How do you know when you're ready to move up?
Becca competed in her second Intermediate with Spy at Fair Hill yesterday and I went along as her groom. Way back in our twenties, Becca competed at the Advanced level with her OTTB, Dollar Spot. At that time, Becca and I rode together at Pleasant Hollow Farms in upper Bucks County. This was big East Coast Horse Trial venue through the 80s, 90s and into the 2000s. (It has since closed its doors.) I worked off part of my board and lessons by working weekends at the farm so I never got to see Becca compete. In fact, the only competition of Becca's I witnessed back then was her 3-Star debut at Fair Hill International.
Since Dollar, Becca has trained a number of horses through the Prelim-level but has been waiting to find and develop another horse with prelim+ potential. Now, Spy is that horse! He's an unraced, 9 year old thoroughbred who she bought from a boarder before he had any jump training. Becca went slow and steady with him and in the course of 4 years has moved up a level a year with him.
It's super fun seeing her with an upper level horse again. It's taken almost 10 years which just goes to show how hard it is to find and develop an upper level horse. At Fair Hill there were 4 Training Divisions, 3 Prelims and 1 Intermediate division. I guess it's safe to assume only about 30% or less of prelim horses will go on to compete at Intermediate. I used to think Intermediate and Prelim were similar...like an older brother and younger sister...siblings. I mean they are both considered "upper levels" right? Wrong. Prelim doesn't look anything like Intermediate. They are like distance cousins. they are vaguely familiar but Intermediate is most definitely an upper level of eventing while Prelim now looks like a strange gray zone to me. Something not quite a lower level but nothing like Intermediate.
Why? Because there are 2 rules when walking xc:
The reality is all those thoughts about size and difficulty aren't going to help a rider ride the course better and only would add to the nerve factor. After a rider completes the course, THEN you can talk about how damn big and hard everything was. And how amazingly awesome they were to complete the course, let alone even attempt it - which deserves mad celebrations every time!
Everyone struggles with the decision around when to move up a level. The qualifications themselves ultimately aren't that hard to achieve: 4 events with clear xc rounds and 4 rails or less in stadium for a prelim move-up. For Intermediate, you can have 1 runout xc in one your 4 qualifiers. (Click her for the exact qualifications)
I was qualified for prelim long before I actually made the move-up. I had to keep plugging away at Training Level while I worked on my education and Leo's rideability. And I have no doubt that I will be qualified for Intermediate LONG before I make that move. Particularly after walking Becca's course this weekend.
Margin of Error
Every horse and rider combination needs a margin of error. Adult Amateurs need a bigger margin of error than professionals. What does this mean exactly? It means the amount of room you have to make a rider error and have your horse cover the gap. A number of factors play into this: the natural scope and athletic ability of the horse, the attitude and confidence of the horse, the education and experience of the horse, and the education and experience of the rider. Overtime, you can get a sense for your margin of error by analyzing what mistakes you are making and how your horse is responding to them.
For a long time, I had a very small margin of error with Leo at prelim-size fences. Leo is not lacking in scope or athleticism at all. Our problem is our combined lack of experience. We are a green rider and a green horse learning together. Personality wise, we are both brave on the surface but we have some serious potential to scare each other. His errors affect my confidence and mine affect his. Leo is not the type of horse to cover all my mistakes out of sheer bravery. If I missed a distance, if I didn't have the right canter, if I didn't have a perfect approach to the fence, there was a high likelihood that Leo would stop OR that the resulting jump would negatively affect his confidence. At training level, I had a large margin of error - if I was riding backwards and hit a bad distance, Leo would still jump the fence no problem. Add 4 inches to that fence height and increase the width, and Leo was not so generous.
Right now, Leo and I have a higher margin of error in my distance to the fence, than I do in the canter I develop. This means if I have the wrong canter, Leo is more likely to struggle versus if I miss a distance with the right canter. Leo can get out of almost any distance if I am riding him in a forward canter with lots of impulsion. A canter which to me feels on the border of out of control. (But in reality looks nothing close to out of control!) The more backwards I ride...the more I hold...the more I nit-pick...the more I freeze and wait, the smaller my margin of error gets. I have to maintain the right canter to have the most success. Even when I don't see a distance...even when I feel doubt, I have to ride forward and believe. Leo will believe too.
Rider Capability
I had to be consistently jumping 3'7" courses at home - not a 3'7" fence here and there. The oxers had to be 3'7" square and wide. I had to demonstrate that I could develop the right canter and make good rider decisions from fence-to-fence in order to produce a good round. If I got a bad jump or a short distance into one fence, I had to show Sally and Becca that I could make a decision on landing from that fence that would produce a better jump at my next fence. And in turn, Leo had to show he would respond and listen. Basically, I had to demonstrate I could over-ride my nerves and be Leo's leader - which in turn would improve his confidence.
Technical Education
I couldn't move up if Leo was showing any problems at water, ditches or banks. Training level does a nice job of introducing bank drops into water, full coffins and the concept of a skinny. Prelim then takes skinnies, corners and turning combinations to a more serious level so straightness and adjustability become drastically more important. We schooled a lot of the technical questions in the ring prior to moving up. Three-stride bending lines with a skinny are hard! Prelim also has a lot of angled combinations which can easily be schooled in the ring. I did school some prelim galloping tables before my move up just so I could get used to the size of the fences and feel of the gallop. But obviously, any problems or challenges in schooling and training are evaluated in terms of a move up decision. For me and Leo, our stadium jumping capabilities are what held us back for a while.
The benefit of working with both Sally and Becca is that I have 2 people with their eyes on Leo, watching him develop. I consult with them both on all my decisions regarding what competitions I do, what Leo needs to work on, what I need to get better at, horse management, etc. Ultimately, I don't do anything unless the two of them agree that Leo and I are ready. So when I'm ready to start thinking about moving up to Intermediate, you better believe I'll be consulting them and figuring out what a 6 month view looks like.
Corner Fence Comparison from Fair Hill:
Since Dollar, Becca has trained a number of horses through the Prelim-level but has been waiting to find and develop another horse with prelim+ potential. Now, Spy is that horse! He's an unraced, 9 year old thoroughbred who she bought from a boarder before he had any jump training. Becca went slow and steady with him and in the course of 4 years has moved up a level a year with him.
It's super fun seeing her with an upper level horse again. It's taken almost 10 years which just goes to show how hard it is to find and develop an upper level horse. At Fair Hill there were 4 Training Divisions, 3 Prelims and 1 Intermediate division. I guess it's safe to assume only about 30% or less of prelim horses will go on to compete at Intermediate. I used to think Intermediate and Prelim were similar...like an older brother and younger sister...siblings. I mean they are both considered "upper levels" right? Wrong. Prelim doesn't look anything like Intermediate. They are like distance cousins. they are vaguely familiar but Intermediate is most definitely an upper level of eventing while Prelim now looks like a strange gray zone to me. Something not quite a lower level but nothing like Intermediate.
My Observations of Intermediate
The fences are huge. I mean, they are seriously bigger than prelim and I thought the Prelim tables were big at MCTA. To put it in perspective, the width of Intermediate cross country fences are up to 5'3" and a Queen size bed is 5' wide. Now raise that 3'9" off the ground. And then, make it a skinny table to boot!! Walking the intermediate cross country course with her and Sally, I couldn't help put think the jump from Prelim to Intermediate was just as intimidating as the jump from Training to Prelim. Then there was a crazy hard ditch/bank to brush corner combination, that made my eyes pop out of my head when I walked it....I kept all my thoughts to myself.Why? Because there are 2 rules when walking xc:
- You never mentioned how big the fences are. In fact, you don't discuss size at all unless it has something to do with the ride you have to make into the fence and even then it's only general references such as "You'll need to enough impulsion to cover the width of the first fence, but you can't be so fast that you miss the turn to the B element...."
- You never talk about how difficult or hard the course is. Even if you're thinking it, you don't vocalize these things. Course walks are dry, focused and to-the-point. Each question is analyzed, lines through each combination are discussed, options are evaluated so the rider has a back-up plan should a problem arise, and an efficient line between fences is found in order to save time.
The reality is all those thoughts about size and difficulty aren't going to help a rider ride the course better and only would add to the nerve factor. After a rider completes the course, THEN you can talk about how damn big and hard everything was. And how amazingly awesome they were to complete the course, let alone even attempt it - which deserves mad celebrations every time!
Leveling Up
Becca's move up to Intermediate was not as easy as it was with her first upper level horse and she's faced some set backs along the way with Spy's training. Her path to Intermediate was similar to my path to Prelim. It took a while to figure out how to ride Spy over larger fences, just like it took me a while to figure out how to jump Leo over larger fences. Becca now has several students in the barn that are one run away from being qualified for Prelim and I'm one run away from being qualified for Intermediate. Becca and I spent a lot of time reflecting on our horses and talking about the move up process on the way to Fair Hill yesterday.Everyone struggles with the decision around when to move up a level. The qualifications themselves ultimately aren't that hard to achieve: 4 events with clear xc rounds and 4 rails or less in stadium for a prelim move-up. For Intermediate, you can have 1 runout xc in one your 4 qualifiers. (Click her for the exact qualifications)
I was qualified for prelim long before I actually made the move-up. I had to keep plugging away at Training Level while I worked on my education and Leo's rideability. And I have no doubt that I will be qualified for Intermediate LONG before I make that move. Particularly after walking Becca's course this weekend.
As Sally told me, "Just because you are successful at one level, that doesn't mean you have the skills necessary for the next level."Consistency at Training wasn't enough for my prelim move up. So what did Sally look for in my training and riding in order to approve a move from Training to Prelim?
Margin of Error
Every horse and rider combination needs a margin of error. Adult Amateurs need a bigger margin of error than professionals. What does this mean exactly? It means the amount of room you have to make a rider error and have your horse cover the gap. A number of factors play into this: the natural scope and athletic ability of the horse, the attitude and confidence of the horse, the education and experience of the horse, and the education and experience of the rider. Overtime, you can get a sense for your margin of error by analyzing what mistakes you are making and how your horse is responding to them.
For a long time, I had a very small margin of error with Leo at prelim-size fences. Leo is not lacking in scope or athleticism at all. Our problem is our combined lack of experience. We are a green rider and a green horse learning together. Personality wise, we are both brave on the surface but we have some serious potential to scare each other. His errors affect my confidence and mine affect his. Leo is not the type of horse to cover all my mistakes out of sheer bravery. If I missed a distance, if I didn't have the right canter, if I didn't have a perfect approach to the fence, there was a high likelihood that Leo would stop OR that the resulting jump would negatively affect his confidence. At training level, I had a large margin of error - if I was riding backwards and hit a bad distance, Leo would still jump the fence no problem. Add 4 inches to that fence height and increase the width, and Leo was not so generous.
Right now, Leo and I have a higher margin of error in my distance to the fence, than I do in the canter I develop. This means if I have the wrong canter, Leo is more likely to struggle versus if I miss a distance with the right canter. Leo can get out of almost any distance if I am riding him in a forward canter with lots of impulsion. A canter which to me feels on the border of out of control. (But in reality looks nothing close to out of control!) The more backwards I ride...the more I hold...the more I nit-pick...the more I freeze and wait, the smaller my margin of error gets. I have to maintain the right canter to have the most success. Even when I don't see a distance...even when I feel doubt, I have to ride forward and believe. Leo will believe too.
Rider Capability
I had to be consistently jumping 3'7" courses at home - not a 3'7" fence here and there. The oxers had to be 3'7" square and wide. I had to demonstrate that I could develop the right canter and make good rider decisions from fence-to-fence in order to produce a good round. If I got a bad jump or a short distance into one fence, I had to show Sally and Becca that I could make a decision on landing from that fence that would produce a better jump at my next fence. And in turn, Leo had to show he would respond and listen. Basically, I had to demonstrate I could over-ride my nerves and be Leo's leader - which in turn would improve his confidence.
Technical Education
I couldn't move up if Leo was showing any problems at water, ditches or banks. Training level does a nice job of introducing bank drops into water, full coffins and the concept of a skinny. Prelim then takes skinnies, corners and turning combinations to a more serious level so straightness and adjustability become drastically more important. We schooled a lot of the technical questions in the ring prior to moving up. Three-stride bending lines with a skinny are hard! Prelim also has a lot of angled combinations which can easily be schooled in the ring. I did school some prelim galloping tables before my move up just so I could get used to the size of the fences and feel of the gallop. But obviously, any problems or challenges in schooling and training are evaluated in terms of a move up decision. For me and Leo, our stadium jumping capabilities are what held us back for a while.
Move-Up Process
Sally and I started planning a prelim move-up about 3-4 months out from the actual competition.We selected Plantation Horse Trials the first week of June and planned backwards from there - with the caveat that the move-up assumed everything went to plan in those 3 months. I already had my qualifications by then but we still planned for competing in successively more difficult training level competitions throughout the spring. Everything went as planned but Leo came up lame the day before and we missed that event. Coming back from his lameness, it turned out to be another 2-3 months to re-prep for the next move-up event. (And if you remember, we choked and got eliminated in stadium.) Bottom line, moving up takes time and planning, and still may not go to plan...here are some steps to consider:- Jump at height: I started regularly jumping prelim height about 3-4 months out from my scheduled prelim move-up, meaning more fences than not were set to 3'6". Measure those fences so you keep yourself honest! I know the books say you should be jumping the next height above your competition level the entire time but honestly, I don't know anyone who does that.
- Get comfortable at that height in competition: There are lots of ways to get comfortable at a new height before tackling a cross country course in competition: combined tests, hybrid divisions (P/T Horse Trial divisions), and jumper shows. I competed in one prelim combined test about 6 weeks out from my first prelim horse trial. In hindsight, I would have benefited from doing jumper shows like I did this spring.
- Select harder current-level Horse Trials leading up to the move-up event: Prior to my move-up event, I made sure I was competing in horse trials known for having harder training courses. My last training competition before the move-up was marked "challenging for horses with experience at this level."
- Pick the Right Move-Up Event: Not just any event will do for your first run at a new level. You gotta be smart about what you pick. We selected an event labeled "Good Move Up Course" for my first Prelim. And when we missed that, Sally selected an "average" course which she thought would be appropriate as a move-up.
- Walk your courses with a professional: If you're new to a level, make sure you have a professional walk the course with you. I'm always amazed at what I miss when I walk a course by myself first and then walk with a professional. You can learn a lot just by seeing the course through someone else's eyes.
- Warm-up with a professional: If you're like me, your brain may go numb or blank due to your nerves. Every move-up, regardless of level, is mentally and physically hard! I like having someone tell me what to do in the warm-up ring - it takes some of the stress off and helps with my confidence.
- If at first you don't succeed, don't give up: I got eliminated at my first prelim in stadium. My friend Zoe got eliminated at her first Training on cross country. Becca withdrew at her first Intermediate after a disastrous show jumping. Fast forward 6 months and we are all successfully competing at our respective levels. You don't have to be perfect the first time out or every time ever after. If it's what you want, don't give up. Get help and become a better rider.
The benefit of working with both Sally and Becca is that I have 2 people with their eyes on Leo, watching him develop. I consult with them both on all my decisions regarding what competitions I do, what Leo needs to work on, what I need to get better at, horse management, etc. Ultimately, I don't do anything unless the two of them agree that Leo and I are ready. So when I'm ready to start thinking about moving up to Intermediate, you better believe I'll be consulting them and figuring out what a 6 month view looks like.
Corner Fence Comparison from Fair Hill:
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| Training Corner: Wide face, narrow angle |
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| Intermediate Corner: Wider angle, even narrower face, brush carved to push you out even more (the approach to this was insane to boot) |
I like that point about the "margin of error" varying by level- makes a lot of sense. Also - that intermediate corne looks super intimidating! But you can totally do it :)
ReplyDeleteThe margin of error is what I always think of first when I'm considering moving up. Am I capable of getting my horse to a distance he can handle at this height?
ReplyDelete