See, things can be cancelled and people don’t throw hissy fits. At a women’s golf tournament, a caddie died and they postponed the rest of the tournament. But no, in eventing, we just keep going. Is it really that routine that we can’t stop what we’re doing when someone dies? It just seems barbaric. This is what the public sees.
I know I’d hope we never ever have to test that moment again in this sport. If sadly we did, I’d certainly hope those in charge would set the example that cannot seem to be followed by some involved in the sport.
[QUOTE=frugalannie;8966705]
It was my impression (and I’ve been warm up steward more than once) that other than a small modification in height (and even that is frowned upon), no modification of warm up fences is allowed. I remember one pro coach at an event I was riding in placing a towel over the rail of a warm up fence for his student and having the ring steward speak to him and then the TD got involved. I don’t know what was said but the towel went away ;)[/QUOTE]
My pet peeve is people making a ridiculous height out of the crossrail warmup fence. I think there should be a rule about that, not exactly sure how it could be worded, maybe “the crossrail height on each side may not exceed the maximum height for the division.” I mean, it’s a crossrail, it shouldn’t be the highest fence in the warmup (IHMO.)
I can’t say I’ve ever dealt with an unusually large crossrail in the warmup. I do find it very annoying, though, when I’m just trying to pop my guy over a couple fences so he knows what’s coming up and there’s a trainer there giving a full jumping lesson to a student and changing the fences around constantly. Honestly, I think they should be set by an official or volunteer at division height (except the crossrail of course) and then changing them, other than resetting a knocked fence, should not be allowed.
In pentathlon, you get a maximum warm-up of 20 minutes and 5 jumps. Which, IMO, is more than enough for any horse discipline.
I don’t think I’ve ever taken more than 3 jumps in the warm-up area – and this is on a horse that I’ve never seen before, let alone ridden. My 20 minutes tends to consist of a fair amount of walking, too.
When a horse goes into the competition arena (and this goes for any discipline), the horse should be doing something he already knows how to do – as in, go around a course of jumps – even if it’s the horse’s first time in the competition ring.
You shouldn’t ever require that much prep over fences before you’re ready to go in. If you need a lesson, or a million jumps, or helpers setting all kinds of stuff for you, you probably should re-examine your training program.
I’m the same as you JER.
My coach is a showjumper (trained with Ian Millar his whole life), he always says jump each fence twice, and end on the same fence as the first fence in the ring, and jump it in the same direction. Obviously if there is an error, then jump again to fix it.
I rarely jump more than 5 fences in the warm up.
I should add that I learned to do without warm-up jumps by having a mare that wouldn’t do them. After a couple of seasons of competition, she decided that she would only jump when it counted. You could trot the cross rail in warm-up once but that was it. No more.
So I’d have to take her in like that, and then she’d fuss and buck and throw all kinds of tantrums on the way to the start flags. But once you passed the timers, she was all business. 
It wasn’t much fun riding her at shows but I sure learned a lot.
[QUOTE=JER;8981153]
In pentathlon, you get a maximum warm-up of 20 minutes and 5 jumps. Which, IMO, is more than enough for any horse discipline.
I don’t think I’ve ever taken more than 3 jumps in the warm-up area – and this is on a horse that I’ve never seen before, let alone ridden. My 20 minutes tends to consist of a fair amount of walking, too.
When a horse goes into the competition arena (and this goes for any discipline), the horse should be doing something he already knows how to do – as in, go around a course of jumps – even if it’s the horse’s first time in the competition ring.
You shouldn’t ever require that much prep over fences before you’re ready to go in. If you need a lesson, or a million jumps, or helpers setting all kinds of stuff for you, you probably should re-examine your training program.[/QUOTE]
Well said JER.
Lately, it’s been a huge topic/debate/controversy. Some Areas are calmer than others regarding this. I thought there was going to be a (new?) warm-up protocol to have a single “adjust to your heart’s content fence”, and the 3 others fixed, so the majority are not penalized by the 1 trainer & rider who can’t leave well enough alone.
I don’t see any need to cater to the trainers that want to endlessly screw around with the fences and give jumping clinics in the warmup.
It’s completely unnecessary. If you’re prepared for the level, the traditional 3 fences are plenty. And if we’re going to let trainers start “claiming” fences and changing them around, next they’ll be schooling in-and-outs and triples in the warm up too.
[QUOTE=JER;8981535]
I should add that I learned to do without warm-up jumps by having a mare that wouldn’t do them. After a couple of seasons of competition, she decided that she would only jump when it counted. You could trot the cross rail in warm-up once but that was it. No more.
So I’d have to take her in like that, and then she’d fuss and buck and throw all kinds of tantrums on the way to the start flags. But once you passed the timers, she was all business.
It wasn’t much fun riding her at shows but I sure learned a lot.[/QUOTE]
Love this story! My jumper mare hated warm up of any kind, including flatwork, at a show. She was like, I get it, just get in there and jump for my two minutes or less and then I’m done and back to eating! I learned to just not jump at a show, just flat, again, against her will.
She would go in fine, then spook HUGE at the first standard she saw, hop around on two legs for a bit, then hit a western pleasure jog for the tour, spooking big at one more item, until she heard the whistle, Then WOW! All business What a mare…
I got all kinds of flak for it, but there wasn’t much else I could do. If you asked her to jump in warm up, it WAS going to go badly.
You can school the water at many low and entry-level events, at least here in CA…
Additionally: depending on your horse’s physiology, you may or may not need to allow your horse substantially more jumping efforts in warm up in order to perform your best. I hate warming up more than anything, and long to hack for 15 minutes, jump 3 fences, and go in, but my current horse (and frankly most of the ones I’ve competed over the years, must be my type) was not only fairly new to competition but also very much of the type that jumps better and better the more he gets into it, and is a disaster if you try to walk in and jump around before he’s ready.
Interestingly, I recently joined a cycling team and am currently in a structured track racing training program and can tall you after a month of VO2 max training that I cannot sprint for beans until about 45 minutes into my workout, and only after a solid set of warm up sprints. Accessing type II vs type I fibers varies by individual, so demonizing individuals who need to open up that explosive power over a longer period of time is just silly.
Riders need to do what works for their horse, so if you see my idiot of a gelding in the warm up area, please forgive us, because he truly needs to jump around until he’s well in front of my leg and hunting the flags, and it sometimes takes us a while to get there, both physically and mentally.
[QUOTE=akor;8990825]
Love this story! My jumper mare hated warm up of any kind, including flatwork, at a show. She was like, I get it, just get in there and jump for my two minutes or less and then I’m done and back to eating! I learned to just not jump at a show, just flat, again, against her will.
She would go in fine, then spook HUGE at the first standard she saw, hop around on two legs for a bit, then hit a western pleasure jog for the tour, spooking big at one more item, until she heard the whistle, Then WOW! All business What a mare…
I got all kinds of flak for it, but there wasn’t much else I could do. If you asked her to jump in warm up, it WAS going to go badly.[/QUOTE]
My horse is very similar. Sometimes he’s on board after just one warm up fence. It’s just a feeling that he’s all there and knows his job. Other times it takes a few fences, but I don’t think we’ve ever gone more that 5 fences. Then we sit and munch on grass until it’s his turn to go. We get looks too, but once he’s in the ring, he’s all business. He’s like a light switch with no dimmer. He’s all on or all off.
[QUOTE=Promise No More;8991455]
Interestingly, I recently joined a cycling team and am currently in a structured track racing training program and can tall you after a month of VO2 max training that I cannot sprint for beans until about 45 minutes into my workout, and only after a solid set of warm up sprints. Accessing type II vs type I fibers varies by individual, so demonizing individuals who need to open up that explosive power over a longer period of time is just silly. [/QUOTE]
While I agree that muscle activation is important for performance, you’ve been training for one month. Right now, you’re still training to a novel stimulus. When you adapt to this training system, you are likely to find that a twenty minute structured warm-up, like the British Cycling 20-Minute Warm Up, will work for you just fine.
I would expect – and hope – that the average eventing horse has been training for the sport for longer than a month. There might be variance in terms of how long it takes horses to loosen up, but (1) I don’t think anyone here is demonizing those individuals and (2) even in those cases, there’s no need to jump loads of jumps or monopolize a warm-up fence.
@JER: I agree with PNM:My experience with cycling was very similar to theirs. I trained for racing and my best warm-ups were the longer ones, never anything around 20 min. That type never worked for me. Even Max Testa, who was coaching me at the time, advised to do the longer warm-up. When I did what he told me to do, I had no problem with 100-200 mile events.
Not everyone will adapt to the 20 min. short warm-up. Everyone is built differently and has to do what works for their body.
In short, “whatever works is what happens”
However, just because your horse needs a few more fences to be adequately prepared, does NOT mean you need your trainer to change the fences around 6,000 times.
The same 3 fences will work just fine, you just may need to jump them a few extra times.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8991594]
When I did what he told me to do, I had no problem with 100-200 mile events. [/QUOTE]
Promise No More was talking about track cycling, in which the events are significantly shorter.
The demands of eventing at a horse trials, especially at the lower levels, are not those of an endurance competition.
@JER, I’m well aware of what track cycling is all about. I used to do crits and road races as well. Even for those I did a long warmup.
What I take issue with is your statement about the British 20 min. warmup. That absolutely does not work for everyone an it is rather presumptuous of you to suggest that it does. 
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8991815
What I take issue with is your statement about the British 20 min. warmup. That absolutely does not work for everyone an it is rather presumptuous of you to suggest that it does. :D[/QUOTE]
You’re taking issue with something I didn’t say.
What I said was that Promise No More was in the process of adapting to a novel training stimulus, and that as adaptation progresses/succeeds, PNG is ‘likely to find’ that a twenty-minute warm-up protocol does the job. Yes, there are those who require for whatever reason a longer than average warm-up, but those are not the majority.
Added Shanghai Joe and Emily Gilruths serious injury.
RIP Nugget and best wishes to Emily. xx
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