How often are you xc schooling?

[Kaucos]

Just as the title says - how often are you xc schooling? (and how often/what level are you showing)

I don’t have access to xc fences at home, but often jump regular fences in the fields + gallop work. Horse is very confident to any jump, has been up/down banks, and doesn’t think anything of water or ditches. We’ve just been doing starter, and do a good xc school maybe twice a season (before first event of the year, then about midway through) but I don’t feel like that’s enough if I want to move up.

[Highflyer1]

It really depends, but at minimum at least one at the beginning of the season and at least one before moving up, at least one after any significant break in competing (more than 3 weeks or so), and at least one after any time that there’s a problem xc that I feel needs addressing. Last year I think I did one before our first event at starter (horse’s first event ever), then schooled (where he had a hard look at the banks and ditch schooling) and moved up to BN where he looked at the bank on course, then one where we schooled a bunch of different banks. I had hoped to move up to Novice but he had a health issue-- but if not he would have schooled at least once more before that.

I am pretty experienced-- if I were new, I definitely would want to have schooled at least once at two different places before moving up so that I had seen a good variety. But obviously in some areas that isn’t an option. We are lucky here to have lots of choices especially at Nobice and below.

[fire.pony]

I am fortunate to have access to a full XC course where I board and am able to take XC lessons whenever I want throughout the season. The water jump isn’t always filled but we host a lot of clinics and schooling shows, so I get plenty of access. For the young horses, it is so nice because we can go up and down banks and over ditches every day if we want to. The only negative is that with all of this access, I find that I rarely haul out for schooling which means we only see new venues at shows. I’m hoping to change that in 2023 and school a few different venues throughout the year.

[Jealoushe]

I wish I could go more often then I do. It seems like you need to be out there often these days if you are on young or green horses since the courses are getting more and more advanced at the lower levels.

If you can go, try and go closer to the date of your event, to help build confidence and work out any kinks.

[evntr95]

My horses know their jobs, are bold OTTBs who generally think XC is the BEST, we have pretty solid partnerships, and I’ve been eventing a while. One goes prelim and the other modified. So, that being said, I XC school at least once before the start of the season (and I usually start the season 1 level below where I ended last year). I usually show about 1x month during the season so I feel like that’s enough to keep my horses refreshed. If I have more than a month between shows, say if I take a break during the hottest/driest part of the summer, I like to throw in a schooling before we get back out there, but I try to keep the work “light” and do what I consider the essentials instead of jumping ALL the things. I’ll also school before a move up to make sure we really can handle the questions and galloping fences when they’re solid and on terrain.

In the meantime, I do my conditioning work at a public park that has a set of ditches, so my ditchy prelim horse gets to see a ditch about once a week during the season. He also used to hate water, so he walked through literally every puddle ever as a greenie and I always made sure to run him through a water complex somewhere before each show. Sometimes we’ll still go somewhere right before a show to jump a full coffin and/or trekehner, even if it just means lugging some show jumps to the public park to set my own coffin.

In my regular show jump coursework, I’ll often set up one or two more XC-like questions, particularly if I’m thinking about moving up or if I had an issue at a show. Throwing XC questions into my SJ work also helps with adjustability to go from SJ mode to more of XC mode and back. Examples of XC questions might be a “drop” fence on a slight downhill ridge if I’m jumping on the grass, a bending line with an oxer to skinny or corner, or something like an angle-to-angle fence set on a forward distance.

[TXnGA]

It depends on the horse, the level, are we in season or off season.

For my UL horse, maybe xc school 1 X a month during season. If not in season, maybe 2-3 x but mainly at training height, just to get him out of the arena/ used to galloping/ jumping. Or I’ll do 1-2 big schools before an FEI, but at this level,
I don’t school a ton of xc, and rarely in the off season.

For my young horse that is competing modified, 2 times a month during season. Less than if competing heavily. Pre- season, 1 time/ week only because he is gearing up for a level move up. And this all depends on if we have something to work on ( introducing new questions, seeing a different jump) or if he needs to see water or a ditch more… but this is highly fluid as if everything is going great, I don’t typical school xc a lot and when I do it’s never huge or long xc schools, keep it light and fun and accomplish what my goal is for the ride.

For a young horse with no experience, probably 2-3 times a month, depending on what horse needs, this could be as simple as trotting over a ditch for the “xc school” or walking/ trotting/ cantering through water. Or jumping logs for the day. I never do a ton again, I have a goal and stick to it and keep it fun. If I am teaching them what galloping & jumping means, I may have a friend ride a more experienced horse in front of me and we play “ follow the leader” as a game for the younger horse to learn to run and jump. So far, my younger horses seem to love that, and take to cross country well.

[ThreeTerriers]

I don’t have the most experience, having just moved up to BN last year, so take this with a grain of salt… but hopefully this helps a bit!

I schooled twice before my first event (intro/2’0”), not counting a spontaneous school seven months before. They were on property and in the few weeks leading up to the event, which was also on property. That was last May. I moved up to BN in October (off property) after one full XC school at that venue in June and one school at home in October. The event was awesome and XC was perfect. So 2x before my first event, 2x before my moveup.

The other details: my lease is a saintly packer who had a successful Prelim career and fears nothing. I’m lucky to have an experienced horse that helps me out and gives me so much confidence. I didn’t school XC fences that often but I was out at least three or four times in the several months before each event to work on cantering (eventually galloping ) and speed control, because that’s what I needed the most practice and experience with. All of those XC flatwork rides were done at home.

It really depends on you and your horse, but in my situation, limited jumping opportunities didn’t prevent us from having safe and confident XC phases. Going forward: XC jump school (successfully!) at least 1x before an event, ideally 2x before a moveup.

Overall that amounts to around 8-9 gallops/xc flatwork and 5 full XC schools per season. I think that’s sufficient for the level I’m at and horse I’m with.

[Libby2563]

I schooled 3 times in 2021 when going Novice then Training. In 2022 when going Training with one Modified I schooled 5 times (one informal pre-season school at the barn where I take lessons, one outing focused on pace and jumping out of stride, two XC clinics with BNTs, and one “normal” mid-season XC school). When Prelim become a possibility, I’ll probably want to school more so I don’t die of shock and terror on course.

[Xanthoria]

I just looked up my spreadsheet and last year on my 5 yr old I did:

39 lessons (dressage or jumping of any kind)
61 jumping sessions (a few x-rails all the way up to a show (stadium or XC) counts as a jumping session)
11 XC schools
1 dressage show
1 run at BN
5 runs at N

I’m on the west coast so we don’t have as many shows, but this year I’m planning 2 runs at N, then hopefully a move up to T, and 3-5 runs at T with luck. Horse had 2 months off (Dec-Jan) and we just schooled XC (N and some T) for the first time since the last show in Nov. The place I board doesn’t have an XC course or a gallop track so we have to trailer out for that, which will be a PITA going from T to M when fitness is more of a thing.

[beowulf]

You should XC school as often as you feel you need to. That answer is different for every horse/rider pair.

With my green horses I’m usually doing some sort of XC at least once a week in the summer (June-August), usually on a Saturday. Normally it is just pop over logs here and there after a flat session off property. Nothing that requires too much effort or stress. Once I think they understand the concept we might go for a dedicated XC school once a month at a new venue. I don’t jump much at home, if ever, and they have Nov-Feb off, so I try to get most of my jump schooling donein the summer.

For my current horse, who tends to default to his rider’s confidence, I’m taking him to dedicated off-property XC schools several times before a show - preferably the 2 weekends leading up. We usually only have one or two shows a season, so he doesn’t XC school much more than 4 times a season.

Now more than ever I believe hunter paces are crucial to amateur rider’s confidence XC. If you{g} are nervous XC or feel you really need an XC session before a show to remind yourself of your competency, go to every hunterpace you can. Derby-crosses are another integral educational opportunity if you can access them.

[Xanthoria]

@beowulf

Now more than ever I believe hunter paces are crucial to amateur rider’s confidence XC. If you{g} are nervous XC or feel you really need an XC session before a show to remind yourself of your competency, go to every hunterpace you can. Derby-crosses are another integral educational opportunity if you can access them.

THIS. The local hunt used to run hunter paces here which had lots of pairs classes and they were amazing for greenies and novice riders. The hunt disbanded and now the only way to get xc schooling is a $50/day ride at the local horsepark a trailer ride away, plus lesson fee and gas and you never get into the rhythm across country the way you do on xc or at a hunter pace, so it’s not the same.

Look at the UK: team chasing, hunter trials, hunting - all sorts of opportunities for riding over jumps across country. It’s really a shame the US doesn’t have that.

[TooManyTBs]

I do every hunter pace in MA and did two events last year (just starter, moving up to BN this year) and I’ve never XC schooled. I’ve jumped enough at paces that I felt fine at starter. I’ll probably school at least once before BN, but agree that hunter paces are a huge help.

[FromTheGalaxy]

I agree, I really wish we had more opportunities like the UK does. I think doing some team chasing would be phenomenal confidence building for my green horse that suffers from some herd bound issues and struggles when she has to go out on course on her own. We do have some local “hunter paces” in my area, but honestly I think most are pretty limited on actual jumping opportunities and are more like a glorified trail ride.

[beowulf]

Hey! I try to tackle every MA pace too. I hope our paths cross soon (if they haven’t already)! If you ever need a hunter pace buddy I’m always happy to have more people come along.

I look forward to Myopia’s fall hunter pace the most, though Apple Knoll in Millis hosts a Halloween one where you get full access to their XC field too. I think that is really good bang for your buck and I try to bring a horse there every year.

This year AK’s hunter pace was very packed. The organizers elected for no posted ride times, and it was a zoo out in the cross country field when I went. Maybe it was quieter later on in the day and I missed it. While I was there it was very difficult to school any sort of combination because riders were just bopping around without situational awareness. I had a horde of ponies jump into the water jump while I was walking through it on a fresh horse.

Scarlet Hill used to host a Derby Cross, I’m not sure if they’ve done one since COVID, but it was well attended when I went in 2016ish?