My daughter failed her C+ riding at the weekend. She was really disappointed as she's worked really hard for the last couple of years and is now eventing at BE100 with double clears and she's loved bringing on her big young horse. She failed because she wasnt straight in the saddle apparently although I can't see it and neither can her instructor. Literally noone has mentioned this ever, even the saddler. She's been to countless PC riding rallies specifically designed for c+ and noone has ever mentioned her lack of straightness. Still, she's resilient and is keen to take it again. What makes me anxious is quite how vitriolic the examiner was. She didn't say one positive thing about my daughter, even though she completed all the riding tasks (ironically she was so happy with how the horse went!). She said her riding was way below what was required for c+ level and she'd lose her reputation if she passed her. This must have been so hard for my daughter to hear but she stayed calm and asked what she would recommend doing. She told us to get mirrors installed in our school! (we don't have a school!!). Anyway, she's had a lesson since then and we just can't see the crookedness! She also said that even though daughter had answered all the riding questions correctly she felt that the answers 'were too textbook'. My question is, is it worth trying again as the feedback was so vague and there's nothing constructive that she can do to improve? How can she work specifically on her position if noone can see anything wrong? How can you improve on answering questions correctly?I was really shocked at how nasty the examiner was. Surely she could have said ONE nice thing about dd? She was the only one in the group who did all the jumping and flatwork correctly, her horse was well behaved and nicely turned out. Is this what Pony Club is like? Conversely the Care assessor was lovely and encouraging and passed her, saying she did really well so that was good. I don't want dd to take it again if she has to face the same attitude as it has really knocked her confidence.
05-31-2018, 01:18 PM
Pony Club tests...
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