(“This strategy . . .  puts most riders in Survival Mode when they compete.”)

I’d like the following supposition to be true: You can finally perform a good second level test by the time your horse is doing fourth level. I’d like this to be true for two reasons.

First of all, just because your horse moves up through the levels should not mean “simpler” things are forgotten. I would go so far as to say that an FEI level horse should be able to go back and perform a correct and lovely training level test. If he can’t, then there’s a flaw in the way he’s been educated.

The other thought grows out of human nature and the way most of us think of challenges and “progress.” “Onward and Upward,” right? This does not even include the novice’s rationale that goes “I’m pretty bored with doing this level so I think I’ll just move him up . . .”

That aside, it’s SOP to think, “Okay, I’m getting 63s in Second Level, so let’s put the changes on him and move him up to Third.” I’m not really objecting to this strategy other than to mourn the fact that it puts most riders in Survival Mode when they compete, hoping that when the chips are down, stuff will work.

Do you think that’s how Springsteen feels when he plays Born to Run? Not likely! Consider the possibility of riding a test where you’re so positive you’ll succeed that you can just show off. To be able to say to the judge or whoever is watching, “THIS is how I think it should be”— that’s what you gain by performing IN your comfort zone. It might be fun to try that sometime.