It looks like there was a proposal to eliminate speed classes at the lower levels. I think this is a great idea and Aaron Vale wrote out a very thoughtful article in support of it. Any idea if it passed?
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/a-need-for-speed-but-not-below-a-certain-height/
“When I was a junior rider, the junior jumpers started at 4’6″.”
Sweet Jesus.
When I was a junior they started at 4’.
Why can’t we do it now?
Or perhaps we shouldn’t?
Or do we expect too much perfection from horse/human/ring/coach to dare to go above 1.0m? But how do you learn to go bigger, if you don’t allow yourself the space to let it get a bit messy, ugly and undone while you learn?
Ireland has plenty of small jumper classes at all sorts of shows and they seem to be doing just fine. I think they go for time too
But that’s not what’s happening if you watch what’s going on in the lower rings. At WEC, one well known trainer was loudly telling the kid “faster” and the kid was breath takingly terrifying. Let them get “ugly and undone “ (your words) once they actually know how to adjust the pace/stride and figure out optimum time.
I’m going to guess that they don’t have the same “spend money on expensive horses to win ribbons at all costs without spending enough time in the saddle” mindset that we do in the US.
Totally agree on the little jumpers! Terrible. And terrifying. I like the optimum time proposal, great incentive to develop better skills.
I just find it so fascinating that the show starting point long ago was at such a height. It seems huge. It must have felt huge but somehow people were doing it? And now so few do.
My understanding is that the course design back in the day was less technical, which would have helped if you could jump off a nice open gallop throughout. It’s a lot easier to jump big jumps out of a gallop (think how big steeplechase fences are), so that could have been a factor, assuming my understanding is correct.
Agreed. My late DH was a show jumper from Europe and was appalled at how the lower levels were ridden here. He never allowed his students at those levels to go fast. He did exactly what Aaron outlined in his article. I was just at a show where a kid got longer and flatter with the horse leaving longer and longer at the fences until it swam through an oxer. Both kid and horse crashed and were hurt.
Have you seen the lower jumper classes? Some of those riders are breathtakingly terrifying. They’re not learning anything in speed rounds that will ever cross over to bigger fences.
I follow a big name show jumping family on Instagram and his grandson is one of those terrifying riders in the puddle jumpers. Runs flat out with his foot in the stirrup all the way to his heel & his toes pointing straight to the ground 
I believe the rule change proposal wasn’t to take ALL classes to Optimum Time, but to eliminate the speed classes specifically. I would have to go look for which classes they were proposing to remove.
I think it’s a good idea. There is no reason to go flat out and dangerous at the lower levels, and those “skills” do not translate to the higher fences. If the goal is a safe foundation for horse and rider (even if they never move up), speed classes at 2’ is not accomplishing that very well here in the US.
I would love to see LL go to optimum time. It would keep everyone safer.
I also really liked his comment about power & speed classes. They are so disheartening if you have a horse that commonly has a cheap rail while you are learning. I’ve seen people not jump more than 6-8 jumps for weeks, for no reason other than they’re on a green horse that isn’t mega careful at .90-1m. There was one winter circuit where it seemed every single lower level class was power and speed.
Several comments
I’d have to go back and check, but I think the proposal is only to eliminate “speed” classes at the lower heights, not to elimiate “power and speed”, or “timed jumpoff”.
“Back in the day” the LOWEST classes (hunter or jumper) for a horse (as opposed to a pony) at an AHSA show was 3’6". So anybody who was showing a horse over fences at an AHSA show was already competent at 3’6". 4’ is not THAT big a jump from 3’6", though it is significant. Then in the early 70’s they introduced “Children’s Hunters” at 3’3" - for riding school students on school horses. That was quickly dominated by riders from wealthy families on very expensive horses. and so they introduced a lower height. And so on.
I LIKE the fact that lower height jumper classes are available, especially at schooling shows. I like being able to introduce horses to colorful fences, liverpools and other “weird looking things that you don’t see in hunter classes” at heights thay can safely jump from a walk. I do not much care if they are timed or not.
I agree that some of the people competing in speed classes at the lower heights are downright scary. Smart course designers make a course that causes faults for the speed demons (e.g. courses where you can make up a lot of time by making tight turns).
Personal experience- a couple of years ago I was bringing a horse back after a layoff (due to MY medical issues). We went to a Beginner Novice (2’7") Horse Trial, and she kept trying to run away with me in both cross country and show jumping. (She didn’t do that at home.) I took her in a local (unrecognized) jumper show with the SPECIFIC objective of “not speeding up”. But I did take all the tight lines. We won 2 (speed and power-and-speed) of the 3 classes by more than a second (we had a not-obvious-why rail in the third class.) So you CAN win even the lowest height classes without being a speed demon. (This is the same horse that, in her prime, I was successfully showing in the AA Jumpers at 3’3" and 3’6".)
I personally dislike “optimum time” classes, as they discourage you from learning to make tight turns. But I am fine with getting rid of the straight “speed” classes at the lower heights
They didn’t start out doing 4’6 jumpers, they did 3’ pony hunters and then 3’6 equitation and 4’ green and 4’6 working hunters, so they were already jumping bigger courses safely before they switched to jumpers. Now only a tiny portion of riders ever get to that point. And you can’t do it at schooling shows either, so you have to be wealthy, not just an AA with a nice OTTB.
I think everyone who competes in a jumper class below about 3’ is too young to die and therefore speed classes do not belong in such divisions.
I am a fan of optimum time- @Janet to your point that seems like a way of scaffolding the difficulty of a course according to the expected competitors. If the optimum time is wheeled off of the rollbacks for some classes but a generous turn in the others, the course design is a teaching tool.
This is why I love Table II.2.d.
I rarely see Ii.2.c out here anymore.
Agreed, I think adapting the track and making turns tighter as the height goes up is smart. The turbo racer riders I see at .80 and .90 don’t often demonstrate an understanding that track influences speed - they’re running as fast as possible while using a ton of real estate in the ring.
But why? Why are so few able to now, when that was the base standard before?
Though I do agree that jumping out of an open gallop vs technical could be a large component. For sure.
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