My 5 top Show jumping tips for beginners
Show jumping tips for beginners are something I get asked for regularly. My first tip would be to spend as much time in the saddle as possible. Showjumpers aren’t born, they are made, through hard work and practice. If at any stage you feel like you haven’t got what it takes, you need to remember this fact. Humans can learn to do just about anything. The same goes for showjumping. It just takes hard work, patience, and dedication.
Secondly, make sure you are on a horse that wants to do the job. You need a generous horse that is willing to forgive your mistakes and help you out of a sticky situation. You will absolutely make many mistakes, and if your horse often stops, and you are falling off regularly, you will lose enthusiasm for the sport. Some horses just have a higher sense of self-preservation.
Thirdly, keep it small. Instead of going bigger, rather make your exercises more technical. You will be learning more, and improving more, by jumping more technical exercises. You will still be making mistakes, but if the jumps are small, your horse is more capable of helping you out. And when you are making fewer mistakes, and it’s time for you to go bigger, revert back to a simple exercise again.
Fourthly, practice your accuracy over poles or cavalettis. Seeing a good stride is arguably the most important thing you can learn as a showjumper. Notice I said LEARN. Nobody is born with a good eye. It’s something you have to learn how to do. Some may find it easier than others, but everybody has to learn how to do it. Here is an exercise that will explain to you how to train your eye over a cavaletti. Introduction to cavaletti work
Fifthly, make sure the exercises you are training over are well designed and correctly set up. The exercise below would be a good place to start. Incorrect distances and unreasonable turns will land you in hot water. We post an exercise every week, so you have no excuse to be jumping poorly designed exercises. Here are two more exercises that would suit a beginner. Exercise 1 and Exercise 2
So those are my 5 most important show jumping tips for beginners. You are also most welcome to join our Facebook group. We are a group of like-minded showjumpers from around the world. We all want to become the best showjumpers we can be. You can post videos and get feedback from the other riders, including myself. JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP
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How to set it up.
Jump 1 and 6
Right, so the setup is as follows. You start by setting up the gymnastic down the long side of your arena. These are the measurements. Before we get into that, the first and last jumps are both crosses. So from the cross to the oxer is 6.5 paces for a short stride. Then from the oxer to the first bounce is 7 paces for 1 stride. And it’s 3 paces between the bounces. I just used cavalettis to build the bounces. And then it’s another 7 paces from the last bounce to the second oxer. For one stride. And lastly from the oxer to the last cross its 6.5 paces again.
Jump 2 and 3
Then, down the other long side of your arena, you set a line. Oxer to vertical, 28 paces apart, for a 6 stride related distance.
Jump 4
Followed by an oxer at an angle like so. It needs to be 28 paces away on a curve from the oxer which was the first part of the line you just set up. For another 6 stride related distance.
Jump 8
And finally, you set up a vertical at an angle like this 28 paces away from the vertical on the long side of your arena. For yet another 6 stride related distance on a curve. And that’s it folks, yours all set up and ready to go. Be sure to watch the video above to see how I ride it because the route isn’t that obvious.
Some of our latest exercises:
- Training the young horse to jump
- Jumping exercises to build confidence
- Fun jumping exercises for horses
- Jumping exercises for young horses
- Jumping exercises for green horses
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