<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kileyc:
My question is why is it that many folks, refuse to do a recognized ht at beginner novice? I find no shame in starting my greenie and keeping him at BN until he is ready to move up. But I seem to hear that it is a waste of time and $$ for and experienced rider to do a recognize HT at BN. Has anyone else heard a lot of people say this??? 
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I’ve only followed this thread intermittently, so forgive me if I’m missing part of the discussion. It’s no secret that I don’t really like the beginner novice division, especially for green horses! I can see it’s place for green riders, older horses who really can’t handle novice any longer, or ponies. And I’d like to see it at schooling shows, rather than at recognized horse trials.
That said, the reason that I don’t like BN for greenies is that I think it teaches the horse the wrong idea for XC. The fences are so tiny and the speed so slow that horses do not learn to gallop forward to their fences. It would not be safe to ride at a faster pace over those fences, but green horses shouldn’t learn to crawl around, or worse, be held back to a very slow pace, on XC. Also, I don’t think that the fences encourage good jumping efforts. Instead, they allow almost any horse to be very sloppy and still make it to the other side – not a good habit to carry up the levels.
I don’t ride greenies BN. Period. In fact, I don’t even school them over BN type fences except for a few tiny logs or telephone poles when they are first jumping. Even the greenest of green can trot over a three-foot log or table. In fact, on a really spooky horse, I’ve been known to trot much of a NOVICE XC course, because I think it is a better experience for the horse to trot than to canter so slowly, and because I’d rather have the horse trot up to 3’ fences. (Would it have been bad for the horse to trot BN instead of novice? Probably not. But also not that productive, at least in my mind.)
I’m not advocating rushing up the levels. But I don’t have any great fondness for BN.
On the original thread, I would absolutely like to see more technical questions, within reason, at the lower levels. However, I don’t think that simply making corners, sunken roads, ect. smaller makes them appropriate for the lower levels – and I don’t think that is what anyone here is advocating. I would like to see the types of excercises that prepare riders for the questions asked at the upper levels: steering, adjusting the stride, and the like. I’d like to see more turning questions on novice courses, even if they are simply log-to-log or coop to coop. I agree that narrowER fences should be introduced at novice and training. Novice courses could include modified sunken roads – there was one on the novice course at Trojan Horse that rode beautifully. Half-coffins should be routine at training and introduced at novice. But a ditch can be made inviting with natural wings at novice.
I do think that the biggest change in difficulty is between training and prelim, and that it is especially important to incorporate more technical fences on the training courses especially so that riders are ready to add speed and height to those questions when they move up to prelim.
As for whether this will make eventing more or less safe, I think that the beauty of well designed questions is that they will eliminate unprepared riders/horses without injuring them. The rider who cannot steer to a skinny will likely have runouts, but not a bad accident. More technical questions will also prevent unprepared riders from getting 'round by the skin of their teeth and force them to learn the basics and seek out instruction. I do think raising the standard is the right direction for the lower levels of the sport. --Jess
) and then he became completely unfocused at a “starter” N HT in October (XC only) and we were eliminated (and I fell off!)
