British Fences

Glad you agree! :)

You're right about the lack of respect - teaching one of my fillies to jump she dragged her back feet through every cross pole, sending the poles flying. So I whacked the jump up a lot higher and made it a straight upright; cue filly picking her feet up perfectly every time and making a real effort to clear it each time. Similarly my gelding clouted a few poles twice in a row when schooling recently and clearly hurt himself as he gave everything loads of room on every jump since and made an effort not to touch anything!
 
It is like when you hear a trainer of a horse who jumps hurdles with little or no respect say that he hopes fences will be the making of him as he might show a bit more respect for the larger obstacles...not only is it good for the horses' performance but also his and the jockey's health.
 
Shadz: don't shoot the messenger! You'd need to quiz the BHA on your question. Personally, no, I don't like 'soft' fences, any more than I like airy, lightweight showjumps. I like good solid constructions which horses want to bound over. Australia has shown the damage which dumbing-down can do, and now that's got their jumps racing tapped on the head in Victoria, if not countrywide.

Shadz, while it was thought to be a 'bad' thing to do, I knew some very good riders who rapped their horses if they showed the inclination to drop their hind feet. They ended up with the best jumpers and pretty much hoovered up every prize going. I don't think I've got a problem with that system, either - because if you're training for competition, you are intending to win. If you don't care if your horse knocks down half the arena, fine, but then, why bother at all?
 
it is true that fences have gotten softer. even the National fences now have got softer so you don't see as many fallers. i have never been a great fan of the softer fences and i doubt that the safety has increased because you still have horses that get injured or worst case scenarios die which would have happened with the stiffer fences.
 
I didn't mean to shoot the messenger, sorry!

I don't actually have that much of a problem with rapping to a certain extent to be honest - I've seen it being done to good effect to make a big clumsy mare pick her feet up. Admittedly on the continent they take it to extremes, hitting them hard and sometimes putting nails in the horses' boots to make it hurt them more - that I can't agree with. But a bit of mild rapping can be beneficial and I must admit that I did think about it but didn't really fancy holding the pole up whilst being ready to move quickly if need be!!!
 
No, can't be doing with the extreme versions, Shadz, but if you have a good (and brave!) pal who can help out, I'm sure it only takes a few clips to remind them to pick 'em up!
 
Justin, I don't think you know what rapping means in this context. Rapping is when you have an otherwise able jumper, which is sloppy, either tipping the fences off with the front or rear feet. You position someone next to the jump, armed with a light pole which is held just below the top of the jump you're sending the horse over (ridden or not), and they raise the pole at the right time in order to rap the horse's front or rear legs, whichever are the ones the horse most often hits the jump with. When the horse gets a bit of a whack on its legs with the pole, it usually then raises its legs higher in order not to get a clunk next time, and thus eventually learns to raise its legs high enough and not barge its way through obstacles.

It's got nothing to do with hitting a horse, and is only used during the schooling of horses bound for jumping. You won't see it done in public, just as you don't see most schooling taking place. Purist riders will say that if a horse has to be rapped to make it jump properly, it's not a 'real' jumper. But there are plenty of horses which are just lazy about tucking up their legs enough, and are quite capable of getting things right if they're encouraged to do so. If it's done correctly, it causes no harm - just a little alarm - to the horse.
 
Galileo said:
It is like when you hear a trainer of a horse who jumps hurdles with little or no respect say that he hopes fences will be the making of him as he might show a bit more respect for the larger obstacles...not only is it good for the horses' performance but also his and the jockey's health.
Click to expand...

Horses need to make a different shape when jumping fences too and sit on their hocks more whereas hurdlers tend to skip over the jumps. So trainers also hope the change in technique will help, and not just the sturdiness of the obstacle.
 
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