C Test

Standards of Efficiency Test Sheet 2010

General

The efficiency tests provide a staircase of knowledge and progression when taken in sequence.

Before being awarded the ‘C’ test certificate, candidates must have trained for and passed The Pony Club’s Road Rider Achievement Badge or The Pony Club Road Rider Test or the BHS Riding and Road Safety Test.

Objective

• To understand the importance of, and to be working towards a secure correct balanced seat, independent of the reins.
• To understand why a correct seat is important.
• To apply simple aids correctly.
• To have a knowledge of the care and working of a pony off grass.
• To be in control of the pony on the roads and in the countryside. To have a proper regard for country lore.

Riding

• Turn-out of pony and rider.
• Mount and dismount correctly on either side.
• Hold the reins correctly.
• Alter stirrups when mounted.
• Tighten and loosen girth when mounted.
• Working towards a balanced independent seat.
• Use of seat, legs and hands as aids to increase and decrease pace.
• Ride without stirrups in walk and trot - as long as it is safe.
• Sitting trot, rising trot on the correct diagonal and change of diagonal.
• Understand the meaning of and start to establish the pony’s rhythm.
• Walk with a long rein.
• Canter on both reins.
• Riding school drill.
• Ride up and down hill in walk and trot.
• Independent work in the open.
• Walk and trot over heavy poles as a preliminary to jumping.
• Ride in a balanced position over small fences.
• Show a smooth progression from one fence to the next.
• Riding in the countryside, across farm land and bridle paths.
• Open and close gates.
• What you need to know: (this is likely to related to the pony you are riding)
• Know simple aids and ride turns and circles at walk, trot and canter.
• Aids for canter on a named leg on a circle.
• Explain sequence of legs in trot and canter.
• Understand the meaning of rhythm and tempo.

Horse & Pony Care

• Care and working of a pony off grass.
• Elementary feeding, watering and cleanliness of the pony.
• Groom a grass kept pony.
• Put on a tail bandage.
• Know when a pony needs shoeing.
• Put on a saddle, bridle and martingale.
• Have some knowledge of correctly fitting tack (saddle clearing withers, height of bit).
• Be able to do up a curb chain correctly.
• Know correct fitting for a flash nose band.
• Elementary care and cleaning of saddlery (tack care after daily exercise).
• Know the main indications for health in the pony.
• Know to clean minor wound.
• Know which wounds require veterinary attention.
• Understand the reason for anti-tetanus vaccination and know when their pony was vaccinated.
• Recognise when a pony is clearly lame.
• Know how to take a pony in and out of a horse-box or trailer with adult supervision.
• Understand the importance and the means of protecting the legs while travelling.
• Put on and take off, stable and turn out rugs.

Read

• Keeping a Pony at Grass
• Pony Guide File
• The Manual of Horsemanship - read the sections below:
• Mounting and dismounting (omit: ‘to dismount using the stirrup)
• The stirrups
• The position of the rider in the saddle
• Holding the single rein
• Position of the rider in motion
• The aids
• The basic paces (omit: ‘the rein back’)
• Jumping
• The correct approach
• Identification and classification
• Saddling up
• Putting on and fitting a bridle, unsaddling
• Care of saddlery
• The signs of good health
• Lameness - identifying the lame leg
• Loading - with an assistant
• Unloading
• ‘The Country Code’ - The Countryside Commission
• Wall charts: Tack, Grooming, Native Ponies, First Aid

View

• DVD: Road Rider

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