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| What Is Good Riding? |
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As a 50 year instructor of many styles of riding, and a 30 year judge/coach of various disciplines, I can't remain silent about this one. In my opinion, GREAT RIDING is sensitive and supportive of the horse; we are always "teaching or unteaching" every horse we ride, and the great riders are "teaching" the horse about 70% of the time if they are really, really lucky, including in competition. GOOD RIDING in any discipline reminds me of the physician's charge, "DO NO HARM". Of course that includes no harm to oneself by poor judgment as well as no harm to the horse's good training, which may have been provided by someone else. I see licensing as no panacea. There are grossly incompetent licensed riders, coaches, instructors, and officials at every level, including in Eventing; no country is turning out 100% reliable licensees. Some of these who were unsuccessful in their own countries are coming here to "practice". As for "hunter/jumpers having a progression on being judged on a standard" I don't see how this differs from Eventing. HJ judging is hideously political at the lower levels in particular, and you can see as much ugly riding there as anywhere. What is touted as "style" may be posed, ineffective, and unsupportive of the horse, as well as superficially pretty to the eye. It has even been known to be abusive. I am one organizer who would prefer to have Stadium before XC to sort out the few kamikaze riders my events have had; probably 2 or 3 a year out of 300 at Novice through Intermediate. Our courses are considered difficult because of the terrain, and have been praised for their excellent design and building. Unfortunately not every Licensed CT Judge has the guts to deny the eliminated Stadium rider the chance to ride XC; the good ones do. Since the CT Judge became the automatic head of the Ground Jury, with the real power of the TD being removed when the competition starts, we have seen some judges who are heavily Dressage oriented making XC course changes and begging the TD to sit with them in Stadium because they are unsure of the niceties of the rules. If a rider is "all over the tack and people cringe" at a stadium round, but they get around without penalties (this happens a lot) does a dressage-oriented judge actually know what the rider will look like on XC well enough to justify denying the right to ride XC based on appearances but not actual performance? As a USPC examiner, I have seen 30 years of testing from Unrateds to A level. Stadium is always first on tests. In my own Region there is a club whose riders mostly foxhunt from the age of 6. They are often pitiful in their flatwork, and sometimes horrible in stadium. Yet they may be as solid as you would ever want to see when tested on XC. These kids grow up galloping their ponies safely in flat racing at the local steeplechases, win the junior jump races there, and in many cases go on to become professionals in the horse business. Their dressage and stadium seldom improve much, at least partly because they bring their failed or slow racers to events, and it's downright impossible to maintain a "pretty and classic" position, despite the fact that they are as effective as the horse allows, and manage to ride safe and steady XC rounds. I have the advantage at small local events over an outside judge; I know who the riders are and have probably seen the horses at our twilight (cheap schooling!) shows and combined tests several times before they try a XC course at a low level. And if I think their lives are in actual jeopardy, I can go over to them and suggest that I am worried about their going on that particular day; but under the rules, I can't eliminate them unless the rules provide for that. Don't get me wrong. I am familiar with the curricula and practices of most of the certifying organizations in the U.S., and have friends who are BHSAI, BHSI, German and French Licensed. I am also familiar with literally hundreds of people with inferior knowledge, experience and safety practices to those of a good 12 year old Pony Clubber. Given the overall choice of the two groups, I would still prefer the former, who have, at least, had to prove something to someone, no matter how cursory or flawed the system under which they have done it has been. Drusilla Malavase |