I’ve supervised our club’s twice annual rating for the past several years, in addition to watching my child take his. And from what I’ve seen many times over, a packer is absolutely NOT needed. A perfect riding day is NOT needed. I’ve seen more than 1 child fall off and still pass the rating that day. What IS needed is the ability to take direction from the examiner and, very importantly, be able to articulate why something isn’t going to plan. “The horse refused the jump and I fell off because <insert explanation>. What I plan to do to differently this time is <insert plan of action>. The reason why I think this will make a difference is because <insert theory>.” Every examiner I’ve seen will tell a member what the issue is that may prevent them from passing a section. If a member can not panic, absorb the feedback and make an honest, clear effort at implementing whatever the examiner wants to see, that goes a long way towards a favorable impression.
Wow. This is bringing back some interesting memories.
FWIW, I did all of my ratings on borrowed horses and they definitely weren’t packers. People HATED pulling my mares for the switch rides. Anyway, I have a traditional H. Came within a hair of passing the traditional B to get my H-A, but failed the stadium switch horse. Reason? One examiner didn’t like my hand position and failed me.
I showed up the second day anyway, rode and passed the all the other requirements. I walked away on Sunday absolutely devastated, but I accepted that I “didn’t meet standard”. Anyway, fast forward two months later and I get an apology letter in the mail from the examiner saying she’d made a mistake and felt I should’ve passed. I was floored.
The point? PC subjectivity is ridiculous, but normal. You see it at horse shows sometimes too. We try to create a standard, but the standard is filtered through people and, bottom line, people make judgment calls.
The point of PC is to teach us how to be horsemen/women. We’re supposed to be able to articulate why something didn’t work and execute a solution. If you can’t accomplish a standard on THAT day, you fail. If you can’t execute your solution, you fail. Sure some examiners might give you some leeway, but this one didn’t. That’s okay. She can practice and retest.
Honestly, if I had been the examiner, I probably wouldn’t have passed her either. Riders can talk about what they should be doing and what the horse should be doing, but until they execute it for me, it’s just talk.
And sure, sometimes examiners make mistakes, but that’s going to happen in real life too. We have to learn to roll with it. Think of ratings/shows like a big client presentation. Yeah, you practiced and yeah, you were awesome the day before, but if you choke on the day of the big client presentation, you can’t say, “Give me the account anyway. Trust me, I was awesome yesterday.”
I’m so sorry she failed. I know how upsetting it is, but success is all about how you bounce back. It’s not about winning/passing first time out.
Although that’s fun too 
Wishing you lots of luck for the retest!!
Suppose you go to take your driver’s test, which includes parallel parking. But, for some reason, reverse is not working.
Without reverse, you can’t parallel park, so you can’t pass the test.
It doesn’t matter that it is the car’s “fault”, not yours,
If we are telling war stories…
I took my B in 1971, when the ratings were D1, D2, C1, C2, B, A.
My horse was thought to be a packer (he had been in Pony Club longer than I had, and took me all the way from D1), but he had developed calcium deposits in his knees, and was well into his teens. The testing was on a day when he wasn’t lame, but a little uncomfortable. If it hadn’t been the testing date, I would have made it a non-jumping day. Especially when he was a bit uncomfortable, if you were hesitant in your approach, he would stop. You had to tell him “yes, I really want to jump this” and he would.
He stopped once for me in the testing, when I was a bit too complacent. But he stopped MORE for most of the other riders.
On the other hand, one of the other riders had a large pony who stopped with her at EVERY SINGLE jump. She never got him over a single jump that day. But she rode everybody else’s horse beautifully. Every body else had multiple stops on her pony. But I got her pony around the course without a single stop. It was not smooth, but it worked.
BOTH of us passed.
The fun of pony club ratings
I remember my B screening that was a C3 test as well. Three C3 people showed up on ponies. The tester wanted to see how they rode horses and so had to pick 3 horse riders to jump the ponies. I have always carried a bit of weight and thought of myself as huge. I was horrified when I was chosen as the third pony rider and put on the pony that was stopping repeatedly with his rider. I had a draft mix that one of the taller girls was put on. As I cantered to the triple that HIS RIDER HAD NEVER GOTTEN HIM TO JUMP, I thought, “I am big enough to take you down. If you stop and I start to fall you are coming with me.” He must have read my mind because he jumped right through without a question. Thinking back on it I realize that since I have short legs, I was probably the best choice, but I still think of that time with horror.
It seems it is a rite of passage to ride others’ horses that didn’t go well! I had a few like that too! And there’s always the conundrum of riding a horse that really shouldn’t be at testing, but is anyway (e.g. the green 5 year old substituting for the A horse that went lame).
But the real kicker was one year when I was doing a re-test for one section - the other candidates doing their HA were given a herd of semi-feral 2 year olds to clean up and present as their “green” lunge horse. Green is an understatement. I heard those horses had never been tied, hosed, or lunged in their lives! Talk about a poor management decision…
I loved my Pony Club days.
My C-3… my horse was lame about a week out. I called the RS to drop out of the testing, and she offered me one of her two horses. My parents drove me to her house the day before the testing, and I tried both. I picked her daughters arab and headed off. I had never lounged the horse before the testing, nor had I jumped a grid on the horse, or jumped a full height fence. We passed.
My H went well. I drew a lovely Morgan mare who was a complete angel for the presentation and lounging. I was given a group of A candidates to teach - which was intimidating - but also went very well.
My B was another story. I was horseless at the time. I borrowed an upper level jumper from the barn I was working for. Nice horse - but we did not get along, and he did not enjoy flatwork. I’d ridden him for about 3 weeks when test weekend came. In hindsight, we rightly failed flatwork because we could not demonstrate anything other than charge with head in air. We stayed after failing flat, and passed grids, jumping and cross-country. I didn’t get my hands on an appropriate horse before leaving for college - so I never retook it.
Oh the memories! The HA was the brutal one for me. I drew a semi-feral (love that term from above) small pony who had not seen a halter or a brush in years… much less a longe line. That also made the wrapping (never my strong suit) a horrendous experience. I remember basically feeling sick to my stomach for 3 solid days.
I took the A the same summer and by comparison it was a cake walk. The only moment of horror was switching horses for SJ and getting on a huge and not very athletic draft cross that someone had borrowed for the test. The mare LURCHED to the right over every fence, and we very nearly took out the standard until I figured out what was going on. Loved pony club so much - I’m excited that I have only 3 years until I can sign my daughter up to my old club!
