I came from the hunters and man some jumper courses are hard to remember. I usually always get disqualified because I forget where to go next! I’ve tried walking the course and then drawing one out screen recording it and watching it over and over. I also tried to video recorded while I walk it to remember and still fail…I think it’s my anxiety popping up preventing me from remembering the course.
What do you do to help remember the course?
Is this happening at one particular venue or with one particular course designer? A jumper course should have a natural flow to it, unless the course designer has an unusual style or because the ring’s dimensions provide a few too many potential options for turns.
A rectangular ring is more likely to offer more obvious turns than a big, square ring would. If you’re competing in a large square ring, is there any option to try some shows elsewhere until you get over your anxiety in a ring that’s shaped a little bit more like a hunter course?
You might find the jump numbers to be helpful. They have a tendency to get knocked over and aren’t always put back up right away, so it’s worth knowing your course on top of that, but if you’re counting and can take a second to look at your options that might get you out of a moment of being lost. The flags also help narrow down your options.
I think the more you ride the jumpers the more you’ll become familiar with where your next fence is likely to be. Most of the course is made up of logical turns with a rollback here and there.
Things you’re probably already doing - go learn your course as soon as it’s posted and go over it until you’ve memorized it. Walk your EXACT intended path even if you feel silly walking deep into corners or around other jumps. Learn one course at a time whenever possible. Give the jumps names and say them out loud when you’re reciting your course. (E.g. flowers to the red/white/blue, bending to Halloween, roll back to grapes…) Take a moment to run through it when you get in the ring and just before you start - 45 seconds is a long time, plus you usually have a few seconds before they buzz you.
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I’m a hunter rider who now owns a jumper. First- I watched a lot of other riders when I “crossed over”. I still sometimes use “inside line, outside single, quarter line”.
Best advice my trainer ever told me was to use the colors when I can, take a pic of the course and of course walk it.
So my first real WTF am I doing was in Ocala last year. Which actually made it very easy- example-
1 is yellow oxer on quarter line to 2 and 3 yellow line, round the corner to 4 black oxer, etc etc.
Honestly- 40 some years as a hunter translated to “ yellow single, outside, diagonal, outside purple” etc 
Watch a lot, walk the course and figure out a way for your hunter brain to translate 
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Problem is it’s at all venues my anxiety always gets the best of me. Some venues do not have numbers in front of the fence so then I start freaking out more.
Yes!!! There’s usually like 3 or 4 fences that are yellow/blue then my minds like that yellow or the yellow over there:rofl:
Hunter/Eq rider here. When I have to do a jumper course, I look at what’s actually set in the arena before I even look at the course and I make a mental note of which fences are linked together. Then, when I’m memorizing the course for my class, I look for the geometry of the course and start memorizing how 2, 3, or 4 fences are linked together. If I’ve walked the course, I include the strides as part of that memorization (and the track, if I have enough brain cells). The other thing I do, which is enormously helpful for how my brain works, is I identify the jumps which are NOT part of the course. I look at those jumps in the arena and I consciously set them aside with a mental note, “NOT part of the course.”
What works for some people doesn’t work for others – it helps to recognize that and tune out someone else’s way of describing the course. An example of this is, in my barn there are quite a few younger riders doing a jumper course here or there, and the fences are described to them by things the colors evoke, such as the “Barney” jump for something that’s purple and green. I’m way too old to relate to anything “Barney” and I find it a distraction to try to memorize a particular fence using depictions that make me feel like a fuddy duddy grandma. So, I close my ears and focus instead on what works for me.
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In addition to memorizing the jumps, also memorize which way you turn after each one. Red oxer - left - bending yellow line in 7 - left. That gets you headed off in the correct direction.
I look at the course, take a photo, walk, watch a few if possible.
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You’ve got to remember the pattern not the jumps. It shouldn’t be much harder than the hunter ring unless you’ve somehow gotten stuck with a string of bad course designers ( are these rated show? Locals don’t seem to “get” how to set a jumper course and they feel arbitrary.) So whatever works for you in the Hunter ring should work here, plus you get to walk it!
Talk it out to yourself after walking, as in course for example:
Right lead to one, middle color bending whatever strides, diagonal color whatever strides, outside color bending to the one, diagonal color whatever strides, outside color bending to the two.
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When I was showing jumpers, some 60+ years ago, we didn’t have numbers in our jumps, or a map.
A judge, course builder or steward would get competitors together for each class and point at the jumps in order and you had to remember what you were told.
Funny, very few ever went off course, guess we were used to that system.
Then, our instructor used to have us jump little low jumps, two, then three, then four, adding one all along, so we learned to remember and go where told.
Maybe OP could try training her memory like that to learn to make patterns of courses as told?
Reining patterns are also hard to remember some times: 
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I also occasionally dabble in the jumpers and had to adjust to learning those courses! I take a picture of the course map on my phone before I walk, and I refer to it while I’m walking so that I match up what the jumps look like and where I’m going in my mind so that I can look at the map again later and think “red bending line, roll back to the combination” etc . . . when I look at the map again on my phone. I also try to watch an earlier class that uses the same course if it is possible.
Im super visual, so the only way I can remember a course or a dressage test is to draw it over and over/recite it in my head. It can be a slow process but it usually works. Harder if you are trying to remember multiple courses at a time. It sure sucks to forget where you are supposed to go in the middle of a course or dressage test!
You might check out the Jump Off Pro app - I know it’s available for i-devices, not sure about Android. I learned about it from another mom at the barn whose daughter uses it specifically for learning jumper courses. You can take a photo and put your course in, including color and type of jump, and it lets you virtually “ride” the course to get a visual, as well as check how well you remember it.
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I remember the ‘flow’. The shape that the course makes as it goes. So I remember left turn, sharp right turn, slow arc to the left, etc.
I can’t remember jump types well; I know some people can remember it by what the jumps look like (red oxer to green single to CWD jump, etc).
Others remember the lines just like in hunters. Outside line to bending diagonal line to two stride, etc.
I also find that the numbers do not help me at all. I ignore them.
Really it just takes playing around with what helps you remember the best.
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My routine:
- take a picture of the course on my phone
- go over it by memory before walking
- walk the course (take your time!)
- watch 5ish rounds (if you can)
- warm up horse
- visualize course in head once more before going in, but as if you were riding it, not just standing at the gate looking at the jumps.
I also like to memorize by strides/jump type/ etc. for example:
- single, oxer to bending 7, single, 2 to 1, etc. (if that makes sense). That way it kind of flows in your head.
Good luck!
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So…a long time ago (early 90s) I was showing in the junior jumpers at a A rated show.
Per the posted course that I had walked, jumps 3 and 7 were right next to each other - 3 on the left, 7 on the right. However, when I came around the turn, the number 3 was on the right jump, and 7 on the left. So I jumped the fence on the right. And they blew the whistle and called me off course.
Cue a discussion with the steward. The ultimate ruling was that posted numbers were defined as decorations in the rule book, and it was my obligation as a rider to know the course, and so my elimination stood.
It’s quite possible that there’s been some intervening rule change in the past 30 years. But in the absence of that, I would not get too dependent on posted jump numbers.
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I just downloaded it, it looks really good! I’ll see if this will work for my upcoming show in May! Thank you!
To me, there are a couple vital pieces:
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Learn and walk the course. But then VISUALIZE it. Go away from the ring (or turn your back), close your eyes, and visualize riding the course, what the jumps look like, and which way you’re going to turn after each element. Do it a couple times.
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Don’t memorize each jump by itself. Learn the course in chunks. For example: it’s this bending line, to this dogleg turn, to this rollback, etc. I would never remember the course if I was doing one jump at a time.
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Watch as many as you can. While you’re watching, pre-empt where they are going to go next in your mind.
Signed, another middle aged ammy who struggles with remembering courses.
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That’s always been my method too. It’s not enough to know which fence comes next, you need to know your track and pacing too (which leads to striding). So I memorize my course by walking the track, determining where I’ll need to push forward and where I’ll need to wait. So as I memorize my course, I’m also thinking “Single oxer off the left, roll back to bending forward seven, wait for the two stride, etc”
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As these posts make very clear, there are lots of ways to remember your course.
Realize that no matter what someone else tells you, whatever way you find that works for you is the right way. It does not matter if someone else likes a different way.
I say this because I have heard people telling other people “you can’t do it that way, you have to do it this way” when working on memorizing a course.
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