Horse jumping exercises for you and your horse.
Horse jumping exercises often either work on improving your horse’s jumping technique or your skills. They rarely do both. I really like to see if I can get both done in one session. You are limited to how often you can jump, so why not make the most of each jumping session.
I more often than not start off with a gymnastic that leads into a short track. That way you can work on your horse’s jumping technique, and hone your riding skills as well. Gymnastics don’t actually work on any skills that you require in the showjumping ring. They are definitely beneficial to your horse though. The track part of the exercise is where you develop as a rider.
This horse jumping exercise starts off with a little gymnastic that will ask your horse to show you some of his scope. It will also work on your horse’s rhythm and balance. Keep the gymnastic small to start with so you can get a feel for how your horse is coping with it. You can slowly make it bigger when your horse is confident going through it.
It then flows into a testing little track. The track has a few tricky turns and a couple of related distances on a curve. It’s not super difficult, but if you’re jumping this comfortably, you’ll be in pretty good shape.
How to setup this horse jumping exercises up
Jump 1
Ok, so here’s the setup. You start off by setting up this gumnastic down the long side of your arena. And these are the measurements. From the first oxer to the first bounce it’s seven paces, then it’s the usual three paces between the bounces. I just used cavalettis again for the bounces. And then it’s another seven paces from the last bounce to the last oxer.
Jump 2 and 3
You then set up this related distance on a curve. Oxer to vertical. It’s 6 strides, so it walks 28 paces.
Jump 4
Next, you set up an oxer at an angel like this, bearing in mind you need to follow a path past the gymnastic.
Jump 5 and 6
Followed by this related distance on a curve. Vertical to oxer. This is quite a sharp curve so I set mine up one pace less than the normal distance. It still rode a little long, so you can try one and a half or even 2 paces shorter if you have a short striding horse. So mine was 27 paces for six strides, you can go all the way down to 26 if you feel you need to.
Jump 7
When setting that line up take into account that you need to follow a line through the gymnastic to the last jump. Which is a vertical setup at an angle like so…
Some of our latest exercises:
- Training the young horse to jump
- Jumping exercises to build confidence
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- Jumping exercises for green horses
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