How do you know the scope of your horse?

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MagicMelon

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I know it's an odd question. But how do you know when you've reached your horses limit jumping-wise? I mean, with ponies Ive had, Ive always been able to work out their limit - you know like how far they could go competing wise. And when I got to one of my ponies limits then it was blindingly obvious he couldn't go bigger as he began struggling. But with horses, it seems harder to tell! My boy has just started jumping foxhunter BSJA which he seems to jump well, although we do have the odd hairy moment (due to my riding). He does BE novice courses pretty easily too. I dont plan to ever jump bigger than Fox, but wondered how could I tell if he *could* go bigger? Just see if he struggles? My main thought just now is with the eventing, Id love to try an Intermediate. But I want to be certain he'd be happy doing it. As I said, he has no probs getting round Novice tracks but intermediate is getting more technical etc. Id hate to enter one and then have him struggling because obviously its rather dangerous at XC!

Maybe it's ME that lacks the scope
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Or take him schooling on a BE course where you know which of the fences are Intermediate ones? Have a bit of a practice and see how it goes?
 
The way I do it is if they are making a level feel easy, and you are getting consistent DCs showjumping or going clear round the xc every time with just the odd sj pole down, then they are ready to try the next level.

I think if he's jumping easily round Novice BE tracks then he's probably got the scope to go up to Intermediate.

You can tell if they're struggling - the genuine ones will back off and clamber over, and the not so genuine ones will put on the brakes and say, 'no thanks'!

Re. Foxhunter - I would say you need to be getting DCs regularly before going up the the next level, but the good thing about show jumping is the poles do come down if you get it wrong! Some horses get better as the jumps go up.

You could pick a softer Intermediate track and have a go. Or book a lesson with a good show jumping trainer and see what they think about going beyond Fox.
 
Put someone else on him to try it first
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?

Seriously, the BSJA YR on my yard's good horse reached his limit when he kept getting 4 faults in the bigger classes, and although he was getting some clears, he could tell the horse wasn't comfortable jumping the bigger classes. He just didn't have enough 'pop' in him to clear all the jumps round the course.

I haven't figured out Meg's limit yet, but I know mine is around 90cm
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Any higher and I go to pot and bottle it
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Yeah, I was asking about which is the easiest scottish track to go round as a first intermediate. Think its Auchinleck. Thats the thing with him though, he has clambered over the odd XC fence. He is terribly honest and will always give it a shot no matter what! He is terribly careful though, which is a little bit of a worry over brush fences. He will literally jump well OVER the brush which makes the fence bloody massive...! He doesn't back off fences but he doesn't "attack" them either if that makes sense? He's basically a push button type of horse, will do whatever I ask / go at whatever speed etc.

Schooling-wise. That would be a wise thing to do but I dont know of any nearish courses who open their courses for training... I can think of 2 who do but I dont believe they do Intermediates.

BSJA-wise, ok will just see how it goes. As I said, I dont plan to ever go any higher but its nice to know you *could*! He's only done 2 foxhunters as we've only just moved up, but he just had 4 faults last time - his main problem is doubles / combinations because he isnt the biggest striding horse so I have to get it absolutely perfect to make up the distances.
 
if he's jumping round a Foxhunter easily, Intermediate shouldn't be a problem as far as scope is concerned.
i test mine at home, sometimes with a big ascending parallel off a related distance. i make sure the distance is spot-on by jumping it at about 3'-3'6", and then put it up and pull it out, and see how they cope over a serious fence, but from a good forward stride. not trying to catch them out at all, just see how they open up and out.
a double of an upright to a square parallel, both at about 4'6", convinced me that my little mare would be up to tackling a 2* CCI, and she was.
 
Scone Horse Trials are having a schooling day on the Monday after the May event. (May day Monday) Good chance to jump some Intermediate fences without being in competition.
 
Most horses that will jump round a foxhunter (1.30m in the JO) will be capable of jumping big individual fences and probably combinations on nornal strides. One of my trainers was explaining to me that once you get above a 1.30m track it's not so much the size of the fences as the technicality of the distances that will decide if a horse can go higher. A horse needs to be able to jump a 1.40m upright then go down a 17 or 18 yard distance on 3 strides and still be able to jump out over a 1.40m oxer if it's going to jump at that level. Up to 1.30m most of the stridings are pretty standard. The technicality required to jump a 1.50m is another leap and then 1.60m a further quantum leap
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Just one word of caution about XC schooling over intermediate fences. It's one thing to jump XC when you and your horses blood is up but I would normally school over smaller fences. Andrew Hoy has said that he tried schooling over some fences at Gatcombe once (on a horse that had already done them) and nearly killed himself so he said that he would never do it again!
I would say that on the SJ side if you can do Fox then intermediate should be ok. On the XC side if the Novices are easy then the only true way to tell is to give it a go but be prepared to pull up if the horse is not enjoying it.
 
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