Focus issues shooting hunter/jumper shows

I'm having some issues with proper focus shooting jumping events. I'd say 80% of my shots are on the money but I'm feeling like that is low. I'm using a T3i AiServo, with center point focus ... and most of the time can feel the slight vibration of the lens just as the horse jumps. For daytime I'm just using it in Sports more for the high shutter speed, later in the day I switch to TV (for 1/1250) and let the camera choose the rest with it up 1 1/2 clicks on exposure.

Any suggestions? When it's on the money it's nice! But if that % is off I need to pick it up. Just FYI the show this weekend I ripped off 500 shots over 8 hrs. Mainly for my friends stable but also of some of the other people riding.

Should I be using all focal points and not just the center?
Any advice suggestions are very welcome, please excuse any lack of info as I'm still very new to this.

I always shoot in center point focus. And for moving horses you want to use Servo mode.

It might help if you posted an image so we can evaluate you are talking about. Are you truly missing the focus plane or do you have a narrow depth of field that is giving the impression of oof?

If the former, it is just going to take some practice nailing the focus. With H/J if you are following the horse as it approaches the jump and your center point gets off the horse, when you fire the shutter you may have the focus locked on something in the background. A trick that I have learned is I keep the focus point on the point of the horse's shoulder. That is going to be at about the same plane as the rider's face. Depending on what aperture you are at you are going to have some depth of field in focus in front of and behind the rider. (More about that). Another trick is to preset your focus. If you are working the same jump, put your focus in "one shot". Focus on the middle of the top rail of the jump. (Or manually focus.) Now turn your autofocus off. And shoot away. Of course, check it every so often to make sure that you haven't accidentally bumped your focus.

If the latter, you may not have enough depth of field. You may have the rider in focus but if too narrow a dof, the horse's face may be out of focus. For heaven's sake, get your camera out of Sports mode and take control of it. Shoot in manual mode, set it at high enough shutter speed to stop action (your 1/1250th is good), then up the ISO enough to get stopped down enough to get an acceptable dof. Shooting outdoors on a sunny day I am typically at 1/1500 - 2000, f/5.6 and ISO of 400. If you don't understand this stuff then get something like Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure.. At 5.6, depending on the distance I am to the horse, I will have most everything in focus from the nose of the horse to it's tail. But still getting a nice oof background.

Lastly, the unfortunate reality is that some cameras and lenses are faster focusing than others. And the continuation of this reality is that fast focusing cameras and lenses are expensive. Doing this for a living I shoot with with 1D series camera's and mostly "L" lenses. You may have to just live with missing a few (or invest in faster focusing equipment).

HTH

Thanks HTH,
I stumbled into this situation by accident and wasn't totally comfortable shooting M until I got used to the whole moving horse thing. TV has been my crutch the past week or so. I'm getting there.
Anyway, here are 2 shots on the money and the third is an example of nothing in focus. I can see some shots where the far rail is in focus or the bg ... I'm guessing it's just me needing more practice. I actually have been using both of your techniques to see which one worked better, except I would auto focus on the side post of the jump then watch with the other eye until the horse was in frame.
I think part of my problem too is I'm tracking each rider and trying to get them coming over as many jumps each run. That's a lot of focus adjustment. Also noticed many out of focus are straight on shots rather than side shots.
I know my equipment is well under spec for something like this, I've spoken with and friended a few of the official photogs at some events. They seem to be targeting just 2 jumps or so, rather than 5 or 6 like me.

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I don't know what to tell you on this. Obviously, I wasn't there and don't know what caused the missed focus. Yes, it appears to be missed focus. It looks like the focusing plane is in front of the horse.

However, you could also have subject movement in this. Your first two images are at 1/1250th second shutter speed. Your bottom image is only at 1/320th second. This is no where near fast enough shutter speed to stop a horse flying over a jump.

So you may have a combination of missed focus and too slow of shutter speed. It may be mostly the latter.

The Pony Club Sign is not nearly as sharp in the bottom one as the top one. If the missed focus was was in front of the horse it should be as sharp in both. You could also have some camera movement. You were at almost 200 mm focal length. 1/320th second is just marginally fast enough to ovoid camera shake.

So it is looking like on this one the culprit is more too slow of shutter speed rather than missed focus.

HTH (Hope That Helps)

Thanks. As I went back to really look at the other out of focus (#3 here was less obvious the reason), the others were focused on the background or the side posts of the jump. I think tracking the horses it's just keeping on target, and when I focus on the jump and wait for the horse it's not making the slight adjustment from the post to the horse which out be several feet.
Just time for more practice I guess. The slower frame rate came about later in the day when I started shooting without programed settings. Shooting with fast action I just need to be more attentive to the settings when changing things up.