I would be interested in what you think of the photos now! haha
I have that book too. I remember when I got it, I couldn’t believe how many horrifying falls were there. Masters indeed!
I was there volunteering in that teeming downpour that weekend I was parking attendant during XC on Saturday and was the show jump warm up ring steward on Sunday. Not a job I would want to do again.
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Ok I haven’t evented in 12 years but Seneca had a big tiger trap down in the woods… I think on the prelim and or intermediate course. Scary as heck but jumped great although I think I had my eyes closed when I jumped it!
Stoneleigh Had some decent woods and I loved when the stadium course was ridden with the banks on the turf course. Also the large dirt mound was on the prelim course right before the water… run up the incline, log at crest one stride over second log with the drop down, great fun!
King Oak was fantastic thru the woods… so hard to make time there, although I managed it, but prob would have been red carded today!
Fox and Hounds in NJ had about half the course in the woods I think but that was a very very long time ago and I may not be remembering correctly and they had a lot of those jumps. Even the water was in the woods…
Pleasant Hollow banks and banks and banks and that one freaking huge ditch right before the water… good lord that thing gave me nightmares!
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Oh I LOVED the trails in the woods at King Oak. My favorite place to fence judge too. Course Brook has built up some paths in their woods that are similar!
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Speaking as an “Older timer” (Not “old” just yet 
)
It wasn’t terrifying when you were used to it.
Same way the current eventers are not terrified by current stuff.
Em
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Most of those good old fences don’t work in modern courses where 90% of the course is a staked portable obstacle. Helsinkis are permanent. Irish banks are permanent. Tiger traps, elephant traps are permanent. This was perfectly fine (and APPRECIATED) back in the old days, when a venue held one (MAYBE two) events per year; riders didn’t get bored jumping the same jumps in the same places. Riders actually LOOKED FORWARD to jumping those predictable fences, especially as you moved up and got to accomplish an “achievement fence.” It was nice knowing what to prepare for each season; if you knew there was a trappy question or an “icon fence,” you schooled questions like that to get ready. Now? Well, you’d better school EVERYTHING for every event, because you could see any/all of it at a given show. Except perhaps permanent fixtures. (An exception to this used to be KHP, where there is so much land there were permanent goodies spread all over the park, and some were used and some weren’t for each specific event, so it rotated and remained “fresh”).
I don’t miss everything about the Good Old Days, but I’m not convinced that hosting 4, 5, 6 events per year at the same location is beneficial to the sport.
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Millbrook definitely had a slide on the Prelim back in the early 90s?
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and in the mid 2000s
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We had many of these on our small grounds down in Poway, CA. A Helsinki, 3 sided irish bank, one side with ditch, a movable tiger trap. Several permanent fences and an open ditch, lots of movable ones, all Novice or below, but made so the riders became accustomed. No stone wall, but there was a venue in Fallbrook that had a real one, I believe (along with a tiger trap, ditch, and several others, also at low levels for exposure. Even a Trakener!). It’s actually hard to run a schooling show when so many of the jumps, while well within the ask height-wise, are disqualified for the lower levels because of perceived difficulty (no ditches, etc., no uneven heights, no ditch/height combos. I don’t know what the rules are now, but 'then", 20-30 years back, several of our fences were never part of the course.)
When I was prepping for my fox hunt debut 15 years ago, I couldn’t find a ditch to jump for love or money up at the 3 places I lessoned at in the Bay Area. (Did not have access to Woodside). First day of foxhunting was “ditches and drains”. Oh well, muscle memory.
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Does anyone remember the “Bank of Aus” at Ledyard? Down by the water jump area, it was a steep up and down bank, with only about a foot or two plateau at the top as I recall and a narrow ditch at the base on one side. I remember being in a clinic and trying to convince my mare to slide down an bit then step over the tiny ditch rather than launch off the top. I wasn’t very successful, much to the clinician’s amusement. The sign on the jump said “Bank of Aus” I never quite knew what that meant.
I think I’ve seen that one. My mare would have done the same thing – a down bank to a little stream produced a LAUNCH! from the top of the bank, because she hated getting her feet wet.
If water was too wide for her to jump over it, she’d poop in it… but by the time I had her in Ipswich, she hardly ever pooped in the Ipswich River; in fact “in the river” was one of her favorite places to hang out. Now that we’re near the Nashua River, she’s decided that’s much too big a river to get anywhere near.
That slide was Advanced by the time I got to it in '93 -'96.
Em
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In my eventing days (1970s), there was a bank where you popped over a fence at the base onto a slanting upward bank, went over the top until the bank started slanting down, then one stride at the base to another jump. They called it a flying bank, but it didn’t look like any pictures of flying banks I’ve seen since then.
Thanks!
Aww, the last photo was taken at Longwood Farm in Ocala. I got to spend my first winter in Ocala there in the mid 2000’s and it was like Disneyland for eventers. They allowed XC schooling and hosted clinics so it felt like a hive of activity for all the trainers and their students. It’s totally private now, such a shame!
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I have it on an RNS video somewhere tho no longer a vcr to play it!
Is that in the woods? If so, I remember going by it during a hunter pace there. The footing was really wet so we didn’t try it but yes my mare would have launched over. She loved to launch and overjump everything roll eyes
Hmmm. Trying to figure out how to describe the location. It’s about 75-100 feet to the west of the “wishing well” water jump complex. If your mare could have jumped it clean she would have been a world class jumper (not saying she wasn’t). It was high enough that seeing over it wasn’t really an option. My mare understood running up it, just launched herself off the other side. It was exciting!
We should start a spinoff threads for “Jumps you don’t expect to see on XC”. Had an absolutely fabulous ride this morning at the Myopia Hunter pace that is in Hamilton MA. It’s the highlight of my end season. One of the fences “on course” was a canoe propped upside down! My guy did have a look at it before popping right over, rode brilliantly and such a lovely territory. I can’t recommend this hunter pace enough for those who want a true XC experience.
Happy to report we jumped plenty of rock walls today. Several cordwood log piles, a zigzag fence that was a BLAST to ride, a “gentle” Helsinki (series of upright fences on an incline), and a big natural ditch that rode beautifully.
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