Arena eventing - jump safety

ponymum

ponymum

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I was having a look for something interesting to do with my horse over the winter and had the idea to take him arena eventing as he loves his jumping even if I'm a bit novicey (daughter usually jumps him about 1m, I would be looking more at 70cm). So, I googled some images to see what I could expect and came across this page:
http://jumporamic.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/vale-view-ec-arena-eventing-24-04-11/
What worries me is that some horses seem to be getting their feet/legs stuck between the plastic bars of the jumps. This also happened to my daughter's horse at a PC competition and he was on his hind legs waving a triangular arrowhead to the ponies in the collecting ring, cue ponies scattering in every direction!
My question is therefore How safe are these temporary XC jumps? I've seen all the threads on the portable jumps causing rotational falls and I realise this is slightly different but how often do horses get their legs caught? Any experiences? I'm not sure whether to go now or not. Thanks for reading
 
The portable xc jumps that they use in arena eventing should still be secured down, terrifying to think what could happen. Either ring the venue in advance to ask if they are secured or visit the venue beforehand when they are running a competition.
 
Good idea! I know the photos are from three years ago so things may have changed but it was more the possibility of the horse getting his leg caught between the plastic bars of the fence I was referring to. My daughter's horse panicked when he got his stuck and no one could get near him to do anything to help. Don't know how she manged to stay on but luckily she did and he managed to free himself without injury, but it could have been much worse. Just wondered if the design has changed as this was about four years ago.
 
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Teen 2 had a rotational at a half roll top in an arena. She was very lucky (or quick thinking) and rolled off to the left as one of the horse's back legs was stuck in the fence and it all (horse AND jump) whistled past her head. The jump came apart but the sharp-ish ends of the tubular plastic poles (which had popped out of the end) bounced up and cut his inner thighs which needed staples etc.

This was a year ago and to my knowledge, the jump design hasn't changed since then. This particular style of jump is well used by lots of venues and I expect that 99% of horses/people jump them without a problem, but when there is a problem, it can get a little messy (in my view).
 
The two places my daughter has taken part in arena eventing is Eland Lodge and Field House there xc jumps are wooden and very heavy some of which cannot be moved by hand. It is best to check with the venue to see if using plastic xc jumps.
 
I haven't been arena eventing since I hit one of the plastic rolltops in water and it moved a good couple of feet. I wouldn't jump an unfixed portable out XC, so why do it in a school?
 
I have just organised an eventers challenge for our RC and this is the exact reason I chose not to use any of the plastic arena XC fences, as they just can't be secured. The venue we use agrees, and hopefully next year we will have some portable XC fences that can be secured by ballast/sandbags, but as yet they don't. I know other organisers do use them though....
 
Solihull Riding Club have some arena eventing on. They don't fix their jumps, but they said they are starting at 80cm so the jumps are heavier and it minimises the risk of the fence tipping, but they cannot guarantee it won't fix. Something about protecting membranes was mentioned.
 
I think they are ok, I would happily jump them on a surface, it is the lighterweight plastic ones where horses can put a leg through the middle of what would ordinarily be a very solid roll top that I can imagine not ending too well.
 
My friend's horse put down on top of a Jump for Joy plastic xc fence and it simply flattened into a kit of bits, it took us 20mins to put it back together again, it was like a 3D jigsaw. I'm surprised something could get its foot stuck in one.
 
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