Train to shorten or lengthening the stride to make the distance for showjumping?

Sauerkraut

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Hey everyone,

So today I’ve meassured my sec D and I really don’t think I will be able to squeeze him into 148 to be the next BSJ pony when my daughter moves up from her 138.

Now this leaves me either to sell him and get myself something bigger to compete myself OR register him as a horse with BSJ and compete in seniors. But that means he has to cope with full on horse strides and currently he struggles with triple combinations. He doesn’t make the distance on the last fence especially if it’s let’s say 2 strides and a wide oxer.

My question is: Would you train to make the distance, so trying to lengthening his stride OR train to shorten his stride to be able to put another one in without being too close and leap over?

Hope my question makes sense to you all. Thanks for the advice I advance. Popcorn for you all

Tess
 

Shay

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Sec D's usually do better going long - but that will limit the height you can make. BS is generally quite competative so if you're trying to make your way with something not quite suited you are, I'm afraid, going to spend a lot of time out of the ribbons. Its really up to you whether that matters. If you are happy doing what he can cope with then great. But if you are going to spend months - or years - trying to make him into something he is not you'll make both him and you miserable.
 

JustMe22

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Personally, I'd shorten in those sort of distances. Less chance of knocking at bigger fences and will produce a better jump.

Having said that we have a 13.3hh pony at our yard who competes in adult classes with no issues whatsoever, and they solve the problem by going everywhere VERY fast 😂
 

be positive

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One of the worst lessons I watched was a trainer trying to get a group of PC team riders to jump off a long one, every small horse and pony got less confident, flattened, stopped and still she told them to kick on to get the distance, one little horse that I knew well never coped with that trainer and ended up stopping more often than jumping clear at competitions so unless your pony is going to genuinely cope with being hassled out of his natural stride I would aim to shorten and get him a bit deep, if you keep the power he should be fine at the lower levels of BS.
I have had a lot of ponies jump tracks built to horse distances and most are clever enough to make their own minds up if the rider keeps the revs up and keeps relatively quiet in combinations, some will go long, some shorten and some do both depending on the circumstances when they are there.
 

scats

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I rode a pony in senior classes back in the late 90s and I simply left her to it. She had absolutely no problem with the distances and sorted herself out. She was an absolute machine though.

I’ve seen more accident caused by riders trying to interfere with strides than by leaving the horse alone to do it themselves. Provided they’ve got the impulsion coming into a combination, the majority will sort themselves out.
 

tristar

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develop longitudinal suppleness through the spine by developing collection, so the horse can shorten and lengthen the stride and come underneath themselves as they feel they need to, like a tool in their box when needed, then leave the horse alone
 

Sauerkraut

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Thanks all,

I really don’t want to go to the top with him. I’d like to compete around the metre maybe 1.10m while my daughter is still on her 138 and we see what she does afterwards. If she moves up to him I’ll get myself something bigger again and might take it up a notch but that’s in the distant future.

He can turn quite well so I can shorten some ways it’s just the combinations I worry about. He was quite green in his flat work so once he is better in more collection we might progress with the strides and impulsion too.

He is just too sweet to sell on. Or I’m just not cut out for buying/selling lol
 

Lammy

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My D in her heyday was pinging her way round 1 metre courses. We occasionally took a long one (when she wanted too!) but most of the time I asked her to shorten and sit back. She was very whizzy and didn’t particularly like being asked to hold off an extra stride but she was great at using her very powerful back end to spring over when we got in deep. I was very lucky in that she never ever once touched a pole...unfortunately we were always beaten on pace in the jump off :D
 

rara007

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My 15hh D was a pro at fitting in extra strides and no amount of riding would change his mind- he already knew before you got to the combination how many strides he was putting in, you might find if he has a pony brain though not textbook he still meets everything spot on. With mines previous rider he did BS but I'm not much of a jumper.
 
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