This message is from: Amy Goodloe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I rode Belle earlier today and was paying attention as I rode to what it is about her that makes me call her "green." She is easy to catch and lead, easy to groom, saddle and bridle. Stands still for mounting (most of the time). Walks off calmly on a loose rein. She doesn't throw fits or "test" me or try to get out of work or anything like that. But I don't think an inexperienced rider would enjoy riding her for several reasons.
She can get up a good head of steam at the trot and it takes a strong half halt to get her to slow down and take longer strides. To a less experienced rider it might feel like she's "taking off" with the rider, but she just has a lot of go. Usually after ten or fifteen minutes of working on walk/trot work, including transitions, she is more relaxed and slows to a more reasonable pace, but she still needs a rider who can "get her there," so to speak. Perhaps in another year she will be willing to start off at that pace.
She also tends to fall over her left shoulder and to hang on the inside rein and needs lots of reminders not to do that. When I first got her she didn't know much about straightness or bend, and she's got the basic concept now but needs a lot of practice and reinforcement. A rider who isn't using all the aids and who isn't accustomed to making dozens of small corrections along the way would probably find her frustrating to steer.
She also prefers to walk with her head very low and tends to speed up when asked to walk on contact, but we're working on that. I want her to march forward into a medium walk on contact, not go into zoom pony mode!
Our facility is private but we have a steady stream of people of all abilities coming out to ride, as lesson students, working students, friends or private boarders, and most of them fall under the category of advanced beginner. In my opinion, a horse is no longer green when one of our typical riders can ride the horse with minimal supervision and get the desired response, not just over the course of one ride but several rides. Most horses are good for a new rider the first time, but to me the test of whether the horse really understands its job is it if will continue to do it (more or less) even with a less skilled rider. I don't expect the same quality of performance, but I expect the same level of obedience. Most everyone here (horse and human) is working on schooling Intro/Training Level dressage, so we're not talking about doing anything fancy.
At this point I would not say that Belle is ready to be ridden by an advanced beginner, mainly because her response to the steering aids has not yet been "firmly installed." It will probably take about a year for her to get to that point, and even then the person will have to be comfortable with the possibility of a fair amount of energy. And yet I find her a lot of fun to ride, because she doesn't argue with me, doesn't buck, bolt, pitch fits, toss her head, go behind the bit or otherwise make life difficult, and she's fairly sensitive and responsive to light aids. If all goes well with her upcoming foal, then I would guess that she will be ready to go to schooling shows and do Training Level next spring. (And so, by the standards of dressage, she would still be considered green in the sense of just starting to learn the basics of the training scale, although I'm guessing that Training Level is probably the highest we will go. I'm just not that ambitious ;-)
I enjoy riding a horse that is green the way Belle is, because I can have so much of an influence over the way their training develops and I don't have to deal with baggage. But I wouldn't do so well on a horse that is green in the sense that it is hypersensitive, over-reactive, easily nervous or spooky, inclined to buck, bolt or pitch fits or behave in other undesirable ways. I'll leave those issues to the trainers ;-)
--Amy
