Jumping a clear round can mean the difference between a win and a place. Whether you’re showjumping, riding cross-country or doing arena eventing, having focus and rhythm is key. To achieve this, you need to make sure your horse is straight and that you have full control of their shoulders. International event rider Jesse Campbell shares how you can do this.
At any level, basic polework is the best way to get a feel for your horse and understand the aids needed to gain control and maintain a straight line. The following exercises are designed to keep your horse focused on you and help you to establish the perfect jumping rhythm.
Before you start any of these exercises, always ensure your horse is fully warmed up.
Exercise 1
Exercise 1
Time: 10 minutes
This exercise is designed to help you get a feel for controlling your horse’s outside shoulder while keeping a good rhythm and improving your eye to a pole.
Set it up: Place four poles on each quarter of a 20m circle.
How to ride it:
- Canter around the circle over the poles. Ride four strides between each pole and do as many circles as needed until you get a similar rhythm every time and can feel where your horse is taking off.
- As you get more confident and start feeling the rhythm, begin experimenting with your striding. Try taking four strides between the first two poles, then shorten to five strides to the next pole.
- Notice how straight your horse goes over the poles and if they are jumping to one side, meaning you may need to get more control of their outside shoulder.
The next level: Raise the outside of the poles a little so that your horse has to take a slightly higher step.
Exercise 2
Exercise 2
Time: 10 minutes
This exercise is all about rhythm, adjustability and keeping straightness down a line. Again, controlling the shoulder is key.
Set it up: Place three poles down the long side of the school. These don’t need to be at a set distance, but ensure the distance between each is equal.
How to ride it:
- Canter over the poles on your horse’s natural stride and see how many strides you get.
- When you feel you have equal strides and a good rhythm, start playing with your stride pattern. See how many you can do between each pole and then how few.
- Mix it up. See how many strides you get in between the first two poles, and then how few between the next two poles, and vice versa.
- Think straightness all the time. The most important factors for this exercise are to make sure you’re going over the middle part of each pole every time, keeping your horse’s shoulders square, and staying straight after the last pole before making your turn when you reach the end of the arena.
Exercise 3
Exercise 3
Time: 10 minutes
This exercise continues to develop the straightness and control you’re aiming to achieve in exercises one and two. It also makes horse reactive through bounces and gets them accurate to skinnies without rushing. This is a useful crossover exercise to practise at home for improving cross-country accuracy, too.
Set it up: Place three or four raised poles with 4 metres between each pole to create a series of bounces.
How to ride it:
- Jump through the grid a couple of times so your horse understands what you’re asking of them.
- Once you’re happy, try adding in narrow elements – Jesse uses narrow fillers. To start with, put one skinny element at the end of the line, set on a one-stride distance. You want to jump through the bounces and then keep straight to the final element, maintaining the same rhythm and straightness.
- Make sure you keep control the whole way through the exercise and maintain a steady rhythm.
The next level: Once you’re jumping confidently with the end skinny element, add a similar obstacle in front of the bounces (again on a one-stride distance). This will really test your ability to hold a line and keep straight.
Meet the expert: Jesse Campbell is a New Zealand eventing high performance squad rider based in the UK.
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