Seeing a stride

[Twizzel]

I had my first jumping lesson last night after a good 3 months off due to an ankle injury. It seems that whilst my position over jumps is still good, I've totally lost the ability to see a stride

It was really demoralising- last year jumping was really coming together and my instructor could really see an improvement- I could jump a course confidently in canter and went XC confidently on young and old horses.... now I feel like I'm back at square one with it and kept getting left behind at the smallest cross pole

Anyone with any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Morrigan_Lady]

I find the best way to see a stride is to not look for it!!

Unless your jumping mahoosive fences, you dont really need to see your stride, just ride the fence nice and forward.

Good luck.

 

[samp]

As said the more you look the harder it is. As long as you present your horse at the fence in a good canter you should take off at about the right spot, it's when riders interfere etc on the last few strides it tends to go to pot IMO

 

[little_flea]

Agree with the above. As long as you have a good 'bouncy" canter and a forwards thinking horse, it will be fine to take off a little early/deep. It is good (not to mention safe - particularly CC) to have a horse who can think for itself. If your horse has a decent jumping ability, you shouldn't really need to worry about seeing a stride unless you are jumping 130 cm +

 

[muddy_grey]

Again as above, but if you feel you are getting left behind try jumping with a placing pole. This will help your horse find his take off point and help you "see" it. Really the key to "seeing a stride" is practice. Also make sure you can fully control the canter and can shorten/lengthen when required. Using poles on the ground can help this.

 

[HenryandPeta]

Ditto above. But an exercise that I have found really useful is this:

Pole on the ground, space for 7 canter strides in between, another pole on the ground. Work on counting your strides between the poles so that you get 7 even strides, not 4 mahoosive ones then 3 teeny racked in ones!! Then when you can confidently maintain a good rythym between the poles, add in a small cross pole in the centre - so you'd canter over the first ground pole, canter three strides, pop the pole, canter another three strides then canter over the second ground pole.

This really helped me in the school as Henry tanks at his fences, but it will also help you to "see" the strides - even counting aloud could help!