Quality of care shows pretty easily - if a horse is in "show shape", I tend to assume that a person is a solid rider. Tack and attire are where most of my assumptions come from. Synthetic tack or AP saddles typically make my brain go "Oh, not an H/J person." Brightly colored nylon tack makes me cringe and assume that the person is going to be your typical Playday Wahoo. LOUD and somewhat obnoxious with a preference for cheap beer.


Related story - I had a kid come in to our intermediate summer camp last week with a GPA, the expensive Ariats (Crownes, I think), and some cute schooling breeches. She looked like a kid who's family was pretty invested in to the sport and we were told that the kid had been in private lessons most of last year. I had the expectation that she'd be solid walk-trot-canter and ready to start hopping over crossrails toward the end of the week like the rest of the kids. We put her on a schoolie that we assume would be appropriate for her. I take the kids up to the ring, get them on and they start walking. Kid has a pretty serious chair seat, but nothing we can't work on. I have them do some stretching, a little two-point at the walk and all the while kid continues walking and looks totally tuned out. I have them go to the trot. When she gets to where I am on the rail, she asks me how to get the horse to trot. Not in a "she won't go for me" sort of sense, but a very basic "I have no idea what I am doing up here" sort of way. I tell her to just kick on, she does and it becomes very clear very fast that she's not at all ready for this level. *facepalm*


Spooksandbolts wrote:
blah, blah, blah, blah and the dog ate your homework and I can smell bovine excrement