# I fell off not once, but TWICE!



## donatellodemerlieux (Apr 18, 2011)

yes, this is sorta a rant, but I also have a few questions at the end! So yesterday, I took my big QH, Mak to a 4h practice show (getting ready for the fair.) Keep in mind, I'm an eventer, and I have jumped at plenty of shows before, but this was his 1st show jumping. The only jump class of the day was hunter hack, and everytime I've entered hunter hack, it has almost always just been 18". For this show, they decided to let the ponies do 18" and the horses had to do 2'6". First of all, normally everyone has to jump the same, second of all, 2'6" is just not traditional hunter hack height. All of that was up to the judge though. Mak has rarely jumped over 2', but I was being stupid, and my trainer told me that he could do it, so I decided not to scratch. They allowed us 1 practice jump. During my practice jump, my trainer screamed at me to turn my toes in (yeah, thats my 1 flaw when I jump...) but that caused me to lose 1 of my stirrups, and wasn't fixable because it was 1 stride before take off. Mak realized it was high, and bunny-hopped it, which sent me over his shoulder on the landing because of no stirrups. The judge allowed me to get back on and take 1 more practice jump, then I waited for my turn. After that, I'm guessing it was because of lack of release during the bad practice jump, he jumped the 1st jump, and then refused the second, sending me flying over his shoulder last second again (I was SURE he was going over it!) They allowed me to get on and try to get him over it, but i was already DQed. I got on and tried, but he continually refused. They allowed us to set up a jump in the practice arena because it was lunch break, and so we did, and we ended up breaking it down to ground poles before he would even go over it. Anyway, I do have a few questions with this: What is the highest hunter hack any of you have ever had to do? Any other stories like this? By the way, I scratched all but 2 classes after this, neither me nor my horse were feeling up to doing anything afterwards. Back to stirrupless work and crest releases for me!


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

Sorry you had such an unpleasant experience! :-| Frankly if you (and your horse) were not ready for bigger jumps your trainer should back you off. Show is not a place and time to practice bigger jumps (as both of you are already nervous enough).


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## donatellodemerlieux (Apr 18, 2011)

thanks! I actually jump up to 3'6 on a different horse, but he wasn't ready, and I really should have scratched the class.


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## countercanter (May 18, 2011)

The Hunter Hack classes at the local shows I used to go to on ocasion were always set at 2'3''. There really isn't a set rule on what height it should be, at least not to my knowledge. It is up to whoever is putting on the horse show what height to set it at.


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## haleylvsshammy (Jun 29, 2010)

In 4-H in Arizona for the Junior Advanced level (13 and under) the hunter hack jumps can be a maximum of 2'. For the Senior Advanced level (14 and up) the HH jumps can be a max of 2'6". You'd have to look in your state's 4-H rule book to see the max height for the jumps.

Sorry you had such a tough day, I know what it's like falling off at shows when doing warm up jumps! My first fall off of my 17.2hh TB was when he refused a warm up jump of about 1' because some horses were leaving the arena. It's good that you were able to get back on and at least go over ground poles. I'm sure you'll be having great shows to come


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## eclaire23 (Oct 26, 2010)

My 4-H its 2'6'' for horses 18'' for ponies. Thank God I've never had an experiance like that! I usually stop by the 2 second fall too ;D


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