XC fence dressing and gimmicks

[DarkHorseB]

Just wondered what others views were on these. At any level really but particularly at lower levels. Personally I am not sure they are what should be in a XC test to encourage horses to be bold XC

Yesterday in the BE100 at Floors fence 6 was a double of dog kennels where the kennels and beside it were filled with suffed toy dogs Now my horse is still fairly young and quite green and spooky so although he jumped first time he was backing off and needed a lot of encouragement!! We then stopped at the next fence as his confidence was rattled - mostly rider error as I should have taken the alternative to give him a let up after the fence before but hindsight is a wonderful thing The bigger bolder more traditional XC fences he tackled so much better, I understand the need for different questions and things like skinnies but all this (over) dressing of fences seems to be a fairly new thing and wondered if I was the only one who did not agree with it?

 

[Chloe_GHE]

when I started at Intro with Soap I don't remember any of this stuff, maybe the odd wooden bear, but all dressing was plain xmas trees or wooden additions. I think things other than natural material additions are probably a bit much for a green horse. Trying to wrack my brains and the only thing I think I've ever thought 'hhmmm that might spook him' was a corner at Lackham that has grain bags on top of the corner, white grain bags with writing on.

I think with a 'looky' green horse it could be a nightmare esp if 3 stops means E

 

[SnowGoose]

went to solihull couple years ago for PN and water jump had wooden sunlounger complete with bright coloured towels to jump in (2 or 3 strides before water I think). if i remember correctly, sunlounger had beachballs tied underneath in string bags which moved in wind and selection of parasols scattered decoratively around the fences we stopped about 3 strides away and didnt get any further... wasnt very impressed with the fence dressing, am sure lots of horses jumped it fine but having driven nearly 3 hours to get there it seriously spoiled my day!

 

[DarkHorseB]

went to solihull couple years ago for PN and water jump had wooden sunlounger complete with bright coloured towels to jump in (2 or 3 strides before water I think). if i remember correctly, sunlounger had beachballs tied underneath in string bags which moved in wind and selection of parasols scattered decoratively around the fences we stopped about 3 strides away and didnt get any further... wasnt very impressed with the fence dressing, am sure lots of horses jumped it fine but having driven nearly 3 hours to get there it seriously spoiled my day!

I know! Such gimmicks are what I would expect to see in a handy pony/ pony club pony competition - you know the ones where you walk under washing lines or over plastic bags - or Police Horse of the year. Not exactly Cross Country but you are seeing more and more decorations coming in beside fences as well as at them. Richmond had dummies of Elvis and William & Kate this time
I would far rather my start fee went into ground preparations than such gimmicks personally

 

[langside]

Its become much more the 'norm' over the last few years if you ask me

i remember going to Scone a few years ago and being shocked at seeing a blue chair fence - now this type of fence is practically a given in what ever colour paint that event has - seen pink, orange, blue and green so far

look at courses like cumwhinton - when they 1st ran horses were spooking/ stopping left right and centre but now the scary wooden animals seem to have a far less effect - could you argue thats because they too have become the norm on courses

every course has/ or did have a quirk - richmond and the naked lady in the trees Aske and Henry the hedgehog, eland and the sweets and Allerton and the teddy bears picnic - but after one season i always think they have less impact even if a horse has never seen the fence before - maybe riders prepairing differently

it must be hard for course designers/ organisers to try and create a HT competition and not just a dressage comp as a few years ago sub 30 results were probably few and far between - compaired to some sections now - looking at a recent events results you could only placed if below 28 no wonders theres no hope for me

but must admit its probably harder on the greener horse but then again could you argue your ironing out the issues at a younger age - i don't know having a late morning ramble

 

[kerilli]

Solihull got a bit notorious for that iirc. Their last fence (row of tyres painted alternately to make a stripy animal) nearly did for me 1 year, i think we only got over it because we were flying by that point and heading back to the boxes!
I don't like the whole trend much, no, although i think it's fine if the fancy stuff is out to the sides to make the fence interesting. e.g. Years ago at Dynes Hall Adv there was a huge trakhener and at the very end of it (outside the flag) they'd made what looked like the foot of a boot and fitted it onto the end of the log, so the whole thing looked like an enormous hunting boot. Very clever as the sponsor was a boot manufacturer. the decoration was well away from the jumping part though.
But as for having figurines etc in the way (don't even get me started on That Fence at Belton, should NEVER have been allowed), it's too much. At the lower levels I just want the horses to have a nice experience and learn, not have to be super-brave at lots of fences. It's supposed to be Cross-Country, not Handy Pony, as you say.
One of the worst I've encountered was a Novice corner with a life-sized scarecrow sitting on the top a couple of feet from the point of the corner. I managed to get my very spooky wb over it first time but i'm still not quite sure how, i think i had his head screwed around to the side so he couldn't see it in midair!
At Weston Park 1 year they'd stapled big fat teddy bears all around the keyhole jump (above and to the sides) - my mare didn't even glance at them, luckily, but quite a few very good experienced horses stopped.

 

[caterpillar]

I like to see wooden figures, shaped tress and fences with a "design" (like a boot as mentioned above). It makes each fence different from the next.

I do not like to see bright coloured fences, flags, teddy bears etc on the xc.
Leave the coloured fences for the show jumping, not the xc!

 

[DarkHorseB]

This was the fence last year though it was fence 6 this year rather than fence 12. I was tempted to give a swift kick to a couple of the dogs as I walked the course to put them out of sight

 

[marinaim]

I think the only proper cross country is the sort there was around yeaaarss ago - proper bold challenging fences of wood and natural logs etc. no gimmicks or colours. I like the proper XC with huge logs, big fences and lakes rather than these new bright houses, birght colours and silly inapropriate figurines. When a good win actually required good riding at a fence rather than a calm non spooky horse. Think health and safety's gone to pot a bit too, sure that couldn't have helped at all.
Nice flowers is pretty much what I would consider to the extent of fence dressing.
This is the sort of good xc fence:

This is not:

(Although better than some!)

 

[photo_jo]

After 'that' fence at Belton two years ago when the 'scarecrows' looked like real people in the way of the fence nothing surprises me. To be fair I don't think most horses see the decoration quite like we do as they are not looking for it but unfair distraction is wrong

 

[Gamebird]

I thought it made Richmond look a bit 'cheap' but none of the figurines was in any way near a fence and it would have to have been an unreasonably spooky horse to notice them let alone take offence.

The fence in DHB's picture is almost identical to a fence I jumped in a PN at Bishop 8 or 10 years ago, except there were carved wooden chickens in the holes underneath and one on top of each fence. These didn't seem to cause any problems. Buckminster also has pigs in a similar position at fence 2 or 3 which again go mostly ignored by horses.

I do think it's bizarre what will distract (or seemingly distract - it may be a 'rider frightener') a horse on a XC course which has jumped a course of garishly decorated poles and fillers usually less than an hour ago.

 

[SpruceRI]

I think it's OK to put a coloured banner or promotional stuff at the back of a jump, out of sight of the horse. But also am not one for all the crap at the front.

Perhaps this is something for the Event Riders Association....

 

[soupdragon71]

This was the fence last year though it was fence 6 this year rather than fence 12. I was tempted to give a swift kick to a couple of the dogs as I walked the course to put them out of sight

And I'm sure they added even more dogs this year! Having it early on and before one of the biggest fences on the course was possibly a bit mean. Luckily my horse didn't seem to notice them but he generally isn't spooky so would have been surprised if he had.

 

[racingdemon]

I'm not overly bothered by fence dressings, & as a PP has said, they have just jumped around the SJ!?

What does often disappoint me is the lack of variety in some courses, how many roll tops can you have in one course? I quite like skinny's & related distances as it makes my horse think, and a really like fences that reward really bold forward riding, but last year I found BE90 particularly lacking in interesting questions,

surely the courses at every level need to encourage horses (even young ones) & riders to think & adapt as they go around, not just jump a variety of slightly differently dressed roll tops & kennels??

 

[diggerbez]

i actually quite like fences like that....i find courses that are all roll tops and pallisades really boring! obviously *that* fence at Belton was taking it all too far but i do think that some of the fence dressings look really good and make it feel like a BE rather than a cheaper unafiliated comp. my horse is green and spooky as hell but doesn't seem to mind (touch wood!) the gimmiky type fences he's seen so far at BE. my SJ trainer has lots of quirky things that get put under/around fences when i'm training (and always has) so i wonder if thats why things like this don't bother me?