BHS Exams

The week before last two of my students took BHS Exams. Eleri took her stage 1 at Pencoed College and Jess took the riding part of her stage 2 at Bicton College in Devon. I was away in Portugal last week so I was anxious to here how they had got on. Eleri felt she had failed the riding as one of the horses she rode was very difficult and in canter it literally took off and she ended up standing up in her stirrups to stop it. Fortunately Eleri did pass both the riding and care section. The stage 1 exam does not involve jumping but in the stage 2 exam candidates have to ride on the flat and jump two horses. Nowadays you ride on the flat first and you are not allowed to go through to the jumping section unless you pass the flat section. Jess obviously rode fine in the flat and continued to the jumping. The first horse she was given put in a very dirty stop and Jess came off. I was very surprised to hear this because in all the time Jess has been here (over 2 years now) no matter what she rides she rarely comes off. Anyway she remounted and continued, the horse stopped again reared vertical and Jess came off the back. The examiner then removed the horse from the exam as unsuitable (several other horses were removed and deemed unsuitable too) and told Jess not to worry it wouldn’t affect how they judged her on her next horse. It really makes you wonder if these examiners are on the same planet, of course its going to affect the way she rides the next horse. Surely the BHS has a duty to check out these exam centres. They try to tell you that the examiners see all the horses ridden before the start of the exam but I have to say I have taken many candidates to exams and generally arrive before the examiners who certainly don’t see any horses being ridden. A colleague of mine recently took a candidate to a stage 1 exam where four horses were removed as unsuitable. It costs Jess £31.50 (£55.50 over 21yrs) for a years membership which she has to have to take the exam. £130 exam fee. Petrol money, B&B and meals plus 2 days lost wages for her mother to take her. I understand that horses can be unpredictable and we have had bad weather recently which may have resulted in horses that normally live out being kept in and therefore may be more of a handful to ride but personally I think if candidates receive unsuitable horses for exams they should be given a free resit. Jess has not yet received her results.

I frequently hear many tales of unsuitable horses in exams. I can’t comment on them as know one is allowed to watch exams but I had a very unsuitable horse for my stage 3 which I overheard the groom saying she was surprised it had been used as it always has people off when jumping, it had both candidates that rode it off and many years ago when I took my PTT (Preliminary Teaching Test) at Bicton College a few weeks before the exam I was staying at a friends in Devon and we decided to go and visit the centre. When we arrived we were not able to look around as there was a Stage 2 exam in progress. Although the exam had been halted as they were waiting for an air ambulance to collect a candidate who had come off in the jumping. Also during my PTT in the lead rein lesson an 8yrold child was bucked off a very fresh 15hh TB looking horse. Maybe the BHS should be a little less greedy and book less candidates into exams if centres do not have enough suitable horses for jumping. Examiners are generally very encouraging but it must be very frustrating and difficult for them to have to examine candidates on unsuitable horses.

Pleased to say Jess Passed.  Well Done Jess

Posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 2:39 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.