Turnout Critique Reminder

Remember that if you would like some feedback on your show ring turnout before the show season starts, you can e-mail your photo(s) to showringreadyblog@gmail.com to be featured in our Turnout Critique series!

Jumper Jumps

The jumper ring has a greater variety of jumps than does the hunter ring, designed to test the horse and rider rather than show them off. In this post we'll cover the main obstacles that you'll find in the jumper ring (aside from the natural ones). Most of the variation that you'll see beyond what I'm showing is simply in height and width, although you will occasionally see some fan-type jumps created by using only one standard on one side of an oxer or triple bar.

We'll start with the simplest jumper jump, the vertical:

Unlike in the hunter ring, jumper verticals tend to be truly in one vertical plane. There is occasionally filler placed under the jump, but it doesn't usually extend far enough in front of the jump to change the shape. The vertical requires the horse to rock back and jump a round arc rather than a longer, flatter shape.

Next up is the oxer. There are several types of oxer that you'll see in the jumper ring, and we'll start with the ramped oxer:

Similar to the hunter ramped oxer, this jump doesn't test the front end as much since the ramped shape gives the horse extra time to tuck up the front end. This shape tends to produce a longer, flatter jump. You'll often see this type of oxer at the beginning of the course because it's inviting and encourages a good flow.

And now the square oxer:

This type of oxer tests both the horse's front end and the ability to cover width by having the front rail and the back rail at the same height (or "square"). This will produce a more rounded jump out of the horse than a ramped oxer would.

Thirdly, we have the Swedish oxer:

This type of oxer has the front rails and back rail(s) slanted in opposite directions. The result is a ramped oxer on one side (in this case, the left) and an off-set descending oxer on the other (in this case, the right). This type of jump requires precise riding to avoid the horse jumping the off-set side, which could result in knocking the high front rail down or landing into the unseen back rail. It can be jumped either in the very center (in which case one side would still be mildly off-set, risking a front rail) or slightly to the ramped side. In the diagram on the right, the ends of the top rails furthest from the viewer are in grey, while the ends closest are in blue. The lines show the difference in shape from the front rail to the back rail on each side.

Finally, we have the triple bar:

This jump consists of three sets of standards creating a wide obstacle with three top rails in an ascending shape. While the width of these jumps can be imposing, the shape of the jump actually makes the width easy if it is accurately ridden. Because the first rail is so low, the horse can take off very close to it and reach the top of the jumping arc by the final rail. This is not a jump at which to take a long spot!

Next time we'll look at some of the potential natural obstacles that you might encounter in the jumper ring.

Hunter Jumps

The hunter ring has a tendency not to use a large variety of jumps. In most cases, the courses consist of verticals and ramped oxers with lots of filler and big ground lines. In this post we'll take a quick look at what this means, and in the next post we'll look at the variety of jumps that you might find in the jumper ring.

The first hunter jump that we'll look at is the vertical. If you look at one head-on, it does appear that everything is on the same vertical plane:

If you look at the same jump from the side, however, you'll notice that the flower boxes in front of the jump actually give it more of a narrow ramped oxer shape. The ground line being so far in front of the jump and built up essentially makes it easier for the horse not to get deep to the jump and not to hit the rail while taking off. A truly vertical jump would require the horse to rock back more and take a rounder trajectory than the longer one encouraged by a ramped jump.

A hunter oxer also looks quite like an ordinary ramped oxer when you look at it head on:

From the side, you can see that the back rail is at least a hole higher than the front rail. With the addition of flower boxes in front of the jump, this actually creates a shape somewhere between an ordinary ramped oxer and a triple bar. This again creates a longer jump trajectory than you would see with an undecorated ramped oxer or a square oxer.

These jumps are designed to be ridden with minimal rider input, which is why they are so useful for the hunter ring. The ascending shapes mean that very little balancing is required in the ring to keep the horse's front end from hitting the rails, which allows the rider to stay quiet and make it look easy.

The great thing about the hunter ring is that since the jumps very rarely vary from this description, you can easily prepare for what you will meet in the show ring. If your horse tends to jump quite flat or long, you might want to practice more square oxers and truly vertical verticals at home because spending all your time jumping ramped fences at shows will only exacerbate the problem.

Something to Watch, Part Two

Last year I posted a link to the 2011 George Morris Horsemastership Clinic videos and I realized that I haven't yet posted the link to the 2012 clinic.

For anyone who is interested in viewing hours and hours of a free, top-notch clinic, click here:

George Morris 2012

Unfortunately, George Morris himself was unable to attend this year but the clinicians were as follows:

Day 1 - Flatwork with Anne Kursinski
Day 2 - Gymnastics with Kent Farrington
Day 3 - Flatwork/gymnastics with McLain Ward
Day 4 - Flatwork without stirrups with Beezie Madden
Day 5 - Team Jumping with the 2011 US Pan American Games Team

In addition, there were several excellent videos without the young riders, including the day 2 veterinary session with Dr. Tim Ober.

It's an excellent free series of videos to check out if you have the time!

Should You Show Without a Coach?

The question of whether a junior or amateur rider should compete without a coach present can be quite polarizing. Some insist that not having a coach at shows can be anything from dangerous to certain failure.

There are, however, some valid reasons why one might decide to attend a show without a coach. These include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Your coach is attending another show on the same day(s)
• Your coach becomes unexpectedly incapacitated
• You do not have a suitable coach in your area so you take clinics instead and therefore don't have a regular coach to show with
• You cannot afford both showing and paying the daily coaching fees

Some of these can be overcome by finding a replacement coach at the horse show (or arranging a replacement ahead of time). For some people, however, using another coach means added stress because of the unknown, and it could be a risk to change your horse's warm-up routine. If you are considering attending a show without a coach, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Who will set jumps for you? It is difficult to share warm-up jumps with other riders, and can be annoying to their grooms as well (especially if you knock them down). If you plan on bringing a friend or family member to set for you, make sure that they know the rules of the warm-up ring ahead of time and are comfortable setting jumps quickly and safely.
2. Where will you keep your tack and equipment? Attending a show without a coach usually means attending without a barn. If you do not share a tack stall, where will you keep your things if you don't pay for an entire tack stall for yourself?
3. Do you have someone who can videotape your rounds for you so that you can see what might have gone wrong (or well)? Not having a coach there means not having immediate feedback.
4. Who will help you if an accident occurs?
5. Who will hold your horse if you need to walk a course (if the show uses posted order, you can't always allow yourself time to get your horse from its stall)?
6. How will you make decisions about how to ride the course if you are unsure? You can occasionally listen to other coaches walking or discussing courses with their students but eavesdropping on a coach for very long can be rude (others are paying for that information).

Attending horse shows without a coach is not a guarantee of failure if you are organized, confident and arrive with a plan. It is certainly not for everyone but it most definitely can be done.

Turnout Critique #1

This is the very first instalment of our new Turnout Critique feature! In Turnout Critique, I'll present one or more photos sent to me by readers and give constructive criticism on the turnout to help point out ways in which the turnout could be improved to better flatter the horse.

Today we have three photos that were submitted by a reader. I've decided to use all three of them because I think that there is something to be learned from all of them.

Our first photo shows very good turnout for a hunter schooling show:

While I always prefer a braided mane, this horse's mane is evenly pulled to be about four inches long and is lying nicely on the horse's neck. It is not messy and won't detract from the horse's performance.

The clouds aren't allowing us to see this horse's shine, but I suspect that he would shine in the sun because he looks to be in very good condition and has the deep colour of a well-groomed horse. His socks are clean and his hooves are nicely oiled. His tail has been brushed out and is free of any bits of hay or shavings. You can also see that his legs have been trimmed so that his fetlock area looks smooth and tidy.

All of the tack is clean and in good repair. The excess stirrup leather is nice and short so that it won't flap about against her horse's side. The saddle pad fits the shape of the saddle nicely but is about as large as I would like to see a pad in the hunter ring. Any more than about two inches of pad showing and it can start to draw your eye away from the horse.

The rider is very neatly and conservatively dressed in typical hunter attire. If she wanted to look really sharp, she could style her hair over her ears, but her hair is very neatly and acceptably contained in a hair net as it is and the "hunter hair" style is not comfortable for everyone. Her boots have been polished and wiped off to remove any dirt or slobber from mounting and the warm-up ring.

Her horse has also been wiped with a towel to remove warm-up dirt and slobber on his legs and body. His mouth has also been wiped clean, as has his nose.

Overall, this horse and rider would give an extremely positive impression entering the ring at a schooling show. They have clearly worked hard so that they can look their best.

Our second photo shows slightly less polished turnout for a schooling show:

In this photo the mane is again unbraided, but it is sticking up and looks quite messy. If this horse's mane tends to stick up, I would rather see it braided even for a schooling show. Alternatively, training braids could be used in the days before the show to encourage the mane to stay over on one side of the horse's neck.

Here you can clearly see the shine in his coat from good daily grooming. His socks are again clean and white, but the hooves are in need of oiling to add a final touch. His tail looks like it was last brushed out hours before his class; the clumped pieces of hair underneath tend to appear in a dirty or unbrushed tail.

The tack is clean again for this horse show, but the standing martingale is distractingly short. The judge will likely notice its length, usually used to hold a horse's head down when it is so short, and judge accordingly. The white fleecy girth cover, which tends to be distracting on a dark horse, appears to be dirty.

Jackets were excused for this show, so the rider can't be faulted for not wearing one, although she should have kept her sleeves buttoned up. Her boots are dirty and don't appear to have seen polish for this show, a sharp contrast to her boots in the first photo. Her helmet also appears to have slipped back so that the brim is pointing upwards.

The horse appears to have been nicely wiped clean across his body again (I suspect that the slobber around his mouth was produced while he was in the ring).

These first two photos showed what a big difference a few small details can make in giving a very good, polished first impression to a fairly "rough and ready" one.

Our third photo appears to me to be older than the other two, showing this horse and rider before they found their well-fitting tack:

This time the horse is neatly braided. I can't see the braids themselves well from this side of the horse, but they appear to be well done. This type of horse with a short neck tends to look best with many small braids as they give the impression of more length.

The horse doesn't have the same deep colour this time, but it may just be from the time of year rather than quality of grooming because he looks to be well groomed in all other respects. The tail has been brushed out and the socks look clean but slightly greyed from the footing. The fetlocks could use a fresh trimming as there are tufts are hair showing. With all of the effort put into braiding this horse, the un-oiled hooves are disappointing.

Again the tack is clean, apart from some marks at the top of the girth, but there are minor details that detract from their appearance. We can see a twisted rein and a long, flapping length of excess stirrup leather. A wedge pad has been used on top of the ill-fitting shaped pad in order to make the saddle fit. Using a properly-fitted saddle would allow the rider to remove the bulky pads and probably help the horse perform better, too.

The rider is neatly and suitably dressed with clean, polished boots.

This photo shows how consistently good this rider is at having her horse wiped off before she enters the ring.

I think that as a whole, these three photos show what a difference good turnout can make in the show ring appearance of a horse and rider. This is not a sloppy rider, but an accumulation of little missed details can have quite a noticeable effect.

Thank you very much to the reader who sent in photos for this week's Turnout Critique! I won't identify you here but you're welcome to introduce yourself in a comment if you'd like.

If you're interesting in taking part in a future Turnout Critique, send your photo(s) to showringreadyblog@gmail.com

An Update and Introducing Turnout Critique!

You may have noticed that I haven't written any new posts in the past few months and I thought I would explain why. After 109 posts, covering over 109 different topics, I am finding it difficult to come up with things to write about! As always, I welcome your suggestions for future posts. I know that there are aspects of horse showing that I am so used to that it wouldn't occur to me to write about them, but I would love to help you out with anything I haven't yet written about.

I'd also like to suggest a new feature for the blog, but it requires your help! It would be a Turnout Critique, in which I would supply readers with constructive criticism to improve your show ring turnout based on a photo that you send me. If you're interested in participating, you'll need to send me a clear photo of you and your horse (or just you, or just your horse, etc.) dressed to show. By sending me the photo, you grant me permission to use it in a blog post. Not only might it help to give you a better first impression in the show ring, but your photo could help other readers, too!

Send your photos to showringreadyblog@gmail.com