Is yanking horses acceptable?'

Joe Fernyhough on where course-building is going right – and badly wrong

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I’M currently competing at Oliva Nova in Spain and the differences between the course design here and at home are very apparent.

When I haven't been abroad for a while, I find I need to walk a distance twice before I acclimatise to everything being two yards longer. It’s not that the distances are too long, it’s that the courses are designed to encourage forward riding.

Before coming to Spain, we took a lorryload of young horses to a local show. They have accommodating management and a great surface, but the courses weren't really fit for purpose. Disjointed lines and backward distances were not the preparation I wanted for five- and six-year-olds approaching their first tour.

We seem to have accepted a culture where sometimes the only way to make the “measured distance” is to yank them back from the base of the fence. In contrast, courses abroad allow the horse extra room, encouraging less intervention from the rider's hands. This allows horses to develop their own balance and self-adjust.