D Pros carefully merge art and science to create technically-challenging yet appropriate jumping courses. For the show jumping enthusiast, there are few
prettier sights than watching horse and rider negotiate a beautifully designed course of jump combinations and obstacles, crafted with metic- ulous detail and adorned with splashes of color and artwork while strategically placed to create an appropriately challenging course.
J
umping a course seems simple enough to the novice onlooker. Whether it’s an indoor or outdoor event, whether a top show or a schooling one, the rider’s goal
is the same—jump a clean round over the assigned course in the allotted time. To make things more challenging, during a multi-day event, the courses change regularly, with riders memorizing new configurations of 12 to 16 jumps. When done well, horse and rider flow over the course ef-
fortlessly, as if they are one. But doing it well is anything but easy. It is the course designer’s job to combine art and sci- ence to create a course that encourages this perfect partner- ship while appropriately and accurately testing the skills of both horse and rider.
A Look Back Like most equestrian sports, the history of show jumping
began as practice for wartime activities by cavalry units as the horse was the primary vehicle in battle pre-World War I. The cavalry horse had to be fearless, willing and able to jump over cross-country obstacles without question. During peacetime, that activity carried over to competi-
tive arena jumping then known as ‘leaping’ and first recorded in 1864 by the Royal Dublin Society. There was the single high jump, standing higher than the horses head, and the wide jump to test a horse’s scope. The U.S. recorded its first jumping competition in 1883 at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden. In 1921 the Federation Equestrian International (FEI) was formed and created standardized
rules. The increase in events led the national association in the U.S. to be formed in 1917, and in the U.K. in 1925, to streamline their own sometimes idiosyncratic rules. The U.S. rules have changed many times since then. Today the rules are far easier for the competitor and spec-
tator to keep track of, with faults given for knockdowns and refusals. And as the sport progressed, much thought was given to design in the show jumping arena.
Science vs. Art The course designer is now an integral part of show jump-
ing. Some of the best-known names in the field are Richard Jeffery, Linda Allen, Steve Stephens, Conrad Homfeld and Anthony D’Ambrosio. The design of the course is really the deciding factor in
determining the winner, says Linda Allen. A successful inter- national jumper herself who gravitated to course design in the 1980s, she apprenticed under the late Pamela Carruthers. She is a past Nations Cup competitor, United States Eques- trian Federation (USEF) and FEI licensed course designer, as well as a clinician, consultant and author of 101 Jumping Exer- cises for Horse and Rider. She also produced a CD, Linda Allen’s Course Building the Jump Smart Way.
By Anne Lamoriello
Linda Allen works on the set up of one of her courses.
Warmbloods Today 21
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Courtesy Linda Allen
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