How important is having an adjustable stride?

Mule

Mule

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I keep reading about the importance of having an adjustable stride length for cross country.

I haven't been eventing very long and am currently competing XC at 80cm. I set my horse up for jumps by half halting to get his attention. In other words I don't just let him canter at it without asking him to pay attention to me. I bring him back when I need to.
But I can't think of any combinations on courses where anything other than a slower pace has been necessary. Am I missing something obvious, or is this something that is only needed at levels higher than I am currently at?
 
An adjustable stride in simple terms means that the horse has the ability to shorten and lengthen in order to jump a fence easily without requiring a major effort, at 80/90 and 100 most horses should be more than capable of jumping without making any real change to their stride length if they are being ridden correctly in the first place, traveling in a decent canter, all combinations will be on true strides so as long as they jump in with enough power they should get out without any trouble, the exceptions being very small ponies that may have to take one big or two small strides and the very long striding big horse that may need to shorten a little.

That said I think it is something to work on, firstly you need to be able to find the horses optimum stride length, be able to get it into a decent rhythm and be able to ask it to shorten a little, sitting up a few strides away from a fence is usually enough to get a half halt/ their attention/ increase power if required or to shorten the stride a little, without really being conscious that is what you are doing or asking for.
The same applies to lengthening the horse should be in front of the leg, it should know that the rider pushing means go and the result should be a slightly longer stride, it can be practised at home on the flat and through grids, I often tweak the distances to encourage a horse to think for itself as part of it's training and the rider will start to see a stride as the training develops but at the level you are at it is more important that the horse is jumping happily whatever stride it arrives at the fence on, if it pops in a short one because it is taking a look and assessing the problem then it is using it's brain which is to be encouraged, far better than them jumping off long ones and never really looking at what they are doing, keep using your half halts and aim to get them so the horse comes back as you sit up which will mean you waste less time setting them up, we work to about 5 strides from a fence if the horse is going well.
 
At 80 it isn't going to matter much. I remember attending an eventing clinic back in the days ............ The coach then said that not being able to shorten and lengthen as and when necessary was why many horse and rider combinations didn't make the transition from Novice to Intermediate, so it was something that we had to work on. (When the only courses were Novice, Intermediate and Advanced)
 
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