At 09:18:00 on 26.11.09, Flicka wrote:
This is something a lot of us get in a muddle with by trying to hard. It's also something we can really lose our confidence over. I was taught that it's our job to get the horse in a good rhythm and then to leave him alone and let him do the jumping. Easier said than done I think for some of us!! Obviously as the horse progresses we need to be able to shorten and lengthen the stride so that we can make slight adjustments. Where is the best place to make these adjustments though? What exercises can we do to improve this? When I watched Tim Stockdale he did a really funny demo off his horse on how most of us jump by equating it to us stepping up a kerb when we've crossed the road. He said we just judge it and take it in our stride. He did it normally and then in the style (using a pole) of many people jumping, doing really funny short steps and then rushing at it at the last moment-hilarious and a lot of us could recognize ourselves there!!

At 15:30:47 on 29.12.09, Natasha wrote:
I no this is realy youseful tip. Put a pole about 2 strides before the jump and about 3 or 4 strides after the jump . it helps the horse to shorten the strides and to think were to put his feet! It realy helped me with my jumping hop it does with you! x

At 18:23:33 on 29.12.09, sophieandcallum wrote:
I just keep to one length of stride at a constant speed otherwise poor boy gets muddled up with his feet and all goes out the window! Needless to say we won't be doing any HUGE courses so I think we're okay as we are! I definately can't leave my boy to it, due to him being green I really have to try for him to make it as easy as possible to boost his confidence and it has really worked and he really enjoys it just have to make sure I don't forget how muddled up his baby brain can get lol! My friends pony who is 13.2 he does 1m30 courses, I love watching him the striding is just superb and you can see how she asked him for different lengths of stride and he tries his little heart out and shows all those huge horses how to do it! lol

At 23:53:54 on 13.01.10, kibby wrote:
The two biggest things I'm reminded from my coach, is fix it early and if you cant see it leave it alone. A huge problem i see a lot is when people start to try to ride distances and strides is they panic when the cant see there spot so they hunt their horses (been there done that, causes many problems, lol). The big thing i do with my babies now, is if i have them in the round yard i always have one or two poles in there, this get them watching the poles and thinking about their feet. Same with around the arena, have a few poles on the ground ride up to them and try to fix the stride so you are in the perfect take off place.. hope this is helpful!

At 21:40:21 on 31.01.10, Kiera wrote:
Hi Kibby, I agree, this is a really good tip thanks for reminding me. Just a word of warning if you are using a pole on the far side of a jump - best to use one that doesn't roll (so a plank or square cut pole). I've seen trainers use them to try and slow horses down, but if they don't see it and tread on a round pole they can move and the horse slips. I saw a nasty fetlock injury because of that once. Has anyone used pole pods? Little plastic risers to raise the level of the pole a few inches and stop the poles rolling if they are kicked I guess. Look like a good idea but I've not seen them being used and seem expensive.

At 23:02:45 on 03.02.10, kibby wrote:
i think they are great! stop them rolling, and stop them getting water damage from lying on the ground..

At 08:38:52 on 04.02.10, Flicka wrote:
I've got a Tim Stockdale vid and he uses flat light planks instead of poles in front of and behind jumps for this very reason. I found some old bits we had lying around and painted them white for using after the jumps. I agree with Kibby as well babies need to be allowed to make mistakes and work things out for themselves. I always think poles on the ground can be used in lots of different and beneficial ways for this purpose.

At 02:50:01 on 05.02.10, kibby wrote:
ground poles are my saviors.. lol had a lot of trouble seeing strides so my coach introduced on infront of the jump. We bounced the rail on the ground to the jump (if this makes any sense to you, lol), it helped an amazing amount. Then with my other horse we encouraged her to round through the air by doing the opposite to the rail in front, and placed it behind, so rather than her take of and jump flat through the air she looked down at this second rail and had to land closer to the jump to be able t bounce the next rail.. just ideas we used that helped with different problems..

At 18:47:55 on 08.02.10, ShadowLonging wrote:
yay for ground poles! :D

At 20:32:51 on 15.02.10, nadie wrote:
i have never been able to see a stride really, i just keep a nice balanced canter and let the horse figure it out, we don't very often knock anything, i used to get really stressed about not being able to see strides but since i have stopped worrying its been much better :)