"Missing" at the odd fence - thoughts please?

[HotToTrot]

A twofold question! 1. At what level (either in terms of height, or experience of horse/rider) does it become unacceptable to have the odd miss; and 2. How to move from having the odd miss to never missing at all?

I compete at low level BE/BS and am hoping to move up to higher low level BE/BS this summer. I have regular lessons and instructor has recently upped my game by having me schooling round 1.20s. Horse and I are both perfectly happy at that level.

Now. I have the odd "miss". Not very often- maybe once per lesson and once every two/three shows. By "missing" I mean putting poor horse in totally the wrong place and horse having to rectify situation. I am a lot better at missing (if I do say so myself!) and, if I see I am on a miss but it's too late to alter the stride, I will keep rhythm, impulsion and balance (and adopt a defensive seat on take off!). I used to panic/flap/fling horse on forehand/ask for an unrealistic flyer/all of the above simultaneously. This means that our misses are now nowhere near as hair-raising as they once were, they're just somewhat sub-optimal.

I am reluctant to go much higher than N/C until I have stopped missing. Even though my misses aren't terrribly frequent, I think that risking missing at a Fox fence would not be advisable - but how to stop missing?!

 

[Supanova]

A very interesting post! I am not sure I have anything useful to add but I will be very interested in the replies as I am very similar in that I get the right stride 90% of the time but am still prone to the odd miss and would be worried about moving up from Newcomers until I can guarantee I won't do it!

I honestly think that if you are an amateur and not riding day in day out then you can never stop this. I think that it only comes through practice, practice, practice. The more you jump, the less you miss. If you are like me and only jump a maximum of once a week then I think it is unavoidable that you will miss occasionally as your eye won't always be operating at its maximum.

 

[HotToTrot]

I honestly think that if you are an amateur and not riding day in day out then you can never stop this. I think that it only comes through practice, practice, practice. The more you jump, the less you miss. If you are like me and only jump a maximum of once a week then I think it is unavoidable that you will miss occasionally as your eye won't always be operating at its maximum.

Ah. Now my yard manager says just this. I didn't put it in my first post just to see if anyone else said it unprompted! She thinks that as I only have one horse and I have to combine work/horse/man/friends/other sports and I don't jump very often (once/twice a week), I will not gain the requisite experience to become a miss-free zone. I would question that though; our situation can't be unique and there must be people in the same boat who compete at a high level. Maybe that is another question for the thread: what is your ratio of time spent riding to level competing?

 

[Supanova]

I agree that we can't be unique and there are certainly amateurs who have full time jobs that make it further than I have - so it will be interesting to see what other responses you get.
Perhaps the other point is that we worry about it too much. I have a friend, and without being big headed, I think both me and my horse are more capable than she is, but she thinks nothing of going out to do a foxhunter. She usually has 2 or 3 down and probably misses at least once, but doesn't actually let it bother her and it doesn't seem to worry the horse. However, I am just not like that. I like my rounds to be foot perfect, otherwise I worry!

I also think it is amazing how when everything is perfect i.e. the canter, the amount of leg I have on etc then the strides just appear easily. Whereas if things aren't going so well then the stride isn't there as often. Perhaps if we are still missing occasionally then we haven't quite got the canter etc 100% of the time, whereas a professional realises a bit quicker and will have sorted the canter and rhythm.

 

[Bruised]

I think you've hit the nail on the head Supernova. I went to a clinic recently and all that was drummed into us was that the canter had to be right for the job in hand. So it didn't matter whether the jump was 2ft or 4ft it was up to the rider to have the right canter to do the job. All that we were asked was to produce the canter required to allow the horse to do the job. No rider fiddling was allowed in front of the fence. I agree that if the canter is right it's easy to see the stride. When my canter's naf I can't see a stride for toffee.

 

[little_flea]

Agree with the above - as long as you have the canter, a little bit wrong will be fine. I guess the height it is "ok" to miss at has to do with the scope of the horse – every now and again you see a top rider miss at 1.60 level and the horse can still jump. If your horse is jumping at the top of its ability it is more important to get a perfect stride. If you have a reasonably scopey horse I don't think you need to feel the need to get every stride perfect before doing Fox. Look at your local competitions and see how many riders produce rounds where they meet every fence perfectly - not that many, I'd say!

 

[flyingfeet]

I do this and its stopped me attempting NC yet

I think its a combination of horses ability and the riders faith in themselves. I get flustered when I miss and do your aforementioned panic half halting, too late and generally only serves to kill the canter!

My problem is further compounded, as whilst my horse is genuine and happy to try for you, he isn't the most forward going and I never have the feeling of "being taken" to the fence. I think if he was more cocky, we'd be jumping NC by now regardless of the muppet rider (me)

Trainers all say need to jump more to get your eye in, but as you said with one horse its not possible. Mary King suggested using lots of poles on the floor and see the strides over these, which you can do everyday. Not entirely convinced its help me and my knicker wetting moments though!!

 

[dieseldog]

I used to worry about missing, but I don't anymore. So I'm not 100% perfect, who is? My horse doesn't care when I have 'Amateur' moments - if she did I would sell her.

 

[martlin]

NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY is a miss free zone!
As long as you don't repetitively put your horse in an impossible situation, it should not be a problem

 

[jess_asterix]

I used to worry about missing, but I don't anymore. So I'm not 100% perfect, who is? My horse doesn't care when I have 'Amateur' moments - if she did I would sell her.

Ditto!!
My boy has got plenty of scope to get round fox even when I am on a deep or long one. He always helps me out when needed and if he didn't i wouldn't be riding him because I'm not a proessional and don't put them on a perfect stride everytime. I ride 2/3 times a week, once in a lesson and the others at shows it's hard when you don't practice everyday!

 

[CrazyMare]

I used to worry about missing, but I don't anymore. So I'm not 100% perfect, who is? My horse doesn't care when I have 'Amateur' moments - if she did I would sell her.

This.

I believe the phrase is 'to err is human'.

We all make mistakes - if you strive for absolute perfection, you will be disapointed. If you strive to do the very best you can, you will achieve it.

 

[kerilli]

NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY is a miss free zone!
As long as you don't repetitively put your horse in an impossible situation, it should not be a problem

absolutely. i have seen the great Mark Todd miss three times now (once was last year in the SJ at Houghton, but the horse coped fine, fwiw). He's show-jumped at Olympic level, for heaven's sake, he's super-accurate, but EVEN HE CAN MISS.

I've ridden to 3* and Advanced level, and Foxhunter, and I still miss. (Much more when I'm out of practice!) As long as the horse is confident and has enough scope, and you've got a good line to the fence and a decent amount of 'engine', it'll cope fine. I've missed to some rather huge fences here and there and I'm not proud of it, but my horses coped just fine.
Lucinda Green puts no pressure on the rider to be accurate, in fact she maintains that SHE cannot and does not see a stride. She puts the emphasis on Engine, Line and Balance, and the rest is up to the horse...

 

[HotToTrot]

Thanks everyone, there's a common theme here! Trainer says much the same thing, but it's good to have your views on this, very helpful! I worry that each time I miss, I dent horse's confidence a little. However, I suppose that I am doing some damage limitation on that by being a smidgen reserved about moving up a level.

 

[Festive_Felicitations]

Like LG I cant see a stride so just set up the canter and leave it up to the horse...

Hell if M.Todd misses ocasionally on a riding scale ratio thingy I should be missing at aproximately every 10th jump!
(We don't so we must be doing something right)

 

[sportsmansB]

We have a WP at the moment who puts herself under a lot of pressure about this very subject. She is moving up to intermediate and is worried that as she doesn't hit every fence perfect she shouldn't go any further. She went through a bad patch there coming back from super XC rounds but unhappy because she had had one slightly hairy moment... My OH who is a pro and has been round the Olympics (and used to SJ professionally) sat her down and quietly pointed out to her that it is very unusual to get a completely seamless round XC - and just cause they don't mention it doesn't mean it doesn't happen to them either!

Funny he also says that he really misses the steeplechase before going XC as that was a great chance to 'get your eye in' for a stride.

In SJ I think the above comments are spot on - provided your horse is not overstretched and you would be at risk of making a real horlicks and ruining their confidence (in which case you are prob. jumping too big for them anyway!) if you ride on positively into every fence at a comfortable level then the odd funny one shouldn't matter!!

 

[TarrSteps]

As all above, nobody's perfect and you have to compare like to like.

Isn't the theory now that you have to log 10,000 hours doing something to be considered "expert" in that you will be doing it to the best of YOUR ability? (Not perfect, just above average competence in a Mark Todd-ish way, in part because of the infinite variables of horses, courses, circumstances etc, which mean you're never practising the exact same thing, like putting a ball through a hoop or into a goal.)

So lets do the math . . .

If you jump 1 hr/week and you've been riding for 20 years . . . that's still only 1040 hours! Okay, there might be weeks you jump more than once, and comps count . . . but then there's winter and when your horse is off . . .

Adding that only "perfect practice makes perfect" so you have to discount any hours you spent doing the wrong things, through bad instruction, an unsuitable horse, misunderstanding etc. . . . I'd say talent comes under this heading as well, as the easier you find something the more likely you are to do it well most of the time you try it and the more likely you are to get the opportunities to practice. Obviously opportunity becomes a big part of this, too

So someone like, say, WFP or similar might just 5 horses 4 times a week . . . he'd rack up his 10,000 hrs in about 10 years, even allowing for breaks.

I'm not trying to put anyone off, I'm just saying it's partly a numbers game. Now, if you have one horse and devote your hours to learning to ride that one horse, it will count very well against your total for that horse, but still at one jumping session a week, you'd have to ride the horse for 192 years to be pretty darn perfect!

 

[SpruceRI]

For me, this is the reason why I wouldn't buy a horse that has been produced by a professional.

Due to the nature of their ability, and the number of horses they ride each day, they are less likely to have as many 'misses' as I do..... (It was only this year I found out what a 'miss' was! Never heard of it before!)

Anyway, a horse produced by someone such as me, is used to the odd duff approach / jump! Or has been left alone to get on with the job of jumping the fence, howsoever it reaches it, and has learnt by repetition and enjoyment (hopefully!) rather than perfection.

So in conclusion.... a miss? Who cares! If the horse is forward thinking enough, it will deal with it.