Rider and horse over the jump
Rider and horse over the jump © Rubly

The course

Sometimes it's colorful and eyecatching, sometimes it's technically demanding and tricky and sometimes it all comes together: The course always holds new sporting challenges for horse and rider.
To find out where the cliffs are in the course, the rider walks down the course on foot before jumping. This gives him a better impression of the sequence of the obstacles, the distances and the number of canter jumps to be ridden between the obstacles. The rider also pays attention to where time can be saved later during jumping, when speed is required or when it is better to slow down. If he has room for five canter jumps between two obstacles, he can try to get by with only four canter jumps during the jumping to save important time.

Show jumping course
Show jumping course © Rubly

The course builder must arrange the course in advance in such a way that it both entertains the audience and challenges horse and rider. It is irrelevant whether it is an A-jumping or a jumping competition at the Olympic Games. He must not make the course too difficult, but also not too easy. An obstacle can consist of one to three elements.
In order to test the rider's riding skills, the course builder uses obstacles that require courage and skill. For example, he can plan a high jump directly after a long jump, whereby the horse has to stretch and pick up speed for the long jump and reach the correct jump in the high jump.

Course designer checking the obstacle
Course designer checking the obstacle © Benkert

After ringing the bell and greeting the rider, the course is ready to start. After the ringing, the rider has 45 seconds to cross the start line. The obstacles of the course are marked by red and white flags. The red flags are always on the right side of the obstacles and the white flags are always on the left. In this way, the flags provide information about the prescribed course of the course. All obstacles of a course are numbered in the order in which they must be jumped by horse and rider. Whoever leaves the prescribed course and jumps over a wrong obstacle will be disqualified.

Important:

The fall of the rider leads to disqualification in the course. However, if the rider falls out of the saddle after the finish line, he/she is not disqualified, but it is absolutely necessary to get back on and leave the course on horseback. Otherwise, the rider will also be disqualified.

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