Course Memorization Tactics?

[weixiao]

I’m helping a beginner adult amateur who is leasing one of my horses. He started showing last year in the hunters on another horse but he has switched to the jumpers with my horse. Their first show together they had a great weekend and he didn’t have any trouble learning his courses but the second show he forgot his course all three days. I think a lot of it was nerves, he knew the course when he told it back to me multiple times before he went in the ring but once he gets going he said he just blanks sometimes. I think two other factors that made it more difficult were 1) at the first show we were doing really tiny classes so everything was a Table II.1 and one II.2c whereas the second show it was a 2b jump off and having to remember the second course threw him off more. 2) It’s a local show and while the course are well designed and it is well run, they usually have three classes of the same height going at the same time over different courses which means that the numbers on the jumps don’t necessarily match the class he is actually doing and if he watches he sees a bunch of people doing different courses and that seems to throw him off.

The ring at home isn’t big and we don’t have a lot of jumps to work with for too much long course + jump off practice at home, but we are going to try and do some and try and ship to another farm to practice some longer courses and memorizing more than one course at the same time, but I if anyone has any other tips that might help him that I can pass on, please share! He usually memorizes the jumps by color/design and it isn’t a case of confusing two jumps, just cantering by one, or adding an extra one and that sort of thing.

The answer might be just to go over them more times, or maybe draw them out, and more practice at home, but maybe there are some other ideas that can help!

[2DogsFarm]

Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth & I was just getting into showing Hunter (as a 30+ Re-Rider), I used to marvel at the Juniors glancing at the course map & rattling off “Outside, Diagonal, Diagonal Outside” then walking away. To me it was all a jumble of lines & Xs & drawings of fences I could not identify.

What worked for me was NEVER going in first. Watching a couple riders ahead of me helped gel the course in my mind.
Of course for a callback that did not work unless I was not placed last for it.

DH had The Worst Shownerves,
I learned to just let him be rather than try talking him off the ledge.

[lintesia]

I mostly do hunters/eq, but sometimes I dip my toe in the jumper ring. I started this as an adult and therefore don’t have the years of youthful experience and confidence to fall back on. As careful as I am learning my courses in the hunter/eq ring, I have to triple that effort in the jumper ring. Here are a few things that help me:

First, before looking at any of the course diagrams, I look at the jumps and try to get a general sense of the lay of the land. I identify which jumps might be related to others (usually by color) and which ones have no relation to others. As I then learn the course, I do it in segments, so a set of jumps are always grouped together in my brain. I always review the course in my head as though I’m riding it and if I find any moment of hesitation, I drill that particular part of the course so that there are no questions remaining. The other things that I always do is identify which jumps are not part of the course. I make sure that I look at the ring, pick out those jumps, and remove them from my radar.

[springgreypony]

Sorry if this doesn’t really help; I primarily show in the hunters, and when I need to memorize a course, I will take my horse down to the ring and hand graze him while watching riders from a different class ride the course. Not sure if different divisions in the jumpers have the same course, but regardless, it really helps me to watch someone else do it once or twice. If I have to go first and/or can’t watch anyone else do it, then I will at least take a look at the ring and view my jumps. Once I have viewed my jumps, I will look at the course. Then I close my eyes and visualize each jump as I go over the course in my head. This helps me when I am riding the course, as I have already visualized how it works.
Memorizing them by colors and position really helps as well! Sometimes I would even make a song or something in my head that I practiced if I had a particularly tricky course. (Ex: Outside Brown, blue butterfly, diagonal two stride, la la la) Or something like that haha! :lol:
Best of luck to you both!

[Mouse_amp_Bay]

I am bad at remembering courses. Sometimes I blank and will get lost in the middle. What has helped me a lot is the following:

• focus on the pattern. I do not learn individual fences. I learn ‘outside line - u-turn to diagonal - figure out through diagonal to short side oxer’. It does not make sense to anyone but works for me.
• option two is to make up a stupid story or song i.e. ‘yellow bug went to the green park, crossed a diagonal rainbow and is canadian’ (idiotic but yellow to the green, cross the diagonal and find the canadian jump works for me. If I can make it into a song, even better as that way I will remember to breathe LOL)
• take a picture of the course map with your phone and take the time to study it from different angles. Ignore the people in the ring if they are doing a different course from what your student needs to do. Look at the ring from different angles (far end, judges view) so that you are solid in knowing all of the different options cold!

Good luck! :winkgrin:

[CHT]

You have to help him discover his learning style. Does he learn by watching, by visualizing, by doing, by saying or?

By watching is tricky with the type of course/routine you describe, but hopefully you can figure out at least one rider who is in his same class and before him. I help people like this to be confident they know their course by asking “which jump is he going to next?” as the rider goes along.

By visualizing, you need to give him some quiet time to imagine the course(s) as he goes. Saying it out loud if he wants so you can confirm. You can also help with this by asking “where do you go after the green combination” as being able to know what happens midway through the course (rather than only knowing it from start to finish) can help this type of learner.

By doing is trickier, but you can kind of walk out the pattern (on foot of on horse) while pretending the jumps are there, and calling out the jumps on the imaginary course as you walk through it.

By saying, let him repeat the course as many times as he needs. Make sure the words he is using to remember the course will make sense when on course: if the jumps look very different from the approach vs from the out-gate, make sure the words he is using make sense for how it will look on the approach. Tell him it ok to talk while on course. That he can take time after round one to go through the jump off out loud. He could write the course on his wrist if it gives him confidence.

We also tend to walk the course really early and walk a different height just so they have lots of time to learn the course and watch.

Most my clients use a combination of these things.

[Pathrider11]

You / He has to figure out how he identifies jumps. To me it is color. Ask him what a jump looks like to him? If my trainer says go to the Oxer… (hah!) the yellow jump! I focus on the color of the rails unless… They are white then I focus on the color of standard. Figure out how his brain works.

[paw]

I agree, it all depends on how he learns/processes.

For me, the gold standard is to walk the course(s) at least once. Sometimes that means I have to be there before the show starts, but generally (at least for local shows) there are course walks when the height changes significantly. After the walk, I’ll sit by the rail and watch a class before me (jumping the same course) go, but the initial walk is essential.

[Foxglove]

Four kids-- four different ways they learned courses. First kid watched others and could go in and be spot on. Second kid took the brushes out of the brush box then set a “course” of brushes on the ground, used her fingers or the hoof pick to “ride the course” over and over. That worked for her. Third kid did the recited "outside line, diagonal, inside line rote memorization. Last child would hold the pattern in her hand, find a bit of ground, then “walk the course” saying, each fence as she mentally came to it as she walked.