Large horses jumping 'small' courses

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just a general mussing... the other week after the Derby at Patchetts (unaffiliated)someone at my yard said 'I just couldn't believe the number of huge horses jumping in the 80cm class!' in a really derogatory way...

IMO just because a horse is big, doesn't mean it has a naturally large jump so why shouldn't they jump small courses? and also, not every rider wants to jump 1m tracks so why should they? I certainly don't any my boy is going to finnish up at 17.2 +... hmmmm
 
Haha i have a 17hh and will be jumping that at Patchetts when i get back from uni
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To be honest i do know a lot of very good riders with very capable horses who do the smaller classes as trophy hunting at patchetts, afterall there are not many places to compete around us in the winter, so its nice to get there horses out! But not all of them have massive horses.... i can see where she is coming from but thats a bit of a generalisation!!
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Imagine a 17hh jumping 1ft6 - 2ft. When I started jumping my boy, he actually couldnt jump!! You wouldnt believe it now (or before he came out of work)
 
My horse is 17hh, doesn't mean I want to jump 1m20!! I'd s**t myself if someone asked me to LOL! Am quite happy pottering round jumping 2ft6 or so courses, though I will jump 3ft/3ft3 if it's part of a grid and the horse is already set up for it. Will jump bigger if it's XC as I much prefer it to SJ. Coloured poles scare the life out of me and horse isn't mad keen either. Give me XC anyday!
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My lad is 17.2 (ish) & 19 this year I am no jumper and neither is he. Last year I got him over a couple of jumps (first time he has jumped) on a trot stop sniff jump kind of approach so if I was going to jump him in a comp then it would be teensy tiny ones (with people laughing at me)
 
As a rule the bigger the horse the larger the course but some big horses are youngsters and need to start of their careers jumping small fences, and some big horses are pain in the butts and shy at fillers, as is the case with my own 17.1hh WB gelding. At the moment whilst I get my confidence back I am jumping 2ft 3 courses from a trot (so if said horse runs out I won't fall off) and then once he's seen the course I am jumping out of a canter over the 2ft 6 class. I hope to progress to 2ft 9 in a few months but for the time being I don't really care what people think to be honest, although I would draw the line at jumping under 2ft 3".
 
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To be honest i do know a lot of very good riders with very capable horses who do the smaller classes as trophy hunting at patchetts,

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you get those everywhere though!! - even local showing shows you get people entering ten billion classes!! lol!
 
aaaaaand this is why I avoid Patchetts. Of course you should jump at the level appropriate for you and your horse, not it's size! Does this mean we should stop all those annoyingly talented and unbelievably fast kids on small ponies from jumping in the 'big' classes? Sadly, no.
 
I wouldn't worry about it - some smart kid on an 11.2 always can nip round the tight corners and beat them. My daughter used to love it when competing against adults on big horses, made her look less big on her pony even though her feet were below pony's tummy.
 
I don't mind if there's a big horse jumping 'little' fences, maybe the horse is young, or just coming back into jumping, or their confidence needs building, or maybe the rider is unconfident

80cm isn't really small to me anyway
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I have an 18hh horse that loves to jump is very good at it jumping in fact with the right owner he could have gone all the way.

However, I am terrified of jumping so we pop round small courses and he looks after me. There is nothing wrong with big horses jumping small tracks and in most cases big horses don’t jump small jumps that well anyway so why should it be a problem.
 
My boy 17.1hh and when we manger to actually get out I will be doing the 2.6ft sj we have jumpd the odd 3.6ft. Im not ready to do that height for class. Dont want to risk loseing both our condfence that we have just built back up.
 
I will be jumping tiny courses on our youngster who was 16.2 last time we measured and still growing. I don't see why people shouldn't, if they are nervous/novice or the horse is! As said above the quick little ones always win!
 
I get so annoyed with people with that attitude. The highest Zoom and I have done is 70cm!!!!

You never know what the story is, Zoom is ex-polo and I am a wuss so we have to compete against the 7 year olds! I guess it's annoying when you get people who are really capable of jumping much higher wanting the get the rosettes in small classes but that's life.

Luckily I never get near the placings so people don't get annoyed!
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Totally agree, I'll be doing it this year (and probably smaller to start with!) and sucks ya boo to anyone at the shows who doesn't like it lol!!!! If it was only to get an experienced horse out then I'd go H/C but its not with me so I think its fine!!

I think I'll develop a thick skin this year though... !!!!!!!!!
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My 12hh Section A would jump a bigger course far better then my 16.2hh TB.

If I ever did take the TB to a show (I'd have to sort out life insurance first
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) I would enter the smallest class I could as then all I would have to think about was trying to stay in him!
 
i regularly compete against an 18hh horse who is stabled on my yard... we both jump the 2ft9/3ft classes.. me on my 15hh cob x and her on her 18hh ex affiliated lad... if re registered would go back into the 1.40cm i think she said.. not sure how it works....

it used to annoy me that as such a big horse with lots of experience that she was against me and my lad who were just coming up the ranks... but i soon realised it was about her confience building... he was a school master and she hadnt jumped properly before she had him... so fair enough young horse or novice rider... either way no problem!

TBH i now view coming up alongside big horses... as a challange for us and if we are placed in amongst that lot im happy... and on a 15hh cob im used to being alongside big horses... even a 16hh looks big from down here! x
 
I think its rediculous to jump big horses over small fences.

Here is a picture of me jumping my 17hh mare round her first clear round. It was also her first course and the first time she has seen coloured fences!!
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who cares - each to his own I say. All horses, riders and combinations are different, there are many reasons why any size of horse could be jumping any height (big or small, experienced or inexperienced). Pot hunting is a different thing altogether but even with that i just think well if a rosette is that important to you, good luck to you!

Only thing is I would prefer to be on a bigger horse to jump bigger fences. Everything looks huge when you are on a small horse/pony.
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Ridiculous attitude to say a large horse should jump a large track - people should jump tracks that they and their horses are confident and capable over, simple as.

Large tracks, as a rule (although I guess at unaffiliated it might be different as the large tracks are the same course as the smaller ones, just the jumps are higher), have technicality of courses that increases along with the height. If someone who is not capable of riding a more technical course, or has a horse with less experience or that is badly schooled so can't adjust between obstacles etc., then it's just plain dangerous for them to enter the bigger classes, just because they're on a big horse!

If anything, a large course is more difficult to ride a big horse over than a small pony as they're so much harder to adjust strides etc.!

Sounds to me like the person on your yard just has sour grapes - have they ever been beaten by someone on a large horse in a small class and are looking for an excuse?!
 
I have been in the past someone with lots of experience and a big cob in a small class, my reason was that I hadnt jumped in a long time and had no confidence, so I was jumping to my ability, so long as you are having fun and the horse enjoys it, I think you should feel comfortable and proud to jump what ever height you like. HOWEVER I have real issue with people that turn up with a much greater abiltiy and for no reason other than throphy hunting take on the smaller classes. I think thats really sad, I would not feel proud of myself now for winning a class in that way
 
I have a 16.3hh ex-BSJA showjumper, who can jump 1m25, but I put the jumps up to about 2ft3, then think god that's huge, so put it down to about 1ft6! Much more my height! Even tho she does fall over them, but last time I jumped big I came off and was knocked unconcious and went slighly mental for few days!!
 
i have not jumped much for years, probably more because i have not really had anything capable/that enjoyed it enougth.

Charles loves his jumping and he is very capable, he has done a lot in his life and has been there, got the t-shirts. He will jump the smaller jumps for me, but really does jump better over the bigger jumps. he really seems to look ath the smaller jumps as if to say " how boring" and generally jumps them flatter.

I do hope to do a bit with his at the local riding club this year, and so i shall be practiving and getting my confidence ready for when we do compete. I dont hope to start lower than 80cm. He does look after me though and is very paitent with me.

there are peopel on my yard who compete regularly and they seem to do the trophy hogging as well. I think its unfair.
 
I agree with most of the points, the only thing I do notice is that some large horses do seem to struggle with jumping very small (say under 2'6) tracks as they tend to fall over them quite a lot. It might just be the big ones round here though.

People can do what they like though really doesnt matter to me!
 
I jumped Pickle my 17.1hh round 2ft3, however I didnt do any of the bigger tracks as well, it was also our first show together. I came 3rd and was beaten was a 12hh and a 13.2hh
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if anything the horses had the disadvantage as these smaller tracks were built on more pony strides.
 
Maybe the way to stop the "pot hunting"in this case (large horses small courses) Is for the show centres to get their a*ses in gear and LOOK at the results and think "ok so and so has won this class 3 times, they can no longer COMPETE in this class but can choose to go in HC if they wish"


As I said I will be starting Lord small (2'6" if he settles into the show scenario) but he has NEVER competed or seen an indoor school before, once he builds his confidence over the smaller courses I will move him up a class, simples
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