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THE BRANDON SUN • WINTER FAIR • MARCH 2024
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ELIMINATION After a second stop (refusal) or a fall of the horse and/or the rider, the pair is elim- inated. JUMP-OFF It’s the “tie-break”: the jump-off takes place at the end of some Table A classes to decide between the competitors placed equally after the main round. The jump-off course is shorter and different to that of the first round and is against the clock. MIXED Show jumping is one of the very few sports in which male and female compet- itors (both horses and riders) compete in the same classes. OBSTACLES (FENCES OR JUMPS) There are two major types of obstacles: wide (spread-jumps) and vertical. The lat- ter is a fence comprising at least two poles arranged vertically. Stride One of the main difficulties of show jumping lies in the way the riders will man- age the strides of their horses between the fences. One cantering stride of a horse cov- ers approximately 3.50 meters. The rider can shorten or lengthen the strides in order to adjust their number between two fenc- es so that the horse can jump the obstacle in good conditions, taking off neither too close nor too far. TABLE Different scoring systems are used to place the competitors at the end of the class. The most common is the “Table A” where jumping faults or the first refusal generate four penalty points. Time faults may be added to the final result: one point for every four seconds over the allowed time. In “Table C” classes, jumping faults are converted into seconds added to the time taken to complete the course. WALKING THE COURSE Once the course has been built by the course-designer, the riders are allowed to “walk the course” with their coaches in or- der to memorize the design the route, to calculate the number of strides between the obstacles positioned close together and to locate the short-cut and other way to save time in case of a speed-class or in view of a prospective jump-off.
Karly Woods leaps over a fence atop Maverick during the Playnow Challenge Cup evening show-jumping event at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Westoba Place. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
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