To School or Not to School……..

Eventing includes jumping crazy…..

strange…..

 scary jumps…..

that no other sport would even consider letting their precious horses near.

When there is an “Open Schooling” in the area, eventers drive from hours away in hoards and descend on the water jump like buzzards circling.

If you’re looking for entertainment……….that is definitely the spot to be……….

I was walking a course a few years ago when my coach said something about a jump you would “never” school.

I didn’t understand this at all………

My thoughts……….ok, if I can’t get my horse over it SCHOOLING, how on EARTH am I going to get my horse over it in a competition????

The reply was something about the adrenaline of a “real cross country run”………….

 
HOLD UP!!

…….for some of us……….there is A WHOLE OCEAN WORTH plenty of adrenaline flowing while schooling…………

For your viewing pleasure a Bad Eventer demo, on how NOT to jump a corner.

All I heard after “Go jump the corner” was my heart pounding in my ears…….who on earth thought up those horrible jumps??!!

I guarantee if I can’t jump it schooling, I’ll never get over it during the stress and insanity of a competition………

Another Bad Eventer moment……

Since that original day I’ve spoken to several people who agree with the “never school these fences” theory……

Typically they are maxed out ditchy things…..

Exactly who thought THAT was a good idea??

…… and after watching some of the recent  incredible wrecks at some of these “maxed out ditchy things” I’m wondering if this “we don’t school those types of fences” practice……….. is such a great idea.

Just Sayin………

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3 thoughts on “To School or Not to School……..

  1. jenj

    Those maxed-out ditchy thingies (with the maxed out brush behind it) fall into the category of "never gonna do it, EVAR" for me. But I'm with you… if I can't school it (or something like it), I'm not gonna do it. Yikes!!!

  2. Briana

    There was something at AECs this year that fell into this category. For Prelim/intermediate they built a Weldon's wall over a real ditch (like with water running in the bottom and everything – approximately 10 feet below the base of the wall…!) So somehow that was TOO "something" so they built a false floor ("ceiling"?) on the ditch to make it look more normal, with a balcony stair going around the end for the people…. As one horse at least managed to fall INTO the ditch, I suppose the false floor was "smart" and apparently held up the horse, but really the whole thing just seems questionable….

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