skinneys.Concerned

carthorse

carthorse

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After watching many horses having a problem at 'the cricket stumps' at Solihull riding club on Sunday[ Most refused it and ran out and the ones that jumped it hit it hard.] We hired the course to try to see what the problem was. We warmed up over various fences and he was going fine then we jumped the novice ,double of skinnies beautifully.We then tried the offending fence and again he took a dislike to it and glanced off it hitting his shoulder hard.I was very concerned that he could injure himself so we jumped the other skinnies [which were about 20 cms wider] and carried on around the course clear.
My concern is when a horse refuses a normal fence he might hit the fence but with a skinney that has vertical sides they tend to hit the corner.I have no problem with the fence being in the competition and our horse should probably have gone over it,he has never had a problem with skinnies in BE events, he has done the brush spread ones and drops to arrowheads without problems. I'm sure it was a correct width but it was higher than its width[ appeared anyway] and very few horses did it. Only one team got a score in intermediate and no teams got a score in open ,I think because of this fence.I hope they do something with it before the BE event there.
Has anyone else come across this problem?
 
The XC courses at solihull seem to be a bit too much from what I've seen of the results there this year? We did an ODE there earlier in the year and if you got a clear round XC you were guaranteed a rossie, because there were endless E's all over the place. Maybe the horses/riders just weren't of the required standard, I don't know, I didn't watch enough of it to comment really, but the scoreboard at events doesn't normally show approx 2/3 of the competitors eliminated XC??

We won't be doing their BE event, despite them being probably our nearest venue.
 
Well our horse has qualified for the intro champ and came 2nd at Great Tew pre novice last time out and the only ones that seemed to manage it were ponies or horses that have very little self preservation or very good ones .As I said I didn't have a problem with it being in the course, my worry is the safety of vetical sided skinnies.Another friend ,who has ridden up to cci** retired her horse at the fence and also was worried about the fence.So a lot of the riders were definately way above standard and the ones that have qualified unfortunately may struggle with the dreesage and sj phase.
We spoke to the course builder and said we were not complaining at all about the fence and any horse qualifying should have jumped it. I am just worried about safety and 'No' we are not doing Solihull but because of the fact that my daughter is on honeymoon.I have nothing against Solihull and the ground was very good indeed
 
My post obviously didn't come over the right way at all! I didn't mean perhaps you weren't good enough, I meant that the event we did earlier in the year had a hell of a lot more eliminations on the XC than I would normally expect at an ODE. But the fact that Solihull have now had a few events this year with very similar results wouldn't fill me with great confidence in the course they're going to put together for their BE event?
Haven't seen the skinny fence in question so I can't comment on it.
 
I did the RC qualifier two years ago and couldn't believe what they got away with in the xc course. Is this skinny definately in the BE course?? There were certain questions asked when I was there that would no way be allowed in a BE event. RC seem to get away with murder with their XC courses IMO!!!!
 
Is this a new fence because I remember going with my pony 2 years ago for the BE and there was a really skinny fence just after half way round, cant remember what it was but it was a left handed turn after a BIG brush under a tree ( Iwas glad to be on a ponyTBH)?
 
The fence has been moved and made narrower. I'm hoping they will learn and make some changes for the BE or they will be short of entries, which is a shame as the ground staff are very nice and building a new water complex. I was really concerned for horses safety and we are competing there on Thursday in the dressage and if I get a chance I will have a chat with the groundsman and let him know my concerns
 
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