United States Eventing Association

The Event College at Gold Chip Stables was a true hands-on experience as participants were handed power tools and shovels to work alongside the top course builders in the country. Participants walked away with a tool box full of important knowledge and Mike Huber’s fabulous Texas facility got three new jumps – not bad for a day's work!

The morning started out with Mats Bjornetun leading the construction of a hanging log using his new adjustable MIM frangible system. The first decision that had to be made was where to place the log, and ended in completion of the fence and testing the frangible pins, using a tractor instead of a horse. Mats explained that the purpose of the pin system is to give the horses an extra half of second to take care of themselves and get their feet under them, which is normally the horse’s first instinct.

Mats closed out his portion of the morning with a demonstration of a new tool that measures the friction angle of the jump and helps to assess the risk of rotation. The tool is in the very beginning stages of development, and it led to some lively discussion among the course builders.

Tremaine Cooper and James Atkinson then took over and led the attendees to the site where they had decided to construct a new ditch. They emphasized the importance of choosing a location that would enable the riders to jump it in many different ways. When you have permanent boundaries, such as the fence around the cross-country schooling field at Gold Chip, Tremaine and James suggesting setting jumps at 45 degree angles instead of perpendicular to the fence lines.

While Greg Schlappi started the process of digging the ditch, Tremaine and James took the participants to view several of the cross-country jumps already built on the property. They had several interesting facts to impart:

• Build smaller jumps as you can always ramp up the questions by placing portables. Schooling is not about the size; it’s about the question. You don’t have the same adrenaline or pace as in competition when schooling so jumping at a level below the height you are competing at is ok.
• Focus on building the right type of jump for the right spot. If there is a better type of fence to build for that location then choose that over cool design.
• Important to build tables with a 45 degree angle on the face. If you want to modify an existing table without rebuilding a quick fix is to sand or paint the top stripe of the table to make it stand out for the horse.
• You can’t always depend on the horse and rider to make the right decision so you need to create a design to help them out. For example a jump on top of the mound to a skinny – the designer can use a turn or bending line to help the horse rebalance and have a better jump rather then a direct approach.
• Skinny jumps have developed as a safety feature – not just a trend. If a horse has a bad canter or preparation then they can easily pop out to the side whereas with a wide face the horse may be forced to jump.
• The ultimate goal of the course designer is to encourage the rider to ride their horse in a good balance with the proper canter.
• Schooling jumps have a much rougher life then competition fences, and it is important to build them as durable as possible.
• Brush can play an important part in changing the shape of the fence and the way the horse jumps it. Synthetic brush is a time saver and can be cost effective over time at a lot of venues.

The afternoon was spent building a new portable fence with Dan Starck that would be used near the ditch built earlier in the day. The fence was an interesting design that consisted of an adjustable log on top of a table, and Dan explained his process of drawing on graph paper and selecting materials. The participants used Dan’s drawing to build the portable to scale and everyone pitched in to create the fence.

Thanks to Mike Huber for allowing the USEA to host the Event College at his wonderful Gold Chip Stables.