Grid Distances

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PartlyPickled

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Hi, i'm hopeless with this sort of stuff, but how many human strides do you reckon would be in
attachment.php
between this 3 stride (i think) grid? i will try and upload the video also, thank you x
 
It's a two stride grid. Impossible to tell the distances of that particular grid, can you not ask the person who set it up?
 
4 human steps for one horse stride, with 2 steps for take off before the jump and 2 steps after for landing is normal set up for average horse. As you have 2 strides in between jumps there would be 12 people steps between the poles - for an average horse :)
 
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Shutterbug said:
4 human steps for one horse stride, with 2 steps for take off before the jump and 2 steps after for landing is normal set up for average horse. As you have 2 strides in between jumps there would be 12 people steps between the poles - for an average horse :)
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thank you!! i used to pony grids all the time, but for the past couple of years i've only really jumped with an instructor around so they do it for me haha :P
 
The 12 strides is correct for a two strided double in competition. You may find that it is set shorter than that in a grid for schooling at home etc.
 
12 human strides would be correct for a normal 2 stride distance but I think the grid in the vid is shorter than this. If this was the standard striding the horse would not be able to make the distance in two given the ground it is covering per stride.
 
I'd also like to add that just talking about number of human strides can be very misleading. Humans have different stride lengths so how your own stride lenght fits with the standard has to ne known. The best way to do this is to go to a few BS comps and walk the doubles in your own normal stride. make sure you dont change your stride from your normal walk.
What you will find is a) your normal stride matches the standard (very rare), b) you walk 9 strides for double so you have a shorter stride than the standard or c) you walk less than 8 strides for the double in which case your stride is longer than the standard. Mine is 7.5 strides for a normal double.
Knowing your won striding is very important for one simple reason. Most folks set up their jumps at home using the stardard 8, 12 etc. If they have a shorter or longer lenght of stride than the standard they will be schooling their horses over distances that will be different to the ones they get at comps. If you generally find the distances at comps to be short or long when you ride them it is probably because you have not allowed for your own stride difference.
 
Tim Stockdale walks the length of a showjumping pole which is same as one horse length. Its a good way of telling how many of your strides it takes to place a pole at the correct distance for an average horse stride. Saw him do it at a demo the other night. Was interesting
 
PaddyMonty said:
I'd also like to add that just talking about number of human strides can be very misleading. Humans have different stride lengths so how your own stride lenght fits with the standard has to ne known. The best way to do this is to go to a few BS comps and walk the doubles in your own normal stride. make sure you dont change your stride from your normal walk.
What you will find is a) your normal stride matches the standard (very rare), b) you walk 9 strides for double so you have a shorter stride than the standard or c) you walk less than 8 strides for the double in which case your stride is longer than the standard. Mine is 7.5 strides for a normal double.
Knowing your won striding is very important for one simple reason. Most folks set up their jumps at home using the stardard 8, 12 etc. If they have a shorter or longer lenght of stride than the standard they will be schooling their horses over distances that will be different to the ones they get at comps. If you generally find the distances at comps to be short or long when you ride them it is probably because you have not allowed for your own stride difference.
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Agree with this, when I am setting up for people at home I always ask what they walk as a 1 stride double in competition! I do get some very funny looks when I ask which is a bit worrying!
 
Shutterbug said:
Tim Stockdale walks the length of a showjumping pole which is same as one horse length. Its a good way of telling how many of your strides it takes to place a pole at the correct distance for an average horse stride. Saw him do it at a demo the other night. Was interesting
Click to expand...
That assumes you have 12' poles, be careful not to do this if you have 10' poles of anything else. Normal single stride distance for a double is just over 24' which works fine with the BS standard 12'.
 
Wheels said:
It's a two stride grid. Impossible to tell the distances of that particular grid, can you not ask the person who set it up?
Click to expand...

I do seven for a one non jumping double and eleven for a two and I think 15 for three non jumping strides. You want to make it shorter distance than what you would normally get in a show jumping track, as normally it would be 8, 12 and 16. This is because you want your horse slowing down and shortening its body and using its back end and snapping up its shoulders. This works better with shorter distances. Just be warned if you do too much shortened distance work you might find it difficult to get your striding correct when you are in the show ring with a 24.6ft double for example as the horse might find the distance too long given what he has been working with at home. So remember to incorporate 'show ring' distances in your grid work sessions too and your distances will change depending on whether you jump on a slope (not too many of those in arenas!) or whether you do an oxer to an upright, or an upright to an oxer.
 
Or you can do it the way I was taught, by everyone learning to walk 3' or 1m, depending on what system you're using, so essentially the same as Tim suggested.

That's why, when you watch riders walk the course at high level competitions they all walk so oddly when they're measuring. They are using sense memory for their 'standard distance' walk so they know the actual measurement, not just 'their' measurement. I've never met a top rider/trainer who can't tell you the actual distances they set.
 
Or get off and walk at the end of the lesson.

I have resorted to that when we had done a specific exercise which I was told was built short to see how short - thankfully I walked it after I had ridden it ;-) but it did mean I could recreate it accurately at home.
 
Thank you every one! i'll take note to check with the instructor/walk it next week, there was another class straight in when we where getting out comments as we overran so i didn't really get chance to think about it, and i dont know what my instructors name was as it was with PC and i'd never met this one before :P thank you x
 
I would also add that grid distances depend also upon:
a) what gait you approach in - if approaching in trot the horse will land slightly closer to the fence, then you may need to make the distance slightly shorter,
b) type of fence at the beginning, middle and end of grid. If you want to make it challenging for an experienced horse and pop a spread at the beginning [as they like to do in BE in the double] then the horse will land further away from the fence, so the distance may need to be longer.
c) your horse wasn't particularly forward going so may be a little stuffy - in which case you're instructor may decide to keep distances a little on the short side in this situation.
Thanks.
 
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