Building Grids

[Ambers Echo]

I've been setting grids up for Katie and Dolly and I am just making a right mess of it! I have scoured the internet for ideas but nothing is quite giving me the info I need.

Built on horse distances as Dolly is competing BE which I assume is based on a 12 foot horse stride.

My research has given me the following distances but they just don't work when I try! They seem to ride too short even though she is a pony doing horse strides. So I think I must be muddled somewhere. I am using 12 foot poles to measure so the distances are correct. I am not relying on striding it.

Trot pole distance - 6 feet
Canter pole distance - 12 feet
Landing and taking off - 6 feet each
Canter pole to Jump - 18 feet
Jump to canter pole - 18 feet
Jump to jump - 1 stride - 24 feet
Jump to jump 2 strides. - 36 feet
Jump to jump 3 strides - 48 feet etc

And what would a bounce be? I haven't dared try!

At the noment all jumps are low and I am not building oxers. Does it make a difference if you approach in trot versus canter?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Scoti1420]

I tend to do:
Trot poles 4.5 ft
Canter poles 9 - 10.5 ft depending on level of collection
Bounce 10 - 12 ft
Placing pole for trot 8 - 9 ft
Placing pole for canter 9 - 11 ft
Your distances for strides between jumps are correct, although I find in gridwork I tend to shorten everything rather than keep it full length. With small jumps I would think you would find the distances too long and I would shorten the steps you take as the landing stride but I might be wrong!

 

[Roxylola]

I prefer related distances to grids to start, get her used to playing with the stride length a bit before you do anything else. So if you are struggling with her grids get a couple of fences in a straight line if you want to keep it easy see how it rides naturally - 4 or more strides preferably but I wouldn't measure I'd just bung one on a long side and the other further down the same side. Keep it small, canter down count the strides - same again put in 2 more strides - keep that consistent then work from there with adding or taking out strides. Then you could measure and work backwards from there with what the stride length is and build your grids short enough to challenge them but confidently as you know she can do the stride you've set up

So your distances are fine for showjumping, if Dolly is coming in a little onward she might need to create a bit more bounce and have her a little more together - smaller fences makes fast and flat easy to get away with.

Often a smaller couple of fences with something biggish at the end helps encourage a bit more bounce and less speed. If they are a bit onward I can see how a even 14.2 could find horse distances short.

I stride most things and do a lot by eye tbh but I've done it for a long time, a bounce is I think 9 foot off the top of my head. I don't even stride it correctly though as in a big stride - I just sort of wing it on about 3 and a bit of mine. If I do it that way it is literally the same every time (you could take a tape measure to it) if I stretch there is no guarantee of that.

 

[be positive]

I am surprised she is finding the distances short when the jumps are also small, are you sure she is not popping in an extra stride or jumping very flat which is not what you should be aiming for, although jump to canter pole is wrong, the pole should be midway between the landing, 6ft, and stride in the middle so another 6ft which is 12 ft, or in the place where the second jump would be, 24ft from the previous fence, the same on the approach either 12 ft or 24ft before the fence if cantering in, you may need to tweak a little so ground poles are in the middle of the stride depending on whether they ping over them or just go with the flow.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Thanks everyone.

ScottyJ, what is a placing pole? As opposed to a canter pole in the middle of a grid?

Roxylola - good ideas, thank-you.

BP it makes sense that this is the bit I am muddled about as it was the last canter pole after the jump she was struggling with. But I'm afraid I don't understand your explanation. So can someone clarify the missing numbers? Sorry!! I am sure I am being very thick.

Pole to pole - 12
Pole to pole - 12
Pole to jump - ?
jump to jump - 24
jump to pole - ?

 

[be positive]

The pole needs to be mid stride so 12 ft from the jump, not 18 which she would in theory tread on as she takes off, poles between jumps 12ft, jumps 24 ft apart, work on the 12 ft being a stride and place jumps or poles at the midway point and you should be right, you may be overthinking it.

A placing pole is put at the start of the grid, trot distance to get them a bit more up and springing through by trotting in cantering out, canter placing pole to get a level stride on the way in, I tend to avoid poles in the grid or at the end, once they know what they are doing they tend to be a bit superfluous unless they are being used for a specific purpose.
Keep things simple and play with the fences, once you get the distances right, to get her using herself really well, waiting for the fence to come and building confidence which is really the main purpose of doing gridwork but the key is getting the distances right so they do learn to jump with as little interference as possible from the rider.

 

[greenbean10]

Definitely makes a different if you are trotting in vs cantering. Trotting in the distances will be shorter.

How big is your arena? Remember that showjumping distances are usually based on having the big showjumping canter. Schooling at home most people will have a smaller arena and rarely reach the showjumping canter that you see in the ring. I build everything a lot shorter in the arena at home.

So echo what Be Positive said, are you sure she's finding them short and not popping in an extra stride because they're too long?

 

[be positive]

Definitely makes a different if you are trotting in vs cantering. Trotting in the distances will be shorter.

How big is your arena? Remember that showjumping distances are usually based on having the big showjumping canter. Schooling at home most people will have a smaller arena and rarely reach the showjumping canter that you see in the ring. I build everything a lot shorter in the arena at home.

So echo what Be Positive said, are you sure she's finding them short and not popping in an extra stride because they're too long?

I agree if you trot in the distance between the first and second fence may need to be a bit shorter, although not always, if a third is put in that should be as a normal canter stride unless you are working on shortening the canter.

The aim when schooling at home should be to get the level 12 ft stride, the size of the arena should make no difference to how the horse canters, it may open up a little more at a show, some when green will shut down and shorten , everything built at home should be built pretty much the same as it is in the ring.
I start with shorter distances for a green horse or pony but with the aim to open them up towards 12ft, or for the odd short striding pony to teach them it is ok to pop in a few short ones rather than flatten out and scare themselves.
I work towards everything being confident jumping the distances they will meet in doubles, related distances at home and often the distance will increase by inches in a schooling session as they start to open up, a recent project started off wanting to put in 3 or 4 strides in a short one stride double despite being a long legged scopey 15.2 she now makes a 12 ft stride look comfortable and has gained confidence but it took months of intensive work tweaking the distances while she learned how to cover the ground, if we had built to her preferred stride she would still be taking 3-4 strides and struggling to power out over an oxer.

 

[Ambers Echo]

We have a big SJ arena. Dolly had no problems with the 1 or 2 stride doubles. I got muddled about the canter poles after the jump but I will try again and report back.

I used tge poles after the fence because they were very helpful with Amber to teach her not to overjump the jump as she would then be too near the pole. So my RI had 2 poles then an upright then 2 more poles in the arena and if Amber ever got too onward round a course I'd circle back to that which would sit her back up again, rebalance her and remind her she needs to listen to me. I love playing around with jumping exercises. I just need to nail to distances to make sure I know how to build them properly.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Sorry last question. BP you said put a placing pole 'trot distance' at the start of the grid. But what is trot distance? I have trotting poles 6 feet apart but that's obviously too short. X

 

[be positive]

I put it about 9ft in front, it may need a little tweaking to get the sweet spot for the individual I often move it a few inches in or out once they have gone through once or twice, to bring them in slightly deeper than they would if cantering but give them room to take the pole properly by taking the pole as the first canter stride, they should push into canter over the pole and ping on through the grid propelled from that stride, when they get it right there is an explosion of power that doesn't really happen coming in in canter, the rider can then sit and get a really good feel while the horse does all the work.