George Blackie

Notes on Course Design

The Course Designer's aim is to design courses which will consist of well built obstacles suited to the grade of horse and to the type of competition for which they are intended and should consider the size of the arena, weather conditions and jumping surface when placing fences and deciding heights and spreads.

The Course designer is responsible for designing the course, supervising the building of the obstacles, including the practice obstacles and measuring the course and also has a responsibility for safety and well-being of the horse and rider.

If you are on one of the BSJA Course designers panels you will have had , or will be receiving, training in the art of good course design but if you are one of the army of helpers at unaffiliated, or riding club shows here are a few simple rules for you to observe which will hopefully help you build your course.

1. Jump One
Jump one should always be built toward the entrance gate. Horses are happier to jump toward home.
Always have fence one well filled with no fancy fillers (just poles or perhaps a small ladder and make it an easy ascending spread to encourage the horse to make a good first jump. It is also a good idea to make the first fence one hole lower than the height set for the class.

2. Corners
Allow plenty of room for horses to negotiate corners in order to keep them balanced.

A good rule of thumb is to allow three horse strides for the horse to ride away after landing over the last fence before the corner, three strides to turn the corner and three strides to approach the next jump.  This allows the novice horse and rider to have a break in the corners in which to regain balance and rhythm if necessary.

A horse’s stride is about 12 feet and a ponies stride is a little shorter (depending on the size of the pony) but stride the distance for the largest animal in the class as the smaller ponies will adjust easier to the longer distance.

3. Doubles
Doubles require careful placement. They should be placed on the good flat ground where possible. They should not be before jump four or five. Placing a double(or any fence) to go directly away from the gate is an added difficulty and should be avoided at novice level. It makes the young horse shorten his stride and requires stronger riding from the rider.
If a filler is used in the double or treble it should be placed at the first element. A filler at the second element of a double when poles only have been used at the first  can cause huge problems because it means that the solid part of the fence is in the wrong element and would have the effect of making the distance in the double too long.

Distances in double and treble combinations should always be measured with a tape measure.

Check out what class and height the course is being built for and look at the ground conditions. All of these things can change the dimensions of the horses stride.

It is recommended that if the double is a ‘vertical to an oxer’ that it is placed on two strides.

4. Related Distances.
These are jumps with measured four, five or six strides between them. Three stride distances are not recommended.

Lines where two fences are placed on a gentle curve are inviting but I would recommend that they are placed on distances of seven or eight strides.

Related distances should always be measured with a tape measure.

5. Types of Jumps.

Verticles (uprights) and Oxers (spreads)

The course should consist of an even spread of verticles and oxers over a course of about nine or ten obstacles. As a general rule there should be roughly the same number of verticles and oxers in the course with about two changes of rein.

6. Heights.

Stick to the heights in the schedule ( the schedule is regarded as the contract with the competitor) Riders know what classes they have entered and the height they have come to jump, building higher or lower than they were expecting defeats the purpose of their entry.

7. Approx. Safe Distances on good level ground.

7. Approx. Safe Distances