jump question

[carrimclaren]

Could someone possibly answer a jumping query i have?

When teaching a novice to jump a double should the 1st fence be the harder one or the second fence?

Basically my old instructor used to teach me with the first fence as a small crosspole/upright leading onto a larger upright/spread.
My new teacher (best friend) taught me last night over an upright leading onto a smaller upright. She explained that i'm quite calm and collected leading into my first fence but seem to lose the plot in the middle. Which is quite true. She said that when teaching novices she makes the second fence smaller so a) they don't worry as much and b) it's easier if you can just pop out. This makes sense and really did work last night. I ended up jumping about 2ft 9 which i was really chuffed with.

So i suppose what i would like to know is which method is really the proper one? I just feel like my old instructor was pushing me too much and didn't do my confidence much good.

[westley_jacobs]

well, im not too sure wether this is correct but we used to have the harder one firt, then an easier one.

(dont know if this is right, but thats how i was taught)
;)

[kedwards]

As a general rule, I'll raise or widen a second fence before the first (assuming the double is set on a natural striding distance). However, it really depends on what I'm trying to accomplish.