Does shows cater for us minimus jumpers?

[jenren!!]

I'd really like to showjump Merl in the summer, once i get him jumping again, but when i started the loan she said he has sort of semi-retired from jumping and only jumps up to about 2ft nowadays (hes 18), but he'll 'happily pop a clear round'. This is fine, because im a little nervous nowadays anyway, and small jumps are ok, but because we'd only be jumping small the clear round class seems to be the only class we could do easily. His owner said he might be able to pop a novice course depending on the height, but i still feel a little limited. The fact that he's 15.1hh doesnt help either, as of course that would put him in the horse classes, with the jumps a little higher. We host the local riding club show at our yard every month in the summer, which luckily no longer splits up horses and ponies, so thats good.

Any advice?

[coverblown]

our yard does unaffiliated minimus ODEs and SX events

[nutkin]

most shows cater for all abilities with jumps ranging from tiny crosspoles(bottom hole jumping) through to around 3' or 1m so you shouldn't have too much problems finding something to suit.Also most shows no longer split horses and ponies up when it comes to jumping classes.This usually means us with the bigger horses end up placing further down the list due to the ponies being able to manage the tighter turns.

[CurlyWurlyRach]

My friend Rosie (cant find a pic of me) and Curly at our first show doing the clear round (nice little jumpies :D i as wetting myself with terror anyways that she'd drop me :rolleyes: - she didnt :D). they did put it up to about 3ft later (i chickened out!)
The jumps were all quite simple and non scary aswell.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a44/lord_w_rox/clearround.jpg

[chaz_the_star]

This is the 'baby' pones first show -

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i177/chaz_the_star_photography/Goldie/P2260069.jpg

:rolleyes: She wasn't a baby, she was 16! Hadn't been ridden 'properly' for about 6 years, just the odd hack/sponsered ride. This show was the week after I got her :eek: I am an utter retard. She had seperation anxiety! Sadly, I am no longer schooling this ponio, but have moved on to a real baby, who will hopefully be jumping come July!!

There is always small classes, you just have to be prepared to get up early!

[helenc]

Depends on the show really. Some show centres are doing nervous/novice jumping that starts at 50cms, some start at 70cms with clear rounds, some start at 90cms so you just need to keep checking the schedules around your area.

[DITZ]

we have a venue near us which doesn nervous classes onece a month and the heights are about 12" to begin with. Keep looking around, check www.ridingdiary.co.uk

[anna15]

i go to shibdendale in halifax an unaffiliated show and they have jumping courses for horses and ponys starting at 1ft! you just have to look around or maybe ask your local riding club about doing a jumping class for the older horses.:)

[anna15]

see it is possible to ride in a class with smaller jumps without riding against 4yrolds!
this is me at my first show with lily (very nervous lol) she was a bit over excited when we took her away from home so just did a smaller class.

[Laura+Phantom]

This was the height of the clear round at my local riding school, that runs winter jumping. It was my first ever class :) After that the classes are 2ft upwards.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/LAUZ45/Saphy/Saphyclearroundgoonbellnov12th3.jpg