Jumping a show jumping course is an essential part of showjumping training. They allow you to simulate what you are likely to encounter in the competition arena. It is a bit of an art form to build good training courses, and usually takes a fair amount of experience to do it well. So here is your opportunity to take advantage of my many years of experience. There are tons of exercises on our website to choose from if this one isn’t what you’re looking for.
So this is a nice easy show jumping course to set up. It’s just six jumps, three oxers, and three verticals, but it rides as a 9 jump course. It has just about everything but a combination in it. It’s great if you have a small arena or not a lot of jump equipment. It pretty much has two exercises merged into one. So there is the well-known Mercedes exercise. For those of you that don’t know the Mercedes exercise, it’s called the Mercedes exercise because it looks like the Mercedes emblem. And then there’s my three-line exercise.
How to set up this show jumping course
Jump 4 and 6
So you start off by setting up this line down the long side of your arena. Vertical to Oxer. 24 paces apart for a 5 stride related distance.
Jump 6
You then set up another oxer at an angle as seen in the image below It needs to be 32 paces away on a curve from the first vertical (jump 7), for a 7 stride related distance on a curve.
Jump 8
Next, you set up a vertical at an angle over here. It needs to be 28 paces away on a curve from the first oxer (Jump 9), for a six stride related distance on a curve.
These distances a certainly not cast in stone. You can definitely knock a few strides off here and there if you have a small arena. Now we move on to the Mercedes part of the exercise.
Jump 1
So you start off by setting up a vertical at an angle as seen in the image below.
Jump 2
And then an oxer at an angle as seen in the image below.
If these setup instructions seem a little confusing, watch the setup part of the video above. They’re much easier to follow.
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