cute book find: basic course building

I was browsing Maryland Saddlery tack shop & consignment the other day — as a proud owner of a new-to-me dressage saddle, it’s time to complete the kit, right?? 

More on that later tho (hint), bc while I was there a sales associate directed me toward a crate of free horse-y themed books. And there was some fun stuff, including this little gem that came home with me!

Basic Coursebuilding by Maureen Summers, illustrations by Carole Vincer

Basic Coursebuilding was originally published in the UK in 1991, with several reprints over the years. It’s a thin lightly worded but beautifully and insightfully illustrated guidebook on the construction and design of safe, educational and fun show jump exercises.

contents

Course construction and design is one of those topics that becomes increasingly intuitive with increased experience — the more you jump, the more you understand what makes a good jump (or combination) good. And as such, there isn’t necessarily anything “new” or unexpected here.

philosophy: keep it safe and fun

But it’s excellent reference material — just thru the illustrations but also the accompanying text. I personally really appreciated this note on jumping at home. How often have we seen it happen that if someone has limited resources for their equipment (esp when it comes to building xc jumps), they opt for something a bit aspirational size-wise, or something “spooky” to desensitize the horse.

You know it when you see it too — a schooling field with a collection of somewhat rundown, hodgepodge jumps, and then one jump that’s nice but completely out of proportion to the rest. This author’s philosophy seems to instead focus on a schooling field that keeps jumps approachable and confidence building. 

excellent illustrations

Safety takes up a huge portion of the book, especially as it relates to arranging filler material in ways that improve the horse’s perception of the jump. 

best practices with clear reasoning

Again, while much of this is maybe “known” to most jumping riders somewhat intuitively, the author provides clear reasoning and logic that helps us as riders better understand risks. 

Like with the leaning gate above, or using heavy unyielding standards for the back rail of an oxer (top right — this guide book clearly pre-dates innovations in jump cups like the quick release safety cups that are now required for all back rails).

handy distance guide!

I also personally love the little reference chart for selecting optimal distances in combinations based on height of horse, type of jumps used (vertical, oxer), and arrangement of those types. Similar charts exist in the eventing guidebook, and I actually really appreciate that they explicitly call out the specific arrangements and distances that are ‘not used,’ ie not great design.

guidance on horse-first design

Since getting into eventing, where safety is perhaps the most front and center of all jumping disciplines, it’s been interesting to learn how a rider perception varies dramatically from horse perception. Like the jump on the left, that may appear imposing to a rider but is actually more easily understood by the horse than the plank jump on the right.  

how to make room for lower-consequence errors

The book also reviews the somewhat cascading nature of errors around a course — especially when related distances are involved. You might have an error at one fence that you pay for at the next. By adding an extra stride length into the combination, or arranging jump types thoughtfully, the designer can help ensure that a mistake isn’t catastrophic. 

I’ve also heard this thought process used when explaining the relative rarity of 3 stride combinations, esp on cross country. They aren’t explicitly forbidden (and in fact I’ve personally encountered them plenty of times), but there’s a perception that three strides is long enough to get on a bad half stride (vs a shorter gymnastic distance that gives you fewer opportunities to alter stride length) but short enough to not have much room to save it.

you’ll see a very similar graphic repeated in most guideline / rule books

Graphics like the above are also super useful in kinda just reinforcing what you might already sorta know intuitively about building the jump itself. Like say, if you wanted to introduce a new piece of filler material, or a liverpool for example, you’d want to start by arranging it in the easiest configuration possible so that the horse is likeliest to have his best most comfortable jumps.

ta da! a lovely flowy test for horse and rider!

There’s also a whole section on plotting out a course on paper, including how to make choices about orienting the start and finish lines proximally to where the judge sits, and also how to prepare the various metrics and measures the judge might need. 

But overall it’s a super cute book with nice reference material that I’m happy to add to the library. It’s interesting to see what’s changed in design over the last 30 years - for example, the new quick release safety cups, advances in how horses perceive color (they are red/green color blind) and contrast, and the role decorations play in helping horses read the full height and spread of a fence (decorate the edges and top spread corners). 

That said, tho, not a lot has changed haha — at least for the basics. Anything new to you in the above? Or other tips and tricks you’ve devised for setting up good safe fun exercises at home?