Showjumping people - BSJA vs Unaffiliated?

[iknowmyvalue]

Seeing as I now have a horse that actually enjoys SJ, I’m toying with the idea of a 6 month BSJA membership over the winter before I can try to get him started eventing wise. Is it worth it? What are the advantages compared to unaffiliated?

I’d only be doing up to 85-90cm at the moment, but horse has plenty of scope if I can get over the fear factor…

We won’t be jumping every weekend, as will be having a play with dressage too, but would probably be aiming for 1-2 SJ comps a month.

The last time I had a horse who I SJed regularly I was doing Pony Club/NSEA, so this is all very new to me!

 

[smurf]

I think the biggest advantage is the quality of the course building. As BS you get proper distances, it's up to height with decent wide oxers.
If only doing 85/90 why not look for some BS club shows? A BS club 80cm single phase starts at 80cm and finishes with last few at 90cm and no need to be registered BS

 

[greenbean10]

Better prize money and in many cases better built courses (no doubles set on one and a half strides!). Also warm ups tend to be less terrifying.

Jumps tend to be bigger and wider but this does depend on where you go. 1m unaffiliated is very different to a Discovery!

 

[DabDab]

Definitely worth going affiliated. The courses are better built and there are less overfaced/in pain/badly ridden horses at the comps. Unfortunately these days I really struggle with unaffiliated comps - it's only the minority of competitors of course, but it is enough that I would rather avoid it.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

Thanks! Definitely will look into club membership, and see if the venues around here run them (and if so how often).

Most of the BS places round here also run UA events (which are what I’ve been doing) so would be interesting to see how the two directly compare at the same venue…

If I find some brave pants and start doing some bigger courses we’ll definitely look at affiliating, but sounds like it might be worth it even at the lower levels!

 

[smurf]

You don't need to be a club member to jump club classes - only if you want to collect points for leagues. I just pay the entry and the venue I go to also pays prize money for club classes even to non members

 

[Birker2020]

Seeing as I now have a horse that actually enjoys SJ, I’m toying with the idea of a 6 month BSJA membership over the winter before I can try to get him started eventing wise. Is it worth it? What are the advantages compared to unaffiliated?

I’d only be doing up to 85-90cm at the moment, but horse has plenty of scope if I can get over the fear factor…

We won’t be jumping every weekend, as will be having a play with dressage too, but would probably be aiming for 1-2 SJ comps a month.

The last time I had a horse who I SJed regularly I was doing Pony Club/NSEA, so this is all very new to me!

I used to SJ BSJA as it was known then, now known as BS.

It was expensive but I did it because if felt like the next step up for me. The difference between unaffiliated and affiliated was for me mainly the height of the fences, which looked enormous, but also very wide! And also the organisation which compared with unaffiliated was very organised!

My partner was a Level 1 BS course builder who worked at a very large riding club/equestrian show centre and he suggested that I jump BSJA because the courses are built to a standard, not only in height, but width. All the related distances will be spot on as well whereas with a normal course builder they will just stride the difference, but a correctly built BSJA course will be tape measured. The heights for the classes are to a particular height standard as outlined in the Membership booklet. The course builder is a recognised course builder who will have had to have gone through many hours of training to get to a certain standard, and he will be allowed to build to a particular height depending on what level he has reached in his training.

I think my partner was allowed to build up to Foxhunter height as he was Level 1. The beauty I found was that the organisation was second to none. You didn't have horses being whipped next to your horse in the collecting ring, or going around with clickety clackerty over reach boots on, you didn't get people warming up horses in wellies or stood with dogs on leads in front of collecting ring fences.

You had a proper steward on duty in the collecting ring and when you were told what to do you had better well do it or you would be frowned on! If you were called in woe betide you if you weren't ready to go!

You also had a right to appeal to the secretary, my friend and I did that when we walked a course and found one of the fences had been built too high for the class. We appealed to the secretary, the rulebook was applied, the fence remeasured and the course builder admonished and the fence put down a couple of holes!

I loved jumping BSJA but I gave it up because it was so expensive for me at the time. I never won much money with my last horse but the previous one in the two years we were affiliated, we won about £180 together jumping British Novice and Discovery. He was a really good horse and very greatly missed.

 

[RachelFerd]

Totally makes sense if you're prepping to go eventing. You can guarantee that what you're entering is going to be the height (and width, and appropriate technicality) that it says it is. Of course, the main thing is checking the BS schedules to see if there's enough happening locally to make sense for you to register. Where I'm based (Cheshire) there's far more options to do BS than there are unaffiliated, so 6 month winter membership makes sense (apart from the last 2 winters where I have been a member, but covid lockdown has meant i've done v little jumping - not the fault of BS!)

 

[LEC]

Totally makes sense if you're prepping to go eventing. You can guarantee that what you're entering is going to be the height (and width, and appropriate technicality) that it says it is. Of course, the main thing is checking the BS schedules to see if there's enough happening locally to make sense for you to register. Where I'm based (Cheshire) there's far more options to do BS than there are unaffiliated, so 6 month winter membership makes sense (apart from the last 2 winters where I have been a member, but covid lockdown has meant i've done v little jumping - not the fault of BS!)

Though BS could have given a sweetener to rejoin. I was totally screwed by them last year and it has left a very bitter taste in my mouth as had a horse who did one show then was lame and so basically with lockdown etc didn't use my membership and no refunds unlike all the other disciplines. I loathe giving any money to BS so try and do everything to avoid it. We are lucky and have outstanding unaff round here with BS coursebuilders.

 

[RachelFerd]

Though BS could have given a sweetener to rejoin. I was totally screwed by them last year and it has left a very bitter taste in my mouth as had a horse who did one show then was lame and so basically with lockdown etc didn't use my membership and no refunds unlike all the other disciplines. I loathe giving any money to BS so try and do everything to avoid it. We are lucky and have outstanding unaff round here with BS coursebuilders.

Several of the venues round here won't run unaffiliated anymore because it isn't worth the hassle and chaos that comes with it. I'll probably stump up and register both horses for the winter, because there is a BS show within an hour's drive of here every single weekend and usually different options on the saturday and the sunday too...

I did think a bit of a sweetener would have been nice though - at least BE gave some chunky discounts for people like me who'd had consistent membership throughout start of pandemic.