UNH
Comment here on your past experiences with the UNH Horse Trials. See the first post for a "how-to" of evaluations, and comment away!
posted by AKK @ 2:58 PM
1 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"!
1 Comments:
Usually well run (with some variation as different students are involved in the management each year) and nice facility. They sometimes accept too many entries for their own good - but things keep running pretty much on time.
The warm-up stewards are generally friendly and keep things flowing. The past couple of times they've have a couple of XC jumps available in the XC warmup, which is awesome!
I competed at their inaugural BN this spring, and loved the new course. It's not super-easy, but is a fair test, with some jumps well below max, some at max, and some in the middle. I really liked the variety in the jumps, as sometimes there is little imagination involved on the part of course designers for BN! There is water on the course for all levels. (For spring '06 it was ramp in/ramp out at BN; ramp in/jump out at N; combination (two stride, I think?)to a jump in/ramp out at T; and combination (one stride) to a jump in/bank out at P.)
As an aside, the courses (both XC and stadium, but XC much more so) get VERY mucky with any rain at all. I had my BN horse drilled for studs just in case, which we luckily didn't need - but I normally wouldn't even think of putting studs on a BN horse!
The BN this first time was a bit rocky. There was a one-stride combo in stadium, which according to the rulebook is not allowed (but none of us protested in time, so oh well!). The Training XC course was mismeasured and a protest was upheld and the times changed, and it would appear the same mistake was made at BN, but no competitors wheeled that course so no official protest was made (out of about 60 competitors in 3 divisions FOUR completed the course without time faults, which is a bit suspicious...). So if they post the course as 1550 meters in the future, make sure it's wheeled when you walk it to double check! I also thought using the 350 m/min speed for one of the first spring events wasn't the best choice, but that was published in the Omnibus so we were well prepared.
My only other caution to competitors is to KNOW the rules for XC penalties and what constitutes a refusal. You should, of course, know this before going to ANY competition, but jump judges at UNH seem sometimes less well-briefed beforehand, especially in regards the water. The TD and ground jury are good about resolving problems, though.
All issues aside, we will certainly (and happily) be competing at UNH in the future!
And for the numerical scores:
BN: 2 - terrain (not hard, but there are some tricky spots vis-a-vis footing and navigation); 2 - course plan; 3 - time and distance
N: 2 - terrain; 2 - course plan; 2 - time and distance
T: 2 - terrain; 3 - course plan; 2 - time and distance
P: I'm not qualified to comment... ;-)
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