08/06/2023
Galican Soft Jumps ā¤ļø
Iād like to start by thanking all of the show organisers, judges and competitors who have supported us whilst we are working to bring the best possible equipment to UK competitions, and who have stuck with us whilst we work to make any required modifications to our kit. We do appreciate all of the people who have taken the time to contact us directly with their feedback about our new jumps.
Whilst we do understand that some competitors have some reservations about our new equipment, we are very grateful to those who have kept an open mind and embraced the potential that the Galican Soft Jumps offer for dog safety in our sport. Whilst we can never eliminate all risk of injury, we do feel that these jumps will significantly reduce the risk of injury to our dogs from jump related accidents.
Our sport is getting faster and faster, resulting in more risk to our dogs when they are competing. This therefore requires us to continually assess whether we can improve the safety aspects of the equipment we ask our dogs to negotiate. Whilst the equipment offered to us in the UK is fantastic, it may still be possible that we can make some further improvements. Our Galican Soft Jumps are made from the softest but most durable material available and also incorporate jump cups which are not fixed onto the jump wings, so that they will move when pressure is applied to the pole, preventing dogs from being suspended on the jump pole and risking iliopsoas injury, which is becoming much more common in our competing dogs. The Galican soft jumps are also rounded, so they are less likely to hurt our dogs if the wings are hit.
Whilst I totally understand that you may not see the requirement for any changes to equipment if your dog has not been previously injured on a jump wing or pole, we are now seeing more and more injuries to dogs as a result of a jump related incident. My own dog has been badly injured twice on heavy jump wings with fixed cups and I do believe that there are more injuries caused by jumps than we realise. How often have we taken our dog to the physio to find that they are carrying an (albeit minor) injury that we werenāt even aware of? Our dogs can be so stoic and with the adrenaline involved in an agility run, they can incur and carry injuries that we are totally unaware of.
As equipment suppliers, we have always made modifications to our equipment where required and within KC specifications. As our jumps will primarily be supplied to outdoor shows in the UK, we immediately made the decision to add weight to the feet of our Galican jumps, for added stability, but so that we did not compromise the safety features of the jump. For this reason, our Galican jumps are likely to perform slightly differently from the same line of jumps provided elsewhere, so we do ask that you please reserve judgement about our equipment until you have seen our specific jumps in use š
We have found that our weighted jump feet mean that the jumps are able to withstand windy outdoor conditions much better than previously and that they now seem to stay put in windy conditions just as well as other brands of jumps used on the competition circuit. Please bear in mind that if it is gusty enough, any jump will blow over and unfortunately this isnāt something we can prevent from happening in every situation, without significantly compromising the safety of the dogs. We are confident that our jumps have proved to be suitable in windy conditions but if this turns out not to be the case, we will look at adding more weight to the jumps, as required.
With the weighted jump feet, our Galican Soft jumps actually weigh the same as our jumps from Doggy Jumps - the other brand of plastic jump that we provide as part of our equipment hire. They arenāt as lightweight as they look š
Our Galican poles are smaller in diameter than other poles and they are also slightly lighter - however they are still weighted. We have seen concerns raised about the poles being so lightweight that they may get caught in a dogās front legs when the pole is knocked, and we would like to offer reassurance that this is absolutely not the case. The poles are still weighted and they are heavy enough that they will fall downwards when they are knocked. Obviously there is still a possibility that dogs will land on a jump pole with a leg on either side of it and in that situation, the Galican poles are less likely to cause injury as the jump cup will dislodge from the wing so that the pole can fall downwards more easily.
We will continue to monitor the performance of the jump poles and we will look at adding more weight to them if required. This will require a bit more research as we need to make sure that the weight of the pole does not mean that the cups slide down the wing more easily than is necessary. If you notice an issue with any of our jumps, please do come and find one of us, or ask the ring party to radio through to us, so that you can show us your concerns whilst ringside. If any of our jumps are not performing as they should, we would love the opportunity to address an issue at the time.
We would like to also offer reassurance that the poles sit in the jump cups sufficiently, so that they donāt fall without being touched. Whilst the jump cups are not as deep as some other jump cups, this is because the width of the pole is considerably smaller so the jump cup is also proportionally smaller.
Whilst watching some of our Galican rings recently, I have seen and heard a number of dogs lightly touch the pole or wing of the jumps but the jump cups and pole have not moved. Judges and ring party have also noticed this happening, and I often see them check a jump which has been lightly knocked to make sure the cups have not moved. This shows that the jumps will not fall with light contact, just as other jumps would be able to withstand light contact. If they fell with every light touch, we wouldnāt be getting any clear rounds at all š
If you have watched a course and noticed that a particular jump is falling a lot on that course, please just remember that sometimes striding and course design can affect the likelihood of a jump being knocked down (our judges are amazing but sometimes itās impossible to know if this is the case until several dogs have already run).
We have received some requests from judges and ring parties about whether we can do anything to help with making it more noticeable to tell whether a jump cup has been knocked down the wing or not from a distance. Traditionally, when a dog has hit the pole from an upwards direction, the jump cup stays put and so the pole either bounces and lands back in the jump cups or falls to the ground. We totally understand that the concept of these breakaway jump cups is still new to us and so we will be adding markers to the jump wings which will hopefully assist judges and ring parties with being able to see when the jump cups have been knocked out of position. Whilst it may take a bit of time to get used to this, I do love this safety feature of the jumps and I hope it is one which will be embraced with time.
Feedback we have received from experienced judges who have judged over this equipment, has largely been that they have not noted significantly more jump faults over the Galican equipment vs any other equipment. This finding is also supported by the fact that we continue to see clear rounds to 10% and higher in the rings which use this equipment (with the added consideration that agility rounds are typically faulted more than jumping rounds and our Galican rings have been used predominantly in agility rings).
Whilst the majority of competitors will not notice any difference to their results where these jumps are used in competition, we do accept that there may be a slightly increased likelihood of a jump fault to dogs which are more prone to touching the jump poles. Whilst this can be frustrating, these jumps will also be much safer for the dogs which are more likely to knock poles. We have had some feedback from competitors who are frustrated that they were faulted in a run where the jump cup moved down the jump wing, but the pole did not fall. The reason that they have found this frustrating is because they didnāt believe the pole would have fallen on a different brand of equipmentā¦however, there is no way to tell whether this is the case or not. In my experience, when my dog hits a pole from above, the pole still falls in the majority of circumstancesā¦.but I do know that on the Galican jumps, that knock is less likely to have left a bruise or caused her any pain. Typically when the Galican poles are hit from above, the cup moves down the wing and lands on the next rivet down (approx 10cm movement), but the pole needs to be hit hard enough for the jump cup to be pushed over the rivet holding it in place. If the dog lands on the pole with itās full body weight, the cups and pole will fall all the way to the ground, saving the dog from being at risk of a potentially serious injury; however, just because the pole doesnāt fall all the way to the ground in every instance, it doesnāt mean that the dog did not hit the pole hard enough to dislodge it. Of course another added benefit to the pole remaining on the jump cup rather than falling to the ground, is that dogs will not be at risk of stepping on a fallen pole if the jump is negotiated more than once.
We have also seen concerns raised about dogs potentially being impaled on the foot of a Galican wing if it is knocked over and we would like to reassure competitors that this has never happened. Whilst we will continue to concentrate our energy on safety issues which we know to actually exist, we will of course take immediate action if this ever becomes a compelling risk to our dogs and if necessary, we will add padding to the feet of the jumps. The lightweight plastic and connection of the foot with the wing, means that if any significant pressure is placed on these jumps, the jump will either break or the foot would detach from the wing and fall flat. Furthermore, we have found that with the majority of the weight in the foot of the jump, the wing is more likely just to move with the dog when hit, and then move back into its upright position, rather than fall entirely. Obviously, when hit hard enough, the wings will still fall.
Iāve attached a short video of my dog jumping over a Galican Soft Jump. As you may be able to see, she is a terrible wing knocker (itās a work in progress!) but she was able to graze the wing of the jump twice here without the pole or jump cups falling, so she wouldnāt have been faulted in competiton. Where she causes the cup to move down the wing of the jump, you can hear her clip the pole. With fixed jump cups, I think there is every likelihood that the pole would have bounced and fallen to the ground, resulting in a fault anyway, but potentially also an injury š where she hits the pole from the side, the jump cups do not move and the pole falls downwards.
Thank you for reading and well done if youāve got this far! š¤
