cross country

[Maddison's girl]

One day I fancy trying my luck at cross country or similar. Now this would be a long time away, but how would you practice for this sort of thing. Where would you start?

Obviously both myself and the moose would need a lot of work as neither one of us does much other than hacking. My daughter has been teaching the Maddison to jump and I am sure if I practiced more I could do it with some form of style eventually!

How did you all begin?

[joey_olop]

At a yard near to me they do x-country schooling, where you can practice over the jumps without entering any kind of competition.

See if there are any places near you that do that kind of thing :)

Good luck

[sugarpuff]

ohhhh wears this joey_olop? :p is it just like a schooling day or can you just go there and pay a day fee to use the facilities?

[Gothika]

I'd first do some work in the school. Once you've jumped him a bit if you aren't already doing so, do lots of gridwork because it really helps to have a horse with a 5th leg across country.

Then practise styles, jumping fences on angles and set up a small arrow head. Practising this at home is a good way to build up confidence. On your hacks look out for ditches, logs and puddles (big ones), and practise going over ditches and through the puddles - those are the jumps horses have most problems with, the ditches are mainly rider frighteners, if he hasn't seen them before focus on something on the horizon, hold on to a bit of mane, trot him at the ditch and keep youre leg on. Don't let him turn away and eventually (hopefully) he'll jump it, but probably HUGE. So hold on and whatever you do, don't look down. xD


Once you've done all that it's time to hire out a cross country course. Your local show centre might have one or try the UK Riders website, although the UK chaser courses are aimed at their members, for a few pounds more you should be able to go. Take an experienced horse and just have a pop round.

Then it's time to enter an event. :D Going hunting is good too - if you want a horse that jumps anything, hunting is the path to follow.

[jumpingkatey]

I am planning to build a XC course(with the help of my dad!!!) in my 16 acre field.I am goonna use it every so often to get Katey used to jumping XC fences.
So look in your yellow paper or put up a notice asking about any XC courses for hire near you!!

[Maddison's girl]

I think this is going to be my new years resolution....better late than never :D

I am going to buck (pardon the pun) my ideas up and quit just pottling around on my horse. I will start schooling myself and Maddison and maybe become more than just a happy hacker.

Now if I could just lose the fear in me...:p

[berties-girl]

Hiring a course so you can go at your own pace and jump the fences your happy with is always a good idea :)


Sugarpuff, im pretty sure Joey is on about Snowball :)

[joey_olop]

ohhhh wears this joey_olop? :p is it just like a schooling day or can you just go there and pay a day fee to use the facilities?

Snowball do it-but only on specific days. Go on there website & it tells you the days on there, I think its like £20.

I havnt done it personally, Im still plucking up the courage;) :p

[Holly B]

http://www.ukchasers.com/ukchasers/ukccoursedirectory.htm

This is the link to the UK Chasers website Gothika mentioned. You might be able to find a course near you there (check whether you ned to be a member of UKC to use the course, even if you do I don't think it costs very much to join them) :)

[sugarpuff]

good luck maddisons girl. practicing at home and maybe seeing if anyone on your yard can go out and have some fun with you. practicing on cross country courses or going on sponsored rides is always a good idea like others have said.:) fun sponsered rides often have smaller jumps just for fun and are more inviting for both horse and rider. maybe practice at home with old hay/straw bales and rustky looking polls, start of small to get a feel. its good fun.:D

Berties girl and joey_olop; i thought it might be snowball, although i often find there fully booked or the grounds too bad:rolleyes:

home farm for a while allowed you to go round and use the jumps that were cleared for a couple of pounds which was fun.but think they have stopped that now!

[Iron Maiden]

Good for you Maddisons Girl. You should have no problem getting started - it's great fun using a bit of creativity & seeing what you can find to make jumps/obstacles at home. I don't know about near you, but up here there are some fab 'beginners' competition classes over 2 foot or 2 foot 3 courses, often there's a pairs class so you can be nannyed about by someone who's a bit more experienced. I did a 2 ft pairs a couple of years ago with a Yann's daughter, we must have looked a right pair - me on a 16.2 hairy heavyweight & Nat on about 12 hands of native mischief! Needless to say we didn't win but TBH that's never my concern when I go xc, I just want to enjoy the ride & have a good old 'woo-hoo!' moment at the end.

I'd ask at your local saddlery & see of there are any adverts or leaflets for local courses you can hire or beginners events, that should give you some good ideas about what's going on near you.

[berties-girl]

Sugarpuff & Joey_olop Rosehill is a good one for hiring they have various courses amd rent it our all year round.