Jump position

J

Jade and Dolly

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Does anyone have advice or things to do to help my jumping position?

My instructor and other people keep telling me that I don't fold enough over jumps , what can I do to fold because I get out of the saddle just don't fold into the right position.
I Have tried loads of times practicing my position before going into jumps and practicing it without even jumping but it still does not work.

Please just any advice really thanks
 
Try thinking about pushing your bum back, rather than just out of the saddle. If your lower leg flips back, it can be tricky to get a decent fold (in my experience anyway!) so also think about your leg position.
 
My best advice is to practice two-point in canter around the arena without losing your balance. When you first start out it's harder than you think!

Then progress to doing two-point with no hands. Then doing two-point over tiny jumps with your hands on the back of your hat (my instructor used to make us do this as routine practice over grids, with the jumps getting progressively bigger towards the end of the line). It's super helpful for getting your leg and heals in the right place, and once you've mastered it, you'll find that your position is tenfold better!
 
Echo the push your bum back advice, but the best tips I have received are that you fold to your hands, so push your hands forward to the middle of your horse's neck; and push your knees out, so you get a more stable lower leg. It transformed my jumping position.
 
Palindrome said:
You can do it in walk and trot too, and ideally do transitions while staying in 2 points.
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Yup. I hack in two point in walk-trot-canter, which is no mean feat when you've got a stroppy led pony in hand too ;) Does wonders for the thighs!
 
Surely OP a decent instructor would be finding a way to help you get into the proper folding position not just pointing out that you are not! Next lesson ask for specific help. My instructor was brilliant at re-teaching me how to jump recently - she thought up all sorts of different activities and exercises to correct the main things I was bad at.

Also are your stirrups the right length and is your saddle set up correctly for you with knee rolls in the right place etc? Again i would expect your instructor to be pointing out these things. You might do worse than try a different instructor and see if they come up with the magic formula to correct your position!

(Now cringing waiting to be told your current instructor is an Olympic Gold Medallist SJ-er!) :)
 
It sounds like you may be standing in your stirrups, instead of folding. Stop worrying about getting up out of the saddle and instead think of concertining your body instead. If you have the right position everything else falls in to place.

Start by getting the basic position. Ensure you have taken up your stirrups so that your thigh is now more ahead of you.

Fold your body at the hips, keeping your back straight. Fold until your shoulders are in a vertical line with your knees and toes. Look up and to where you are going. Reins need to be shorter so that your hands are still ahead of you.

In this position you are in balance, as the fences get higher you become lower and your backside will slide back more. The idea is to keep your centre of balance tight and low, allowing your arms, not the body to follow the horses head and neck.

An exercise I was once taught, it truly tests your position.
Lay a jump rail on the ground, lightly secure it to prevent it rolling too much. Now stand on it, if you are upright and in balance (vertical line ear, shoulder, hip, heel) you will stay still, lose that alignment and you fall off.

Now start to fold into jumping position, to keep your balance your knees are now more forward and your backside further back. You have to remember to keep your shoulders inline with your knees and toes, and your backside above the level of your knees.
Once you have mastered this with your feet flat on the pole, stand instead with your balance on the balls of your feet. It is much harder.

Finally, practise your new position over jumps, ride the whole course in your jumping position, just sit quiet, keep horse moving and just allow the jump to happen beneath you, following with your arms. Until the fences get to a metre or more you can ride the whole course in this forward position.

I forgot to mention, you do not need to be miles off the saddle, the moment you are folded in the position I described above your weight is off the back of the saddle and now concentrated over the stirrup area.
 
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Wayne_Coe said:
LOL, I threw a strop once with my instructor about Jumping and that he knew nothing! Turned out... he was an Event Rider in the Olympics and been round Badminton several times...!
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You sound like one of the current 'brats' we have at Pony Club at the moment, she told her coach the other day she knew nothing, her coach too has ridden round Badminton. This kid is 13 and spends some time every rally running after her pony because she's fallen off - again!
 
Tnavas said:
You sound like one of the current 'brats' we have at Pony Club at the moment, she told her coach the other day she knew nothing, her coach too has ridden round Badminton. This kid is 13 and spends some time every rally running after her pony because she's fallen off - again!
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Lol! Im 26 and this was the day after a busy exam week at Talland and I had been pulling double shifts to get the yard done aswell as get the Estate ready (mowing, strimming, shouted at by the Huttons) :)
 
Mooseontheloose said:
Look, just because someone can DO it doesn't mean they can TEACH it!
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Doesn't mean a rider in a lesson should behave in a disrespectful manner. A rider with an Open Mind will eventually become more successful than one who sticks to one method.

An instructor has a tough job as they don't know the horse as well as the rider, but they can see what the rider is causing by the way the horse is performing.

The biggest problem I face with Pony Club riders is the "My coach tells me to do it this way" my answer, that's fine but today we'll try it this way.
 
Wayne_Coe said:
Lol! Im 26 and this was the day after a busy exam week at Talland and I had been pulling double shifts to get the yard done aswell as get the Estate ready (mowing, strimming, shouted at by the Huttons) :)
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Know the feeling! Used to work for Pat Smallwood in the Radnage House days - you'd hear the back door click, grab something and look busy. I loved the work though and found the casual attitude quite hard going here in NZ.
 
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