Seeing a stride

[Loopy_Laura]

Ok, so normally in my lessons, we jump using placing poles, to help the horses know when to take off I suppose.
But today, we were jumping without poles, the idea being we begin to 'see a stride'.
And from then on I got lost, so the rest of this thread probably doesn’t make much sense!
I really have no idea how you are supposed to see a stride! How do you know whether to push on, or hold for an extra stride?
I understand for related distance type things, where you have a double, and I can look at it and think, “ok I’m going to need to push to get 2 strides between them”, but I just had no idea for this!
To start off with, we did just one jump down the long stride, a cross pole, and all I did for that was go in with a nice bouncy collected canter, which seemed to work fine.
Then we did it so that there was a jump on both long sides and we had to go round the school twice, and I was a complete mess. The horse I was riding started to rush, and I guess probably got long and flat, so took off a way away, and basically there was no communication between us – I think I probably made him as confused as I was!
I know this is a bit gabbled but I’m very confused and not really sure what I mean!
I guess what I’m asking for really is an explanations of how you see a stride, how you know whether to lengthen and collect on the approach and just basically how I should have ridden the exercise!

 

[Rips]

You have to get a feel for the distance, its so much easier if you ride the same horse because you have a "feel" for their particular length of stride, you also know if they are going to try and rush or lose impulsion.
Get your instructor to draw a line in the sand 3 roughly strides away from the fence, you have to correct the speed and impulsion within this space so that your horse takes three strides. Say for example he's rushing, long and flat like you say, and the first two strides are long, you'll have collect him and hold him to make him wait for take-off. If he's rushing he'll do one of two things, take two long strides, stand off the jump and jump early or he'll put in two long strides, and squeeze in one really short one and end up on top of the jump.
Hope that makes things a little easier, I'm not very good at explaining things!
Its the same as if it was a combination, you have X amount of strides before the jump to set your horse up properly for it. Its long and difficult to explain, the only way I ever improved was my IN constantly pointing ouit where I went wrong each time and working to improve it.

Don't worry, the problems really start when you KNOW you're on the wrong stride and you can't fix it in time!

 

[kedwards]

From what you are describing, it sounds like you are "seeing" your strides perfectly fine. From what you wrote, you knew he was rushing and you knew that he would jump long. I assume that you went with him and didn't interfere, which is a good thing.

If you haven't corrected the horse's pace before the last few strides, it's too late to do so without interfering with his ability to jump. What you want to work on is how to keep him in that nice bouncy canter you were talking about throughout the course.

As you come off the fences and around the corners, push on when he feels like he is sucking back and half-halt if he is getting strung out. If he won't listen to your half-halt, you can do a down-transition or you can circle to get his balance and pace back, but you want to aim to have that bouncy canter several strides away from the fence. Once you are 2 or 3 strides out, you are already committed and the best thing you can do is to keep leg on and be prepared to go with him.

 

[cvb]

loopy_laura

what can help a lot with this is to walk courses, and relate that back to how many strides your horse takes. Then you get more of a feel for what "x" strides look like on the ground.

As has been said, you shouldn't interfere with the last few strides anyway. The way horse's vision works they "lose sight" of the jump in their blind spot as they approach (this is why some horses will duck their head - to see it again). So they have to be set up 2-3 strides out or its too late !

One exercise we used to be asked to do is count down to the jump 3-2-1 Its amazing how many times you get to "1" and still haven't jumped !

 

[rocketman]

loopy_laura
Then you get more of a feel for what "x" strides look like on the ground.

Seeing a stride (or seeing a spot, as they say in the U.S.) is the hardest thing to teach. It's rather like tossing a ball to a little child to catch...you just have to keep doing it until they achieve hand-eye coordination. (i.e. keep looking at the ball and eventually your hand will reach out to it.)

Seeing a stride is not a matter of imagining how many strides a horse will take on the ground between fences. It's more like catching a ball. You must keep your eyes focused on the fence (or the ball) and not on the ground.

I would suggest practicing on foot, jumping over a little obstacle. As you run towards the jump, you will naturally shorten or lengthen your stride to reach a comfortable take-off spot (or should do, if not a total klutz).

It is the same mechanism on the horse. Approach the fence, feeling the rythym of the horse, focus on the jump and imagine the horse's legs are an extension of your own legs. It is more a matter of making minor adjustments on the way to the fence than trying to hold the horse back until you see a stride and then going.

The smoother your approach to the fence, the easier it is to see a stride.

 

[Styric]

loopy_laura
One exercise we used to be asked to do is count down to the jump 3-2-1 Its amazing how many times you get to "1" and still haven't jumped !

"3..2..1.... uhm!! ZERO!!!!!!!!! *jump*"