A Beginners guide to BSJA

Going affiliated, no matter what discipline, can be confusing. Not only are competitions more serious, with more full up and technical courses, but there are also all sorts of new rules and point systems! In showjumping, the class names also go from just the height to strange things like British Novice, Discovery, Newcomers and Foxhunter. It can be hard at first to know what classes you want to do and if like me you have a horse who already has points then what classes you're allowed to do. So here are the basics of what you need to know about when affiliating in showjumping!

British Show Jumping Association (BSJA) Membership levels:

First of all, there are a few different types of memberships you can get: junior, senior, club, schools and non-jumping members. To get a junior membership you have to be 16 or under and you have to also have a responsible adult who is also a member (this can be as a senior or a non-jumping member). A non-jumping member is pretty much what the name says; a member who doesn't compete. They often own horses that other people ride or are responsible for a junior. Seniors are jumping members over the age of 16.

The club and schools memberships are slightly different. If you are just getting started with BSJA or have a young horse, club membership is probably the way to go. It is cheaper than the full memberships and allows you to do the smaller classes (70cm-1m). It's just £30 for a year!

The BSJA ‘just for schools’ allow teams of 3/4 people from your school to compete at qualifiers throughout the year and try and qualify for nationals. It's again just £30 for a horse/rider combination if they are not already registered with BSJA or the Pony Club.

BSJA Classes Explained:

So now that you've registered, you have to know what shows you want to do. Junior shows are only for junior members riding ponies. The junior classes are New Recruits (60/65cm), British Novice (80cm), Discovery (90cm), Newcomers (1m) and Foxhunter (1.10m). These are just the basic classes but there are plenty more that are displayed on the British Showjumping website. 

The Senior classes are British Novice (90cm), Discovery (1m), Newcomers (1.10m) and Foxhunter (1.20m). Junior members on horses have to compete in the senior classes but ponies can be jumped in the senior shows but senior or junior members if given permission.

However you can't just do each of these classes forever, they are limited by points. You get points by getting double clears (5 points) or placing (10 for 1st, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd etc.)and each class has a certain cutoff point. 

Once you have ‘jumped the horse/pony out of a class, you can no longer compete competitively in that class however there is usually an open class run alongside the class at the same height.

A new point structure came into place in April 2014 to make life easier for horse owners and riders to calculate how many points they have - for more information on points structure for your horse, please visit the British Showjumping Points Page.