I’m hearing from some friends in the UK through the H & H fourm that 2 riders in the 4* jumped the 5* first fence, realized their error and then jumped the 4* first fence.
Is that a penalty situation (I don’t know FEI rules versus the national rules, where I think it would be)
Who was it?
Em
from the other thread
I think the other was a female, I recall an interview… maybe Jennie?
I was just jump judging at a small local schooling show and a BN rider jumped a Training level fence before carrying on her way. According to the TD, she said that it used to be a penalty for jumping a fence higher than your level, but they recently changed the rule so I believe any fence is fair game, so long as its not marked otherwise and you jump all of your level’s fences in the required order.
Of course, the caveat here is that a rider could jump a fence that they’re clearly not ready to be jumping, which could be considered dangerous riding.
I don’t think there was a penalty, other than time (they didn’t jump any of the other course’s fences), but someone else may have the rules more handy.
It was Will Coleman and Jennie Brannigan, both early in the run and fairly close in start time.
I am not an expert on the FEI rules, but that would NOT be penalty situation (except for lost time) under US National Rules (don’t know about Canadian rules) unless it was dangerous (e.g. there were spectators on/near the jump, or you are going BN and you jump an Intermediate fence backwards), as long as you jump all of the fences on YOUR course in the correct order.
I would not call the mid 1980s (which is when the rule was changed) “recently”. ETA might have been early 90s, but still not what I would call “recent”.
Ha! - her words, not mine. I didn’t bother to look up when “recent” was but that’s hilarious 
Tbh, she was fairly young and may not have been a TD - it was just a local schooling event for the start of the season and very informal.
Jumping the wrong fence, higher or lower, doesn’t matter just so long as the rider comes back and jumps the correct fence - before the next one on the course. All fences must be jumped in the correct sequence otherwise it is elimination for error of course. The penalty is wasted time and energy.
However, fences in a line, where there might be ambiguity as to which one is to be jumped, should be flagged off. To jump the flagged off fence is elimination for incorrect course.
It’s not permissible under Canadian rules:
Larking - (the unnecessary jumping of fences that do not form part of a
Competitor’s course) is prohibited under penalty of elimination. It is
permissible to jump a fence of a lower level, in the correct direction only if it
offers a better line to the next obstacle and provided the Competitor receives
pre- approval of the plan from the Technical Delegate/Ground Jury.
Shocked there is no penalty. Definitely one here in Canada…elimination lol unless as stated above.
No accounting for Canadians! 
This brings to mind the calling of “not presenting” when schooling the water prior to going thru your own flags when you have a horse that is iffy about the water. While sitting at the water complex at Catalpa, I bet half of the Training field schooled the water first. This came up while I was back for a visit while my horse was in training this winter with John Michael Durr in Aiken and what was stated upstream is correct. As long as you jump your own jumps in order you can go pop over something else without penilty.
There was a thread about this a few months ago. I think I would be seeking advice from the TD if riders were doing this at my fence. It seems counter to the intentions of the CD and the competition. Something of a technical foul as no penalties incurred.
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