Jumping Peeps - Help needed! (Judging)

[Chestnutter]

Hi guys.

Our livery yard is having a small show and I've been asked to help with the showjumping. I've watched plenty but wondered if anyone could point me in the direction of an idiots guide to SJ. The fences are tiny (55 and 65cm) and it will be a very low key affair, but obviously I want to judge it properly. If anyone can correct me or reaffirm the following, I'd be very grateful:

As I understand it it's four faults for a fence down or a refusal. A refusal is when a horse takes a step backwards or a run out I think?

If there's a double and both elements have a pole knocked off - is that 8 or 4 faults?

All clear rounds will go through to the jump off which will be a shortened course and will be timed. (presuming we have some clears - if not all those will the lowest number of faults).

The fastest clear wins the jump off, 2nd fastest 2nd place etc.

Elimination - if a rider takes the wrong course or dismounts from the horse in the ring, or doesn't wait for the bell to sound.

Sorry if this is a bit higgledy piggledy - just typing as I think of stuff. Any input very gratefully received and tea and biscuits to anyone who got this far!

 

[TEmily]

All sounds right! My instinct is to say that you get faults for both of the double fences but I'm not actually sure!

You also get eliminated if the horse falls (even if the rider stays on). You need to decide how many refusals you are going to allow before elimination - current BSJA you get eliminated for the second refusal but it used to be the third and some unaffiliated comps still stick to 3.

You will need to decide how many you will place in each class - eg one for every five entries? Or you could just decide to place maybe 6 people whatever - you might as well if you've already bought the rosettes!

You will need to time people's first round as well - you only have one jump off for the clears - so say if you are going to place 6 people, and you have 3 clear rounds and 5 people with 4 faults, the three clears would be 1st-3rd depending in their jump off faults and time, but the remaining 3 places would be decided based on the 4-faulters' time in their first round.

You would also put the fences up a hole or 2 in the jump off.

I think its good to try and vary your course for the different classes as it makes it a bit more challenging for the people who are entering more than 1! Also, in the bigger classes its good to try and go for a slightly twistier course as its a bit harder for the more experienced riders/horses - the lowest classes should be more straightforward (BSJA are rubbish at this its really annoying - the british novice always ends up being full of U turns and funny angles and then the 1m open or something will be straight round!)

 

[DavidH]

Its 4 faults for each fence knocked down so both parts of a double would be 8.
At unaff level it's quite common to make the 4 faulters jump off for the lower prizes if not enough clears in first round. Saves having to time the first round.

Your biggest decision is in deciding how rigorously you will apply the crossing tracks rule. At low level it is highly likely a number of people will get lost during the course and cross their tracks. Some venues take a lenient view, some enforce to the letter. The problem with taking a lenient view is it can be open to abuse and cause a huge amount of arguments. Imagine the scenario where a person does a genuine clear, another crosses her tracks but does'nt get penalised. The second person then beats the first person in the jump-off? Is that fair?

Good luck

 

[Chestnutter]

That's brill guys thanks. I'll keep it as simple as possible and hope I get to wear a hi viz vest and shout encouragement through a microphone. I'll let you know.

(goes off to write all rules down and swot up!)