Angie
said: Feedback please. Let's say you are a new rider, or an old rider with
a new horse, or someone who wants to move up to 50's from LD. You need
a first year goal. What's a good one? It mustn't be an automatic
success for you or it will be meaningless. It must reward all the things we
claim we want to encourage the first year.
Drin said: Well I started a new horse this year , my 6 year old that I raised . I
did 5 50's on her all very slow and my goal Angie is to see how many miles I can
get on her without a pull . PNER has an award which I believe is called "
horse of the future" for a newly started horse that has the most completions in
a row without a pull but it is only good for rides in their
region.
First of all, I don't think ANY success in this
sport is "automatic"--just some successes take more work than
others.
Second, as for first-year goals--I think they
SHOULD be quite attainable, as the horse should not be pushed too hard too
soon. My first year goal with any new horse is somewhere between 3 and 5
rides (50s), depending on his age and his previous experience and
conditioning. Even if this is easy for most of them, it isn't meaningless,
because it is an important part of their foundation.
Third, without having a look at my PNER handbook, I
think the PNER "Horse of the Future" award is for second year horses--and that
is appropriate, because IMO, a first year horse shouldn't be taken out with the
frequency that racking up the completions implies. But for a
second year horse, to put the emphasis on consecutive completions instead
of speed is a good thing. After a second year of more miles, then in the
third year it is time to speed up.
