'Puissance' tips

[Tory27]

Just for a bit of fun I've entered my horse into a fun puissance class in a month’s time at a county show. Its free to enter so thought why not.

Out of interest how would anyone go about preparing a horse for this? I don’t have a wall at home but wings that go up to 5'. We jump a 4ft upright no trouble and SJ regularly in 3ft' - 3'6 classes, so shes got scope/confidence. What I dont want to do is turn up and chuck her strait at it without prior practise. – that not very fare.
My little plan is once a week do a bit of jumping practise at home (as we do anyway) and just pop up one fence a little each time to teacher to stretch up and over.

I’m not a rider who pushes their horse and would never ask her to anything I knew she isn’t capable of or risk frightening her or knocking confidence. We SJ/compete for fun, not money or plush prizes! Same goes for the puissance day, if we feel we’ve reached our limit we shall say ‘thanks you very much’ and retire happily.

Just interested if anyone s ever done this before and what prep they’ve done in advance.

 

[tinap]

The daughter used to puissances regularly on her pony. She never practiced as such, just popped 1 fence a few times at home, putting it up a little although very rarely having it up as high as she would go in a comp. She would also have a minute or 2 just stood between jumping the fence to get him used to being stood whilst others would have their turns at the comp. He always knew when it was a puissance class though & would get very giddy for his turn!

Good luck, enjoy & get some photos xx

 

[oldjumper]

Ride it as though it's 3ft, in a steady regular rhythm. Don't be tempted to go faster or she will flatten and lower a brick. Bear in mind, if it's a little unaffiliated show the 'puissance' might not actually be a wall at all, could be rails! It might also mean all horses going in the ring together and jumping fence one after the other. If it is - think carefully whether you really want to get your mare that fired up!
Best of luck anyway.

 

[spacefaer]

We entered a gate jumping competition earlier this year and as I'm no show jumper, I thought I'd better get my eye in!

I hired the local indoor school (since the competition was to be inside) and practised jumping an individual fence. It was interesting as the fence got higher, how much more power we needed off the corner to the fence (not speed) and how my horse naturally lengthened his stride to attack about 4/5 strides out.

(The horse has done a lot of puissance classes before I got him so knows a lot more about how to jump a big fence than I do lol! )

We got to about 1.50m in practice and it was a useful exercise because the gate at the competition looked a lot less daunting

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Tory27]

Ride it as though it's 3ft, in a steady regular rhythm. Don't be tempted to go faster or she will flatten and lower a brick. Bear in mind, if it's a little unaffiliated show the 'puissance' might not actually be a wall at all, could be rails! It might also mean all horses going in the ring together and jumping fence one after the other. If it is - think carefully whether you really want to get your mare that fired up!
Best of luck anyway.

Thanks for your reply.
I do know that it is a wall and will be jumped individually or one at time with three fences prior to the wall, an upright, treble bar then wall. We dont have wall at home so was just goin to pop up an upright with poles? Although we do have jumping blocks so maybe I could put them in at the bottom to help her get her eye in and raise the top poles.

 

[oldjumper]

If you can't go and school over a wall before hand it would be worth trying to mock one up at home. Could be just some sheets of plywood out of the shed or piled up boxes. It doesn't need to have 'bricks' or be red, just accustom her to jumping a solid fence if she hasn't seen one before. If you're really stuck - put up a pole and drape a large blanket over it and weight it at the bottom to stop it flapping (best done on a still day)!
Don't forget to ride the upright and staircase with as much care as the wall. They all ask different questions. Get used to shortening and lengthening the canter so you can bring her back after she's jumped the spread.