Return to news index
Improving Your Eye for a Distance
This article is from the January 2021 Horse Deals magazine.
One of the key concerns for a showjumping rider is ‘finding that right spot’ – not getting too deep, and not ‘taking a flyer’. It is the ability to alter your horses’ approach to arrive at the correct distance for take-off. Over the years I have taught hundreds of riders with varying challenges, but this seems to be the key issue when it comes to lack of confidence to go higher. Trusting yourself to place a 600kg animal in the right distance for take-off is certainly not an easy task, but there are many ways to ‘train your eye’ to see that magical distance, then, more importantly, know what to do when you see it. There are really two elements to this conundrum – finding the right take-off spot and achieving the right canter stride to make the distance in combinations or related lines.
One thing people tend to forget is that when you first learn to jump, ‘seeing a spot’ is something that is not important or even thought about. We have all seen those five-year-old kids on their ponies who jump a beautiful cross rail course and seem to not have a problem in the world. How do they do it? We forget that horses can see the jump too and can make their own decision to instinctively set themselves up for a fence and take off at the correct place. It is, in fact, us as riders who interfere with this and can cause inconsistencies in the canter, resulting in a not so ideal spot. Less is certainly more when it comes to jumping, and sometimes our best course of action is to stay consistent and just allow the jump to come to you.
When jumping courses, course designers might test riders and horses with challenging combinations or varying related lines. Before you can be confident in adapting your horse to fit these distances, the first step is ensuring you have a solid flatwork foundation so you are consistently attaining a 12ft or 3.6m canter stride. Every horse is different, and not every horse will naturally have a 12ft stride. Knowing how much you need to push or collect to achieve this stride is vital to making a standard distance. I start with novice horses or riders by placing two poles along the long side of the arena, five strides apart. This equates to 72ft, or 22m. Poles on the ground will give the rider confidence to experiment, with less pressure.
Once comfortably achieving a true five strides between the poles, I then like to ensure the horse and rider can shorten and lengthen to achieve four, five, six, seven and eight strides between the poles. Firstly, try it in order, then after several days once you have established this with ease, try it in a random sequence. This exercise produces a supple and responsive horse who can easily be adapted to fit a distance. If you are able to keep your horse engaged with a true 12ft stride down a line, even if you are ‘deep’, your horse will have the impulsion it needs to be able to back up and still successfully jump.
The next exercise I love to challenge riders with is two poles on the ground on a 20m circle. I encourage my students to count how many strides between each pole, then ensure it remains consistent around the whole circle. Once confident, try and add an extra stride by going a little wider and keeping your horse more together, or take out a stride by going more direct and forward. You can then progress from two poles to four poles once your horse is going consistently. This exercise will improve balance, rhythm and pace. Once confident over poles on the ground, I like to recreate the same exercises over small cavalettis.
People panic that the most important part of the fence is the take-off. What is equally important is not only the approach but the landing, so you can set yourself up for the next jump. How do you get to the take-off? The line you ride approaching it. Getting a good line to a fence means you don’t have to worry about a horse feeling unbalanced or disunited from a bad turn. I practice lots of turning and circles to ensure my horses are supple and can achieve the proper bend and flexion needed to make your turn, without dropping their shoulder in or drifting out. Practising riding deep into the corners and preparing early is essential to getting the right distance. What I often see is the canter becoming shorter and slower around a corner, which can result in horse and rider adding strides into a line. I like to focus on keeping an active canter as I turn, keeping a strong outside leg and pushing the horse forward into my hands. Ensure to look ahead at the jump early and always have your eye on where you are going. The rider needs to make the stride in order to see the stride.
When riders are less confident about being able to “see the right spot”, I find it common that the rider will change the horse’s canter in the last few strides in front of the jump. This may be through the rider pushing with their seat and legs, or pulling back on the reins by ‘picking’. This can often lead to miscommunication between horse and rider and make it difficult to get a nice even distance. I often find that had the rider left the horse alone, they probably would have got the right spot anyway. Don’t forget, horses have two eyes and a brain too! Allow them to learn alongside you and analyse the fence too. In order to improve on this, prepare early and once you are over the fence, keep your canter active so you can be patient as you approach the next fence, always trying to be as consistent and smooth as possible. This way you won’t need to change at the last minute.
I have always been a fan of six bars, and have competed in hundreds over the years on all of my horses, young and old. I encourage my students to enter six bars, as this is a fabulous way to gain confidence jumping a larger fence and creating a consistent stride. As the jumps increase in size, the distance will feel shorter, so this exercise teaches riders how to sit up and hold your horse together. Another way to recreate this at home is gridwork. I always ensure my horses have plenty of grid work to develop their 12ft canter stride and roundness over a fence. Gridwork is a great way for riders to also practice ‘getting their eye in’ and feeling confident with their striding. You can do this with as little as three fences, setting out different combinations and regularly mixing it up.
Every horse is different and every horse will have a different preference for take-off. Some horses prefer to be deep; some prefer a little more room for take-off. The key is understanding your horse’s stride and their preference. One piece of advice I would encourage riders to remember is that for every one long stride, there are always two short strides. Want to get a little deeper? Hold earlier and add that extra stride in four to five strides out. Want to keep flowing down a line? Keep pressing and remove that extra stride four to five strides out. Don’t leave it until the last stride before the fence to change!
One thing to keep in mind when thinking about your distance is that there are a number of factors in play which can contribute to changing your horse’s stride: up or down hill, deep or boggy surface, toward or away from the in-gate, indoor vs outdoor arena, and small vs large arenas, to name a few. Another major factor which influences a distance is the type and look of the jump – spooky fences with large wings, narrow fences such as styles, water jumps, or jumps with spooky ‘fill’ all usually contribute to backing the horse off and shortening their stride.
Take away tips:
• Where there is one long stride, there are always two short strides
• Start small to build up your confidence. There is nothing wrong with cantering around a course of poles!
• Always practice your 12ft canter stride, and confirm it by participating in pole work and grids
• Balance, rhythm and straightness are three of the key elements to ‘seeing your spot’ and getting a good stride
• Don’t try too hard – trust yourself, trust your horse and just commit to getting to the other side
• A rider needs to make the stride in order to see the stride
Canberra-based coach, trainer and rider, Grant Hughes, has experience teaching riders and horses of all levels. With wife Heather, and daughters Emma and Alyssa, Grant runs Forest Park Riding School and Emmaville Performance Horses. Grant has had many years of success in the showjumping arena, and as a part of Emmaville Performance Horses, a successful breeding operation too.
Sign up to our newsletter
