How to Design a Jump-Off Course That's Fast, Fair and Safe
The jump-off is the part of the class spectators remember — and the part of the plan many builders leave until the first round is already standing. Designed well, a jump-off rewards brave, balanced riding and produces a genuine race. Designed badly, it rewards flat gallop, punishes careful horses, and ends with rails everywhere. Here's how to design it on purpose.
Design the jump-off with the first round, not after it
The classic mistake is building a lovely first round, then discovering the only possible jump-off is a dull loop. Work the other way: sketch both rounds together, and let the jump-off drive where key fences sit. You're looking for first-round fences that, with two or three of their neighbours removed, suddenly offer inside turn options — the gap left by a skipped fence is exactly where the brave rider will turn.
A reliable recipe for a six-to-eight fence jump-off from a ten-to-twelve fence first round:
- Keep the first fence simple — riders arrive with adrenaline; give them one inviting effort to establish canter.
- Alternate turns — left-handed then right-handed, so one-sided horses don't get a free run.
- Include one genuine option — a line where the inside track saves a second but risks a pole, and the steady outside track is always available. Our bending lines guide covers building two-track questions that are fair both ways.
- Finish towards the exit — a last line running away from the collecting ring rides sticky and punishes honest horses late on the clock.
Numbering the second round
Fences shared between rounds keep their first-round numbers; the convention is a second set of number cloths (often a different colour) for the jump-off sequence. If your class runs under FEI-style numbering, added fences take numbers following on from the first round. Our course numbering guide covers the conventions in detail — and if you build in the YardForge designer, each round carries its own path, so you can flip between Round 1 and the jump-off and see exactly which fences each track uses, with the distances re-measured for the shortened route.
Heights, spreads and the time allowed
- Raise selectively, not everywhere. Most rule books allow the jump-off to go up in height and/or spread. Raising two or three fences keeps the question sharp without turning a speed round into a puissance.
- Never raise the fence before the tightest turn. The horse arrives flatter and faster in a jump-off; the rail you added there mostly measures luck.
- Set the time allowed off the shortened track. Measure the jump-off route as it will actually be ridden — around the turns, not fence-centre to fence-centre — and apply the class speed. A time allowed set off the straight-line distance is unbeatable without cutting every corner flat.
Check the turns are actually rideable
Every jump-off invites tighter turns than the first round — that's the point — but there's a floor. A horse in a jumping canter needs real room to turn and re-balance before a fence; a "shortcut" that requires a ten-metre-radius U-turn to a maximum oxer isn't an option, it's an ambush. When you bend the jump-off track in the designer, the turn checker validates each arc against stride length and flags turns that don't fit, before the first horse tells you louder.
A jump-off checklist
- Both rounds designed together, jump-off turns falling where skipped fences leave gaps
- First jump-off fence inviting; turns alternate left and right
- At least one genuine inside/outside option, fair both ways
- Raised fences chosen deliberately; nothing raised before the tightest turn
- Time allowed measured along the real ridden track
- Both rounds validated for distances and turns at the class height
Do that, and the class ends the way good sport should: decided by riding, in front of a crowd that saw every second of it.