I think this really bears repeating. If your goal is 1.30m and you’re an amateur who will occasionally miss, you need a 1.40m horse. That’s because an amateur miss is often getting to involve a tricky distance AND not having the right balance and pace. Which means your horse’s raw scope and heart is what is getting your butt out that hot water.
If you do that too many times, your horse will start stopping. Bc that is both physically challenging and thus becomes mentally daunting. If you watch professionals, they do not always get the horse to the perfect distance but the vast majority do have the horses in good balance with good pace. So it’s not as large a task to get over the jump safely. Watching even really good amateurs, that’s not always the case.
Safety scope is a very real thing, especially since as you progress, there’s more power and speed and less margin for error. Horses who are amateur friendly at this level are valuable.
Of course, there will be times when the trainer screws the client. For sure. If you can shop without a trainer, fantastic. That certainly saves a lot of money. But not everyone is that confident or able to live with the consequences of a bad deal. I think a lot of people (admittedly not all) are better off buying from respected dealers who can find a good match in budget. This is one kind of mistake that can be so expensive (emotionally and financially) if you get wrong.
