https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/between-rounds-wheres-the-jog/
Any bets on whether USEF or USHJA will address the elephant in the room, which is the amount of classes and warm ups these patient animals endure so a teenager can have a sash and a ribbon?
Many years ago I spoke up about an eq horse that was by no means “serviceably” sound and was introduced to the soundness loophole Sissy discussed. The horse had been going and going and I saw it do three separate 45 minute warmups (Medal, Mclay, WIHS hunter phase) after doing the same the day before (WIHS jumper phase and Talent Search).
Judges did not eliminate the horse. Stewards said there was nothing that could be done.
That’s at least a starting place.
We aren’t even jogging the hunters which are supposed to be sound anymore, I can’t imagine that they’ll start instituting it for equitation horses.
Personally I like the ending trot circle. Some people try to get sneaky, especially in the eq, by not trotting at all.
When my horse was lame, my trainer at the time (who had competed in WC finals) said my horse would’ve passed an FEI jog. Trotting on the line or on her back in a semi small circle? Head bobbing lame 
The opening or ending circle at the trot also speeds things along instead of the pre-Covid untacked jog. I also like the idea of judging soundness before the round. To me, that’s having the best interest of the horse.
I’m absolutely sympathetic to the post but this is not about a sash and a ribbon. If only! Money, prestige, and more money.
Agreed. No point allowing them to jump around if they aren’t sound.
In favor of working a “jog” into the course be it Hunters or Eq. as opposed to individual in hand jogs in often huge classes. The logistics of untacked jogs would be…challenging… at best.
Why are Jumpers never addressed in this conversation? No sore horses in <1m classes?
In the ANRC collegiate finals, riders are to show 20 steps of trot in an opening circle to demonstrate soundness before they begin their jumping round.
No time is added to the day. The course is designed for an opening circle. A dotted line may be used.
It’s not hard. We have to make the choice.
Not true. At the end of every rated hunter trip, you are required to trot a circle on a long/loose rein. Not trotting the circle in a rated class will result in elimination. It has taken the place of the jog, and it’s way better for horses and all the people involved.
In practice, I don’t think trotting a few steps on a sort of loose rein while the judge is half looking and half marking their card creates quite the same level of attention to soundness as a separate jog did. Maybe the same judges wouldn’t have paid attention to the jog either.
yah, but that’s not what happens. it’s not a few steps, it’s a full circle and the judges do look. I have seen horses get bumped. doing it immediately after the round is actually probably more telling than coming back after a good while, bc you will see the immediate impact of jumping on soundness.
I beg to differ.
If anything, it’s easier to get an accurate view of soundness with a rider’s weight on a circle on a loose rein.
The previous version of the jog was on a straight line with many horses who were reluctant to leave the in gate at a bright trot, which made it harder to assess soundness.
Plus the circle at the end of the round lets the judge decide whether the horse was sound at the time it showed, not hours later after it went back to the barn and wore ice boots or whatever in the interim.
While the traditionalist in me was sad to see the end of the jog in hand at the end of the class, it is certainly easier on both the horses and the people as far as logistics go.
When the horse is done performing now, it can go back to the barn and get put away for the day. It does not have to wait around with its braids in and come back up to the ring hours later for the jog. Or worse yet, wait around and come back hours later for nothing after it gets bumped off the standby list by the last trip in the class.
I understand and applaud the sentiment behind this proposal. But I also think a rule like this would add a lot of hassle and extend the show day without having very much impact. In many years of watching the old hunter jogs, I can think of only a handful of times I have ever seen a horse kicked out of the ribbons.
I think there are plenty of arguments to make in favor of doing it that way, to be sure. Logistically it is significantly easier on everyone and you’re right that it’s more immediate to the actual performance of the class and theoretically creates a specific time for the judge to eliminate unsound animals whether or not they would otherwise be getting a ribbon. In practice, I have seen a number of horses who were visibly lame at the beginning of a course who did not trot a whole circle on a loose rein at the end and were not excused from the class. (And I did share my feedback with USEF on one that particularly upset me, with no response) Maybe they would have limped in the jog and the judge would have ignored it then, too, and time is clouding my memory of how much anyone was paying attention to soundness before these changes were made.
Edit: My opinions on the topic neither here nor there, though- as it pertains to this article, hunters are required to be sound as a judging characteristic and the jog has been eliminated due to logistical issues, so adding it for equitation just makes no sense at all.
I think the various judges are paying the same amount of attention to soundness that they always did.
I did take a moment to consider when I get my knickers in a twist on it and upon reflection, it’s the Kentucky shows before/after derby/green finals that I feel I am always looking around like “am I hallucinating or are we all ignoring that?” which is a show I wasn’t attending in my prior life when everyone was jogging, so maybe that show just has more lame horses in general because of the volume of jumping classes people see fit to enter and it has nothing to do with the jog going away. I still don’t see any reality where it makes sense to jog equitation horses when we don’t have time in the day to do that with the hunters, though. I think if anyone wants to do something about the lame equitation horses, they are going to have to have a vet or someone who isn’t making a living in the industry watching the horses go and pulling individuals where there is a legitimate welfare concern.
There were definitely a couple of horses at Derby finals who were asked to trot a circle after the riders forgot at the end of their rounds. So I think the judges were certainly paying attention.
I believe there were also a couple of horses who were eliminated there and did not receive scores, presumably based on soundness, although I did not watch the whole thing.
It was either Derby finals or the pre-green incentive finals the week before, but there was at least one horse that was asked to trot a second circle and then promptly announced as not receiving a score. So it seemed pretty clear it was based on soundness and the judges were paying attention to that issue.
But I agree that there ought to be some sort of jog/soundness determination for the eq horses, especially the ones who are competing in multiple classes over several days. I’m not quite as worried about the Grappas of the world, who I think are very carefully managed and sparingly used, but that second tier of campaigners could certainly use a look.
A good, thoughtful article.
At root, the issue is removing horses that are lame from competition and I’m surprised that there is any push back against that. In terms of horse welfare, is there any justification, beyond money, for keeping a horse in pain in work?
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