HELP ME! BADLY MISSING STRIDES SJ

mellissa

mellissa

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Hello there,

Just asking for some advice. I have a lifelong habit taking off before my horse before a jump. I have tried so hard to stop this and now instead I am pulling him too close to the fence.

He is a saint and constantly gets me out of trouble. I am five strides out and know I am wrong but I cannot seem to constantly get it right. The problem is we are jumping newcomers and 1.15's, and I cannot afford to mess up anymore as we are going to crash!

I have instruction when I can, but I know that I need to try to get the stride right myself. My horse is a big striding 17.2hh BWP, I am so frustrated I do not know what to do.

I have jumped thousands of fences and I still cannot get it right every time! My horse has recently been away jumping fox with a professional, and I have been jumping him new/1.15's for the last five weeks sucessfully, but last weekend I was missing strides again in the practice ring and messed it up. I had one down the newcomers and messed up the 2nd phase of the 1.15 (it was a two phase)- a great big oxer off a three stride corner! He had to stop.

Does any one else have this problem? Any tips for getting a better stride in every time. I am reverting back to canter poles 6.5m before the jumps again because I know we will be in the right place. Please help me take off right!!!


Thanks

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oooh me!! always!!what has worked for me is doing lots of canter poles into fences and also getting my friend on the ground to count me in when practising at home, to every fence.

Don't beat yourself up about it, he sounds like a good horse who does try to help you out where he can. keep at it.... IT WILL COME!! you are doing fab to be jumping at that level so you must be doing something right!

em xxx
 
Thanks Em- I am doing the canter poles thing. It is so frustrating- I threw my toys out of the pram last week, I know it is me and I can't get it right every time- just worry it is going to ruin my horse who I have had for three years!

I keep hoping it will come....


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Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt
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It's probably a confidence thing...it is/was for me
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Have you tried using placing poles...one, two or three strides out. Move them further away from the fence (on correct strides ! ) until you are seeing the stride from further out.

Another trick....if a little scary to do....is to try and look at someone standing away to the side of the fence while you are approaching and jumping it. It is intended to let the horse sort the stride out himself.

Remember, no matter what you do, you can never be more than half a stride out...and most horses can recover from that very easily
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"Remember, no matter what you do, you can never be more than half a stride out...and most horses can recover from that very easily"

Totally agree with that Rambo..... its really easy to get het up about seeing strides and I quite often get told to relax about them and try and let horse do some of the work iteslf!! lol!! (have a habit of trying to carry horse round!) but I do agree that when you know you are 'off' it can be frightening!!!
 
Strikes me you are trying too hard to do his job for him. Clue here is where you say you were wrong 5 strides out. You cant be wrong 5 strides out as too much can change that distance away.
No rider can get the stride right 100% of the time. I had the same issue recently and have to remind myself to trust the horse. You can only ever be half a stride out so focus on quality of canter rather than worrying about the stride. The horse will tehn sort the stride out for you.
Try geting your horse straight at a fence a good 5 strides away then close your eyes, feel the rythm and see what happens. I am willing to bet your horse will hit the spot every time. If you aren't riding a consistent rythm you wont see a stride as it will be constantly changing.
 
Thanks Rambo- actually moving the pole away sounds like an excellent idea from one-two-three and away. Thanks very much! Will definately work on that. I could do it every session- start with a pole and work it away each time I just at home.

Possibly a confidence thing- I know each time I have moved up a level from BN-Disc, although I did not jump BN for too long, has brought problems from my side. I am so annoyed and beat myself up that I SHOULD know better my now.

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Dont look for them!!! - therein lies your problem.

At any height with any horse as you know its all about your canter rhythm, get a decent rhythm (use canter poles on the ground to practice) your horse should meet each fence (related or unrelated) at a reasonable place to take off.

Shoot me down in flames if you like, but the day I stopped looking for them, and looked ahead and not at the jump is the day my horse and i improved immensely. I spent way too much time worrying about strides and cocked it up every time.

The only place I count for a stride is between combinations where I may have to shorten a little before take off etc.

Try looking ahead and up and let the horse find the right place, they have amazing skills if we let them.

We all do it tho!!!

Good luck x
 
4faulter- I do know I am wrong 5 strides out- or do I? I get round the corner and think- I am not going to meet that fence right. I then freeze - so the strides stay the same, or even worse I pull him back. I have no idea- it is not logical to pull back but I do it!

I should have better feeling for it by now though. You guys all seem to say that you leave it to your horse and it works for you. Will try this.

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Think Tim Stockdales mantra is Canter, Rhythm, Line gets it right every time.
I think that is how you know you are on a bad stride because one of the 3 are not right. Think if there was a quick route to seeing a stride then we could make a fortune! My trainer keep reminding me that the top riders are jumping at least 2/3 horses every day so very hard to miss when you have that much practice.
 
It becomes a mental block in the end....and i reckon most of the time it is caused by having a rhythm that is too slow
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If the tempo is upped, there is room to shorten if need be. If you have a slow rhythm, there is nowhere to go but up and that is when you find yourself kicking for a long one, or worse, pulling your horse up in front
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Sounds like a confidence issue to me.
I went through this big style to the point i didnt even want to jump x poles.

Personally i would go back to basics in the school at home and practice cantering over poles. Get a good meaningful canter, and dont change a thing and keep coming round the corner (this it where ppl go wrong they start pulling round the corner instead of kicking).
I did this exercise wtih Molineux on winston the other day, over 4 raised canter poles, and she NEVER missed once!! that IMO is something to be proud of.
This only happened because she had a good canter, sat still, didnt riggle, kept her leg on and worked the horse round the corner.

The one thing I have learnt from having YO's son (hes SJing 1.50m in Germany) giving me help when hes over from Germany is RIDE MY CORNERS! if you decrease the speed/pace around the corner you will end up kicking to your fence. If you keep the rhythm around teh corner you will be on a better stride to your fence.
Practise over poles on the floor first then give it a whirl over fences.
 
[ QUOTE ]
It becomes a mental block in the end....and i reckon most of the time it is caused by having a rhythm that is too slow
tongue.gif
If the tempo is upped, there is room to shorten if need be. If you have a slow rhythm, there is nowhere to go but up and that is when you find yourself kicking for a long one, or worse, pulling your horse up in front
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100% agree.

I loved it when i was going through my crisis everyone said, but just get a good canter. Err yeah great, but what does a good CANTER feel like?
Now I know what it feels like and its about twice as fast as I was riding lol
 
I found a good way to practise is to set up a related distance - pref 5 or 6 strides, put it small so you know if it goes wrong you'll cope fine, and keep coming down to it, and then you should get an idea where you need to be.
then try making a short 6, long 5 and alternate putting 5 and 6 in and see if you can begin to feel where you want to be.
but i completley agree with the lec, its all in the canter & rhythm.

i think someones said this but placing poles can help - if you have say 3 coming into a fence, then you;ll be relaxed & confident and actually have time to notice whats happening where.
 
I've seen T.S. video, and although he does advocate the canter/rhythm/line rhyme, he actually makes small adjustments to the fence.

I used to think I couldn't see a stride, went to Di Lampards, and she said "you can see a stride as well as anyone" which a) gave me the confidence to make my decision and stick to it, and secondly what was happening was i'd come around a corner, my horse would slightly fall in and the stride i'd see wasn't true, putting me out every time. But that was corrected, and we haven't looked back.
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What distance should placing pole and the canter poles each be from the fence?

In people strides?

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I forget how many times this has been posted now but anyway...

The horse will take off two human strides from the fence, and a horses canter stride is approx 4 human strides, so place a single placing pole 4 human strides in front of the fence, and any more you require in 4 human stride intervals
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[ QUOTE ]

The horse will take off two human strides from the fence, and a horses canter stride is approx 4 human strides, so place a single placing pole 4 human strides in front of the fence

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Eh?
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So i want a placing pole 2 of my strides from the fence and a canter pole every 4 of my strides after that?
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

The horse will take off two human strides from the fence, and a horses canter stride is approx 4 human strides, so place a single placing pole 4 human strides in front of the fence

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Eh?
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So i want a placing pole 2 of my strides from the fence and a canter pole every 4 of my strides after that?

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Err....NO !

You want a pole 4 human stride in front of the fence, and if you want two then the next one will be 8 strides from the fences, then 12 and so on....
 
OH!!! I see!!
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Sorry having a 'thick' day... also managed to forget that you win money at Bingo in a conversation earlier... oh dear!
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Actually what Casey said just made me remember something -
when I was having the first lesson with the guy who teaches me (v good sjer), he said that I always saw a really good stride, the only reason it went wrong was i either didnt have a good enough canter to pull it off, or didnt have the conviction it was good.
So maybe its mental as much as anything?
 
ahhh, right let me ask a question, do you find you jump a jump off better (ie at speed, not thinking so much about your strides??) if so you have answered the question!!

I always do a much better round jumping off as I just go for it, without remotely thinking about a stride.....

I do the pull back thing so much so I grind to a halt sometimes!!! - dont beat yourself up so much, try in the school with some small jumps, looking ahead the last few strides and let the horse do the working out, you will be amazed how bang on they get it without us annoying them!!
 
Thank you so much for posting this query - what a relief that it's not just me!! Totally agree with Marsden re pulling up to a standstill - done that more than once & feel so stupid & feeble... Esp cos I've got a nutcase Cruising horse who can take strides out even jumping 1 m 20 - 1 m 25 just cos he feels like it...I've got all the scope I could want...yet I STILL pull him up when I'm having a dither.
 
I'm exactly the same - though only on my horse as she does tend to make things up in front of fences. I don't generally have problems though XC or when I get mad with myself, as I'm riding positively.
 
Yogi was doing bounces and strides with Kitty the other day and when we were leaving she was saying that she never has been able to see a stride.... she said that she said " I either get it right or think, whoops, got that wrong" and then she laughed!

so maybe not even considering strides and concentrating on the next jump, or your position etc then your horse will sort it out for you... sounds like hes capable... i think its just a case of trusting that he can sort it for you!
 
[ QUOTE ]
It becomes a mental block in the end....and i reckon most of the time it is caused by having a rhythm that is too slow
tongue.gif
If the tempo is upped, there is room to shorten if need be. If you have a slow rhythm, there is nowhere to go but up
frown.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

This, like BBs, I have to totally agree with. I had the same issue, my horse was putting in half strides everywhere which resulted in us landing in the middle of a spread fence in a double and she was out with back problems and lost her confidence, which lost me mine too. We had to start over with small jumps for both our sakes. We are now jumping BN and Discovery and jumping 1.05m at home.
I had a couple of lessons with different people as my instructor had moved abroad and I hadn`t found one good enough to take her place. And they said the same thing, that I was going in a slow sjing canter. I needed a stronger more forward canter. And when I started to do this, the jumps came on a better stride - naturally. Nowadays, I always know when I`ve come up short at a fence, its when my canter is too slow.
To put it in another way, when you have a strong canter, and they are a little far off, the forward momentum of the canter just makes up the extra needed, or they shorten in to a shorter canter but not a really short canter if you know what I mean. Whereas a slower canter has no energy so they end up putting in a half a stride and landing too deep, and then they either twist and scrape over it (ok if it is an upright), or they stop.
I recently was jumping and thought that I was going forward enough and we had the old half stride scenario at a fence twice, and when I watched the video afterwards, the canter wasn`t going anywhere. If the canter is slow, the stride has to be spot on, so kick on. When I think that I am going too fast, that is the correct canter that I need, but when I watch it back on the video, it looks spot on. I am sorry this is a long reply but I do believe that it is only a confidence thing. Just ride forward and believe in yourself. I hope that this has been some help to you.
 
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Esp cos I've got a nutcase Cruising horse who can take strides out even jumping 1 m 20 - 1 m 25 just cos he feels like it...

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So its not just my Cruising horse that does that. especially in jum-offs
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Thank you for all your help guys. At home last week I used poles one stride out from the fences to practice, and constantly said in my head "don't look for a stride" in rhythm to my approach. I also made sure that at NO time did I pull my horse back.


Well thanks to you, it worked. Went to West Wilts on Saturday and was sixth in Newcomers and Fifth in the Foxhunter!!! He was on fire- I did not take any shortcuts but he did so well.


Thank you for your replies!!

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