What Do Top Jumping Athletes Look for on a Course Walk?

By Patricia Salem

(Patricia is a former professional equine massage therapist and recreational rider)

Get it right before you compete...

Before every Jumping event, competitors perform a course walk on foot to check out the track and make an individual plan for how they want to complete it.

While stride counts are an important element of the walk, there are multiple other factors at play. Read on to learn what else the best Jumping athletes look for when they walk a course.

Start with the Course as a Whole

Advanced Jumping competitors have learned to approach a course as one entity before examining each component. Experienced course designers, like the ones who work on the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ and the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™, see all the jumps as connected.

Sometimes a course designer will have a signature problem that they like to present. At the uppermost levels of Jumping, the course will be technically doable for everyone on the start list but still challenging for those who are likely to finish on or near the podium. The key to ending up in the latter category is to try to get a bit of perspective on the whole course and see what’s being asked.

This is also the time when athletes remind themselves why they are competing in that particular event. Of course, everyone wants to win, but realistically sometimes a greener horse means putting risk aside and getting the horse safely around the course as cleanly as possible for a good experience.

Break the Course into Sections

Next, athletes break down the course into segments of different lines that require various skills. Where does a particular line start and end? Each line might have its own problem posed for the athlete. Also, one line may serve as a foundation for the next. What is being set up with that part of the course?

Establish Success from the First Jump

The first jump is important because it sets the tone for the rest of the course. Elite Jumping athletes look for several things here. First, they want to make sure where the beam that starts the timer is located because that’s when the clock starts ticking on their ride. Also, they plan an approach to the first jump that puts them on the desired lead, gives them the best angle into the first line, and establishes the rhythm they want with the horse.

Analyze Bending Lines, Turns, and Rollbacks

Stride counts become less clear cut when lines aren’t straight. When the path between jumps is curved, the athlete has to figure out where they want to hit the second obstacle. Do they want to clear it at the midpoint of the jump, or are they looking still one jump further and thinking about taking it closer to the standard and perhaps at an angle to continue a bending line?

Curves and turns are often where Jumping competitions are won and lost, especially in the jump off round. With every curved line, there are typically three choices for the athlete: 1) the longest, most weeping way around; 2) the shortest, most economical path, which may involve cutting strides and taking some risk; and 3) a line in between those two.

Which way is best for the horse, given its preferred turning direction and stride length? If a line is cut extremely tight, like on a rollback, will the horse be able to visually lock onto the next jump in time? Not seeing the obstacle until it’s too late can result in getting too deep (being almost on top of the jump with not enough takeoff room) or having a refusal when the jump comes up too fast for the horse to clear. The horse’s size, power, and scope, plus its experience, all factor into how an athlete approaches these lines

Plan for Combinations

Double and triple combinations can be tricky and are studied both on their own and in relation to the jumps that come immediately before and after. The order of oxers and verticals, as well as their width and height, determines how the effort will be handled in the middle. However, the combo as part of the larger course asks the athlete to think about where they might need to take a check and collect their horse for what comes after or where they might need to put some leg on to press forward. Combination jumps aren’t just about scope; they’re testing agility and the athlete’s partnership with the horse.

Check the Sturdiness of the Fences

Some obstacles can handle a rub while others seem like they come tumbling down if the horse just breathes on it. During the course walk, athletes look at the sturdiness of the top of each jump and the cups it sits in. The cups have been getting shallower lately at top FEI events in preparation for them all to be downsized soon, which will make every jump more precarious.

Flat planks are notoriously fragile as compared to round rails. “Skinnies” — jumps where the standards are placed closer together — are also more likely to hit the ground because they weigh less overall and offer less resistance to an errant hoof.

Understand what the Horse sees at each Jump

Each horse is unique when it comes to what makes it spook or need extra reassurance from its rider. A major part of the course walk analysis is anticipating what might give an athlete’s mount a fright, like a solid wall that can’t be seen through or an unusual standard decorated with flowers or sponsor imagery.

Other potentially frightening or distracting things on the course that athletes look out for include:

• Water jumps and liverpools with reflections

• Banners and buntings that move in the breeze

• The location of the in and out gates

• Where the course runs close to the audience

• Sunlight, artificial stadium light, and shadows

Some jumps seem to blend into the ground (like the devilish black plank on Day 2 of the recent Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals at Omaha). Striped rails are generally easier for horses to see, whilst solid pastels are more challenging. However, these differences in colour, shape, and pattern are helpful for the athlete in memorizing the order of the course.

Evaluate Grade and Footing

During the course walk, the athlete will check to see if the overall grade is even or if it undulates up and down somewhat, as is especially common with some of the outdoor North American League venues for the World Cup and the Nations Cup.

The footing is also assessed to see how hard or soft it is. A harder footing can mean a slightly faster, shorter course, and a deep, soft footing, like after a rain, makes for a somewhat longer track.

Be Ready for the Final Line

The last thing athletes evaluate on their course walk is the final line. This is another make-it-or-break-it moment for many duos. The horse is likely to be a little fatigued and may be heavier in the hand or need extra encouragement to finish strong.

Conversely, some horses know the end is coming and speed up, so the athlete needs to make sure they are still hitting their strides and not getting sloppy when they finally cross that Longines beam. Watch our top Jumping athletes master courses throughout the calendar on FEI TV.