2 Exercises to Tune Your Eye for Jumps, Part 2

Exercise 2: Three Verticals on an S-Curve

The next exercise builds on the skills you learned in Exercise 1 by adding a change of bend in the middle to improve your horse's flexibility and steering aids.

Setup: Arrange three verticals on a two-loop serpentine (see diagram at right), measuring distances of five and one-half strides (78 feet) on curved lines ?between the centers of each jump. Set the jumps at the height you normally jump, with ground lines on both sides. As with Exercise 1, be sure there's plenty of room to approach and exit all of the jumps from either direction.

Begin with the same organized, balanced canter you used in the five-stride version of Exercise 1, with your upper body tall and close to the vertical. Approach Fence 1 on the right lead, this time on a straight line. Be patient, allowing your horse to find a comfortably deep takeoff spot, so he lands in the same contained, balanced canter. Using both legs and reins, gently guide him to the right in the air while focusing your eyes on Fence 2. Ride your whole horse around the bend with both reins and legs, asking him to fit six, equal strides into the line. (If he had trouble fitting the five strides into the half-circle exercise, widen the curves of your lines again here, so he can fit in the six comfortably.)

As he takes off over Fence 2, look straight ahead down the diagonal track. Continue cantering well past Fence 3, before looking back over your left shoulder to make a rollback turn to it. (If he lands on the wrong lead, make a flying change before the turn.) Maintain the steady, balanced canter to another quiet takeoff in anticipation of the next six strides in the broken line to Fence 2. Turn your eyes to it as soon as possible to encourage him to land on his right lead. Ride the steady six strides just as you did the first broken line. If he doesn't land on the right lead, don't try to make a flying change in the middle of the line. Let him figure out that it's more comfortable landing on the correct lead.

Over Fence 2, focus your eyes again on the diagonal track so you can land and canter straight away before gradually transitioning to halt or walk.

Repeat this "add" exercise a few times before increasing to a show-ring pace in the approach and asking for the more forward five strides in each distance. As with the "Hunter Four" striding in the half-circle exercise, you can ride slightly shallower turns, inside the tracks you rode for the six-stride lines, to make the forward distance easier.

When you're comfortably riding both the added and regular distances in the above course, put the two broken lines together to ride from Fence 1 to 2 to 3 (or from Fence 3 to 2 to 1, which will ride exactly the same), first in six strides each, then in five. Again, use your eyes to focus on each new destination and pay as much attention to your track in the approaches to the jumps as you do after the landings.

Troubleshooting

When jumping either of these broken-line exercises, here's how to correct the most common problems:

1. The mistake: When riding the "add" striding, you get a long takeoff spot to the first fence. As a result, you have less control of your horse's stride and direction on landing, so you have to scramble to recover in time to try to make the correct distance to the next jump. The fix: Take plenty of time to arrive at the first jump in an organized, balanced canter and on the appropriate track. Then be patient, waiting for a quiet, relatively deep takeoff spot. This way, your horse will land balanced and organized, ready to fit in the striding to the next jump.

2. The mistake: Your horse drifts off the track toward the outside of the broken line, forcing you to overcorrect to get back to the center of the next fence. This changes the distance in the line, producing a long and/or awkward takeoff. Note: Because horses usually have a "good side" and a "bad side," this may happen to you more frequently in one direction than in the other. The fix: Set yourself up for the broken lines by having your horse's body perpendicular to the jumps (or even slightly angled from the outside to the inside) as he goes over them. Be sure to use both legs and reins to hold his whole body on the chosen track. To correct a bulge to the outside, use stronger outside aids than inside aids.

3. The mistake: Your horse cuts to the inside of the track, arriving at the next jump at an angle and on an awkward distance. The fix: Again, ride your whole horse around the turns, using both reins and legs. In this case, add a little extra inside leg pressure to push him out to the track.

Happy Riding!