Helping us to 'see a stride'

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spotty_pony

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My ISH is a great jumper and has a natural talent over a fence, although at the moment we are a bit out of practise and are both finding it hard to see a stride into a show jump (I mainly hunt and do cross country) which results in him taking a stride out or getting in too deep and cat-leaping! :eek: I was just wondering if anyone could suggest any good exercises we can do to help us both to make a better judgement so that we can get a better take-off and therefore a smoother jump. I am thinking of doing some gridwork with him, I was just wondering which exercises would be most beneficial? Or if anyone has any other ideas? Thanks :)
 
Hi I find concentrating on the rhythm and having a strong canter and looking past the fence usually means I meet the jump in the right place :)
 
Gridwork and pole work would be my first suggestions along with obviously getting someone to come and help you.

Jumping not my forte though so hopefully a jumper will be along soon with some real help for you. Just remember to breathe!
 
gridwork & more gridwork & more gridwork!

Also riding a stride into a pole on the ground really helps aswell!

BUT you must have the canter in a forward going rhythm ! as if you have the right rhythm everything else will follow
 
Most courses are built working on the assumption that the average horse has a 12' canter stride.

Set up 2 poles 5 non jumping strides apart and canter down the line. If your horse makes it an easy 5 without you changing anything, then you are lucky and you have a horse with a natural 12' stride. If you practice cantering through this with 4, 5 or 6 strides, getting the horse to shorten/lengthen without flattening, then you will have a rideable canter.

If you then build the 2nd pole as a fence, then you should by now have a sufficiently adjustable canter to hit the right take off point.

Establish the canter before approaching the 1st pole and then maintain the same rhythm and same stride length. .... you'll get the right take off point every time and if you do it often enough, it'll become second nature and you'll be able to replicate it every time.

Sorry for the essay - it's normally an hour's lesson lol!
 
My coach tells me to look to the bottom of the fence on approach as this will help you to see the striding and then you are able to move with the horse up and over the fence, making it much smoother. Also, plenty of grid & pole work, keeping a steady but strong canter and riding the horse into the jump and telling it when to take off instead of waiting to see when the horse will decide for itself. :)
 
Jimmy260910 said:
My coach tells me to look to the bottom of the fence on approach as this will help you to see the striding and then you are able to move with the horse up and over the fence, making it much smoother. Also, plenty of grid & pole work, keeping a steady but strong canter and riding the horse into the jump and telling it when to take off instead of waiting to see when the horse will decide for itself. :)
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Funny how fashion changes - I have always been taught never to look at the bottom of the fence as that is where you'll end up if you do. And I don't know of any rider who is 100% right approaching the fence to be able to tell the horse when to take off every time.

My SJ trainer, who jumps grand prix week in, week out, taught me the technique above. He trains some very successful (international) show jumpers and eventers. I trust him!

It's not a question of " letting the horse decide" when to take off - it's the rider's job to have a good enough, adjustable canter to enable the horse and rider to get to the right spot for the horse to take off.
 
I think it's a combination of habit/practice and teaching yourself and the horse with pole work.
I find a lot of gridwork pretty useless, all it mainly works on is the horse after point of take off and you need to be working on the approach and those interesting 3 strides into the fence.

A good trainer who uses poles to great effect on the ground, can be transforming. In the meantime I would work on your canter obsessively doing circles, leg yielding, counter canter and opening & shortening the canter. Work over canter poles, then canter poles into a small fence, then start taking the poles away. till you can place a pole 3 strides out and then take those 3 strong strides into the fence.
To get into the good habits you and horse need, try using a placing pole for a while, till you really are hitting the right spot every time you jump.
 
lots and lots of poles have helped me and my bold ISH.
My instructor sets up a course of ground poles, raised poles and small jumps and varies the distances between so I have to think about keeping the canter the same no matter what is in front of me. eg: ground pole, 5 strides, raised pole then raised pole, 2 strides, small jump.

It's a great exercise - I used to worry about seeing the correct stride and fiddle with the canter. Now that we've got a nice forward jumping canter we're pretty much spot on all of the time. I have a video of the exercise somewhere if it would be helpful.
 
spacefaer said:
Funny how fashion changes - I have always been taught never to look at the bottom of the fence as that is where you'll end up if you do. And I don't know of any rider who is 100% right approaching the fence to be able to tell the horse when to take off every time.

My SJ trainer, who jumps grand prix week in, week out, taught me the technique above. He trains some very successful (international) show jumpers and eventers. I trust him!

It's not a question of " letting the horse decide" when to take off - it's the rider's job to have a good enough, adjustable canter to enable the horse and rider to get to the right spot for the horse to take off.
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You look down at the bottom with your eyes but your head stays up right so the weight is still even,y distributed through your body, and once you've taken off you then look up (obviously) and focus on where you're headed next. You only focus on the bottom of the jump for a few strides into the jump & I've found that I've been with my horse near-on every time he jumps when I jump him.

And some riders do just sit there and expect the horse to do all the work and expect it to jump whilst they just sit there, applying the leg a few strides before the jump lets the horse know you want to jump it, and then a squeeze of the leg on just before.
 
Over the course of my horsey life, I've been told to look at the base of the fence, look at the point I want to take off from, look at the middle of the top rail, look off into the distance, and a few combinations thereof. There are many roads to Rome.

The 'good canter, look up and beyond' method is fairly recently in vogue and has become the dominant system as it's relatively easy to teach and do, works well for the majority of horses and riders, and is fairly foolproof. It's not necessarily how GP riders (or many older riders) get the job done.
 
spacefaer said:
Funny how fashion changes - I have always been taught never to look at the bottom of the fence as that is where you'll end up if you do. And I don't know of any rider who is 100% right approaching the fence to be able to tell the horse when to take off every time.

My SJ trainer, who jumps grand prix week in, week out, taught me the technique above. He trains some very successful (international) show jumpers and eventers. I trust him!

It's not a question of " letting the horse decide" when to take off - it's the rider's job to have a good enough, adjustable canter to enable the horse and rider to get to the right spot for the horse to take off.
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This /\ /\ - I've started having lessons with a top SJ trainer, and the improvement I made in 2 days of lessons was truly unbelievable but his absolute main point for me to take away was that I MUST break my habit of looking at the bottom of the fence. The other bits and pieces to work on were important, but nowhere near as vital as looking up and forward!

ETA - Tarrsteps - despite my thoughts in my post, your post makes very good sense to me - as they say, there are many ways to defur a feline!
 
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Tarrsteps couldn't agree more (as ever) with you.

I would add that top sjers tend to have a natural "feel" for a good canter and an eye for a stride

It's only us lesser mortals who need help lol!
 
I think the litmus test is, is it working? If the system you are using gets you to a jumpable distance with a good canter most of the time, then it's probably best not to mess with the system too much. But if it's not going well or you're starting from scratch then the system spacefaer describes is most likely to work most effectively and be easiest on the horse. (This is important. All efforts should be made to preserve the horse's confidence and ability to jump well and this can be easier said than done during the learning process.)

There has just been a study done with hat cams, tracking where riders look while jumping a course. Professional riders without exception look at the fence they are going to jump until they are 'right' then they look to the next jump/turn. Less experienced riders apparently look all over the place! The trick though is to 'soft focus' and not get hypnotised by the fence. Also, what this leaves out is what the professionals are feeling. I can usually tell coming out of the corner if the jump is going to be good or not. Obviously adjustments can and should be made at that point but the ideal is to not have to make them.
 
I would also agree that standard gridwork isn't that helpful for this particular issue, although anything that gets the horse jumping well and the rider riding well is important overall.

For the average rider, jumping one, maybe two horses, the I think pole exercises are invaluable as they allow you to ride forward without stressing and hooking as you know the jumpable distance will be there.

I will say, too, part of the problem can be riding in too small a space. When you are talking about related distances you count any turn/corner as a fence - I rarely see people walk backwards from the fence to the corner to make sure they have a rideable distance there. Given that five strides is about the lower limit for a related distance, anything less than that has to be pretty much spot on or the rider will have to hook or shove out of the turn. Further on, the rider should be able to arrange the turn on a jumpable distance but this is quite an advanced skill and obviously counter to the inclination to ride on the rail until the turn. Constantly 'practicing' in situations like this actually teaches the wrong things. If you have a small area you either have to have fewer jumps in the ring or you have to find a way to jump in larger areas sometimes and save grids and other "small space" work for home.
 
I've just tried the good canter, look up and beyond method, and if worked a treat , unless your a real pro or extremely confident I would recommend .
I found it stop me fretting and interfering in the last stride, and made me so much more confident, I kept my leg on for the last 3 strides and concentrated on a fixed object up and beyond the fences, and my horse jumped brilliantly even with the fences up.
 
You could try counting? Go into a fence/pole on the ground in a good canter stride and without adjusting anything in the last three strides, count yourself in - 3,2,1. You'll soon be able to easily spot how far you travel in three 'normal' canter strides, and then you can do the exercise when coming in on a more collected canter.
 
TarrSteps said:
I will say, too, part of the problem can be riding in too small a space. When you are talking about related distances you count any turn/corner as a fence - I rarely see people walk backwards from the fence to the corner to make sure they have a rideable distance there. Given that five strides is about the lower limit for a related distance, anything less than that has to be pretty much spot on or the rider will have to hook or shove out of the turn.
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No help whatsoever for this thread as I see some shockers but just had to say thanks to TS for mentioning this - it's not something I've ever considered before but could explain my own mental block with jumping in some places.
*lightbulb moment*
Duh. :rolleyes: Possibly also why the almost-square school at new yard is so nice to jump in, I often get good strides now without thinking whereas I couldn't jump for toffee at my last place.
 
I,m a bit of a cynic with regard to seeing a stride. I think there are a lot of people who kid themselves that they are seeing a stride because their horse manages to adjust by some 3/5 ft over 3 lengths. I think the truth is that the horse is the one that sees the stride but the rider meerly facilitates that. Total herrasy I know! The thing is that a horse will always be better qualified to see the stride. A rider can only assist or interfere. In a situation where there is some doubt as to the stride, keep it short . You can always lengthen a stride, but having to shorten into a jump throws them into the base of it and on the forehand. ,,,,,,,but what the hell do I know....:D
 
I use the look beyond method after years of looking at the fence and I'm much better and confident. I find saying a word helps maintain a rythem. In my case I use the word 'wait' every stride as apart helping me know if I've kept the same tempo it also reminds me not to panic a few strides out.
 
I don't understand the 'looking at the base of the fence' option...I have to force myself not to look at the fence at all! If you're looking at the base of the fence, how are you then going to look to your next jump?
I've really struggled to see a stride with my green jumper - his canter has taken an age to get to a stage where we're coming into a jump positively on a regular basis. Now he's a bit more together and taking us into a fence, I've found that counting the strides in my head has enabled me to see them more easily - especially XC.
 
You know it's interesting - I had to have a jump yesterday to work out where exactly I look, to check it was what I thought - I turn into the fence and look at the middle of the front pole until I'm three strides out and then look up and ahead during the third stride from the fence. It's always worked for me, but I'm not sure of the technical merits of it. I think the reason I do that is that the person who had the greatest influence on my jumping technique was very firm about not adjusting the horse at all in the last 2 strides - so you might as well look up, sit back and enjoy the ride.
 
I try and look "over" the fence, the way I want to go. And to try and blot out how large/scary the fence is.

Also another point to maybe note? Is your horse happy in his bit? My old horse went like a dream on the flat in a single jointed sweet iron full cheek snaffle. Try and jump him in it, and it was a nightmare, just couldn't get a decent stride on him. Put him in another bit, that wasn't as good on the flat, and he was great to jump in it!
 
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