[TB or not TB?]

I finally found a picture of the unfinished bridge - one of the only XC jumps that actually scares me. I don't usually flinch at the jumps I see, even those 4* monsters, but this one makes me soil myself.

I give you: The Unfinished Bridge

(Photo from TeamWindChase; Phyllis Dawson and Snowy River)

What makes YOU cringe?

[olympicdreams04]

I jumped this jump (It's at Pine Top I do believe, or an exact replica of it is) on my first upper level course. I thought it was cool as hell! It's right up there with irish banks and keyholes. Coooool. I really must be crazy!

[tx3dayeventer]

We had a smaller version (Prelim) in Area V and it was quite a fun jump!! I don't think they use it anymore but it rode just like a ramp.

[deltawave]

My Gwen has jumped that jump, or one just like it, but not with me riding!! I actually enjoyed down-bank type jumps with her after the first couple. She was smart and always figured them out without a lot of extra leaping or drama, unlike my greenie who always ADDS to drops.

The fences that scare me the most nowadays are big, wide, square tables, since there's so little room for error and I'm riding a horse who hasn't seen it all yet.

[BigRuss1996]

They had one of those at Chesterland for the three-day back in the day . We use to school it all the time. It was way more scarey to look at then to ride. I actually didn't mind it as much as I did the big hay wagon. I would say Tables are what I hate the most and I take them very seriously no matter what level.
As far as "scaring the pants off you"....can't say I have met that one. I guess the year I did the advance HT at Rolex (last year they held the HT with the ***) there was a great big Oxer right after the bank complex that I was pretty nervous about but again it rode better then it looked. Also at that time I think it was one of the biggest fences I'd ever seen. There were also some pretty scarey fences at the WEG in Stockholm in 90'. Our horse won the Individual bronze there and I remember walking the course and being glad I wasn't riding...ha ha ha...

[RAyers]

They ALL make me cringe. The ones that look easy you want to ride PERFECTLY to give your horse more confidence for the fences that are hard where you may not ride perfectly but you had damn well be paying attention. So, either I am making sure I ride perfect or am not interfering with my horse. No let up fences on course!

There are no easy fences and there are no easy XC courses. The moment you think there are, the univese is going to smack you upside the head.

As for the "unfinished bridge" we had one at the old Fox Equestrian on the preliminary course. It was the coolest fence. When I walked the course, my dog, Max (god love him) didn't realize that the bridge was unfinished and when he jumped off the fence he had this look of "Oh, shit!" as he disappeared into the ravine below. It was hard grabbing on him while laughing my ass off.

Reed

[NeverTime]

Any bounce of equally sized elements.

And this one: The one in the upper right corner is rather, um, large, wide and pointy, but the ditch actually makes it ride more easily than a plain corner.

[yellowbritches]

The only fence that I can clearly remember making me want to pee my pants was/is the trakhner on the prelim/intermediate course at Morven. It was my first prelim, and that thing scared the beejesus out of me! And, while Ralph jumped it like he'd jumped every other ditchy type thing in his life (got it, Mom), he actually SPOOKED in mid flight at it. He jumped, then I felt him jump even more. A very odd feeling. I've had courses as a whole make me queasy, but that was the only fence that I've actually ever been fairly terrified about.

[KMErickson]

Any bounce of equally sized elements.

And this one: The one in the upper right corner is rather, um, large, wide and pointy, but the ditch actually makes it ride more easily than a plain corner.

Every year I come to Millbrook and just looking at that BMW corner makes me realize why I'm never going Advanced - It's SO massive!!

[NeverTime]

Ha! The horse jumping it in that picture (who just so happened to finish third at Rolex this year) is so big that he makes it look kind of small, but it ain't!

I was so disappointed the show photographer didn't take pictures of people jumping it that I took a picture of it with my cell phone just for posterity's sake.

[EventerAJ]

For me, it's the Intermediate bounce drop steps at River Glen. It rides off a fairly tight turn, down the side of a mountain, seemingly as if you are jumping off the edge of the earth--and landing going down, down, down!. I remember the very first time I walked by (Training level) and just stopped and gaped. Each time I come down the driveway at RG, I hold my breath passing the campers--looking behind that barn to see if the drop is flagged. I ran the Int course there 3 times before my luck finally ran out...it was on the course in August, and I still had heart palpitations when I walked it (after going Advanced at Wayne!).

We survived. My mare propped a little bit, but we made it to the bottom. Alive. And I still don't want to do that drop again, if I can avoid it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ics/RGdrop.jpg

[kookicat]

The last one that really scared me was a huge, really dense hedge. I've no idea why, but it really freaked me out. Looked a foot bigger than it was because you came up a slight rise towards it.

Oh, and water jumps. Any and all. I have a phobia of open water (can't walk past a pond, or by a lake!) so they really freak me out.

[Xctrygirl]

They had one of those at Chesterland for the three-day back in the day . We use to school it all the time. It was way more scarey to look at then to ride. I actually didn't mind it as much as I did the big hay wagon. I would say Tables are what I hate the most and I take them very seriously no matter what level.

Ok quick related thread heist. I did a xc schooling day spot with Bruce at Chesterland in '92. (Yikes...that was a while ago huh) Anyway I was riding my solid training level horse. Now at this particular school Bruce would point to 5-7 fences and the 10 of us in this group all went in a line, hunt style.

Ok well fast forward a bit, he pointed to the bank complex and then to the hay wagon. As I had never been there before, let alone walked any of these fences up close I just figured it'd be ok. As I came up to it my horse and I both were like "HOLY F$%^$RG S^(*!!! Kick, kick, jump for the love of GOD!!" I swear we were in the air forever.

That hay wagon was not small. And I will be fair and say it had probably settled to be smaller than at its peak but MY GOD!! THAT was huge.

I totally sympathize and Agree Big Russ!!!

For me the ones that scare the pants off me are the trakehners and anything with a gap/ditch/space on the landing side. Ever since my crash in '96 those are the bugaboos.

~Emily

[Little Valkyrie]

Seems like lately, every XC fence scares the pants off me...can I rewind to the beginning of the year when we were jumping prelim combos and having a blast? Oh confidence where art thou..
But when I'm watching XC, the ones I generally wind up gasping the most at are huge square oxers/tables and Weldon's walls. And the "new" fences that I HATE and never, ever want to jump are the house-types where it is a square table that looks like a house (roof is wider that base but flat on top) I can't find an example of one now, but they look scary...

[yellowbritches]

Houses scare you, really??? I think they are more like riding an ascending oxer. In fact, we have a we baby one that will eventually be out in the schooling field-to-be.

I always preface what I'm about to say with "I know it will most likely be different when I know I'll be galloping down to it in the morning" but 99% of the time, the courses I walk or watch all look like fun...scary, but fun. Even that crazy Leaf Pit at Morven on the advanced course looks like it would be kinda fun, in the roller coaster, heart and stomach in your throat sort of way. I guess part of being a good xc rider is thinking it looks like it would be scary but fun (some might say like skydiving...which I think just looks idiotic!).

[kookicat]

Seems like lately, every XC fence scares the pants off me...can I rewind to the beginning of the year when we were jumping prelim combos and having a blast? Oh confidence where art thou..
But when I'm watching XC, the ones I generally wind up gasping the most at are huge square oxers/tables and Weldon's walls. And the "new" fences that I HATE and never, ever want to jump are the house-types where it is a square table that looks like a house (roof is wider that base but flat on top) I can't find an example of one now, but they look scary...

Badminton had those:

http://www.badminton-horse.co.uk/the...08_course.aspx

Fences 23/24/25.

Actually, the whole of the Badmintion course scared me this year.

[Dr. Doolittle]

I'm with Deltawave on the big square table thing (and Weldon's Walls/big ass Trakehners are a bit daunting, though my mare will *only* stick at the base of those if *I* fail to ride her VERY assertively...I think those are mostly "rider fences", though sometimes horses will blanch a bit at them, requiring a REALLY POSITIVE ride--forward to the base!! )

The problem with the big square tables is that they have to be ridden perfectly (gulp!), and this is especially true in my particular horse's case; she doesn't seem to comprehend them very well, unless they have some kind of groundline or "step", or something on the back edge to differentiate the "plane" on the top. (Sh*t, no pressure on the rider, there! )

Why can't we just do away with them? (I always ask...)

Some of that other stuff??

I don't have the balls for that stuff, not at my age...

[Little Valkyrie]

Houses scare you, really??? I think they are more like riding an ascending oxer. In fact, we have a we baby one that will eventually be out in the schooling field-to-be.

Hmm, this is hard to explain. They're not a house in the typical sense with a peaked roof- I like those a lot. They are a square table designed to look like a house, so the "roof" is flat with shingles that are wider than the base is. I think they had one on the Olympic course- I will look

[EventerAJ]

Big tables or oxers don't scare me at all, but I think all that credit goes to my horse. Of course I have a healthy respect for them, as all xc fences... but to me, they are so much fun! When your horse just blasts over the biggest-freaking-advanced-table-you've-ever-seen like it was novice-sized...that feeling tends to replace fear with a big huge grin.
WayneXCtable
RichlandXCtable


I think a lot of fear is dependent on the horse you ride. A confident, scopey horse, even with a less-than-perfect ride, makes the bogey fence a lot less scary.

(Conversely, a horse with "issues" can create them in you! It works both ways, sometimes.)

Little Valkyrie, is this the kind of table you're referring to? House

[asterix]

I have the exact same bugaboo fence that yb does, except, unlike her, I have NOT made it to the other side -- that was not such a good prelim moveup, as it turns out -- horse (who is a tad ditchy) and rider both rode down to it like
3 times.

oh well.

Maybe one day the baby (who is NOT ditchy) will show me how it's done.

Kinda hate weldon's walls too.