I would not board at a barn with that rule. I have yet to come across it thankfully. I’m sure lawyers and sue happy customers will get that changed over time, but for now I am free to do with my horse as I wish.
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I think it’s more common in barns that have a fair number of people doing lesson horse half-leases and/or where a lot of the boarders have riders that are kids on that dangerous cusp of old-and-good enough that the parents feel like they should be able to drop them off at the barn and go do something else (or the kids have driver’s licenses and get to the barn on their own power). I can’t imagine having a situation where it wasn’t something like “Jumping in lessons only, or with explicit management approval,” though.
Common rule.
- For insurance
- Higher end show barns that horses are in a program.
I was more surprised when a barn we ship in to allows leases and anyone to jump whenever.
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Very common, not only to rider/horse safety but also due to insurance guidelines.
All you need is a bunch of kids trying to see how high their horse can jump and crashing to end up only screaming parents pointing fingers at everyone or really damaged horses. Or even the kids running into others, not calling lines. And really its not limited to kids - many riders run amok when not supervised.
I have not ridden at a barn that didnt limit jumping to lessons in the past 15 years or so, it absolutely would not stop me from boarding at a barn with that rule.
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I prefer barns that have a no jumping anything higher than a cross rail outside of lessons rule - applicable to everyone except pros/trainers. That said, I can see exceptions being made for high level adult riders.
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what is the reasoning for that? does it just feel more safe? my main reason to like this rule is that it forces me into working more on dressage, wich i really need to do considering my scores at my last few events
It not only feels more safe.
It is more safe.
For riders and horses both.
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At bottom, I think my reason is that it does feel more safe. The risk associated with jumping is high, and I don’t want to be in the position of seeing people - especially juniors - taking that risk without experienced eyes on them. I have been in situations where unsupervised jumping was happening, and I felt like I should stand by in case I needed to call 911.
With a few pretty bad ass exceptions, most of the adult ammies I know don’t want to jump outside of lessons.
I also think a LOT can be achieved with ground poles and cavaletti, and if you are jumping once or twice a week in lessons, that is probably enough.
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I think the rule is fine when the horses are in a lesson program/barn horses, but being an adult with my own horse I would not agree to this (why do I HAVE to pay to the trainer for a lesson if I am able enough to jump on my own)? I think it would be reasonable to have the rule for under 18 though.
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None of the barns I’ve boarded at have had a “no jumping outside of lessons” rule but they have all had “no jumping alone” rule. Which honestly, not jumping alone is just plain old common sense. Taking it a step further and banning jumping outside of lessons is probably a good idea for most barns that are predominantly lesson horses or full of children, and probably not a bad idea for adults who own their own horses either. There’s a lot of adults out there who aren’t much smarter than unsupervised children, after all.
The barn I rode at as a kid SHOULD have had a rule against jumping outside of lessons. We were a bunch of idiots who’d sneak off to the cross country courses all by ourselves and jump much bigger things than our trainer would let us jump under proper supervision. Amazingly no horses or humans were ever seriously injured, but that’s just sheer dumb luck - the lot of us should be varying degrees of dead. I mean we were kids who were barely scraping by in dressage and were jumping novice height at most under our trainer’s supervision and then pointing our horses at prelim fences and things that weren’t even actual jumps with no one watching but a bunch of other 12-15 year olds. We thought we were so cool and talented at the time, and now all I can do is look back and wonder what the heck my trainer was doing all day to not notice this and how the heck did we survive?
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Totally agree. The higher up the price/quality spectrum you move, the more likely you are to run into this rule. It is a safety concern to allow unsupervised jumping not to mention the poor training that an unsupervised rider can inflict. So many things can accomplished with pole exercise or cavaletti. A no jumping outside of lessons rule shouldn’t be an impediment for the average student who is doing 3’ courses or less.
:lol::lol: I think there are a few of us on this board that are guilty of similar infractions. And like you, I wonder how did we not kill ourselves or our horses?
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I’m an experienced Adult amateur. I rarely lesson ($$) but I would love to more. As a result, I would NEVER board at a barn with this rule for boarders with privately owned horses.
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Good rule. When we boarded other people’s horses, can’t tell you how many times jump cups were left on the ground, pins lost, poles broken, courses reset and left in disarray. It was frustrating to carefully measure and set a course for oneself or a lesson, then come back to something completely different. Trainers and instructors always returned elements to original position or had students do so. Further the safety issue --at our farm, even today, no one jumps unless someone else is on the premise (including me). We live in a valley --should a person become injured or separated from a horse, lit could be a long time before horse and person are located.
Remember a few years back, the young girl with the Youtube videos of her doing reckless stuff on her horse, like jumping alone (self filmed)? She fell and broke her neck. Parents found her when she never came back.
That’s why barns have rules like that.
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I completely get why barns have this rule in any of the iterations described here.
I board at an event barn and have regular lessons with my coach - while most of her other students are in more of a program, I have always been in charge of my own stuff, as it were. I am now actively trying to add in a jump school on my own every week. When you are on course, you are on your own. I have always found it valuable to school without a trainer both flat and fences to confirm my feel and problem solve.
Obviously I keep the jumps small.
Last week my coach (who totally agrees with my need to practice on my own) showed up to ride as I was getting started. I told her not to watch…after a bit she said “I’m not watching, but I noticed I haven’t had to move out of the way of the oxer…”
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While it isn’t a deal-breaker for me - decent boarding situations are few and far between here, if I found the perfect place in every other way I would sacrifice the jumping on my own in a heartbeat - but it is important in my situation. At my barn only adults are allowed to jump on their own, kids must have an adult present and reading the above I realize we have a very responsible group, I have never seen anyone abuse it. Jumps must also be removed from the arena every day so I think all that extra work keeps the frequency down 
My eventing trainer is five hours away, I work with a h/j trainer who is in town but I have to trailer out to and a dressage trainer who fortunately is at my barn. I don’t like to jump my horse to our competition height very often but if I have an event approaching and can’t get a lesson in (which happens more than I’d like due distance or h/j show schedule conflicting with mine) I will set a course, but I always try to have a friend or two join me so can keep an eye on and help each other (also to share the work of setting and removing!) I do take advantage of the ability to school over small courses, gymnastics & cavaletti pretty often and that is quite valuable in my situation.
I boarded at one barn with an interesting iteration of this rule where they had an aptitude test of sorts that riders had to take to be allowed to jump outside of lessons (I believe only 18+, and never alone).
If I recall correctly, the rider had to set a course of a certain number of jumps themselves, which included at least one 4-6 stride line then tell the trainer/assistant trainer their plan (including strides). I think if the striding was off on the first attempt the rider got a second chance, but it was a non-negotiable pass-fail test with only the two chances.
I believe their rule also specified it could be re-taken every so often, either every 6 months or once a year; and if someone left jumps or standards out after jumping outside of lessons that would revoke the privilege.
It was all spelled out super explicitly in their barn rules, but I can’t remember if they also had a height limit on solo jumping
I thought that was a pretty reasonable test of if the rider can set their own jumps to correct distances, and if they know themselves/their horse well enough to anticipate how their horse will ride to different jumps.
It also gave the BO/trainer something to point to if anyone came up with “well so-and-so jumps outside of lessons, why can’t I?” But at every other barn I’ve been at, jumping outside of lessons has either been allowed for certain people (owners, adults, etc) or not allowed for anyone.
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Improving your dressage will, of itself, improve your jumping. Not that you won’t need supervised jumping, but that your striding will improve, your presentation to the jump will improve, and your horse will listen up better.
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The barns I’ve boarded in recent years have not had this rule. I wouldn’t want to board at a place that does because I’m a responsible adult, train and handle my own horses, and don’t want that restriction. The only rules for jumping that I would feel comfortable with would be to always wear a helmet and for there to be someone else on the property while jumping. That is, having eyes on the ground.
Most places I know of who don’t allow jumping outside lessons say it’s for “insurance reasons”. Is that really true however? Do their specific insurance policies not allow it? Or is it a convenient answer that people will not argue with, when the real reason is “we want the income from jumping lessons” or “we don’t trust our clients enough to jump on their own”
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