Long or short stride???

[kerilli]

PF, 2.8m from the fence is not a long way for a horse travelling at any sort of speed. from trot, or a very checked-in canter, it is, but if you are sending the horse forwards at all in a powerful canter, it really isn't. most horses easily cover 4m in a normal canter stride, let alone when a jump is involved and they get height and make a bigger parabola.
i've had horses take off a stride or two away and easily clear fences. i've also had a mare bounce a long 1-stride combination in the sj, so 8 yards basically, therefore she took off approx 4 yards away from a decent parallel, and cleared it easily... not one of our finer moments though, i'll admit!

has anyone ever seen an Ian Stark demo? one of the things he used to do was put up 2 fences a decent distance apart, say 5 strides, and then go down on 5, 4, 3, 6, 7, 8, even 9 strides. really taught the horses and riders something... the stride and the horse's brain must be malleable, i guess!

 

[harrihjc]

I am absolutely hopeless at judging distances, and usually if I try to interfere we end up in more of a mess than if I leave him to it. My instinct is usually to push and go on a long one, but Flash has a tendency to put in a extra stride then launch himself from practically underneath the jump, and although he still gets over it somehow, it's rather unseating! He finds it much easier to shorten, and it left to his own devices he'll usually put 2 strides in a one stride double

It's really hard work to get the number of strides something is set out for, if that makes sense???