Jumping for Dummies

[Tootsie4U]

Im looking for the most basic - quick tips - pointers, the most obvious stuff, of what the rider is supposed to be doing over a jump.

Before you all roll your eyes (:D ) Im fairly capable of taking my horse to the jump and out of the jump but I just haven't much clue about what to do one stride before the jump and where to put my body *over* the jump. How do you know if your butt is too far out of the saddle? How can you tell if you're releasing too much?

What do you expereinced jumpers look for in your position while you're riding to know you're doing it right or wrong?

[mokiegal180]

well some people prefer the "duck" which i highly dont recommend,but you reach your arm's far up oin the horses neck and lean to the side you want to turn next after the jump and put your head down on that side so you basically leaning forward.but dont lean to much and then your butt should be up in the air abit but about the normal heigh but before one stride you should have already collected yourself and should be focusing on the spot of the jump where your suppose to get in 2 point like 1 or 2 second's before the horse jumps over it,your butt does not need to be up in the air alot but it need's to be out of the saddle more then an inch,weight on the horses back isnt good.but you dont want to put all your weight on your hand's,focus on putting the weight in your heel's and your leg's will have the perfect position over the jump your heels wont be up and your leg wont be up your leg will be perfect.heel's down and under you. your hand's should be up on the horses neck not by the saddle and not right by the ear's maybe a little farther up then the middle and you should not lean all your body forward so your touching the horses neck with your body,unless your in the duck.ut in normal jumping position stand up and lean forward a bit not to little but not a huge number and when you go over the jump your will get a very natural jumping position which is good.but make sure your hands are forward or else this position will not work.

[horse__obsessed]

How do you know if your butt is too far out of the saddle? How can you tell if you're releasing too much?
You'll fall out of the saddle over your horse's ears;)
Your horse will stop and eat the garss after the jump on the end of a very long rein after the jump... or he'll stop and admire his perfectly manicued hooves:cool:

[Mehitabel]

you should ideally keep the same contact on the mouth over the fence - youer hands follow his head. so if his head moves forward six inches, you release six inches. if it goes a foot, your hands go a foot.

http://groups.msn.com/NRphotos/esspictures.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=190 - in this pic and the next one you can see how my upper body position has actually not changed that much approaching and going over the fence, my arms have just followed her head over the fence. this is xc, so i was doing it all out of the saddle.

if you lose contact on the reins so you throw them at the horse, that is too much. you don't want a loop in your reins at any stage of the proceedings - if the horse is well trained and seeks a contact, if you throw the hands forward his head will thunk forwards and he will go on the forehand and knock the fence - you'll 'drop' him.

if you fold too much and bring your bum out of the saddle too far your weight is likely to go forward toofast and land on his shoulders, making it harder for him to pick them up over the fence. i'm doing that a bit in this one - http://groups.msn.com/NRphotos/esspictures.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=185
had i been on the little pony in the first pics, i'd have pushed her shoulders down and reduced the chances of clearing the fence. the old git has scope to burn and i am not big on him, and as you can see i didn't affect his giving a good clearance to the fence.
my position is better in this one - i don't need to be that far out of the saddle, but i'm more balanced and not leaning on his neck. also as he has stretched more, my hands are further forward than in the last one, as he is further along in the jump so has done the 'up' bit and is now lengthening over the wider bit of the arc. http://groups.msn.com/NRphotos/esspictures.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=184

then this one still further on - http://groups.msn.com/NRphotos/esspictures.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=170
he is landing so is stretching still, my hands are with him but my body is just beginning to think about sitting back - my head is higher, not as near his neck.

[Tootsie4U]

THank you :)

I think I have a good enough feel to follow his head but I struggle with timing before the jump.

Unfortunately, in the only real lesson I ever had over a fence I was taught to get into my 2 point well in advance (something like 10 strides before). So I never learnt to wait for the correct striding or what I should be feeling for to know when to lift out of the saddle.

I "winged" it last night and popped the boy over a few cross rails. I tried waiting until it just felt right but I have a feeling Im way ahead of him. Im working on getting someone out to help me.

[notpoodle]

'jump for joy with julia and angel' - or: how not to do it :D

trot up to jump, on take off close eyes, throw reins away, hang in ponies mane and hurl upper body as far forwards as possible. on landing, reopen eyes, rearrange and find reins again .... and this over a 'jump' thats under 1ft high :rolleyes:

Julia
x

[Mehitabel]

if you can follow his head over the fence, then think of following it as he takes off too. your hands follow his head and your upper body follows your hands.

going into position early is useful for geting the feel of the fence, but personally it's something i only ask people to do for a few lessons and once they are used to the feel of the jump and it's not taking them by surprise, i ask them to stop.

everything you do should be mirroring what he does - so if you are giving your hands and nothing is 'taking' them, you are going too early. of course you don;t want him to be pulling you out of the saddle (i know you know this, but to avoid misinterpretation...) and you being left behind, but you know the subtle following i mean.
did a google image search for sjhowjumping to see if i could find some examples

http://www.horsemagazine.com/CLINIC/B/BRIDEOAKE_DAVID/brideoake1pictwo.jpeg - the rider is just starting to follwo the horse forward as the horse starts looking at the jump - bum still in saddle, upper body ready to either sit back and push if needed or go with the horse as it takes off.

http://www.horsemagazine.com/CLINIC/B/BRIDEOAKE_DAVID/brideoake1pic6.jpg - small jump so he's not moved much - bum out of saddle but body still fairly upright and contact maintained
actually al lths pics on that page show how he is folowing the horse only as much as it takes - http://www.horsemagazine.com/CLINIC/B/BRIDEOAKE_DAVID/dbtimid.htm

ii'll keep looking in my spare moments at work and post again if i see anything that looks especially relevant.

[Tootsie4U]

I guess most of it is just learning the feel. As with most things riding related. :rolleyes:

Your second link there Mehitabel brought up another question. If you're following the head correctly and out of the saddle appropriately, should your hands be off the neck or resting lightly on the neck (or neither)? In that photo, it appears his hands are lightly touching the horses neck and I then wonder what sort of release he'll be giving.

Now I've got my thinker going :D

Also, as you follow the head and bend from the waist, is that enough movement needed to follow the head, or do you also need to open the angle of your elbow too?

Gawd, Im making this complicated aren't I!?!?

[Mehitabel]

not resting, but touching is fair enough. you don't want them pressing in to the neck so it's hard ot move them forward if needed, but i personally think i'ts fine to slide them down the neck touching it. it may be one of those habits that'd come back and bite me in the bum if i were to start SJing properly, but i've never had a problem or had it mentioned in exams having hands touching the neck.

it does look almost as if he is holding the mane in some of them, but i doubt he actually is - i'd expect his hands are just either side of it ready to go where they're taken.

[Mehitabel]

Also, as you follow the head and bend from the waist, is that enough movement needed to follow the head, or do you also need to open the angle of your elbow too?
forgot this bit.

depends on the jump. you can stay more upright and straighten the arms, or you can fold and keep more bend, or half-and-half. i tend to fold first and then keep bent elbows - i find it easier to straighten my arms quickly if i need more than i have anticipated than to fold more if my arms were already straight, you can see it in my second pic of me jumping.

YM here has done the opposite - http://groups.msn.com/NRphotos/esspictures.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=201

she won't get headbutted in the face if the horse pecks and throws its head upwards on landing to balance, whereas i might. i am also more at risk of going over the front if the horse trips on landing as my upper body is further forward so i have less chance of sitting back and saving myself.

it was always one of my faults, folding my body too much - the old git was so safe that i got lazy. it's not a defensive style - staying more upright will keep you out of trouble more, which is why it's more seen in XC.

[Tootsie4U]

That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the help.

Got an email back from a free lance who can come up to help me Saturday mornings. Now I just have to convince hubby to watch the baby...

[laura jeanne]

I just had a very few jumping lessons. But I'm going to give my 2 cents worth anyway.

The main thing that I learned was to keep my ankles and knees flexible so that the movement of the horse jumping is taken up in your legs. (If you watch a jockey, their backs stay fairly still in relation to the horse's back and the movement is taken up in their legs like an accordion!) So don't stiffen up your legs and launch yourself up his neck. Your bum should stay back over the saddle and your arms stretch forward some?? I'm assuming that you will be jumping fairly small jumps so you don't really have to fold too much. Don't bend at the waist since you need to keep your back straight. I think that the combination of straight back, head up, arms forward and bum back will give you all the fold (from the hip joint) you need over a small jump or cross pole without "trying" to fold. I always thought that Shaka's jumping pictures were great for looking at position.

So I hope that is all not too far off the mark!! What do you think?

[Cheeky]

Heya ..

It's all about feel. I am not a jumper myself, as much as I would love to be, I just do the little ones with Cheek because he hasn't got the .. speed .. for jumping, which turns jumping into pouncing .. which is still fun.

It's all about feel - for some strange reason, no matter where I am, I can tell you exactly where 4 strides of canter I am away from the jump - and then I count out aloud so Cheek can hear, "4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. up!" .. I don't know how or why I learnt that .. but I can :p But my sister, who jumping is her life .. cannot do this! She just cannot figure out how to tell the strides.

Some flat work exercises to help you with this, is extending and shortening the stride. This will help you get a bit moe incontrol of the jump. After this, set up a double jump .. like this: X = a jump, - = canter strides

X----X ... get the measurements out, and make it so its 4 canter strides in between the jumps .. you can then count out aloud to get this. Then, after you master four, make it 3 by extending the stride, and 5 by shortening. Have a play :)

That is something that my old RI drilled into me .. and if you want to go into show jumping, you can then count the distance between jumps by your steps :)

You can then test yourself with a course like .. X----X--X----X-X .. etc .. :)

I hope that helped .. with these, you should be able to start to 'feel' the strides, so you can judge the 2 strides before hand :)

[jenren!!]

Depending on how much balance you have, it is all about being able to feel when the horse takes off, then you just go with it. Just wait til the fence comes to you, and you should be able to feel when the horse is about to take off. The problem with having a forward seat is that if you come to the jump and the horse stops, off you go. Sit up tall, wait for the fence to come to you, and practise going with the horse when he takes off. You will begin to recognise the feel of when the horse is about to take off.

Jenny xx

[KateWooten]

One thing I've found recently that fast-forwarded my 'feel' over jumps is to have lots and lots of pictures taken. Or video even better. Go out there with 3 jumps and a digital camera and do them, watch the video, do them again, watch the video again. For me, that experience has been priceless ... I can see from the pics of other people what I should look like but actually developing he correct muscle memory to achieve that has been very hard without being able to see exactly what I am doing.

[booboo]

i also find practising while in the car over speed bumps to get the stride ha soemone once mentioned it on here and it really did help me now most of the tiem i am able to figure out a stride using 3-2-1 JUMP hehe
i also foudn geting lunged over jumps while keeping my eyes closed! that wya you will feel when the horse is taking off and not jump infront of the horse.
xxx

[cvb]

Your second link there Mehitabel brought up another question. If you're following the head correctly and out of the saddle appropriately, should your hands be off the neck or resting lightly on the neck (or neither)? In that photo, it appears his hands are lightly touching the horses neck and I then wonder what sort of release he'll be giving.

that's a "crest release" (along the crest)
the alternative is a "neck release" where you release straight towards the bit.


Also, as you follow the head and bend from the waist, is that enough movement needed to follow the head, or do you also need to open the angle of your elbow too?

depends on the jump. You're going to start with just a fold, and add in the elbow angle as the jump gets bigger. It should be a natural following of the horse rather than something you do in a calculated way.

In a way, just think how you follow the horse into canter. Jumping is just a bigger canter stride, so you have to follow more. But its better if its natural rather than mechanical.

[galadriel]

So I never learnt to wait for the correct striding or what I should be feeling for to know when to lift out of the saddle.

Pushing yourself out of the saddle often puts you ahead of the horse--sometimes you end up behind the motion. Wait for his body to push you up and out of the saddle. Since his back is flexing as he prepares to jump, and the change in his back is relative to the height he's going to jump, letting him push you out of the saddle also lets you rise as far as you need to for that jump.

If you rise out of the saddle early, then your horse decides to make this a REALLY high jump, you're both far ahead to keep your balance well, *and* you're not prepared for the height of the jump. If you try to time it yourself and you come up out of the saddle late, you're more likely to fall behind the motion and yank your horse's mouth. If he decides to jump early or throw in an extra stride, it is very hard for you to guess accurately about the right time to come up out of the saddle.