talking tactics Talking Tactics
Walking the cross country course
So you have arrived at the event, checked and watered your horse, and collected your number. Now to walk the cross country course at breakneck speed! Caroline Mosley shares some practical advice…
Occasionally at an event local to you, the cross country course can be walked the day before competition day, but as with most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to this! The advantages to walking the course at a time of ‘no pressure’ are that you can spend longer reviewing approaches and working out where to save time. The disadvantage is that you spend the night before your competition day fretting over the odd jump or two!
Whatever day I’m walking, whether it is the day before or on the day, I find taking photographs of each fence to be helpful when going back over the course later on. I do use the Cross Country App for walking as it also maps out my minute markers and pictures of the fences are logged so you can see a map with jumps.
At the start of the course walk, check the colour of fences you are jumping, and the number of fences. There are often some ‘black flag’ alternatives, so have a look and check where they may be on the course as it can
Equine Page 36
be easy to miss them.
(Black flagged fences are indicated by a black line on the fence flags, it means there is an easier, alternative fence you can jump, which takes longer in time – check the rule book for further info)
At the start, check the start box, have a look at the optimum time, the number of fences and where the start box is in relation to the warm up. Sometimes it can be miles away and other times you will be galloping past the warm up on your approach to fence 2, which can cause a horse to nap, so its good to know the layout as you can then can make a plan in advance (such as asking someone to help walk the horse over to the start box, or riding a bit wide past the warm up when on the course).
In the start box, have a look ahead at your first fence; is it close to the start or a decent gallop away? Think about how you will start. Galloping through the start box as the starter counts down isn’t really safe, so you should always plan to be setting off at a standing start, or moving at a walk/trot.
Walking up to the first fences, look ahead for the next one, if you can’t see it, look at the rope to see the direction. I have walked a course in beautiful parkland, but it wasn’t roped and finding the next fence was quite difficult! I ended up walking the course twice to make sure I knew which hillock to ride towards and despite doing this, I still got ever so slightly lost heading towards the last few fences, costing me a few time faults!
When I walk between the fences I look behind me at the one I have just jumped; sometime you can see ground undulations you never saw before, and also what line you will be galloping on. Looking ahead at the fence coming up, I assess whichever one I am jumping (is it the middle one in a line of fences for example) to make sure that, in the event a number has come off, I still know which one to jump! Sometimes they look quite similar in size and it can be difficult. Often in this case BE will flag off the fence you should avoid, but occasionally I have come up to a group of fences to
find no number on mine (it was a corner and had been knocked off by a previous rider) and the choice of three fairly similar fences to jump! Cue panic, on fast approach!
As you walk the course, have a think about each fence and why it has been positioned where it is. A corner on a curve is asking for rider navigation error so think about keeping control of the shoulder and the curve you plan to ride to give you and the horse the best possible chance to jump the correct side of the flags! A jump going into trees is likely to make a young, inexperienced horse back off and may need to be ridden more strongly on the approach to it.
Walk the course exactly where you will be riding and if you make a mistake walking it then go back and walk the line again, including from the approach of the fence before. Safe riding is important, so walking the cross country and working out where you are going along with what approaches you will use, will improve both your own and your horse’s safety. Stop after walking
www.theequinesite.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
