Dammit! Stupid Mistake- advise please

K

Koda

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 August 2009
Messages
379
Location
Ireland
Visit site
Went to my first Riding Club hunter trials on Saturday.
As soon as my mare landed off the first fence she was in the zone and flew round (she was neighing with glee all the way round too :) ).
The results go up and I was the fastest clear round YAAAY! :)Except the winner is based on optimum time (riding club rules), and I was a full minute under....oops. So we ended up 9th :(
My mistake, I've always been used to fastest clear round winning. So since I'm new to this optimum time gig....how does one ride optimum time if you're not allowed a stopwatch? Any tricks of the trade for my next outing?
Thanks! :)
 
Hi there


your horse sounds like it was more than capable of galloping round the course, but some riders go to win with horses that are not ready and don't ride to the conditions/ground etc, thus putting themselves and their horses at risk. by not taking a watch you as the rider, are expected to work on your horses speed to get an idea of what the right speed feels like. As you went too fast, it would be worth checking what the optimum time was on that course so you can work out what the speed in metres per minute you went in comparison. when you next go to an event/hunter trial, check out the optimum time allowed. If you are naturally going faster than this, you know that while on the course, you can take things a bit steadier.

My horse is about spot on for OT, but as he gets more experienced he will steadily increase and we will end up with time faults for going too fast. For me that will probably be the time we move up a class as he confidence will have grown.


You will be surprised how quickly you will pick up and understand the speed of your horses natural gallop if you have to rely on feel.

Good luck for your next one :)
 
The rule against stop watches, here anyway, is meant to encourage riders to learn to feel pace at home, and then at a competition focus more on the fences than making the time.

I have a GPS watch I use at home when I gallop, and it tells you how fast you are going. So you can watch it and eventually get a feel for 350 meters per minute, for 400 meters per minute, and so on. Then when you get to a competition, you have an internal clock, so to speak.
 
I would love one of those but I'm not really competing at a level where I need it. I would use mine for fitness training so I can tell how long I galloped for etc etc. If I could afford a heart rate monitor too I would so I can monitor my horse better.

I am a bit of a gadget freak - I own a robot hoover amongst other things!
 
Thanks guys. Next time I'll check the OT before setting out, and not assume it fastest time. The thing that concerns me with the OT is that even though we were a minute under, I didn't ask my mare to go fast. She LOVES cross country and naturally has a forward rythm that she feels comfortable in, and I don't want to mess with it. She always comes back to me easily (in a snaffle) when we approach a fence but then she's eager for the next one and naturally gallops on.
Would it be a crazy idea to let her keep doing what she's doing rather than disrupt her rythm, and once we've landed off the last fence I could circle or idle before going through the finish (and guess at how much time I'm under OT)?
If that's stupid, feel free to throw things at me... ;)
 
With each new horse, I go to a good cantering stretch of bridleway thats 500metres long (its an old sandy road, so I drove it in the discovery to measure it..) I time how long it takes me to canter up it, and then gradually adjust each horse's canter so I'm getting up it in the optimum time... For my mare I have to keep her going, for my gelding, who is long striding, we can ease off a bit.. Then I try and adopt this canter at an event.

Try and work out how many seconds you were over the time - ie, 9 seconds could be caught by going wider across fields and making corners wider - so you don't have to change the pace she likes much. Set off slower - try and do the first few easier fences slower perhaps? Just taking a half second longer to get away from each jump can make up quite a lot of time. (Thats where most people lose seconds..)
 
Dont circle you'll get in trouble for not riding fair or something like that.
But do make your turns to the fence nice wide sweeping ones.
Where as those with slow horses look to find the shortest route to each fence , you need to walk the course and seek out ways of making it longer.
 
Ok, thanks for the suggestions. Next time I walk the course I'll see where I can create a longer route and still let her keep her rythm.
I don't have any access to a gallop where I can time myself unfortunately. The one we used to have was gravelled over :(
That's prob why she goes so fast, she's delighted to have a good gallop finally :)
 
Most times are set as a good 'hunting pace' a bit vague but a good fast canter and not a gallop. You want be moving on and the fence should hopefully be part of the natural stride i.e. not hauling and pulling on the reins.
 
Most schedules will state the speed in m/min, as said above you can get to grips with this if you can measure out an area (e.g. side of a field) and work to the time.

At RC and unaff I find I go too fast at the lower heights (the speeds usually increase as the height increases) and I have to be conscious of NOT taking direct lines between fences! If we compete in the larger classes the speed is usually fine.

My last small open xc was like yours, ended up 3rd as had time penalties. That was with a 19 year old little warmblood. He has long strides, a lovely rhythmic gallop, doesn't pull or fight and likes jumping off a slightly forward stride so he doesn't actually feel that fast.
 
Were you at Dragonhold on saturday? I find it quite twisty so it's hard to judge your speed. I have to say I gave up doing riding club hunter trials on my older chap because the optimum time was always so generous and he has a lovely forward rhythm so we were always too fast, even when I was taking it handy! I can see the point of lower grades having an optimum time but I think it should be realistic and the higher grades should have fastest time!
I also think it's very unfair that people with a stop will win ahead of people who were clear, just because they got more penalties for time than refusals! You do see competitors walking across the finish line or else doing extremley long detours around the field so they don't come in too fast! Thats why I prefer hunt hunter trials, at least you can go at a decent hunting pace and not be penalised for it!
I will say however it was a lovely inviting course for my young horse, who after issues with the first fence went clear the rest of the course but at a very steady pace - we got heaps of time penalties for going too slow!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top