It’s louder. It’s a tighter space. You need a horse that’s a good thinker in an indoor arena. Outdoors, in a big field, they might have three times as long to think.” Jeff tells about his learning experiences jumping indoors on Word-
sworth II, a British Sport Horse by Claudio’s Sunlight. “At one of my first indoor shows last year, he jumped beautifully in a quiet stadium all week. Then in the World Cup qualifier Saturday night, he was so tense I could feel his heart beating. I immediately thought, ‘I’d better get him busy.’ I immediately went into a canter and knocked down the first jump, and then two or three others. Then the place went quiet, and he settled down and went well.” Jeff and Wordsworth returned to the same show a year later, with a
different approach this time. “I let everything settle down in the arena after the previous horse’s round. I didn’t rush it, and we had a better perfor- mance. Instead of overcoming it by getting busy, I let him settle down. If I pushed that issue, as when riding a colder horse, it wouldn’t work.” Water jumps, Hanna says, can also pose particular challenges: “You
might want to go by the water and hope that they’re brave. I think also with the water, some horses are careful about the takeoff. Consider the different footing. Some horses don’t feel so confident on some footing, so that can scare them, too. Over water, it’s pushing off over something wide, over different types of footing that will make them more cautious.” Touring is just one more strategy for success in the show ring. The
attentive rider is able to tune into the horse’s state of mind and match the tour of the arena to the horse he or she is guiding. After surveying the course, the rider guides the equine athlete toward a confident first jump, hopefully setting them up for a clean round.
USEF Rules Follow FEI Rules on touring have changed over the years. In years past, riders could be eliminated for
approaching a jump on purpose, such as riding the horse right up to face a jump. In the American Horse Shows Association (predecessor to the USEF) 2001 rule book, in the jumper division, for example, the rule read that if one is “deliberately addressing an obstacle,” the penalty is elimination. “You used to be eliminated for deliberately walk-
ing up toward a jump,” Julie confirms. “The FEI is the governing body that changed that rule and USEF followed. That was a great move in doing some- thing in the best interest of the horse.” Previous jumper rules also described the count-
down as 60 seconds, with an option for the show to shorten it to the current 45 seconds. To review current jumper rules, see the scoring
subchapter for rules JP135, 136 and 137. Note that JP136 1a allows the rider to go through the start markers in the opposite direction, before the start bell. The USEF jumper rules are modeled after FEI
rules. In the eventing division, the jumping phase follows FEI rules as well.
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