Forget the Jump, Think Ahead

My students love to jump.

When I first started working with them, they were still practicing your basic hunter course. Their focus was more on getting over the fence instead of riding the course. They have come a long way in the year and a half that I’ve been teaching them, and are now working on things like bending lines, roll backs, long approach single oxers, and serpentine lines. No matter what I throw at them, they take it on like champs. Despite the more challenging courses, I noticed my students were still riding each jump as a single instead of thinking ahead to land their leads and make the inside turns.

This exercise is challenging by nature, which is why it became a phenomenal teacher for my riders (ages 12 & up) and they loved it. For the horses, it helped them to become more in tune with their riders and learn how to jump straight.

How To Ride The Exercise

I prefer to set the first two fences shorter and trot in.

Part I

Trot in, canter out bending right in three strides.

Part II

Trot in, canter out bending left in two strides.

Part III

Trot in, canter out straight in four strides.

Additional Challenge: Set the four-stride line on the shorter side to encourage your horse to back off the fence.

How To Teach The Exercise

This exercise teaches riders to be active riders and plan ahead for the next jump. It’s a great aid when learning how to use an opening, guiding rein and look to the next fence to help indicate the proper lead to land on.

The first two fences are meant to be ridden straight. It is then up to the rider to communicate to their horse what fence three will be. The rider needs to look for fence three and ask their horse to land on the proper lead and either ride up, wait or remain consistent for the exercise to work out smoothly.