Hunter trials questions?????

You can usually wear whatever you want, but you would need to check with the organisers re wearing a watch. Any hunter trials I have been to wouldn't allow it.
 
It's a long time since I did a hunter trial & I always wore my watch - big standard every day watch to tell the time. Why are you not allowed to wear one now?
 
because it is all done on optimum time so some people were going really fast then walking through the timer on the exact time. The idea now is that the time is based on fit horses travelling at a specific speed it is supposed to stop people racing round and injuring unfit ponies and horses by trying for the fastest time.
 
Its not wearing a standard watch that is the issue - you can wear a normal one. What you can't wear is a cross country timing device which bleeps every minute so you can tell where your minute markers are and what speed you are going at.

Hunter trails have an optimum speed based on hunting pace - going fast won't win. Getting closest to the time will. And part of the point (although possibly lost in the mists of time) was to teach you to judge a good hunting pace. If you have your horse out for long periods of time you need to be able to tell the best pace to keep at to avoid exhausting them on a long point.
 
Thank u for the advice, I'm new to it so that's very helpful to know , so does anyone know roughly mph it has to be for the 450mpm roughly as so I know what speed I should be traveling at canter wise ?
 
What we used to call a "forward hand canter", or hunting pace. It isn't as fast as 450mpm. Obviously the point is to judge by eye not measure it but I would estimate closer to 400mpm; perhaps as low as 390mpm if the ground is choppy or undulating. The organizers decide when setting the optimum time - which they don't tell you in advance.
 
Afraid so! Concentrate on moving forward at a reasonable pace and within a rhythm. As long as you are clear that should put you close enough. If you have a refusal you'll need to pick up a bit in a clear space. Allowance should be made for fences where you have to slow significantly.

Being placed is - to be honest - a bit of a lottery. You don't know the time in advance and even if you did you can only judge by eye anyway; so focus on a good quality clear jumping round as your goal. Anything else is a bonus.
 
clean jumping and a good forward going canter will get you close but as above it varies from place to place we are new to it too the young lass riding my pony only started x country last season and is hooked. We have created a monster. They are tiny compared to the other competitors but have had a few placings not quite got the speed either being too fast or too slow a big horse will be cantering on a pony will be almost galloping in places
 
Some hunter trials will have a timed section rather than an optimum time. The fastest clear round in the time section wins. That doesn't explain it well. Of all the clear rounds over the whole course, the fastest through the time section wins. Worth checking which method they're using. I loved time sections as my old boy could go hell for leather over a short distance and would jump off any stride or angle, but didn't have huge amounts of stamina.
 
In terms of turnout, it is usually either hunting dress, or xc colours. It isn't usual to wear coloured breeches - competitors would normally wear coloured tops and hat silks, with cream breeches - same as eventing. The hunter trials local to me state "run under BE rules".

Optimum times are always a lottery - there used to be one near us that was judged on a "fair hunting speed". It was set by a local point to point and team chase rider, who would ride round and time herself .... that was always a hard one!

Years ago, there used to be a "style" fence where the fence judge would give you marks out of 10 or 20 for the way you jumped it. It got awfully complicated with having to a) jump clear round the whole course b) look pretty over specific fences and c) be quick in the timed section, including opening a gate. My most memorable moment was when my hunter took a hold and just jumped the gate instead.
 
spacefaer said:
In terms of turnout, it is usually either hunting dress, or xc colours. It isn't usual to wear coloured breeches - competitors would normally wear coloured tops and hat silks, with cream breeches - same as eventing. The hunter trials local to me state "run under BE rules".

Optimum times are always a lottery - there used to be one near us that was judged on a "fair hunting speed". It was set by a local point to point and team chase rider, who would ride round and time herself .... that was always a hard one!

Years ago, there used to be a "style" fence where the fence judge would give you marks out of 10 or 20 for the way you jumped it. It got awfully complicated with having to a) jump clear round the whole course b) look pretty over specific fences and c) be quick in the timed section, including opening a gate. My most memorable moment was when my hunter took a hold and just jumped the gate instead.
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One course we used to do had a gate, then about 3 strides to a long set of rails that you could either jump as a spread or walk/trot in between at right angles to the direction you wanted to go in - which added about 15m to the route as well as requiring you to go slowly to get down the fairly narrow gap. Very few went for the jump as you just didn't have enough space to get going but my old boy had done the course so many times and this particular set up never changed so he knew what was coming. He'd bounce on the spot while I did the gate, spin and GO! It helped that, when excited he could get 6 strides in where others only managed 3.
 
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