NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/equestri/5650

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-17 | 1.7 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Debbie Levine)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: XC Schooling Safety Question
Date: 18 Nov 1992 02:49:39 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology
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NNTP-Posting-Host: nimoy.ipac.caltech.edu

I was talking to the barn manager this morning and she happened to mention
that she and another rider had gone cross-country schooling the previous
morning and that her mare had kept knocking the triple down.  I guess I
must have looked puzzled because she then clarified that, at that
particular facility, they don't tie up the telephone poles for schooling.

I thought about it for a minute and said that I wasn't sure that was
such a good idea, since the horses might learn they could get away with
hanging a leg, and try to do so in a competition setting where the
fences WERE tied up solid.

She said she thought that the telephone poles were sufficiently solid
and unpleasant to hit that that wasn't likely to happen, and that
it allowed a little extra safety leeway in a schooling situation.

The cross-country course in question is at a facility which primarily
produces hunters and jumpers and which hosts an annual Jumping Derby.
The Derby combines cross-country type fences with knockdown show jumping
fences.

Does anyone have any practical experience/opinions with the safety
of schooling over "knock-down solid obstacles" for a horse which
is expected to event over "true solid obstacles"?

Debbie
[e-mail]