seeing a stride??

georgiegirl

georgiegirl

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after a long break from jumping i have a new machine however im riding like a total numpty!

I never even used to think about it but now im back jumping i'm interfering coming into a fence and c**king it up every time, i literally cant see ANYTHING! its really frustrating. i used to showjump nc level and cant even do cross poles properly - help!!!
 
What about keeping it low to start and not trying to place a stride, get into the new horses rhythm and then start to look at strides - at low heights the horse should sort himself and you can concentrate on the feel and getting your confidence back without adding the worry of trying to place a stride
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this is the thing, combinations dont bother me one bit as all the strides are basically thre for you, its approaching a single (or first in a combination fence) which is stressing me!

i just find it so frustrating as I never ever used to feel like this!
 
The best thing I've found is not worrying about 'seeing the stride', but just making sure I've got a nice, rhythmical, balanced canter and your looking past the jump and then 9/10 times you'll meet it fine.
A good exercise for this (one my instructor gave me) is to set up a circle with cross poles at 3 o'clock and 9'o'clock and poles at 6 and 12. To start off with just ride a circle over the ground poles (the ones at 6 and 12) playing with the amount of strides in between ie. going one shorter, one longer etc. Then change the exercise so you now go over the cross pole and then do a satellite circle (as small as you can) around the ground pole and then move on to the next cross pole and then another satellite circle over the next ground pole etc. establishing a nice smooth canter. Then finally ride all four element son a nice smooth circle, with the aim being that you've established a nice consistent 1,2,3 canter rhythm and as such are meeting all the elements smoothly.
Not sure if that'll help or not, but it certainly helped me! If you have no idea what I'm on about feel free to PM me and I'll try and explain it better!
Vx
 
Oh and please note it is quite a tough exercise for the horse-cantering on a circle-so make sure there are lots of little breaks, allowing them to have a stretch etc. Vx
 
no need to see a stride until you get to 3'6ft+ really.

just make sure you keep the engine running around the turn to the fence and let the fence come to you.

a great thing to do is start counting your horse's strides before you line up for the fence- start at 1 and just keep counting until you land then start at 1 again.

it really, really helps to keep your canter even which makes it 10 x easier for the horse to see where to take off, therefore no more horrible awkward jumps!
 
I was having this exact same problem. I never used to think about it and then after a long break from riding, I started getting fidgety before the fence in the last 3 strides. If I didn't see it I'd hold back rather than push on, which gave the poor horse mixed signals and then it got messy.
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My instructor has been telling me to forget the stride ( and that's tough for me, little miss control freak). The answer to my prob was getting the canter forward, in front of the leg, steady rythm, and balanced. Its all about the canter. A fence is nothing but another canter stride (apparently!). You will never be more than a half a stride off, so if the horse is going forward to the fence, you have the forward motion to stand off if needed, or put an extra in without losing the energy and making it uncomfortable.
The most basic thing I gained from the whole thing is, if in doubt, leg on and commit to the fence. Fidgeting, or holding back is counterproductive.
I hope that helps. I know how frustrating it is. All the best
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[ QUOTE ]
You will never be more than a half a stride off,

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with most of what you say in your post BUT a stride is around 12 feet. If you're half a stride off, you're 6 feet away from your take off point... that's pretty huge. And if you're half a stride too close, you'd literally already be on the other side of the fence. Thus, I think that comment makes no sense at all; all it means is that you can be anything from over 6ft away to having your nose pressed against the fence on take off.
I don't mean to have a go at you personally; I've heard people say it before and I've never found it encouraging
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