Building grids

Bernster

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No idea if I've understood you right, but don't you stride it out, place your pole, then start your next stride with your heel against that poll? Does that even it out?!
 

JFTDWS

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If you drew the lines so that they were centered over each foot, you'd be left with half a "foot" at each end - which is about 4 inches or so (depending on your foot size?! :p ), which shouldn't really affect the stride / jump noticably. This is kind of the thing about it being variable - build it so it feels "right", make small variations on that "right" (i.e. right for your horse at this point in time rather than textbook right) for training purposes / fence height. That way the few inches here or there aren't a big deal because it's all relative to how the horse generally jumps.
 

Ambers Echo

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No idea if I've understood you right, but don't you stride it out, place your pole, then start your next stride with your heel against that poll? Does that even it out?!

Yes the poles are equal width apart but if you stride at 3 feet and your foot is about a foot long then your 9 foot canter poles will actually be 10 foot. Strides are toe to toe but the first pole does not start at the toe but at the heel.

It seems to not matter but I thought I was going mad when I realised that! And I only realised it by actually taking a tape measure to the yard and laying it out between the poles and trying to stride them and realised I was starting my first stride from the 1 foot marker.

But as MP says - overthinking!!!
 

Chippers1

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Definitely over thinking! I normally stride it out roughly (14hh pony, I do 3 largeish strides for one of his with 2 either side for take off/landing - 7 total for one stride double) then jump over it at a tiny height to check the distance then move accordingly. That's for jumps rather than poles on the floor but guess it would work the same.

I love grids though, you get such a rhythm going that you can jump big jumps without thinking about it!
 

Ambers Echo

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Woohoo I'm on a roll now... Built one for Jenny this morning. She often switched canter leads mid way through it. Does that matter? If so how can we address this. I can post a video if that would help - there did not seem to be a need for her to change leads as far as I could work out but maybe I am missing something?
 

Chippers1

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Buzz changes canter leads through grids too (and on courses tbf) and an instructor told me it was a balance issue - he's quite unbalanced on his right rein so if we come in on the right he'll normally switch to the left half way through. We need to do more grids coming in in trot to sort it, it's in my plans for this year!
 

be positive

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In fact she changes 3 times in 1 6 pole grid. Perhaps it's a distance issue?

Balance or maybe she is not used to poles on the ground in between jumps so is skipping over them changing legs as she goes, I don't tend to put poles on the ground, other than the one before the first, for fairly established horses as it can lead to them focusing too much on the ground pole rather than looking ahead to the next fence, it also saves a bit of work setting up.
 

Bernster

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Ooh interesting about the switching lead leg thing. F would sometimes switch leads to jump although I’ve not noticed it so much lately. More when we first started with grids and poles. I think he’s more balanced now so, although we still don’t jump as well on his weaker rein, he’s not switching as much. Forgot about that until I read your post. No idea if your girl is the same though ofc.
 
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