Author: elizabethfgreenberg

When I teach my students how to jump, we start with the basics:

• Position
• Flatwork
• Rhythm

The jump should be a continuation of your horse’s canter. For that to happen, you need to do your flatwork and use your position to help balance your horse.

The greatest mistakes I see riders making are:

1. Forgetting about flatwork around the turns, resulting in an unbalanced, confused horse with not enough track to find the jump.
2. Having a weak position and either hitting their horse’s back with their bum or catching their horse in the mouth with their hands.

In a George Morris clinic, he explained the importance of having a strong 2-point position. He asked his rider to show the 2-point at the walk, trot, and canter, both with and without stirrups. When she began to fatigue, he told her to grab mane to help hold herself up and out of the tack.

Why is our position important over a jump? Continue reading “The Best Jumping Advice You’re Not Taking” →

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. Continue reading “Forget the Jump, Think Ahead” →