Competing at Intro - what height do you jump at home...

[wench]

Out of pure interest really!

 

[Farma]

Hey I had a go at Intro last year and sj wise intro was much smaller than I jumped at home - I normally would do 1m to 1m10 at home to go out and do 90cm easily. The cross country however had a few suprise biggies in it but they werent a problem I just imagined that some of the fences would have been smaller.

 

[Bug2007]

I'm planning on competing Intro this year and i'll be training at Pre Novice, gives you the confidence to know that your horse is more than ready for the Intro.

I always train a stage higher at home than at competition, same with dressage, train at Novice if competing at Prelim.

I don't think i'm the only one, you see a lot of horses sold as training at one level but competing the one below.

 

[PaddyMonty]

I've found the surface you train on is more important than the height.
Far too many people train SJ in lovely flat areanas then wonder why they have poles at the event. Sj on a sloping slippery grass ring is very different to the flat areana so I always recommend spending time jumping on grass preferably with slopes.

 

[DarkHorseB]

I don't jump at home so it is when I go for lessons etc. When I was doing Intro last year though aiming to move up to PN during the year I was jumping up to 1.05m in lessons and BN & Discovery at competitions.

Juno makes a good point about surfaces though. My horse got the shock of his life when asked to jump out of really horrid conditions at last event of year. So I will aim to get some more practice on grass this year.

 

[Baileyhoss]

Good advice to practice a level higher than you compete. I sj at home 1m + to comfortably tackle intro SJ, don't forget to set widths as well.

I don't get much opportunity to train xc, but it showed competing intro as the odd big ones gives me wibbles.

 

[millitiger]

I don't tend to train the level above and doing Intro last year I was jumping 90-95cm at home BUT we have xc course and a grass sj arena at yard and I do most of my jumping on these not in the arena.

 

[illy89]

I am aiming to do an intro with my 5yo beginning of the season. He is currently jumping 90cm but will aim to get up to about 1m before we compete and get lots of xc schooling in once the ground is ok!

 

[Decision_Tree]

I agree with training on different surface - SJ and Dressage on grass can cause people issues.

I train at varying heights up to 95cm - but I think it really depends on what your working on. I tend to work on exercises from my lessons when jumping outwith them. For grids and gymnastic exercises then I would jump smaller heights (altered to suit the exercise and height increasing with ease) and then for courses I would go up to height. I think its just about finding what works best for you and your horse. I also like to jump atleast once a week in the summer - ideally twice a week.

 

[wench]

Interesting thoughts - just looking at a picture of me and Henry sailing over a 95cm spread intro fence (huge to me!) and thinking how on earth did I manage to do that - a 90cm upright looks huge to me now.

 

[ecrozier]

Depends on the horse. My youngster i will want to be confident over 1m before he goes intro. My older one is at his happy max at intro but I know h can do that, so we train at that height as I don't ever intend to move him up a level.

 

[Honey08]

I don't think that the height is the real issue. I was doing 3'6" classes unaffiliated at our local rc, but they hardly ever had fillers sj, and not that many spreads of any great width.

When I started BE I noticed how wide the fences felt, more than the height. They are all well dressed, with fillers, and often flowers on the SJs, and there are quite often "joker" fences XC, such as fake sheep and a dog near the sheep feeder (Kelsall) or a table cloth and teddy bears picnicing on the picnic bench (Stafford) that look quite strange to the horse...(or rider more likely!)

 

[wench]

Honey... thats most intersting! Henry who was a nappy spooky git would never spook at fillers, or additives! We did WH at Lincs Show couple of years ago - loads of horses were spooking at some wooden cows in the arena - not Henry. Only thing he did spook at BE SJ was the arena party sat on a small fence !

 

[diggerbez]

i really think that it depends upon the horse.

i actually find BE sjing pretty small- so if you can jump a BS British Novice i think you'd be absolutely fine. i tend to jump around 1m at home- but its rare that i jump big at all- tend to focus on smaller fences but working on other things like related distances, turnbacks, spooky fillers etc- most horses can jump 90cm with relative ease so idon't think you really need to practice the height unless its a case of getting the rider confident over that height.
i do jump on grass as much as possible

its the XC that i think is more of a shock for people as is a lot bigger and wider than the SJ IME

 

[CuriousGeorge]

When Event Pony was doing Intro she was jumping Pre-Novice equivalent at home and Junior Newcomers (1m courses) BSJA. She cross country schooled at whatever she felt comfortable with, but they were almost always Pre-Novice, some Novice. I just advised her to string a few fences together to work on her rhythm, and tackle the more technical fences individually first. It seemed to pay off as she did pretty well last year.

 

[SamuelWhiskers]

We were aiming for intro last year (before he went lame) and i used to jump 1m - 1.15m training (at Alwyns, as you know he sticks the fences up!) where it was in a school, trainer there and lots of confidence. I tend to keep it about 1m at home, true height in the field as i don't want a silly slip or anything to knock the confidence!

XC i only have 2 fences and i think they are both 1m !

Did you get a new horse?

 

[OneInAMillion]

I would tend to try and jump a level higher than I'm competing then it is much less stressful for you

 

[wench]

SW - I did get new horse, it wont be going anywhere for a year at least, its three. I wont be going BE for a very long time, merely musing about what I did wrong with Henry!

 

[star]

aiming on doing Intro this year. Jump up to 1.05m at home but have only competed at 90cm so far although only had him 3mths. He was competing 1.05m BSJA before I got him so have confidence in his scope, just busy building a relationship at the moment.

 

[jumptoit]

I will be aiming to jump around 1m - 1m 05 with mine I hope to event at Intro again this year, I have a bit of a confidence problem with her and I end up fiddling so hopefully if I know I can jump bigger at home I should be fine in the ring.

Juno makes a good point about surfaces though. My horse got the shock of his life when asked to jump out of really horrid conditions at last event of year. So I will aim to get some more practice on grass this year.

Me too, ironically living where I do, we couldn't cope with the slope at Aske so this year we are going to try to book a field for training once a month.

 

[DarkHorseB]

I will be aiming to jump around 1m - 1m 05 with mine I hope to event at Intro again this year, I have a bit of a confidence problem with her and I end up fiddling so hopefully if I know I can jump bigger at home I should be fine in the ring.



Me too, ironically living where I do, we couldn't cope with the slope at Aske so this year we are going to try to book a field for training once a month.

I have even less excuse I live on a farm
But a very strange farm where all the fields seem to be "unrideable" at any point in time per the grupmy farmer