How to improve cross country speeds/timings?

Hels_Bells

Hels_Bells

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Had a fantastic round on Saturday at Thornton Watlass BE100. We went clear but had a brief trot to regain stirrup at one point and whilst we certainly weren't worrying about timing it felt like we went at a fairly brisk and consistent pace (what I would call a good XC pace) throughout, however we still came home with 20TP which dropped us about 10 placings. So am now hoping to work on how to get within the time for our next couple of events but am wondering if anyone has any tips on how to work on our speed?

We're on a big farm with plenty of nice set aside verges which we've been using as gallops when fittening so was wondering whether I should measure a distance using the car speedo then time ourselves to get an idea of the pace we need? But this sounds a bit of a faff so wondering what else i could do? Just go out there and compete and push a bit harder? Push more where there's a longer gallop stretch? Buy a pedometer!!!!??

Hints and tips gratefully recieved oh wise ones!!! :D
 
Biggest ways to save time are to kick on the minute you land over a fence (obviously not if a combo! ;) ), many folk say this can save you 1s per fence at least. Make sure you use any long stretches to really make up time and have a good gallop. Also, try to reduce how far out you need to set up for more straight forward fences (eg roll tops, brush) and jump them out of a decent stride. Same for combos, if you can get the control and pace sorted 5 strides out instead of 10 strides out, this can save a few seconds also.

Extra fittening work probably wouldn't go wrong either. Mine is a cob-X and not a naturally fast horse like a TB, I thought we'd never manage to get inside the PN time, but somehow managed it on Sunday (by applying the above theories!) so if we can do it, I'm sure you can too! ;)

Oh, and set out of the start box on a mission too! ;)
 
Well I have a bit of an up, mines a TB!!! but I had to do a lot of fittening wokr so we can go round at the pace we do! If you have any hills go for a good gallop up them and like FigJam said set out from the start box on a mission and kick on once landed from a fence!
you maybe holding yours back a bit.... (you may not think you are but you might possibly be) Oh and I used to hold mine back a fair bit which ment we wherent hitting the time even at Pony Club level!!!!! :rolleyes::eek: so see if you can just get yours goig pretty fast by starting of then letting her go.
 
Oooh thanks for these tips guys! Really interesting about saving 1s per fence by kicking on etc. We only have one hill on our patch so will spend some more time with it though fairly sure my guy is pretty fit. We are doing a 90 next as there was no 100 space at Richmond, so will be a good opportunity to try some of these as the speed is slower and the distance shorter and see if we can get inside the time!!
 
Without sounding like an old nag... only go at a speed which feels comfortable to you, don't risk yourself or the horse for the sake of a time penalty or two...

When walking the course look at the lines you take between fences, you don't have to ride in the middle of the track and by taking an inside line you can save seconds!
 
Don't worry Wowzers - I couldn't agree more! While it would be nice to improve our time now our technique is much better I am one who will always err on the side of horse safety rather than the side of winning!! Thanks for the tip on lines though, I reckon if I can slightly apply all of the tips from you guys we will have some improvement in our timings!!!!
 
You can use www.mapmyrun.com which combines Google Maps with a very clever tool that measures distances. Use it to find your fields and measure how long your field boundary tracks are. Ideally, you would find a route that is 475 metres long, because you want to cover this in exactly one minute. Once you have found your 475 metre track, ride it and see how long it takes. Repeat until it takes exactly one minute. Then add a few simple jumps and try again - you will be learning how to adjust your pace for the effect of jumps.
 
as above, don't start trying to hurry the horse and lose your rhythm, it's better to try to keep your rhythm and just jump the fences smoothly out of it rather than slowing down to rebalance and set up, jumping the fence, then getting going again. obv it depends hugely on the profile and technicality of the fence, but generally speaking, anything with a sloping front which doesn't have, say, another element after it, or a sharp turn after it, etc, you should just take out of your (balanced but forward) stride.
keeping lines a little tighter, making sure you keep moving on after a fence, even setting off positively to the first fence, can all make a difference.
 
Thanks so much everyone. I know what you mean about the rhythm aspect Kerilly and BeckyX. I think my horse has developed a fab rhythm (which seems to me pretty nippy) but it's obv not quite quick enough, so will maybe try to move the rhythm up a small notch!! Also brilliant tips on the on setting out tracks no collection!! Thanks!!! Also thanks NJ for the tip on course walking, was plannig to go into it in a bit more detail next time, esp as we're back down at 90 next time so I think we can think a bit more about logistics at 90 now we've got clear round a 100.
 
FigJam said:
Biggest ways to save time are to kick on the minute you land over a fence (obviously not if a combo! ;) ), many folk say this can save you 1s per fence at least.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was about to say. This really helped my XC time and now we're one of the quickest ;) FigJam was probably the one who advised me when I asked this a few years ago too! Your horse will learn very quickly and do it automatically, mine speeds off after fences so quickly nowadays!
 
Well having a non-TB, short-legged horse I need to find all time saving measures! ;) MM- I only really started worrying about speed last year, so it was likely someone else who said about the 1s per fence thing. It was during my lesson with Ian Stark last September that I first came across it. :)

Can't believe I forgot about the "shortest route" spotting as well- good shout NJ! I'm always looking for the quickest line between fences (in fact, it must be becoming 2nd nature to me now as it wasn't something I consciously though of when answering the OP!) and took the fence judges by surprise at Auchinleck by jumping two unrelated fences on an angle and nipping through the trees on a totally different line to 99% of the rest of the riders! :o (except Nic01 who I'd roped into my sneaky time saving course walk tactics! :D )
 
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