Show jumping horse: heights, rules and technique

Show jumping fascinates as much as it intimidates. From the side of the arena, a course looks like a run of coloured poles taken at a canter. From the saddle, it is a chain of tiny decisions: the line through the turn, the evenness of the stride, the moment the hands follow the neck. Between the two sit a precise rulebook, official heights for every level and a technique learnt one pole at a time.

This guide takes the discipline from the beginning: what a CSO really is, what a fence is made of, what each family of fences asks of the horse, how high you jump depending on your Galop certificate, how faults are counted in competition, and where to start if you have never jumped.

The key points

• CSO stands for concours de saut d'obstacles, the French term for a show jumping competition: a course of around 12 knockable fences to be cleared without fault and inside the time allowed.
• At club level you jump from 65 cm in Club 4 up to 105 cm in Club Élite, and the required Galop certificate rises from 2 to 6.
• A fence down costs 4 penalties under Table A, a first refusal costs the same, and a second refusal means elimination.
• Position over a fence rests on three things: balance over the stirrups, supple joints, and eyes up and well ahead.
• The world high jump record on horseback, 2.47 m, has stood since 1949 and has never been beaten.

So what exactly is show jumping?

Show jumping is the equestrian discipline in which a horse and rider clear a course of knockable fences inside a set time without bringing the poles down. In France it is known as CSO, for concours de saut d'obstacles. The arena is marked out, the fences are built and positioned by a course designer, and the placings are settled first on penalties and then on the clock.

The decisive feature comes down to one word: knockable. The poles simply rest in their cups and fall as soon as the horse touches them. That is what sets show jumping apart from the other jumping disciplines:

• CSO: knockable fences, in an outdoor arena or an indoor school, poles that fall on contact.
• Cross-country: fixed obstacles across natural ground, ridden at a set speed, where a mistake is far less forgiving. We cover the discipline in detail in our guide to cross-country riding.
• Steeplechase: a speed race on a racecourse, where several horses run together and clear fixed obstacles such as hedges and water jumps.
• Hurdles: another form of jump racing, over lower and more forgiving obstacles than the steeplechase.

So the difference between a steeplechase and a hurdle race lies in the nature and size of the obstacles, not in the rider's technique: in both cases you are on a racecourse, in a race, rather than on an individually timed course.

A show jumping course usually has a dozen or so fences, numbered in the order they are to be jumped. The horse and rider must take them in that order, without missing one and without jumping one the wrong way.

What a fence is made of: poles, cups and standards

A show jumping fence is an assembly of five standardised parts, and each one has a precise name. Knowing this vocabulary saves a lot of confusion in a lesson, when the instructor asks you to move a cup up a hole or bring a standard in.

• The poles: the heart of the fence, the part the horse actually jumps. They are most often 3 to 4 metres long and usually made of wood.
• The cups: the small holders the poles rest in. They are designed to let the pole go at the slightest firm contact.
• The standards: the two uprights that frame the fence and carry the cups.
• The fillers: everything placed under the poles to give the fence bulk and visual presence (artificial hedges, walls, planks, flower boxes).
• The flags: in competition, a red flag on the right and a white flag on the left show the direction in which the fence must be jumped.

When a pole falls, riders say they have “had a fence down”. The phrase is neutral, almost clinical, and you hear it constantly at the side of the arena.

Fences are also named after the way they look: palisade, wall, gate, bidet, hedge, water jump. Those names describe the dressing of the fence, while the families set out below describe its geometry.

The main families of fences and what each one asks of the horse

Every family of fences tests a different quality: pure height, scope, accuracy at the point of take-off, or the ability to jump one fence after another. A well built course alternates between these families so that no single type of horse is ever rewarded on its own.

• The vertical: poles set in a single plane. It tests height and straightness. The horse has to sit down, come up in front and avoid flattening.
• The oxer: two planes of poles separated by a spread. It calls for scope and a round jump. This is the fence that shows a horse's power most clearly.
• The cross-rail: two crossed poles, lowest in the middle. It funnels the horse to the centre and is the starting point for schooling young horses.
• The water jump: a stretch of water to be cleared on the spread. It takes pace and courage, and only appears from a certain level upwards.
• The double and the treble: two or three fences separated by one or two strides. This is what riders call a combination, and it is where the stride plan is won or lost.

The stride plan is the promise a rider makes before going into the arena: to cover the distance between two fences in a set number of strides. A horse's canter stride measures roughly 3.50 m in show jumping, and the course designer sets the distances on that basis. Adding or losing a stride in a combination means meeting the next pole too close or too far away.

That geometry of the jump has inspired generations of artists, and it remains one of the most requested subjects among our horse figurines, where the horse is frozen at the exact moment of suspension.

Heights and levels: the table of Poney and Club classes

In France the height of a fence is never left to chance: it depends on the class entered, and every class requires a minimum Galop certificate. The table below sets out the official standards in force for the 2025 season on the Poney and Club circuits.

Three useful points before you enter:

• The fences in a combination may be built 5 cm lower than the rest of the course, to offset the difficulty of jumping them in sequence.
• Above the Club circuit come the Amateur and then Pro circuits, whose heights climb in steps. Secondary sources disagree on the exact figures, so check the current FFE rulebook directly before entering anything.
• Heights and gradings change from one season to the next. The table above reflects the 2025 standards.

As for the maximum height a horse can clear, the answer is on record: 2.47 m, a world record set on 5 February 1949 at Viña del Mar in Chile by Captain Alberto Larraguibel on the horse Huaso. He beat the 2.44 m mark set by Antonio Gutiérrez and Ossopo in 1938. More than 75 years on, nobody has gone higher. That is the kind of performance you want on a wall, and our jumping horse wall art pieces remain our best sellers among show jumpers.

The rider's position over a fence, point by point

Jumping well is not about helping the horse, it is about stopping getting in his way. The horse knows how to jump; the rider's job is to free up his back, keep the impulsion and guarantee the line. Here are the points to check, in order.

• Keep your balance over the stirrups: the seat leaves the saddle and the weight sinks into the heel. Stirrups are taken up shorter than for flatwork so you can follow the movement.
• Keep your joints supple: hips, knees and ankles absorb the jump. A rigid leg sends every jolt straight back into the horse's back.
• Fix your eyes well beyond the fence, never on the pole. Looking at the pole tips the shoulders forward and unbalances the horse at take-off.
• Respect the horse's mouth: the reins stay in contact without pulling. If in doubt, taking a handful of mane is more honest than leaning on the bit.
• Keep your legs on all the way to the fence to maintain impulsion. A horse that loses its activity in the last three strides will refuse or run out.
• Avoid getting ahead of the movement: do not tip forward to anticipate the jump, wait for the horse to take you there.

These six points only hold up if the basic seat is sound. If your position falls apart as soon as the pace picks up, the problem sits upstream of the jump: our guide to riding position sets out the alignment to rebuild on the flat before you shorten your stirrups.

One last reflex, often forgotten: pat the horse after the jump. That is not sentimentality, it is conditioning.

Table A and Table C: how faults are counted

Show jumping uses two scoring systems side by side: Table A counts penalties, while Table C converts every fault into seconds added to the time. The first is the reference for classic classes, the second is used for speed classes.

These rules are harmonised worldwide by the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), which updates its rulebook every year, and applied in France by the FFE.

In practice, that means a course jumped clear and inside the time scores zero, and it is the number of clear rounds that separates the top of the placings. When several combinations finish on zero, a jump-off is run: a shortened course, often raised, ridden against the clock. There, the stopwatch decides on its own.

Two people determine the real difficulty of a class. The course designer draws the course, chooses the distances between the fences and places the combinations exactly where the line is trickiest. The rider, for their part, gets to walk the course: a few minutes on foot in the arena before the class, to count the strides between fences and pick out the turns. A rushed course walk costs more than a fence down.

Starting to jump: a five-step progression

You never start with a fence: you start with a pole on the ground. The classic progression at a riding school comes in five stages, and you only move on when the previous one has become boring because it is so easy.

• Start with poles on the ground, in walk and then in trot. The aim is not to jump but to guide the horse straight over the middle of the pole while keeping an even pace.
• Then move on to a single fence set on the track. The arena fence guides the horse, and the rider only has to maintain impulsion and straightness.
• Choose a single fence in the middle of the school or arena. With no fence line to help, this is where the rider's line becomes genuinely responsible for the jump.
• Try a small line of two fences, to discover striding between two fences and learn to ride forward again on landing.
• Take on a mini course of five or six fences, with turns. This is the first time walking the course and managing the clock actually mean something.

On paper, Galop 2 already opens the door to the Club 4 and Club 3 classes, that is 65 and 75 cm. In other words, a first competition comes round far sooner than you would think, provided you are comfortable on the flat.

One piece of advice that holds for the whole progression: height is never the real subject. A horse that meets a 60 cm pole on an even, bouncy stride jumps better than a horse rushed at a metre. The riders who progress fastest are the ones willing to stay low for a long time. And to fly the flag at the yard, our horse t-shirts always land well on competition day.

The show jumping horse: qualities, breeds and years of training

A good jumping horse combines athletic and mental qualities, and the second set counts every bit as much as the first. Strength, agility, suppleness and speed count for nothing without the courage to attack an unfamiliar fence and the generosity to sort itself out when the approach goes wrong.

The breeds most sought after in show jumping are the Selle Français, the Holsteiner, the Hanoverian, the Belgian BWP and various crosses carrying Thoroughbred blood for sharpness and reactivity.

When it comes to training, the timeline is slower than people assume:

• At around 3 years old, a young horse can discover jumping loose, without a rider, so it can sort out its own take-off. This is done in an enclosed space, with experienced handlers.
• It then starts with poles on the ground, then cross-rails approached in trot, then in canter, exactly like a beginner rider.
• At around 6 years old it is still considered a young horse, and its training often continues past 8 years old.
• At around 10 years old it is generally mature and experienced. The champions of the sport are often over 12.

Alongside the jumping work, a show jumping horse spends most of its time on the flat: dressage, muscle building, suppling. That invisible work is what makes the jump possible, not the number of fences jumped. France knows this well, having watched Pierre Durand and Jappeloup take Olympic gold in 1988 and Alexandra Ledermann become the first woman world champion in 1999.

If the world of show jumping follows you through the day, our selection of horse plush toys speaks volumes to young riders, while our horse-themed decor and our horse jewellery carry the passion beyond the arena.

Show jumping FAQ

Here are the four questions riders ask most often about the discipline.

What are show jumping fences called?

The discipline is called show jumping, or CSO in France, for concours de saut d'obstacles. The fences themselves are named after their geometry: vertical, oxer, cross-rail, water jump, double, treble. After their dressing, riders also speak of a palisade, a wall, a gate or a hedge.

What is the maximum height a horse can jump?

The officially recognised world record is 2.47 m, cleared by Huaso ridden by Captain Alberto Larraguibel on 5 February 1949 in Chile. In everyday competition you stay a long way below that figure: Club classes top out at 105 cm, and top-level international sport is decided between 1.40 m and 1.60 m.

What does CSO mean?

CSO stands for concours de saut d'obstacles, the French name for a show jumping competition. The abbreviation covers both the competition and, by extension, the discipline itself. Riders will say of a horse that it is “a CSO horse”.

What is the difference between a steeplechase and a hurdle race?

Both are jump races run on a racecourse, not show jumping courses. A steeplechase is run over varied and imposing obstacles such as banks, walls and water jumps. Hurdle races are run over lower and more forgiving obstacles, which are therefore quicker to jump.