Compulsories

On your score sheet for your compulsories, you may have noticed that sometimes the judge has written a letter code beside the numeric score for the move (which is out of 10). These codes indicate the reason for your deductions in the move, but usually only the most obvious fault is noted, if the judge even gives a reason at all. The following table is a translation of the shorthand used, and is the most current list available. In brackets beside each meaning, where applicable, the move where the deduction would be most often seen is noted.

Some of these may still not be entirely clear, for example: PD = pad, which means you touched the pad with your hand for balance during the mill, or OH = off horse, which means your seat came off the horse in the mill; both of these are two point deductions! If you see something like this, C2H, that would mean your body collapsed in the second half of a move; in the scissors, this would mean you collapsed in the reverse scissors.

Freestyle

For your freestyle, the moves are written as letters corresponding to the degree of difficulty. There are two lettering systems used.

Some of your freestyle moves may also have a letter code beside them, such as TZ - toes. This means you were poking the horse with your toes in this move, which would give you a lower score for that move. The score for the freestyle moves are written as a number out of ten beside the letter for degree of difficulty (eg. E⁴). Here's what each of those numbers mean: 

If your score sheet has many numbers of five or less, don't read into this as you are not doing well. This may be perfectly normal for your level and remember, the standard is set by the AA, or gold level vaulters!

If there are any more questions you have about how to read your score sheet, please let Stella or myself know.
By Jessica Church (written with notes from the clinic "Through the Judge's Eyes" by Kathy Wilson - vaulting judge of the BC Summer Games)

Here are some tips on how to select the appropriate music for your vaulting freestyle. This is an important consideration because the right song will help you perform better and achieve those performance marks! To get the maximum music score, you must show your music in every move you do. To show your music, you can incorporate dance-like moves, or express your character. Your character, or your theme, can be defined (such as a pirate or Hawaiian dancer), or it can be more abstract (such as graceful or romantic).

Here are some of the features of a good vaulting song:
Interpretable – It should be obvious what your theme or character is to the judge and audience. Ideally you should tell a story with your music, ie a beginning, middle, and end.
Originality – Something different about it, unique instruments or sound, however choosing a song that really ‘speaks to you’ is more important overall
Variety of intensity – The music takes you somewhere (eg. builds up, comes down, and builds up again) and ideally has lots of highlights (‘ta-da’ points) so that your moves fit to any part of the song in case you end up being a few seconds off.
Rich sound - Either lots of instruments, or a few but with depth.
Vocals – They are allowed in Canadian competitions but should be used sparingly, especially since our judges are often from the USA, where lyrics are not allowed other than at the very highest levels. If you would like to use a song with words, consider using words that sound like an instrument or are in another language. Most of all, the words must be family friendly; if the judge feels that you have something inappropriate in your lyrics, even if you think they are fine, they can give you a zero score.
Rhythm – This is important for vaulting at the trot and canter because horses will hear the beat and may speed up or slow down to match it; try to find a rhythm that matches the horse instead of making them match you. Matching the rhythm of the song to the horse also helps to give the impression of ‘harmony with the horse’, another important score in vaulting.
Intensity – An intense song suits a style with drama or attitude and is often used by more advanced vaulters; if you have a tendency to rush your freestyle, or get the ‘butterflies’ in the show ring you are better off choosing a quieter, softer song. Many vaulters choose different songs for their horse and barrel classes. For barrel, you may want to choose something a little faster or slower than you do on the horse and really show off your style!

Remember when looking for good vaulting music, the radio, or your iPod, may not be the best place to look. Many popular songs today aren’t the best for vaulting music, so here are some other places you can look.
-Instrumental covers of pop songs or intros/interludes on rock CD’s
-Movie soundtracks
-Music from similar types of performance, eg. Cirque du Soleil
-Songs from around the world
-Songs from previous decades
-Ask your coach what style of moves you do naturally and look for this type of song
-Ask your parents; they have heard a lot more songs than you, and probably a bigger variety too!

I find the easiest way to browse songs for free is on Youtube. Songs that can be edited fairly simply can be done so through simple music editing software on your computer; for example, the beginning of a song can be trimmed to the start point that allows the best part of the song to be captured in the following minute. The song you pick only needs to be one minute in length for individual freestyles, and one and a half or two minutes for pairs on the barrel and horse respectively, plus about 10 seconds to approach the horse. A barrel team song must be 3 minutes and a team on the horse is 4 minutes. Because editing takes some time to do, this needs to be done well in advance of the competition.

I hope this gives you a good idea of what to look for in a vaulting song. Happy hunting!

~ by Jessica Church ~
*written with tips from top ranked international vaulters: Colin Schmidt (former Canadian men’s Champion) and Alicen Divita (highest freestyle score in the 2010 World Equestrian Games)*

"One of the primary questions that people new to vaulting ask about is why don’t we use helmets in vaulting? The answer in a nutshell is that all of the experts, world wide, confer that not only do helmets not improve the safety of a vaulter; they can actually increase the risk of injury," Colin Schmidt, Mens Canadian Champion Vaulter.
 

The horse is always under control by an experienced longeur who keep the horse on a circle and controls its speed by use of a long rope attached to the horse's bridle. The longeur maintains saftey by watching for potentially 'spooky' situations and keeps the horse's circle away from people, walls, and other hazards. Vaulting rules state that a longuer must be over 16 yrs old and specific training for the longuer is encouraged.

In competiton, judging is based on technique, form, difficulty, balance, security, and consideration of the horse. The horse, longeur, and vaulter are considered a competitive unit, and the performance of each is reflected in their score.
 

Our vaulting barrel is where the vaulters practice the most, either to learn skills for the safety of our horses, refining skils, or even fitness training. Below are some documents of how to make a barrel.

Vaulting Barrel Design Images.docx (2,1 MB)

barrelspecs (metal).pdf (14 kB)

vaulting barrel plans (wood).pdf (337,3 kB)

Voltige Barrel (oil drum).pdf (184,4 kB)