeing you on an Olympic eventing team some day!
Jessica
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