To understand level creep, you can’t just look at courses from that year in other areas. You have to look at courses at a specific venue over time – if that venue still even exists. The people that don’t see the level creep, or don’t think it’s a big deal, haven’t been paying attention to how their low level courses (BN, N, Training) have changed in the last 5, 10, 15 years. Maybe they are not riding at a level where it matters, or maybe they’re not riding green horses who have never dipped their toes into Eventing.
Water is practically a prerequisite now at BN, where it used to be rare as hen’s teeth - and the avenues in which to school it are - or were - even rarer. Same with trakehners, ditches, and open airy oxers. Palisades, corners, tables, and hedge fences are now at BN where you used to not see them until Training. Even five years ago, if you wanted to take a horse to their successful first BN, you could pick a handful of events in Area 1 that were inviting and favorable. Now, you have to be practically schooling Training type fences before you take a green horse to their first BN because the variety of fences at BN is much larger than it used to be, and many of these fence-types well surpass what a horse green to eventing would be asked to jump.
So don’t tell me level creep doesn’t exist or it isn’t a problem. I’ve been bringing along green horses to their first events for over 20 years. It used to be I could school a horse XC a handful of times and then take it to a BN and have a successful romp - because the fences were not designed to frighten riders and horses.
Just to give you an idea of how my approach to training has changed, in early 2000 I sourced an OTTB and took him to his first BN event at Valinor within 6 months of his last (attempted) start. It was logs, coops, tires and an optional water crossing - so simple and straight forward we probably could have done it after his first XC school. We didn’t see a table or a corner until we started schooling Training level, because we didn’t need to. They weren’t ever on BN or Novice courses. We didn’t need to school water complexes and fences in water either, because they were unheard of until you went Prelim.
It’s not just that you need to school above the level you’re riding – I think that has always been the case if you want to be truly competitive – but now you are having to school elements well above your level, just to make sure the horse has been exposed to every frightener asked of him on course. That and, it is impossible to replicate the show environment at home. You have to go to a show to do it.
The horse I am taking to his first BN next week, has been schooling Training level XC all summer – because I can’t FIND a BN (or even Novice) height table or corner or mini-hedge to jump him over, yet these things are at the shows (which don’t always allow schooling). BN has become more about being cutting out competition than it has been about introducing a horse to the level, and it’s almost impossible to duplicate a BN course at home because most fences built to BN specifications are not mini-trakehners, mini-hedges, mini-tables or mini-corners. It might be different region to region, but in general here, if you want to school a table or a corner, you better be prepared to jump the one that is 3’9" or 3’11, because no one builds tiny tables or corners for BN. That right there is an issue, because there are BN riders who are perfectly competent at BN, that never want to jump a Training level fence (for many legitimate and perfectly valid reasons beyond not being competent) - so they miss that schooling opportunity and are SOL when they encounter it on course at a show.
Much like @subk, I don’t tend to take my greenies to recognized events for anything below Training now. They have to be well and going for me to consider it, and if I want to give a baby/green horse exposure (which is 90% of what I ride these days) I take it to one of the local schooling shows, where it’s $200 cheaper and the courses are actually inviting and not meant to rattle the confidence of my horse. The added bonus, like Subk said, is that I can school most of these elements and make sure that the outing is positive for the horse. I also take them hunter pacing, which is significantly cheaper and always well run. I still volunteer at my favorite recognized event in the summer, but the way the sport has changed and allowed level creep at the level where riders and horses are the most vulnerable just doesn’t do it for me. The only reason I am attending this event at BN is because the organizers put out an email blast about how few entries they’ve had, and I know better than anyone that is the death-knell of a venue and in Area 1, we can’t afford to lose much else.
