Striding crisis...help help help!!

PapaFrita

PapaFrita

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OK, so maybe not a crisis. I'm a bit stuck; I can consistently see a stride on A and meet a jump at the right distance and rythmn, however recently with PF (and with instructor off in Sweden) I tend to be a more pull then push kind of rider because I'm worried about not seeing the stride and this upsets her and tends to make her rush. This happens as soon as I'm facing a 1m+ spread... doesn't happen up to 4ft with uprights! Soooooo, clearly I have mental issues with 1m+ spreads. I was wondering whether a placing pole maybe 2 strides out would help me relax, confident in the knowledge that even though I can't see the stride, I AM at the right distance?
Failing that, any other suggestions? Thankies
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If you dont look for a stride you can only ever be up to 1/2 a stride wrong. Any horse with an ounce of scope can sort itself out and jump if it's a bit too close or a bit too far off.
If you start messing around with the stride, you can push the horse 3/4 of a stride too close of 3/4 of a stride too far off because ultimately they'll listen to you. This means the chances of sucessfully jumping the fence go down.

Thats just a little something I tell myself when I start to panic about seeing a stride. Sit there, balance and wait for the stride to come to you. Everyone's eyes kick in at different times so if you dont see it till the last 2 strides it wont matter if the quality of your canter is good enough as you can do a steady, steady or a push push without stifling the stride or pushing it too flat.
 
But... but... but... 1/2 strid is still 6ft! That seems huge! I can wait and wait and wait with A, but get doolally with PF even though she's actually much more of a contortionist and agile than he is. I think the key is, as you say, to calm down and to make my aids more subtle instead of my rib-crushing squeeze
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which is totally unnecessary and annoys her.
 
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OUT young lady! That's not learning about salmonella is it?!

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I'm going
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Talking about horses is so much more intersting.....
 
NEVER EVER mess in the last 3 strides, what will be will be. Concentrate on the quality of your canter between fences more, and remember just to LET IT COME. Honestly, you do not have to be worrying about it - make the spreads parallels then you cannot see the back pole
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PF it has been my mission this season to learn to sit and wait and not fiddle and not push to fences bigger than 1m, and I am finally getting somewhere - it has been v difficult!

I totally agree with everything Boss has said - you need a decent medium canter which flows round the turn then you wait for the fence.

My biggest problem was believing that he had the power to get over the fence if I didn't push - so I used grids with the first fence as a x-pole and then spreads or uprights for the other two getting progressively bigger so the last fence was at my 'bogey' height - there was no way I could do anything except wait, and it seems to have cleared the mental block I had - might help?
 
Ok, this might not be helpful but where do you look when you approach a spread? I used to look at the second pole which really seemed to mess everything up. When I started looking at the front pole I had much better results.

As to seeing a stride/ being confident with it you could work over canter poles (5-6) to get the rhythm and once you have it put a rather wide but small fence in the end. Then take away the poles starting from the one closest to the fence utnil you have just one indicating starting of the last three strides to the fence. My other tactic was to place a white tissue, half covered by the surface to keep it still, in the exact point of the take off (the most optimal in relation to the height of the fence) and I aimed to arrive at it
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It worked after about hundreds of misses
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Been there, done that etc....

It's just a confidence crisis on your part. I'm guessing that without even realising it you've started to back off the turn to the fence a little. Remember to ride your turn and you'll be fine.

Something my trainer got me to do was to start cantering a circle in what you think is the right rhythm for jumping. When you've got it, give it a speed...say 5mph for arguments sake. Then try and increase the tempo to 6 and even 7mph...then reduce it to 4mph...before coming back to 5mph again. Now try and jump the fence again...but from your 6mph approach instead of your 5mph one.....oh, and try to focus on something on the far side of the jump and not the fence itself.

You'll get it back again...it's not uncommon when you're riding two different horses
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Have same proplem but with verticals not spreads. Have to constantly tell myself not to fiddle and concentrate on the rythum of the canter. I have started to overcome it slowwly by placing a vertical five or six strides away from a spread so that i know I don't need to do anything. This has started to give me more confidnece in approaching a vertical without fiddling.
 
Keep the canter balance, forward and look up over the fence. If I ride this way I get it right most the time. If I start fiddling or do not have enough momentum it gets messy and we look awful and feel awful.
 
I am also going through this crisis at the moment of kicking for a spread and then being totally wrong at the next fence. Am going to try counting instead to make me sit still and not cock it up by sking for a long one at a spread so the next one is fine. I have been given two methods - one of counting 1,2,3,1,2,3 and the other of just counting 1 in order to keep the rhythm I will report back what is the most effective and whether it does work!
 
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