2. The First Jump Away from the Gate
The first jump away from the gate, be it jump 2, 3 or 4 is also a very special jump. It is essential it has no
little pickets, fillers or walls, that it is just plain rails. It is hard enough for the young horse to cope with
leaving its friends without giving it more questions. This is usually the hardest jump for the horse on the
whole course so it is best we make it user friendly.

3. Corners
Allow plenty of room on the corners for the young horse to come round. The good rule of thumb is to
allow three horse strides for the horse to recover from landing, three strides to negotiate the corner and
three strides to set itself up for the next jump. A horse’s stride is 12 feet or 3.65 meters. I find if you count
45 of your walking strides round a corner then that will be enough. These come with experience and
remember a horses stride is longer than a ponies stride. It is always better to stride out for a horses if there
is mixed classes as the ponies cope better when there is a variation of striding.

4. Reverse Turns
Avoid reverse turns because it is very hard for a rider to judge their line or stride to the next jump.

5. Dog Legs
Avoid dog legs. There are two changes of leads involved in these. Really hard!
It is possible to make a softly angled dog leg over a greater distance of around 8 strides but any less and you upsetting the horses balance and rhythm.

6. Doubles
Doubles require careful placement. They should be placed on the best ground, flat and even. They should
not be before jump 5. Avoid placing them just in front of the judge’s truck or next to any other busy area
at the arenas edge.
Placing a double to go directly away from the gate is an added difficulty. It makes the young horse think
backwards and then shorten his stride thus making it hard for him to make the stride required.
Placing the filler at the second element of a double when one has not been placed at the first also can
cause great strife. If the A element is too empty with just rails and the B element has a lovely bright filler
there is a huge risk that young horses will be concentrating so hard on the filler that they will not see the
first jump and end up tripping through it.
Two stride doubles are better at the beginning of the season.
Allow 24 feet or 7.3 meters for one stride and 36 feet or 10.3 meters for two strides. Avoid having the
distance too long at low heights. Again, check out what the course is being built for and look at the
terrain. All of these things can change the dimensions of the stride.

7. The Use of Fillers
These require careful placement and designing. Riders and horses are not perfect and some over zealously
designed walls can cause huge problems to the horses. In my experience some designs can cause some
very nasty stops especially ones that seem to look like large eyes. We once had a board that had large
black faces on a blue background - it caused endless mayhem.
Once you have built a few courses and experimented with different types of fill you will soon get the feel
of what works well. Being attuned to what is happening in the ring is a must for a good course designer.
In my experience if rails are used up to jump 5, the horse will begin to get into its rhythm and after that all
the scary walls and brushes and pickets can be introduced, seemingly causing little trouble.

8. Change of Rein
It is a good idea to keep the first three jumps on the same rein and change the rein every two or three
jumps after that. It is important to check that you have at least 2 changes of rein in a course.

9. Distances
It is best to keep to the 3.65m stride. Strides will be a little longer when the jumps are over 1.20m. It is
also very important to keep the distances true and measured. If a horse can get into a rhythm on a
comfortable stride length, then they seem happy to jump if they can be kept on this stride. Easy distances
for average horses and ponies up to 90cm are:
One stride doubles 7.3 meters for horse. 6.4m for pony
Two strides 10.3m 9.4m
Three strides 14m 13.4m
Four strides 17m 16.5m
Five strides 20m 19.5m
And so on. If both horses and ponies are to jump the same course it is better to build to the horses distance.

Click here for a more detailed list of showjumping distances and explanations

10. Trebles
These are best avoided but are added in Pony Club events when riders are working towards the S/J
Champs. They are not allowed in Horse Trials.

11. Related Distances.
These are jumps with measured 4, 5 or 6 strides between them. Three stride lines are not recommended.
This is a subject that leads to many a heated debate. Wrongly placed they can be a nightmare for young
horses. A related distance directly away from the in gate at jump two or three, with fillers in the second
jump of a line can cause young horses and inexperienced combinations all sorts of grief. This is because
the horse may shorten its stride and the distance quickly becomes misrelated, with the horse making a
horrible jump if he jumps at all.
Related lines running across the arena, or down to the other horses, or later on in the course work better.
Related lines work well in showhunter but remember that they get to practice their lines at the beginning
of the day.

12. Uprights and Oxers
Uprights are jumps built in a vertical plane; Oxers are jumps that have both height and spread. Course
builders also build triple bars and fans.
Builders usually alternate the jumps between vertical and oxer as they go round. It is not a hard and fast
rule but you should have roughly the same number of spreads as verticals.

13. The Number of Jumps
Nine or ten jumps with a double is adequate at this level.

14. Flags
The start and finish flags must be easy for the combination to get through and on to the first jump.
If the judges want to move the flags making the line onto jump one too difficult then move jump one and
try and resolve it that way or have someone stand at the flags to indicate to the judge when the riders goes
through the flags.

15. Course Heights
The rule book states that every endeavour must be made to make sure the jumps are at the stated height as
advertised for the class. A tolerance of 5cm is allowed if the gear can not be quite adjusted to the exact
height. Keep to this rule.
Riders know why they have entered classes of a certain height and building higher or lower than what
they were expecting defeats the purpose of their entry.