Seeing a Stride

[Bently]

not sure if this is the right place for this sort of thread but I'll try a few other places too

So my issue isn't so much 'seeing a stride' as 'seeing the correct one', or possibly 'riding to the correct stride'.

My mare has a fab pop on her, we're competing up to 90 right now and she's popped 1.30 with ease at home, but I can't see us going any higher for a while until we can confidently hit the correct stride 9 times out of 10 :/

My problem is that as I approach a jump I can see a short way out where her stride will take us; I can see if she's going to go long, I can see if we're going to get a nice stride and I can see when we're going to get short, but I can't do anything to change the stride I'm on! :/

So for example, I'm cantering into a jump and I can see we're going to get very close to the jump and she's going to have to awkwardly haul herself over it....what should I do?

And similarly with a long stride I can't help but push for it as I can't see how I can change her canter to get the perfect stride?

Could it be I need a more adjustable canter? So for example if I'm coming in on a short stride I should shorten or lengthen and then I'll see a better one? And likewise if I'm coming in long I'll shorten and meet the jump on a better distance??

Getting the correct stride is so very complicated, but also essential as it's hindering my progress at the moment!

 

[KP nut]

You need to sort it on the flat first. You need to be able to extend or collect the canter as needed. Canter poles are useful - set up 2 sets of them, one set wider apart and one set closer then adjust the canter as needed. And have this exercise well established in trot first too.
Good flatwork is essential for jumping as you get to bigger courses. Not just to see strides but to get the right kind of canter for the type of jump you are coming to.

 

[joosie]

So for example, I'm cantering into a jump and I can see we're going to get very close to the jump and she's going to have to awkwardly haul herself over it....what should I do?

Short answer - nothing Once you're on the approach to the jump you must leave her alone! A good stride comes from a good-quality canter and a good turn, both of which require the horse to be well balanced and have the right amount of impulsion (forward but not rushing). If you have got those right, a good stride will usually come on its own... and even if it doesn't, fiddling and interfering in the final strides is not the answer. Whether you see a "perfect" stride, a long stride or a short stride, you must ride it the same - sit still, keep your leg on, and let your horse sort herself out. Theoretically you don't need to "ride for a long one" - if you've seen a long one, so has she The key is to keep a consistent canter, rather than constantly shortening and lengthening which makes it hard for your horse to get into a nice rhythm.

It sounds like you are over-thinking the whole thing, and over-riding her as a result of your uncertainty. It's so easy to get caught up in obsessing over strides that you forget to just keep a consistent canter and let the horse make their own adjustments when necessary. I used to obsess over strides too because I'm not the most confident when it comes to jumping, but something that helped me immensely was riding courses of ground poles. Set up a little course of jump wings with ground poles instead of actual jumps, and just ride around it focusing on the quality of the canter and the accuracy of your turns. You'll find that your horse manages to canter easily over all the poles without breaking out of her rhythm. There should theoretically be no difference when you turn those ground poles into jumps, If you ride the course the same way.

 

[Bently]

You need to sort it on the flat first. You need to be able to extend or collect the canter as needed. Canter poles are useful - set up 2 sets of them, one set wider apart and one set closer then adjust the canter as needed. And have this exercise well established in trot first too.
Good flatwork is essential for jumping as you get to bigger courses. Not just to see strides but to get the right kind of canter for the type of jump you are coming to.

Thank you! I think I knew this deep down and funnily enough I was doing this exact exercise this morning my mare found shortening tricky but she's only 6 and my dressage instructor and I are working on her canter, getting it less 'four-timey' and using her hind end more so hopefully it will come

 

[Bently]

Short answer - nothing Once you're on the approach to the jump you must leave her alone! A good stride comes from a good-quality canter and a good turn, both of which require the horse to be well balanced and have the right amount of impulsion (forward but not rushing). If you have got those right, a good stride will usually come on its own... and even if it doesn't, fiddling and interfering in the final strides is not the answer. Whether you see a "perfect" stride, a long stride or a short stride, you must ride it the same - sit still, keep your leg on, and let your horse sort herself out. Theoretically you don't need to "ride for a long one" - if you've seen a long one, so has she The key is to keep a consistent canter, rather than constantly shortening and lengthening which makes it hard for your horse to get into a nice rhythm.

It sounds like you are over-thinking the whole thing, and over-riding her as a result of your uncertainty. It's so easy to get caught up in obsessing over strides that you forget to just keep a consistent canter and let the horse make their own adjustments when necessary. I used to obsess over strides too because I'm not the most confident when it comes to jumping, but something that helped me immensely was riding courses of ground poles. Set up a little course of jump wings with ground poles instead of actual jumps, and just ride around it focusing on the quality of the canter and the accuracy of your turns. You'll find that your horse manages to canter easily over all the poles without breaking out of her rhythm. There should theoretically be no difference when you turn those ground poles into jumps, If you ride the course the same way.

Thank you very much! Again - I think I knew this deep down! You are right about impulsion, my mare is beautifully rhythmical and does very well dressage because of this but her natural rhythm is very very slow As soon as I 'wind her up a bit more' I do find the strides usually fall into place much more smoothly

I do think you're right about the over-thinking and over-riding...I keep myself up at night by obsessing over it! I think I'll keep myself at 80s for now and have a play with her impulsion because as I said, I find when I push her into a more forward rhythm the strides fall into place! Thank you very much!

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

Short answer - nothing Once you're on the approach to the jump you must leave her alone! A good stride comes from a good-quality canter and a good turn, both of which require the horse to be well balanced and have the right amount of impulsion (forward but not rushing). If you have got those right, a good stride will usually come on its own... and even if it doesn't, fiddling and interfering in the final strides is not the answer. Whether you see a "perfect" stride, a long stride or a short stride, you must ride it the same - sit still, keep your leg on, and let your horse sort herself out. Theoretically you don't need to "ride for a long one" - if you've seen a long one, so has she The key is to keep a consistent canter, rather than constantly shortening and lengthening which makes it hard for your horse to get into a nice rhythm.

It sounds like you are over-thinking the whole thing, and over-riding her as a result of your uncertainty. It's so easy to get caught up in obsessing over strides that you forget to just keep a consistent canter and let the horse make their own adjustments when necessary. I used to obsess over strides too because I'm not the most confident when it comes to jumping, but something that helped me immensely was riding courses of ground poles. Set up a little course of jump wings with ground poles instead of actual jumps, and just ride around it focusing on the quality of the canter and the accuracy of your turns. You'll find that your horse manages to canter easily over all the poles without breaking out of her rhythm. There should theoretically be no difference when you turn those ground poles into jumps, If you ride the course the same way.

You saved me typing. At the end of the day you can't lift the horse over a jump when you think it should jump. As stated above a good canter, nice line then leave alone.

When you go to a comp or training session they don't alter the the course to suit your horses stride length so you need to learn to push on or hold back but none of that will actually effect 'where' the horse will take off from.

I was jumping last week just an 80 course but the stride between the double meant I had to push for three where my mate on her horse had to hold for three. If I didnt push he would pop in another short horrid stride to me that is the only time I think about striding on a horse between doubles/trebbles. All the other jumps I just aimed at some he took lovely a one he went to deep nothing I can do about that I can say 'jump' but hey guess what that doesn;t work

 

[squidsin]

I always think this about strides when I see posts like this - surely the horse knows best? It's the one that's actually going to have to jump the thing, so why do we, as the rider, think we know better? Maybe it's just my jumping ignorance as I've never jumped anything more than 80cms and I just leave it to my horse as I know she can do that easily. (She can - and has - jumped 80cms from a standstill!) She sometimes chops in a short stride which isn't pleasant but that's generally just because she hasn't got enough impulsion - I see it as my job to ensure the rhythm and impulsion is good enough to get us round (and that's still a work in progress!) and the rest is up to her. I literally can't see a stride. Never have been able to! This is possibly why we're not likely to be flying round Hickstead any day soon....!

 

[Bently]

Thank you everyone! So in short - I need a rhythmical, balanced canter with lots of impulsion and my job is just to keep that canter and get her straight to the fence whilst she works out her legs?