Showjumping

[asheesh]

I have a 9 yr old hanoverian geld. We are jumping at the advance level, however off late i get a little confused 'seeing the distance' at the approach to the jump. the heights i get a little hassled with are 1.30 meters and above. help.

[rockstar7]

although i don't jump 1.30m, just 1.20m, i have a few ideas which might work with you. i suggest you practice over grids with the last fence being to 1.30m, then you'll start 'feeling' your distance better. the general rule is that the height of the jump is the how far from the base of the fence you'll be taking off, give or take a little. if you get sick of the grids exercise, try jumping smaller fences while looking to the side, this way you put your trust in the horse to get the distance and learn to depend on him sometimes. good luck and tell us how it goes!! :)

[Amy L]

BE CAREFUL!! because putting a 1.30m jump at the end of a grid is asking an awful lot from your horse, no matter how good he may be. Jumping a grid is v hard work and involves a lot of strain on muscles etc so make sure you are careful.
I used to have a hang up about distances for that height but I found that I was concentrating too much on the height of the jump and not on my approach and quality of canter. Don't get too absorbed in the height that you are jumping.
Make sure you have a good forward going canter with lots of impulsion and DONT LOOK DOWN as this will unbalance your horse. Do you find that you are standing off or that you are getting too deep?

[asheesh]

Thanks Rockstar Thanks Amy. Yes i will try to let the horse judge the jump; but this can only be for smaller heights. Amy you are right.. i am getting too involved with the jump per se and not concentrating on the canter quality or the impulsion. Although I do not have a problem with impulsion sometimes i feel i could come in at a better balanced canter. Yes i have a bad habit of looking down. I am going to make an effort to start looking ahead. I tend to get in a little too deep with these heights.

Do you people ride regularly. I ride everyday and and jump twice a week.

I have been doing grids without any problems because in a grid if you get the first one right and you get all of them perfectly. I have done more than 1.30 in a grid without any tension in my mind and hence there is no tension in the horse!!

[Amy L]

I ride as often as i can but as i'm a student it's very hard!! Do not approach the jump unless you have a controlled canter. Make sure you keep your leg on and as I said before don't get hung up about the height. If you are frequently getting in too deep then put a placing pole just infront of the jump. Not a stride away but just a little bit to encourage your horse to leave the ground earlier. Make sure the jump has a good groundline anyway so that your horse can see what he has to do. Also make sure that you give your horse a long enough run up so that he can also start to work out when to take off instead of you always telling him.

But the most important thing to remember is that it is no different from a 1m jump so try to jump it the same and concentrate on not getting worried or looking down.

It sounds like you are having the biggest problem with seeing a stride. To help this put 2 poles on the ground quite far away from each other and practice riding between them in the number of strides that you want. Eg do 4 strides and 5 strides . Also practice lengthening your stride using this exercise by doing it in 3 strides. If you can see a stride and have the control to lengthen it when you need to then you WILL be able to jump this height successfully.

Good luck.

Amy xxx

[asheesh]

thanks a lot Amy. I tried out the striding between two poles. I got in five strides to begin with then did the same in three and later incresed to four and then i would set a 'target' for number of strides i wanted and do it. got it wrong a couple times though.

i guess it will definitely help in my "seeing the strides" before a jump. Did a 1m course (8 jumps no combinations) of verticals and parallels today. only once i came in too deep as there were only two strides after a turn. realised my legs were not on.

thanks a lot

keep in touch

[rockstar7]

to answer your question, i ride 6 times a week and jump twice a week. amy L is completely right about the striding exercise, that should really help you out because it helps me out whenever i feel my eye getting a little fuzzy... i actually did that same exercise today, with 1m oxers. a normal 5 stride, but i got as high as an extremely tight 7 and as little as 3! rock star is an AMAZING horse. :) anyway, wish i could think of more exercises right now, but can't think of any at the moment! i'm completely exhausted from my ride today, well good luck!

[Rachel C.]

I don't think I'm as experienced jumping as any of you (I jump 1.20 metres maximum @home) but I think that first its best to go back to smaller fences, try putting in some placing poles a stride away from the jump so that you can physically see the stride! Then when you approach a fence without the placing pole, imagine it there and ride for that pole, then you should find the fence comes easily.

Hope that helps!