Showjumping books

[Dotilas]

I am looking to buy a book with exercises to help with the SJ phase for my new horse, who I want to event to Novice level with - he has lots of experience at this level, but SJ is not his strongest phase, poles tend to go down willy nilly. A lot of this is to do with his flatwork not being up to scratch, and needing to develop balance, but I would like to do some gridwork to help but am just not sure where to start! As soon as a jump goes up, I struggle to keep him between hand and leg and he gets very annoyed with me when I ask him to slow down and ask for a better canter.

I have researched and found these books:
Show Jumping Made Easy The Way to Successful Show Jumping by Clarissa L. Busch
101 Jumping Exercises For Horse and Rider by Linda L. Allen with Dianna R. Dennis
Better Jumping by Carol Mailer

which look like they might be suitable, but can anyone recommend one?

Or offer any of their own tips?

Many thanks

 

[vam]

I have Celebrity jumping exercises which is good as it breaks things down nicely as well as giving the aims of the exercise and what could go wrong.
Showjumping for fun or glory is good and covers loads of stuff.
I got bought 101 exersise from top riders which does flat, xc and sj again good for lot of things. Might find some exercises for the canter on the flat in there.
Sometimes it better to flick through them to get an idea if is what you want.

 

[MegaBeast]

The "Celebrity Jumping Exercises" is seriously good. It includes exercises from the likes of Yogi Breisner, Ginny Leng, Matt Ryan, Dot Willis, Mary King, WFP, Karen Dixon etc. All the exercies are explained in detail along with common problems encountered and how to remedy them. One of the best books I've ever bought!

 

[scally]

Anthony Paalman "Training the Showjumper". Very old, but well worth reading from stable care to Grade A courses there is not one thing he does not cover in it.

My copy is so old and dogeared, it really is my bible and read it regularly.

 

[SJFAN]

Show Jumping for Fun or Glory
by Ernest Dillon & Helen Revington

This guide provides detailed training advice for the show jumping horse and rider. It offers guidance on choosing the right horse, working on the lunge, flatwork schooling and early jumping, and the importance of the rider's position. The core of the book deals with jumping training, introducing horse and rider to simple polework, and gymnastic grids. The authors describe how to approach different types of fences and how to overcome problems that arise in training. More advanced work follows, with combinations and related distances, increasing height and width, and jumping whole courses. In a section devoted to competing, Ernest Dillon explains how to develop the right attitude to competition riding, and how to cope with success and failure in the ring. There are also tips on walking the course and collecting-ring technique, as well as how to succeed in a jump-off. The sequence photographs that accompany the book depict riders from all levels, from novices to experienced Grand Prix competitors.

 

[Amstar01]

The best book I have ever used is 'A Manual of Pole and Gridwork Exercises'. I found it on the internet, the site is www.gridworkforhorses.co.uk. I bought both the books from this site, the other one is called 'From Gridwork to the Show Jumping Ring'. They are not really books, they are manuals and each page is laminated so you can take the pages outside. All the distances between fences are given so you cant really go wrong. It is the only book I every use now.