I don’t think it really takes that much practice honestly. Jump a practice fence a couple of times to get the idea, and then on the day you are doing a loop course at a not super tall height or super fast speed, so it’s really a good place to learn. Every year at Waredaca it seems like maybe 1 or 2 of 50 have minor issues.
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Those courses have virtually disappeared, too. I still see jumps inset in fences, but they are mostly solid; you could not drop a rail. And a lot of them are on land that doesn’t allow horses to pass through now. (My mare’s last barn had a couple of these, and no, the turned-out horses never jumped them AFAIK.)
I’m wondering if you are in the Mid-Atlantic area, or overseas. Me, I’m North Shore Boston, which was an eventing mecca back in the day, but not anymore. “Huge tracts of land” of thousands or even hundreds of acres are mostly gone, and what remains belongs to the state.
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I have seen a triple bar showjump used for practice at one of the long format 3DE’s in the midwest - gives a similar shape without needing the actual steeplechase fence.
Steeplechase with a practice day on site before competition seems to go fine at the modern LF I’ve done. I have been in eventing since the “old days” when it was the norm and I’m so grateful a committed band of folks keeps it going. Having help run a HT that does one, I can say it is definitely a labor of love and takes a huge amount of work.
I will also say I’ve been fortunate to have nice eventing facilities in most places I’ve lived and I can’t think of many (any?) that had a steeplechase set up to practice, so you are very lucky!
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Well an update: I wasn’t qualified for the long format yet but was allowed to do the steeplechase clinic the day before xc. It was short but the mare loved it and wanted more! The next day on xc she was (for her) calm and more confident than ever. Double clear, ditto stadium. In this instance I think it helped take the edge off her usually acrobatic behavior at shows 
As it turned out the steeplechase jumps were not hurdles as I expected, but rolltops with short brush. Is that usual?
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Yes-- that’s what is called a National fence and they’re used in both hurdle racing and for phase B.
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Just for kicks, here’s am illustration of the effects of steeplechase.
Same horse, same day, first vs. last steeplechase fence. As you can see he started out keen and finished even keener.
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I hadn’t watched the vlogs before, but based on this thread I watched the video. I thought she was riding well, but according to the video it was 4pm at the end of a long day on her second horse, in pissing rain, on very torn-up footing, and a number of the horses at the venue seemed pretty amped up.
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This is on a 1km turf track in seacoast New Hampshire area.
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What’s the plastic thing I’m seeing in these pics, in the front of the jumps?
Who knows about this? I’ve been peripherally involved in eventing for 15 years, including with barns in the Seacoast area, and have never heard about it.
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@quietann The NSA steeplechase hurdles are on the 1km metered galloping track at Coyote Spring Farm in Lee, New Hampshire. They have a web page and allow schooling the track and other parts.
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@Xanthoria the NSA (National Steeplechase Association) hurdle you are seeing has a foam roll (which is encased in a heavy duty cover). It has a white ground line built in. The roll is completely foam in case of a crash. Looking from the side it is a complete 1/4 foam roll. The brush behind the roll is 52" high (professional racing hurdle). The brush goes into frames whose top edge is below the top of the foam roll. This allows a horse to take a long spot and brush through deeply and not catch the top of the frame and rotate. This is the new NSA racing design, which is safer than the old national fence.
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Very cool! Thanks for the explanation
you can see some videos, including slow motion, of how this hurdle behaves with horses over it, and into it here:
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Oh wow! I never knew CSF had a galloping track… I’ve actually never made it to CSF; they opened around the time I was horseless, then by the time I had a horse ready for such things they didn’t have any shows running, then COVID hit… Going to make it a bucket list for next summer!!
