Spring Bay Horse Trials
Comment here on your past experiences with the Spring Bay Horse Trials! See the first post for a "how-to" of evaluations, and comment away!
posted by AKK @ 12:48 PM
6 comments
Horse Trials Info - ratings, feedback, and more!
This is a forum to find out about and give evaluations of USEA horse trials and events -- define what really IS "average, for horses with some experience at this level"!
6 Comments:
General:
TERRAIN-2 (not very hilly, but there was a small flagged culvert/creek crossing on BN and N)
JUMPS-For BN-3 (mandatory water and max. height), for other levels-2 (pretty straightforward for early in the season).
TIME/DISTANCE-1 (I think time was pretty easy to make for all levels and courses were adequate distances).
... miscellaneous feedback copied from COTH forums Dec 05 - thank you contributors!
Novice/Beginner Novice courses
As far as the water at Spring Bay--there are 2 water complexes there, one a simple pass-through (newish) and the other an old, 3-sided bank/water complex that isn't suitable for BN/N IIRC. When I rode BN there once EONS ago (I think it was 1995 or 1996) there was no "new" water complex and therefore no mandatory water, but it had rained so hard that you had to go through a very deep swale that was underwater anyhow!
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The course is pretty inviting. The water is a fairly new complex, and will be a pass-through only for BN, I'm sure. Right before the water is a stream crossing (the swale that DW mentioned) which (if I remember correctly) isn't usually flagged (but could be a mandatory flag, I'm not sure). I'll see if I have an old course map somewhere.
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Spring Bay is a nice course, there are 2 times that you would encounter water. One is just a tiny little creek about 5 feet wide that they can jump over if they really dont want to touch it (which is what my horse likes to do) its also got bushes and trees on either side that act like a chute. The other one I doubt they would include beginner novice. I am going to try to move my horse up to training at that event because its pretty straight forward!
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TrueBlue, the Novice course is also very inviting. There are no ditches, water is usually just a pass through, and they usually have a small step up. Other fences are things like rolltops, ramps etc. There are a couple of logs in the woods. The scariest thing is a fake Weldon's wall, which is really just a fence with some mulch in front of it.
... miscellaneous feedback copied from COTH forums Dec 05 - thank you contributors!
Training Course
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TrueBlue89 just as a FYI on the training course last year they added a new ditch and wall. Since it was new last year I thought I would let ya know
... miscellaneous feedback copied from COTH forums Dec 05 - thank you contributors!
Novice / Beginner Novice Course
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I don't think Spring Bay should be considered an easy "beginning of the year" course. It is at Masterson, so isn't THAT tough, but is more difficult than I expected when I ran my horse's first BNH there last year. We went out and schooled the creek/low spot a ton because he was sure there were bears on both sides of it and alligators in the water! It took some doing to get him to go over it. The water pass through is easy- has pine trees on the right side so that you can trick your horse into staying dry by going on the right side of the water, then the trees force you in (worked for me! ). you do have to jump a small step up and a couple of fences up the hill from the water complex (Masterson has begun to grow up that direction), but the larger fences are toward the end of the course and they are going great by then. The mini Weldon's wall is on the novice course. You'll have a great time
... miscellaneous feedback copied from COTH forums Dec 05 - thank you contributors!
Training Level
We did training there in 2003. Having a hard time remembering details, but I didn't think it was a hard course. There was a very vertical, airy feeder, a semi-creepy downhill ramp with a hard turn afterwards (thank God Gwen "got it" that it was a left, not a right turn...she likes to decide for herself sometimes!) and IIRC some sort of bank question. The water was a log in, bank out and there was a small half coffin.
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I ran my second training at Spring Bay. I moved up at Jumping Branch in Aiken in March. I just started eventing in 2004 so in this was the first year (2005) for both myself and my horse to run training. So for me with my limited eventing experience I thought the training at Spring Bay was kinda hard (but not terribly difficult the short answer to your question). The first half of the course was pretty easy, but the second half I thought was harder starting with a drop into the water (the drop was not real big, but it was not small either) then you you go down a rather steep hill and jump a bigger sized ramp on the hill (it actually rode great and so did the water with an extra kick), then you have a long straight gallop on flat land to the ditch and wall (it road well too, but it was our first ditch and wall and I was nervous about it). The bank complex was easy up one stride to the drop off. The only other thing worth noting was a ditch and two or three strides to a relatively narrow jump. The course was a lot of fun and big confidence builder for me and my mare, but I definitely road it agressive. I hope that helps, but again it was my first year running training so obviously I was a little
... miscellaneous feedback copied from COTH forums Dec 05 - thank you contributors!
RE: Course difficulty, we've gone to every Spring Bay since it morphed from Ha'penny except one. IMO, the Training and Preliminary courses are fairly difficult, especially for that time of year (frequently season openers for those of us who didn't get to Florida). BN and Novice haven't been quite as difficult compared to standard, but are still usually not "easy." The last couple of years seem to be a little less difficult. The prelim/training courses are on the front side of the park and the BN/N on the back, totally separated, and the "new water" is for the BN/N horses. It's pretty easy, and the BN is just a pass through, but they'll all need to be water savvy. There is a real mini-Weldon's Wall on the Novice course which scares a lot of riders (it jumps very well if the rider doesn't look into the ditch).
Overall, guessing Stanley's strategy, if I were a P/T rider, I'd expect a solid if not difficult course. Neither P or T are normally considered a moveup course. On N/BN, average with water and a couple of unique jumps (e.g., Weldon's Wall) but with most jumps very user friendly and inviting. N/BN moveup/first event is usually OK for experienced riders. Be prepared for a very vertical first jump on the N course over by the field hunter course which frequently causes problems.
For all those from states starting with vowels, you will consider the terrain to be rolling & adding to the difficulty of the course. The rest of the world will think it to be pretty flat.
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