Arena Eventing - Unfixed Portables?

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foxy1

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A discussion with a friend today about unfixed portable jumps being used at a riding club hunter trial has made me think about arena eventing....

Are portable xc fences safe in an arena? Is there a way to secure them to a surface?
?
 
They should be a suitable shape that is less likely to cause a problem (hence you see mostly soft profiles) and heavily sandbagged to weight them. You cannot fix portables in an arena.
 
I know someone who was at an arena event last year (at a BE venue but not during a BE event) and her horse hit a portable and it rotated and flipped up and caused a nasty rotational fall.

A while ago there was a lot of publicity about the dangers of unfixed portables but the demand for arena eventing seems to have clouded people's judgement about what is safe. I agree with LEC that ideally you would only see 'soft profile' portables but I have seen corners, skinnies etc being used on a surface. A 20kg sandbag does jack sh$t when a 600kg horse hits the fence
 
There are a few ways that the portable are supposed to be fixed in arena eventing, either a wide base/on skis so that it can't tip, concrete inside so too heavy to tip or pegged down (there are specific pegs for arena eventing). If none of those are used then I would be wary of jumping them.
 
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Thanks all.
The same venue as above has unfixed xc fences in arena and my friend's horse clipped the top and rolled the fence. Luckily horse stayed upright.
Seems very dangerous to me!
 
I think they have special screws but I'm not 100%?

I have to say it comes down to personal choice in some cases, my only rotational (and hopefully only one ever!) was over a SJ, things go wrong, there is always inherent risk with jumping and horses, you've got to weigh it up for yourself...
 
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