Rethinking the USDF Medals

[Sticky_Situation]

“Training” medals would be hard to define because there are a whole lot of gray areas.

Obviously, if you started your horse as a baby and are the only person that has been on him, you can be certain that you trained him through whatever level it is he’s competing at.

But what if someone buys a horse that was previously ridden by a professional at First Level, then goes on to successfully compete through Third Level? Did they train that horse? What if, instead of a professional, the previous rider that did First Level was a badly-riding amateur? What if the horse has never shown in dressage with anyone else, but he’s shown extensively under someone else as a hunter or jumper?

What if they had a colt starter put 30 days on the horse and get him going under saddle, then did all the rest themself?

What if they’ve brought the horse up from a youngster and nobody else has shown him, but a professional rides him once or twice every week to keep him “tuned up”? What if the professional doesn’t routinely ride him, but gets on once in a while when the owner is struggling? What if no other trainers have ever been on the horse, but the owner lets other amateurs or kids ride him some, maybe even show him?

[lorilu]

Are you of the opinion that those who don’t train up their own dont work as hard or arent as worthy of the medals? We all know there is not really anything like a push button horse in dressage above about second level.

[Salty]

This is so true. Even professionals who buy a horse trained by someone else talk about the time needed to adjust their riding to the new horse.

I used to take lessons on a GP schoolmaster and it was eye-opening. We got a friend a lesson on him for her birthday and she couldn’t do a canter transition n him. She’d been scoring well on her own horse.

This is why I objected to Jeremy’s use of the word “piloting.”

[Mander]

@Salty

I used to take lessons on a GP schoolmaster and it was eye-opening. We got a friend a lesson on him for her birthday and she couldn’t do a canter transition n him. She’d been scoring well on her own horse.

My trainer has been having me ride her UL horse and sometimes I wonder which brain munching disease has addled her good sense enough to let me even touch that horse because I seem to be pressing all the wrong buttons constantly I’m not new to riding (only dressage), and I’ve ridden this mare probably 6-7 times now, and I’ve only JUST managed to get crisp canter departures this past weekend.

My trainer told me when she test rode her last GP horse she couldn’t get him to stop doing tempi changes

[DMK]

You say “piloting” like it is a bad thing. Who do you want flying an airplane, a neurosurgeon?

Maybe he meant it to be disparaging or maybe he was just acknowledging that they were not the trainers (engineers). To keep this analogy going, pilots are not the engineers who built the plane, and yet I dare you to find that passenger who thinks they aren’t critical and skilled enough to safely get us from point a to point b (well, we hope and pray that is the case!).

It’s a silly analogy, but my point is the word does not indicate less skills just different skills. If he’d called them a passenger, now that’s an entirely different connotation!

[Sticky_Situation]

Agree 100%! I certainly don’t want some rando off the street flying an aircraft I’m riding in. Pilots have a very specific and important skills set, they’re not just self-loading baggage… just because they didn’t install the controls doesn’t mean any old person can just show up and do the job. I have no problem with the terminology of “piloting” to refer to riding a horse and I don’t think it implies that it’s easy or doesn’t require a significant amount of skill.

[Bristol_Bay]

@Maude

Yes, but actually training the horse, then competing it successfully are another whole ball of wax. I have my bronze and silver… After earning both of them having never written a trained horse other than when I trained myself I did have the opportunity to sit on a ground prey horse I’m pretty hoarse. Yes you have to learn the buttons but it’s far easier than actually making the horse yourself.

OT but talk to text sometimes produces strange results.

[Maude]

My phone speaks a different language.

[lorilu]

For all those who believe it is possible for an AA to just jump on a trained horse and ride a test well…
Even CH can’t.
“Carl feels the time he has had with 16-year-old Baden Wurttemberger bred gelding (by Wolkentanz II x Landioso) is “not quite long enough to have formed the partnership he would have liked before making their competition debut together.”"

Carl Hester Withdraws from British Team Contention for 2022 World Championships

[the_sandiest_shoes]

I think horses can be so individualistic on the aids they respond to - they learn flying changes etc. one way for a long time, it’s not just point and go.

I brought a young horse to Fourth by myself this year and have been the only person who competed him and almost exclusively rode him since he turned 4. Getting half of the silver scores this way feels amazing as an amateur and I clearly can’t shut up about it . That said, I don’t see the value of having this type of extra thing certified - it feels unnecessary? The USDF scores / records are out there - would these extras actually matter/help that many people? I never heard of the medals at all until I moved to the US.