Showjumping - What level ?

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Rambo

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I've been thinking about this for a while, but an article in H&H this week has brought it to the fore in my mind again...

Steve Guerdat who won the WCQ in Spain over the weekend commented that he would be dropping his mare down to much smaller classes for a while to get her confidence and settle again.

So, do you guys do this ? I mean, i have an idea in my mind of the sort of level that i want to be jumping with my horses, but my aspirations usually involve going bigger rather than dropping back to smaller classes
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I have been jumping slightly smaller tracks recently to try and get Bo's confidence back after a long lay off, but generally i wouldn't normally think of it. I guess there is / was an element of snobbery in thinking that classes at height x are not worth jumping...but why ?

How many of you for instance, on a horse that wins at Foxhunter or 1.30m will go out and jump a 1m or a 1.05m occasionally !? I have certainly seen an international horse that has been placed in the Hickstead Derby, jumping a 1.10m Open at a local show centre
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Perhaps it is only an issue for horses that are jumping at the highest levels
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Thoughts ?
 
I can see there might be an issue with it at the highest levels, particularly if you had an ultra-careful horse, you know the lovely ones that will literaly do anything not to touch a pole. On the eventing side of things I know Heelan Tompkins once said that when in Oz she would run her 4* horse Glengarrick at PN/N level for one day events, and that this was the norm. Whether that's because of a different view of what one-days are for or because they don't provide the competitions higher up the levels I'm not sure.
 
Well there is no need to compete at the top i spose all the time and horses cant cope they need a break.

That why you only do 2 at the most 4* events eventing a year.

And im sure top SJers want to save their best top horses for the best competitions therefore jump some smaller stuff in between
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YOs son popped his horses in a 1.25m class the other week because they hadnt jumped since before xmas. They then proceeded to jump in the 1.40m

Francis Whittington also jumped round the ON at Smiths Lawn last year on Spin Doctor, the horse he took to Badminton.

I do personally think its a good idea to occasionally give your horse an easy show from time to time, especially if you have had the odd problem at the higher level. One person inparticular springs to mind.... they spent the whole season at Novice whilst horse was getting between 30-40 penalties in the SJing and or 2 or 3 stops around the xc course.
IMO the horse should be been dropped back to PN for a nice run and then taken back up again.
 
Can you say who that is BB's? or pm me?

Spose it is on the individual person though, they know their horse.

I know that Cressy ran Carousel Quest in an ON before Badminton and look how well he did!
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i will be doing that all the time! my pony is capable of doing 1.20 classes when she builds her strength up! i know she is capable, but just because she can, it doesnt meen i will! i'm going to stick to 2.3-2.6 for the next few months, and when we are both ready i will do bigger, but it doesnt mean i will stick there, if i see a good show that is smaller, who cares!! just for experiance points, if i was at the level of 3ft,3,ft3, i would still do the 1ft9, for a laugh, for the day out, and to help my girl get confidence. for example, if my horse had a bad day, next time i would take it easier on a smaller class. i will also not go to shows only to win, my 5 year old has only been to one show and she could hapily do 3ft as her 2nd show, but i'm not going to, she need the experiance of a show again, the first few show we go to will be training, and from then on, if sh eisnt concentrating, for example next year, then i will slow her down, do circles, walk, show her jumps, at whatever level, to give her training. i think the experiance is more important than the prizes. if you started overjumping your horse for your benefit, you could ruin a horse
 
i know it isn't quite the same, but when my old pony was in his prime last year and jumping 3"6ft+ classes, we let him have a play around 2"6ft-2"9ft classes occasionally to keep him happy.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Can you say who that is BB's? or pm me?

Spose it is on the individual person though, they know their horse.

I know that Cressy ran Carousel Quest in an ON before Badminton and look how well he did!
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[/ QUOTE ]

Just someone like you and I. It wasnt as if they were riding for an owner and being paid for it.
To me, you are not only demoralising yourself but your horse.
 
True but then could be different circumstances.

The horse I evented in 2005 was a V bad Sjer so had lots of faults but was great dressage and XC so didnt see the point in moving him down. Then when he got elim XC yes I moved him down to PN.

And the horse I brought from Cressy last year I had a nightmare with the results, it was never as bad as it looked on the sheet!! I got elim once for exceeded the time alowed XC but we went clear! And silly little things like that happened, and that horse was capable of far bigger and better things but was just being naughty so I wasnt going to drop him down as the jumps werent a problem!

So can look different to how it is sometimes.

But I do know what you mean when I start competing my baby this year if she goes well in her 1st couple of intros I will PN her but if I feel she loses confidence at all I wont hesitate in moving her down.

Depends if your saving your horse for better things!!!
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Definitely a good idea though to ocasionally gives them an easy day out competing and a bit lower then you would usually do - especially on young horses or horses competing at the top
 
I think it completely depends on the horse and what you are trying to achieve. On my old jumping pony, she got to a stage where the jump had to be a certain height, otherwise she would not put any effort into it and her whole mind set just changed, she would rush and jump flat and messily, when the jumps went up she respected them. To keep her ticking over it was more often a case of finding the biggest class around to keep her mind on the job.

If you are at the top level, then I can totally see the point in doing it now and again as a matter of course to give your horse a break and freshen them up, but at local level and anything under 1.20m I wouldn’t think it needed to be done routinely as most of us don’t work our horses to maximum capacity in reality. Eventing I can see more use for it, as eventing is harder work for the horse so maximum enthusiasm is important.
 
Okay....but every horse has it's personal limit....so if your horse has reached it's limit at say 1.20m, then why is it working any less hard (mentally and physically) than a horse jumping 1.60m's with the ability to do so
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I guess i'm asking is it sensible to give your horse an 'easy ride' from time to time to keep it sweet....and from what peeps are saying...the answer seems to be yes
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I know that the trainer of the British Young Riders, when they finish the Sunshine Tour and go back to hers for a while, she won't let them jump anyting bigger than a X pole for quite some time.... The horses need to refocus and relax after the pressure of big track jumping.

I think it does make sence to keep horses active and confident over smaller tracks and then they are usually bolder over the bigger stuff.

but as the saying goes - horses for courses
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Bx
 
Ok then, but how many of us can say we are consistantly working our horses at their personal limits?
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If you know you are doing this, then of course you have different focus...

The way I see it is, if we have achieved our potential we strive to maintain it, if we haven't yet reached our potential we strive to maintain horses happiness BUT also improving ourselves at the same time, rarely does this involve going back a step - doens't mean it's not the right thing to do but I doubt many people do it intentionally to give their horse an easy show......
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Definitely a horses for courses thing, some horses will be happy to take a step back, some like my old ponio and perhaps Rambo, aren't so happy to do that and quickly lose respect for smaller fences.

At the end of the day, I would not plan a few weeks at a lower level into my season if my horses were going well - but perhaps that's just me being over-ambitious!!
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Yep D & I did our first NC in July (I think ) just before he was diagnosed with arthritis, so when he came back into work we went right back down to BN. Aiming to get back up to 1.10 soon though.
 
You see, that's very much the way i've looked at things....for many, many years ! But i am now beginning to wonder if we should always be striving to go higher all the time
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I don't personally think that Bo has appreciated being dropped back to 1m...but perhaps 1.05m or 1.10m was acceptable to him....don't forget he was jumping 1.30m / 1.40m tracks before i had him so even a 1.10m is a fairly sizeable step down for him....if not for me
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I occasionally drop down a class or two if I feel my horse is getting a bit worried about something or we need to work on something etc. And would go into a smaller class if my horse had been off for a while. Im sure horses jumping at the very top must get a little stale sometimes so I think its nice to do the occasional smaller class just because the horse can get his confidence right up again and enjoy it with no pressure.

One of mine has just moved up to 1.15's but I'll still do the very odd 1m class on him, it depends what it is though! Like some Intro BSJA shows Ill do just to get him out (if there's not much else on for a while) which only go up to 1m anyway. And if its a summer 1m Grand Prix type class (which generally gets bigger every round) then Im happy to do that.

Obviously it depends on the horse though, some horses dont respect small fences so there's not much point lowering their classes whereas other horses try hard no matter what.
 
I believe that it benefits a lot of horses, though not all, to occasionally jump smaller classes in between the big ones. Guess it's a case of trial & error as to what regime suits each horse. Steve has sensibly decided that at this stage of the mare's career it would be wrong to repeatedly ask her for maximum effort in major GPs, and accordingly isn't taking her to Las Vegas.
 
when i was working on a SJ yard the average hight they went out and jumped was 1.30 and 1.40 but occasionally the horses did a 1.05 open just to 'keep them sweet'

atleast that was the owners opinion and it seemed to work.

also if they were moving up a class, say into fox they would do a bigger class but drop down after to make sure the horse didnt bottle out.

hehehe i dont jump so this is only my experiance from working and watching other people though!!!
 
I do, my mare has won at 1.25, and i'll often take her to a show to do a metre open (Particulary when i'm taking my young horses) Also when i'm jumping at home, will ALWAYS finish with a 'confidence giving' crosspole.

Here's such an example
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