Jumping exercises

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nessie19

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Hello everyone,

I have a fantastic horse who only learned to jump about 18 months ago - she's rising 8 this year. She's a big girl at 16hh and she's got the most wonderful jump. Show jumping is definitely her thing although we're doing some dressage and will try some eventing soon (I've only had her since April). She jumps 80cm courses and leaves lots of room between her and the jump. She'll do 90cm jumps without worrying too. I'd like to build her up to 90cm and 1m courses although I'm happy for that to take as long as it takes.

I'd like to do some jumping work in the school to increase my confidence and hers, although it's mostly mine. What I've found with her is that she won't pay attention to anything less than 70cm! I was wondering if you could share some good jumping exercises that I could do. I do grid work with her, but you can only do that once a week. It'd be good to hear about the exercises that all of you do.

We have a great school at my yard with plenty of wings and poles. Things to bear in mind:
1) All jumps have to be built and put away
2) I don't have a helper very often so I can't get off and on throughout the session to change jumps

Thank you!
 
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Exploding Chestnuts

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101 exercises for jumping sets plenty of problems, but best work your way through them... we all have a habit of repeating the same exercise, as it is the easiest way!
In the centre set up a square or a rectangle of 4 fences, with a bounce on one side and a normal one stride double.
Long side a jump with width, 2 poles on two parallel at about 50 cm high and wide.
Any over-excitement and go over 5 trot poles on other long side. Warm up 10 mins, work 20-25, cool down 10 mins ..
 
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be positive

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As long as you keep the sessions short, have an aim and finish on a good note, there is no reason you cannot do gridwork more than once a week, I think it really benefits the horse and rider to do a little more frequently than one big session a week, putting the jumps out and back may make it less viable but you can do a fair amount with 2 pairs of wings and 6 poles although it is easier with someone on the ground to move them while you ride, we often jump ours 2 or 3 times a week when required, sometimes just 7-8 jumping efforts can be of benefit.

Work on her canter in flat sessions, shorten, lengthen, do light seat work, ensure you have control of her shoulders, squares are useful for this, get her doing loops in counter canter, some good crisp simple changes or flying changes if you are ready, they will all help with jumping with no need for poles although using canter poles will also be useful.
 
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nessie19

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be positive said:
As long as you keep the sessions short, have an aim and finish on a good note, there is no reason you cannot do gridwork more than once a week, I think it really benefits the horse and rider to do a little more frequently than one big session a week, putting the jumps out and back may make it less viable but you can do a fair amount with 2 pairs of wings and 6 poles although it is easier with someone on the ground to move them while you ride, we often jump ours 2 or 3 times a week when required, sometimes just 7-8 jumping efforts can be of benefit.

Work on her canter in flat sessions, shorten, lengthen, do light seat work, ensure you have control of her shoulders, squares are useful for this, get her doing loops in counter canter, some good crisp simple changes or flying changes if you are ready, they will all help with jumping with no need for poles although using canter poles will also be useful.
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That's really helpful, thank you! We're not quite at flying changes yet - she's really stiff on the right rein so I'm working to soften her up and get her to be comfortable with counter canter first. But now that I think about it, some canter poles across the centre of the school would be a great start for flying changes!
 
pennandh

pennandh

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If you've got the cash to spare (about £10-£15 per part for a 3-part series, and you don't need to get them all at once), Successful Showjumping with Tim Stockdale is a fab set of DVDs to own. Logical, down-to-earth advice on jumping exercises and general schooling that don't require a vast amount of complex equipment; all organised in stages so that you can easily work out what bits are suitable for you and your steed at any given time. Plus the horses doing the demos are rather lovely.
 
sasquatch

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Bonkers2 said:
yes, get the paperback and don't lend it to anyone!
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I second this! fantastic book and I found it very helpful!

can't offer much by way of exercises OP, but have you considered finding an instructor who could come in and take you for a jumping lesson even if it was only once every few weeks to give you some feedback and homework?
 
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nessie19

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pennandh said:
If you've got the cash to spare (about £10-£15 per part for a 3-part series, and you don't need to get them all at once), Successful Showjumping with Tim Stockdale is a fab set of DVDs to own. Logical, down-to-earth advice on jumping exercises and general schooling that don't require a vast amount of complex equipment; all organised in stages so that you can easily work out what bits are suitable for you and your steed at any given time. Plus the horses doing the demos are rather lovely.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll add that to my list for next month - I had to buy ALL THE RUGS this month!
 
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nessie19

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sasquatch said:
I second this! fantastic book and I found it very helpful!

can't offer much by way of exercises OP, but have you considered finding an instructor who could come in and take you for a jumping lesson even if it was only once every few weeks to give you some feedback and homework?
Click to expand...

I've bought the book, it's excellent!

I have a great instructor who comes in every 2 weeks and we do cover jumping. It's just good to have a big cache of ideas for between sessions, or when our sessions are focussed on flatwork.
 
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