What is the difference between a speed class and a power and speed class?

Speed classes and power and speed classes are two distinct jumper competition formats that test different combinations of jumping ability and speed strategy, and understanding their specific rules is important for riding each format with the appropriate strategy. A speed class — sometimes called a Table II speed class or an against the clock class — is judged entirely on time from the moment the horse crosses the start timers to the moment it crosses the finish, with faults added as time penalties of four seconds per fault. In a speed class, there is no jump-off because the first round is itself decided purely on time — the horse with the fastest combined time of riding time plus penalty time wins the class outright. This format rewards horses and riders who are naturally fast and who can maintain both pace and accuracy simultaneously, and the strategy involves finding the most direct tracks between fences while maintaining enough care to avoid the four-second time penalty for each rail. A power and speed class is a two-phase format in which the first phase is a power phase — typically a small number of fences judged entirely on faults with no time element — followed by a speed phase that begins immediately from the last fence of the power phase and is judged entirely on time. Only horses that complete the power phase clear advance to the speed phase, making the power phase a qualifier that rewards accuracy and the speed phase a sprint that rewards speed. The two-phase format is popular because it creates excitement in the speed phase while using the power phase to filter out horses that are fast but not careful, and it provides a different kind of strategic challenge than either a conventional fault-and-time class or a pure speed class.