Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity.
This week’s question posed is: How do you confidently approach a jump from a short turn with three or fewer strides off the wall without getting weak or over-pulling?
Here are their answers:
“When approaching a jump from a short turn, confidence comes from rhythm and commitment. Set your pace before you turn, keep your eyes up, and ride the canter you have without second-guessing it. Stay tall, support with your leg, and let your hand stay soft. A great exercise for sharpening this skill is setting a single vertical three strides off the wall to practice holding that same rhythm through the turn.” -Tiffani Donahue
“I like to practice a modified pirouette on the flat. Start with a medium canter on the rail. On the long sides, collect slightly and come off the track in a tight circle. The rider should sit tall and stay centered, keeping leg and a supportive hand. Canter forward out of the circle and then settle back into the medium canter. When you can do the movement smoothly, keeping impulsion, try it on the ends or corners of the ring. This teaches the horse to engage the hind end in short turns and rollbacks.” –Patricia Jellerson
“It’s all about how organized and well-managed your turns are. Create an imaginary straight line from the center of the fence to the wall and follow it. A balanced straight horse that jumps the center of the fence will always jump a good fence.” -Juan “JJ” Lavieri
“We practice a lot of end jumps off both leads to make sure that anytime one of our clients sees a jump off a short turn at a show, they have already approached a jump from short and long turns while staying on the same pace a million times at home.
We try to emphasize pace as the most important aspect, because when you only have a couple strides to get to the jump, there’s no changing your pace once you start the turn!” –Dana Hart-Callanan
Read more from Dana here.
“First, we always have short approaches as well as short landings set in our ring so our riders and horses become accustomed to them.
Counting a simple rhythm prior to turn, during the turn, and across the jump helps keep smoothness; remember to count to four or higher, less can cause choppiness.
We also often talk about finding the jump loose or patient. If I have a rider who wants to be too “patient” or “tight” off a short turn, we look for a word like “loose” or “going” that makes them produce the opposite ride.” -Jamie Grant
