Equestrian Vaulting: AVA Region IV: Rules

Requirements | Rules | Guidelines | Vaulting Links

Minimum Requirements for Region IV Competitions

Pre-competition: There must be a designated competition manager who is responsible for all of the following. This person does not have to do all of this but must make sure all of these things are done.
  Entry information must be sent out at least a month before the competition, for Recognized competitions the request for recognized competitions must be sent to the AVA National Office 45 days before the competition. Section IX AVA Rule Book Standing Rules
  All necessary work to get the competition site and recognition must be done.

A facility must be reserved before the competition forms are sent to the AVA National office.

Dates, times and information about the facility are required on these forms. A payment is also required at this time to the AVA.

A deposit may be required for the facility. This must be done as well. Be sure to get a contract at this time.

A judge must be hired.

All of the information must be sent to all the Clubs, the judge or judges, AVA Technical Committee (for recognized competitions) stating the place, date, judge, classes offered and costs. The housing and stabling information needs to be included as well. Entry forms must be ready to send out with this information. If using on line entry this information less the entry forms needs to be sent out as well.   Close of entries and payment dates need to be clearly stated.

Insurance must be obtained.

Closer to the competition date, arrangements must be made to receive the entries. Time must be given to allow the following:

Score sheets ordered or printed.

Labels made and put in place.

The order of go produced.

Score sheets sorted as per order of go.

A person needs to be designated to do the Scoring. Programs should be set up prior to the competition using Excel or Praxis or similar computer programs. If hand scoring is to be done then calculators and paper need to be provided. A location for the scoring must be designated that allows for isolation and quiet.

Awards ordered.

Before Competition Day:

Footing must be ordered and arrangements for getting this in place and enough manpower to get this done must also be arranged.

The rings must be laid out according to the AVA specifications shown in the rulebook. Section IX AVA Rule Book Standing Rules

Volunteers must be ready to go to work that morning.

The judges stand with decorations and enough chairs and space needs to be in place. This needs to be away from the vaulters and spectators. The AVA rulebook has the specifications for this.

Volunteers that must be designated:

Announcer / Music person / Music assistant / Office Manager / Gatekeeper / Clerk / Timer / Score keeper and score checker / Judge’s hospitality / Award manager / Medic / Runners

These are the minimum number of people to be ready to help. Backups for these positions are nice to have.
   There are job descriptions on the AVA web site that Marianne has set up. There are also ones attached to this document. (Still to be attached)
   Music equipment and a public address system must be available. The announcer and music person must be in a quiet location and able to see all of the competition.
   To keep track of the vaulters, all vaulters in recognized competitions need to have armbands with numbers. For new vaulters a T-01, T-02, etc. numbers will need to be given and all these will show on score sheets and order of go.

Read AVA Rules for Vaulting in the AVA Rule Book!

New Vaulting Rules Effective 1/1/2005

Guidelines for Judges 2005
FEI Technical 2005
FEI Rules for Vaulting Events 2005
FEI Summary of New Vaulting Rules 2005
FEI Vaulting Rules Appendix B-D 2005
FEI Vaulting Rules Appendix E-N 2005

Music Guidelines

My #1 request every year: Have one smiling, punctual, responsible person from your club in charge of all your music. After that, everything's in the details ...

1. RECORDED CDs ARE PREFERRED, WITH ONE SONG PER CD
It must be recorded as a "Finalized Audio CD" that would play in any old CD player. Record it at slow 4x speed and try it in your most antique CD player. Then protect it like gold, because recorded CDs don't hold up well in dust and heat.

"Music CD-R" branded discs are the best.
"Data CD-R" discs are next best. NO CD-RW please.
Last year Memorex won the brand battle for reliability.
No commercial CDs please.
Use paper labels if you have a label "stomper". Do not attempt to apply a label by hand. If you make any mistake with a label, chuck the CD and burn (record) another one.
BRING BACKUPS in case of technical failure and have them nearby at competition, not back in the hotel. The vaulter has 60 seconds to correct music glitches, like any other technical/tack failure.
Yes we'll take your CDs that you've carefully prepared with
multiple tracks, like Sally on track #1 and Billy on #2. But please be patient with the poor volunteers juggling all this stuff and trying to change tracks as well.*
Use a LABELED CASE for each CD even if there's only one track. "Wait. What are we about to play?" WE CAN NOT SEE THE
LABEL ON THE CD once it's spinning in the CD player waiting for the vaulter's hand to go up. You try it!

2. MINIDISCS ARE STILL ACCEPTED, but please email me if you are bringing minidiscs. I still love you, but we must organize if we are to continue holding this hopeless rebellion together.

3. CASSETTE TAPES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Okay, just kidding, we'll still accept them. I just wanted to scare you. But seriously, do what you can to modernize beyond these antiques. Use peer pressure on anyone you see walking around with tapes. Point and snicker. Typical response from tape lovers: "But all my old vaulting music
that I love is only on tape! Can you burn it to CD for me?" Consider this: It's not just you and your club. We've ALL been listening to the same old, uhm, "chestnuts" for 15 years. Please. For all our sakes, freshen up your collection. Those old tapes sound like crumpled paper. They've been played so many times, they're going to wear through and break any day now. Rule of Thumb ... Don't keep a cassette tape longer than a pair of underwear. Complainers will be directed to the music volunteer sign-in sheet.
RUN-IN: Run-in music is welcome, but the only time I guarantee it'll play is for team. For individual events, we do our best, but don't be
heartbroken if it doesn't play.

COMPULSORIES: Karmic points awarded to those who share comps music with fellow vaulters in your club, at least in your class. In fact, you will probably HAVE to do this, because we move fast at Nationals and there's no time to change music. We usually don't even stop the music between compulsories. Yes, still wait for a signal from the judge.

FREESTYLE (KUR): If you care about your music, have a backup. There's this thing, called a backup. Have one. When your hand goes up and your music doesn't start, I'm as desperate as you are to make it work. Mom should have the camcorder in one hand, and your backup music in the other. IN FACT, THE ORIGINAL COMMERCIAL CD MAKES A GREAT BACKUP, unless your music has been edited/spliced.

FALLING OFF: Here's the thing with our modern age: it brings with it
complexity. You stop a tape, and it starts again right where you left
it. You stop a CD or MD, and it depends on which button you hit under
pressure. Chances are, it won't start where you left it. Instead, it will
start again from the beginning of track 1. Please, we'll all do our
best. Keep on vaulting. You've already blown your Composition score,
anyway. Don't worry about it.

LABELS: Club, Kid, Class. You'll remember the Kid. Yes, "Kur" or "Comps" is sufficient for Class - but just "Barrel" isn't! Anyway, what your kid will forget is: Club. Club. Club. This is Nationals, with a few dozen vaulting clubs around. Club. Mark it. Word.

Thanks everyone, have fun, and I'll see you out there.

Paul Caskey
Music Man

P.S. Old but mostly still relevant additional info is here
And especially here

AVA Region IV Rules

Requirements | Rules | Guidelines | Vaulting Links

Minimum Requirements for Region IV Competitions

Music Guidelines

Vaulting Links

Equestrian Vaulting

Explore Vaulting

Classifieds

Vault Talk