When you walk a XC course do you expect.....

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.... It to be as it would be when you ride it? E.g. If event says course can be walked from 4pm, do you expect it to be fully dressed etc when you walk it?

Today I had a situation where the fences were TONNES scarier than when I walked the course due to adding loads of 'dressing' (bright coloured stuff too) to the fences. Was a bit of a surprise going round!!
 
I wouldn't expect it to be finished. Ime they add finishing touches up to the last minute.
 
Nope I just expect to be able to see where I'm going and what lines I need to take through fences. I expect the fences to be dressed after that.
 
I've walked a BE course where they were still using a cutter to cut the brush tops down to size.

No, I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be fully dressed. The horse won't have seen the dressing before, what difference does it make?
 
Horses don't walk the course - they won't have seen the fences dressed. As long as the ground lines, approach profile and alternative routes are there I would not expect the fences necessarily to be dressed.
 
I walked a pony club course once and there was a picnic table style fence. When I came to ride it in the competition it had a table cloth and chairs with teddy bears either side of it. Horse was not impressed however I don't think it would have made a difference if I had seen it in all it's glory the day before.
 
I walk the course to know where I'm going. Have often experienced the appearance of flowers, Christmas trees and other decorations overnight.
 
Shay said:
Horses don't walk the course - they won't have seen the fences dressed. As long as the ground lines, approach profile and alternative routes are there I would not expect the fences necessarily to be dressed.
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But dressing may make a difference to how you ride a fence. A lot of horses it's not about the size, it's a little purple flower that worrys them. And dressing can make a jump appear a lot bigger.
 
Yes I would expect it to be competition ready unless they had left a note that something would be changed. The dressing of a fence would make a difference to how I would ride .
 
I expect the course to be flagged and numbered and all fences to be complete. However dressings are sometimes there and sometimes not - if they are adding flowers and such they might not do it till the morning of the event (particularly if they think the deer or other animals might go and eat them!) also as most people involved are volunteers they may have had to work flat out to get the course ready for walking and will then add the dressings later when they have the time. Also depending on the weather they might not add all the planned dressings (for example if they might blow away) until the morning.

There are other 'spooky' things that might appear round the course - such as jump judges cars, portaloos, food vans etc
 
No I wouldn't expect that. If I can I do walk the course twice for this reason. Once the day before and then a quick look again between disciplines. My horse doesn't care about the size of the fence you point her at but the amount of scary things put around it so it's nice to know what to prepare myself for before I get there.
 
Yes I would expect it to be ready to ride, bar any unforseen changes due to weather conditions or whatever happening between the course walk and the competition. I wouldn't be impressed to find it wasn't. I agree it may make a difference to how you would ride, what sight lines you might decide on etc.
 
Patterdale said:
Yes - and what you’re jumping..!
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I prefer knowing how fences will be dressed but they are not always dressed the day before so there's no point worrying about it! I would be annoyed if the dressings made a significant difference to the jump eg if they widened the fences significantly or changed a take off point. But so far they have never changed anything like that - just added colour.
 
I would expect it to be ready to be jumped, with the exception of last minute things, like flowers for instance, but there should be a note about it somewhere preferably on the fence but if not at the Secretary's office and course plan. Otherwise what is the point of advertising a time from when it can be walked?
 
Has anyone ridden a course where one of the fences has been changed overnight, after walking the course the day before, and not been notified? It was my daughters first ever hunter trial and she had a lovely clear round in the 80, but then found out subsequently that she was eliminated because a fence had been swapped after we walked the course. Being a PC event, word of mouth seemed to have got round to everyone else except my daughter (non PC), and one other girl. Is this normal?????
 
There are sometimes last minute changes due to ground conditions or a fence gets damaged or whatever. On the day there should be a map of the course up and a prominent note detailing the changes. But it is not common. They should not be relying on word of mouth!
 
I've just heard that after review they have reinstated my daughter, so have admitted their error. Not being regular competitors, I wasn't sure if this kind of thing happened often and was to be expected!
 
I thought about this thread again the other day when I was watching a XC lesson with my kids. A few ponies in the group stopped at a particular fence that had some grass growing along the bottom. The instructor (an eventer) said they were struggling to read the fence because the grass obscured the base of the fence and it was not dressed so there was no ground line.

I said I thought fence dressings were there to freak out horses and riders and she said quite the opposite - they are there to help horses read the question. That has changed my view of dressings now completely so thought I'd share. This may not be news to anyone else but it was to me!
 
Lola43 said:
I've just heard that after review they have reinstated my daughter, so have admitted their error. Not being regular competitors, I wasn't sure if this kind of thing happened often and was to be expected!
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You're lucky - I remember doing a brilliant XC round as a kid and should have won the ODE with it except they'd decided to use a different colour disk for the final fence (which was also in an odd place) so I of course sailed past it! It was extremely unfair, they had used a totally different colour on it so I assumed it was the other classes - others in the class had queried it and word had got round to everyone except me :( I remember it being so unfair at the time!
 
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