Jumping exercises to build confidence
Jumping exercises to build confidence
Jumping exercises to build confidence are essential for both horse and rider. Showjumping is built on confidence, and having the right exercises in place helps set you up for success — especially as the jumps start to get bigger. This particular exercise is designed to lay that foundation and help prevent any confidence-breaking mistakes. Once you’re comfortable with the first part of the exercise, you’ll move on to the slightly more advanced section, which also focuses on improving your accuracy. The more accurate you become, the more confident you’ll feel in the ring.
This exercise is ideal for helping novice riders maintain a steady rhythm to the jump. It’s especially useful if you tend to fiddle or overthink your approach, which is a common challenge for many riders. Some of the jumps in this exercise guide you to a good takeoff spot, while others are designed for you to figure it out for yourself — great for building your eye and feel. If you’re working with a young horse, this exercise is a real asset. Young horses can be tricky when it comes to finding consistent takeoff spots, and this will help both of you. You’ll also introduce your horse to a bounce, which is excellent for improving balance, agility, and strength. And don’t underestimate the importance of the warm-up over cavalettis — it’s a key part of jumping exercises to build confidence, helping the rider with accuracy and the young horse with adjustability.
Watch the jumping exercises to build confidence video for all the details.
How to set this exercise up
This setup isn’t overly complicated, but like with any busy course, you’ll need to be mindful of your lines and make sure the jumps don’t interfere with each other.
Jumps 2 and 3
We’ll start with the line down the bottom long side of the arena. You’ll set up a cavaletti, followed by four strides to a vertical. The distance walks at 18 paces.
Jumps 5 and 6
Next, set up a diagonal line across the arena. It’s two cavalettis set up as a bounce, followed by four strides to an oxer. The bounce is 3 paces, and from the second cavaletti to the oxer walks at 19 paces for the four strides.
Jumps 7 and 8
You’ll set up another diagonal four-stride line — this time a vertical to an oxer. It rides down in four strides and walks at 20 paces.
Jump 4
In this little space here, place an oxer on an angle like so.
Jump 1
In the corner of your arena, you’ll squeeze in two cavalettis set as a bounce with a placing pole in front. It’s 3 paces between the cavalettis for the bounce, and I used 2.5 paces for the placing pole.
Final Cavalettis
Lastly, place these two cavalettis across your arena like this. Make sure you can ride to both of them on a circle.
If these instructions are tricky to follow, don’t worry — the video shows the full setup step by step, which makes it much easier to visualise.
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