A rider can safely leave out strides two times. But…Try three may well get you an ambulance ride. The “Texas Stand-off” is rarely the best option.
Why is this? We have 2 stride combinations in stadium. I actually find 3 easier. I know I rode a 3 stride slightly offset combination in XC at BN a few years ago.
See retreadeventer’s post (#15).
Thanks. Very interesting. Now I want to set up some 3 strides and see if that’s accurate.
You actually don’t see 3s that often in lower level SJ, especially not at decent shows. It is poor design.
you should never add in a 1 or 2 unless on a pony and then you need to be damn accurate and careful with your canter. a 3 is the distance where there isn’t really room for an add, but the basic mantra is “if you add anywhere, add everywhere.” So 3 strides can get green riders in trouble with a flyer or bad chip. And super long distances or bad chips can lead to rotational falls even in the SJ or hunter ring. Mostly the flyer as most horses can crawl out of a tight distance if the jump can fall.
Janet, according to the experts I have heard, not until Intermediate level XC (desirable).
May I add thank you for your contribution as well, I love to hear how and why things work for folks out jumping in their own rings at home, this sort of discussion is why we who frequent the boards love it. It is an incredible learning resource!
I have been riding for a bazillion years and never was aware of the evils of a three stride line. Clearly I skimmed over that in the rule book and I’ve never had it brought up to me in a lesson or clinic. And I have never observed an issue with them on my own. Thank you Retread and Janet for the clear explanation. I definitely learned from this thread.
Retreads point about where you land on the backside of a fence is an important one. I had an issue for a while where my mare always added in a line if I jumped in over a oxer. She’s super catty and did it safely and well, but we just couldn’t get the related distance right after an oxer. Becky Holder saw a piece of one round out of the corner of her eye while she was warming up a rider at an event and she diagnosed my problem immediately. She said not to try the push her down the line as the problem wasn’t the stride length. The problem was that she wasn’t jumping ACROSS the oxer well enough and was landing too close to the backside, making the distance greater than intended to the next jump. With the correct diagnosis, we were able to get my mare to jump the oxers better and then the distances worked out. This was happening when I was doing PTs and in hindsight there were three-stride lines often involved. We sorted it before I moved to straight prelims.
I will walk courses differently after reading this thread.
And back to the title question, it depends on the horse. I have a very clever draft cross who can adjust unbelievably. He can do a three stride in two or in eight. If he’s balanced and listening.
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Look at the NEW (2017) rule book.
Appendix 1.1 Beginner Novice
“cross country. … The course may include one combination of 2 or 3 strides in a straight line.”
I argued against it when it was proposed, but was not successful.
