Hi!
Does anyone have any tips on how to improve by ability to place a horse correctly to a fence?
The horse I ride (Charlie) used to jump BSJA up to foxhunter 1.20m and had a very good jockey who always places her horses perfectly to every fence.
Charlie is 19 now and semi-retired but still really talented and I get to ride a brilliant schoolmaster! She's very responsive and will shorten and lengthen her stride as you ask. The problem is she is used to a rider who asks her to change her stride in order to find the perfect take-off point - but I'm rubbish at spotting this!
It isn't really an issue with smaller fences as she has enough scope to clear them from a bad stride - but we're now progressing to 1m classes and I've had a few hairy moments and even a couple of stops (she never stops!) because we've been on a really bad stride to a big parallel and I've lost my confidence and stopped riding her forward because I just can't see how she will clear it.
I could do with some schooling exercises or just hints and tips to help me to see my stride better and from further away - at the moment by the time I can tell what kind of stride I'm on its too late to do anything about it!
Does anyone have any tips on how to improve by ability to place a horse correctly to a fence?
The horse I ride (Charlie) used to jump BSJA up to foxhunter 1.20m and had a very good jockey who always places her horses perfectly to every fence.
Charlie is 19 now and semi-retired but still really talented and I get to ride a brilliant schoolmaster! She's very responsive and will shorten and lengthen her stride as you ask. The problem is she is used to a rider who asks her to change her stride in order to find the perfect take-off point - but I'm rubbish at spotting this!
It isn't really an issue with smaller fences as she has enough scope to clear them from a bad stride - but we're now progressing to 1m classes and I've had a few hairy moments and even a couple of stops (she never stops!) because we've been on a really bad stride to a big parallel and I've lost my confidence and stopped riding her forward because I just can't see how she will clear it.
I could do with some schooling exercises or just hints and tips to help me to see my stride better and from further away - at the moment by the time I can tell what kind of stride I'm on its too late to do anything about it!