British Novice?

[LT1]

I recently attended my local BSJA show with my novice horse. We arrived at the show, planning on entering the British Novice, only to find the course was in no way 'inviting' or suitable for a novice horse at all. I failed to see one horse happily complete it, and it pushes me to ask the question of how this was helping or encouraging the horses to jump? Surely 'British Novice' should not be a course that tests the horse, nor should it be designed to 'get people out'. I completely understand that horses need to come across difficult obstacles eventually, but asking too many questions in a course can't be good. Has anyone else found this? Comments welcome!

 

[Santa_Claus]

it does depend on the venue and the course designer but the majority of the time they are inviting courses although will asks some questions as not every horse should be going double clear.

Not to sound in anyway condescending but if you are only used to unaffiliated many people who then go to try a BN as they are finding unaffil 90cm easy find a BN very tough. There is a BIG difference between unafil and BSJA especially at 90cm level. BNs are generally up to height and far far wider. You will also get dog legs and several related distances (though long relateds to give room to play for horse and rider).

Another thing will be the quality of competitiors at the venue you attended. At some it will be a majority or amatuer novicey riders who are only vaguely capable of BN but choose BSJA over unaffiliated, those riders will often make the course seem a lot harder than it is. You will also have a lot of problem horses and at this time of year youngsters just starting out (those who prefer to leave 4yos till the end of their 4th year to jump) and so they will also 'bring down' the perceived standard. Then also add those horses/riders who don't like jumping indoors, Its amazingly hard for a green larger horse to jump round a course indoors when outdoors they may have been jumping flowing double clears all season outdoors.

Of course there will still be some who will jump the course well and the majority of the time more will jump nicely than not. The professionals will generally do a good job have the horse balanced and ready to jump the course, you also have a number of amatuers who will do just as good a job if not better than some of the professionals.

I wouldn't give up hope on BNs i think you either were unlucky to see a rare badly designed course or just a bad class of competitiors that made a course look unnecessarily hard.

Depending where you are in the country I'm sure several members on here could point you towards good venues where the coursebuilders will build a true BN designed for the young green horse with the aim of them developing in to a seasoned showjumper

Katie

 

[LT1]

Thanks for replying.
I do regularly attend this particular show centre and think I must have just caught it on a bad day, as the class of competition and the courses are, in general, very good. In fact, it must be one of my favourites!
However, I would not say I am 'new' to the BSJA, I have been a member for about 7 years and am used to the standard of courses built. Unfortunately, the course I saw, did seem to have the complexity of some Foxhunter class, and I would have hesitated to take my previous, more experienced horse round.
I understand that if there is 70 horses in a class, the course can't be that easy that every single person goes clear, otherwise we'd be there all day! But a too demanding course may knock a good horse's confidence, not to mention the rider's!
Thanks for the comment!

 

[MagicMelon]

I think it depends on the course designer. They all design different courses although do have to follow usual rules (like cant have a water tray etc.). Keep note of who built the course and try not to attend his shows again! I usually make sure my youngsters are happily jumping intermediate unaffiiliated (which is bigger) before I even think about doing a BN. Obviously unaffiliated tracks aren't as wide or complicated but it gives the horse confidence. I would never put a baby straight into a BN!

 

[Nic]

I have only jumped BN at Rowallan and Champions of Scotland. Rowallan's are nice inviting courses and CoS was just a championship version of the same, I didn't think they were very unfriendly.

 

[susie2193]

My daughter jumps BN and Discovery, a couple of weeks ago we took a friend of hers with us, this friend has only ever jumped unaffiliated. She happily jumps open unaff classes, but on seeing a BN said there is no way her horse would ever jump the spreads.

We have found BN is always up to height, but the courses are designed to ride nicely. Related distances are always on the correct number of strides as are doubles. Once you've worked out your horses stride patten you know how to ride a BN double and it will always be the same.