Really far. One involves your body coordinating with your mind, being acutely aware of what and where your body is doing.
The other… does not.
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What about the horse? What if the rider is confirmed at PSG or higher what happens when they have a young up and coming horse that needs to get started at showing lower levels?
The AQHA has a leveling system for horse and rider, not sure if it works in reality but it sounds like they attempted to level the playing field, at least on paper.
Really, really far. The type of blogger that companies want to compensate isn’t writing like, educational articles on equipment. They’re writing about their own experiences and training journey and opinions, usually on one or two horses. The only way blogging has helped me become a better rider is by forcing me to sit down, think through my rides/lessons, and organize my thoughts in a way that I can explain what happened/why to others. Which is definitely valuable, but if you’re going to penalize that, you’d have to also penalize anyone that writes a private training journal (not saying you said that).
I understand your point, but I think we have to set the competence tangent aside if we’re going to keep this AA discussion going in the right direction.
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They show in the Open section of the Training test. Same as an Advanced Eventer bringing on a green horse at Open Novice.
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I’ve been saying this for years.
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I think the concept of amateur vs professional doesn’t really conquer the main differences. I’d trash the whole concept and regroup to something like Experienced vs Novice. That’s how they do it in dog competitions. And it is EASILY regulated! You participate in a formal test, you pass (with or without x amount of a score) and you are now experienced at that level. Next time you compete you compete against others who also have experience. Heck, it could even be rated into levels beyond just Experienced vs Novice. Intermediate could be inserted in there…you pass First Level with a 70 just one time and you are now Intermediate at First Level. Then you will need to either pass with an 85 or a 70-84 5 more times and you voila! become Experienced at that level. Fungible…but just an idea off the cuff.
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How does that work for other disciplines where scores are not given?
i don’t know, i just made this up as i was writing it. How about number of Qs…?
I do not know what this means. Qs?
Qualifying scores?
You don’t need a system that applies universally across all disciplines. It wouldn’t make sense.
Dressage already has specific rules - including making its own levels. Why not go one step further and have “grades” or categories within levels? This is essentially the British gold/silver/bronze system.
There are models like this already in use in other countries - if you want to know how they work (both in terms of rules, and in practice in terms of competitors’ reactions and perceptions) the information is out there. It doesn’t have to be a hypothetical discussion.
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Could be, but I assumed no since my question was what would they do where scores are not given, like hunters for example, or even jumpers.
Number of wins? Height of the fences? Number of placings?
ETA: I think we should just toss the whole thing for dressage and make it tiered system. If another org wants to keep the rule, they can do that and USEF can make people declare their status for those orgs.
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I don’t think so, since it was being offered as an alternative for disciplines that DON NOT HAVE scores.
Number of wins and number of placings are of course influenced by your ability but also greatly influenced by the size of shows in your area and the general quality of horses in your area.
I don’t watch or participate in hunters.jumpers. So, have NO IDEA about the events. Are they competitive? Do people either pass or fail? Are there winners? Or do people just pay money to use a course and there are not judges? If it is a competition and there are winners, and there are judges then there must be some quantifiable something with a horse and rider. So whatever that is, use that. I honestly have not a clue about jumping events… But i think i kinda get the general idea about dressage scores/judging…so dressage was what i was on about.
Hunter and equitation classes are judged subjectively, and placed first through eighth based on the performance according to the judge’s preference.
There are a few fairly standard accepted scores for major faults in a round, such as a refusal or a rail down at a jump. And most judges give somewhat similar scores for similar rounds.
But scores are not standardized, since courses are not the same at all shows. They vary by the size and shape of the ring, the jump materials available, and the level of competition.
There’s a lot more to it than that, but that is the basic scoring system.
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US Equestrian already awards year end points based on the rating of the show, # in class, and your placing. They do this across dressage and H/J for sure and I bet it’s available across most of the disciplines already. I don’t see why they couldn’t have several different ranking options for the disciplines besides JR/YR, AA, and Open.
Why can’t you register with USEF as JR/YR, AA (<X% of your yearly income derived from riding, training, or teaching/coaching), and Open. Then have divisions at shows divided into more rational options like they do for eventing - Novice Horse, Novice Rider, Intermediate, Open/Advanced or some variation.
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So, that would keep things pretty consistent, no?
Definitely not! If you live in an area with small shows and lower quality horses, your placings will be super high. If you moved to a region where the shows were huge and the horse quality significantly higher, your placings would be much lower with the same horse/rider/performance. Therefore, your placing is not indicative of your performance/skill/talent, but rather the nature of the shows you attend. Thus no consistency.
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