Finesse and riding up to a spot?

[kporkchop]

So now after a lot of years..I can finally ride a course without holding my breath.. I am also starting to see the spot instead of letting my incredibly honest TB find it for me...especially when riding 2'9-3' fences. Problem, when I see it and need to ride up, I have not yet mastered finesse and instead of closing leg, I tend to use whole body (think of over exuberant jumper rider).. or so it is described to me. And then TB gets very excited and strong on the landing. How do I practice finesse with regards to riding forward.. as well as practice seeing the spot ALWAYS???

[KateKat]

I have solved many of my jumping problems with ground poles. Let's you practice a lot and make mistakes without worrying about fence height/wear and tear on your horse.

[kmwines01]

As I've been told a lot recently, it's not necessarily if the spot is right or wrong but how you ride it. Short,long, perfect it's about keeping your leg on, shoulders up, and lots of leg off the ground. I had a bad habit of just giving up when I saw the long distance and dropping my shoulders. Lots of grid work and not having to think about it as much helped me figure out where my body actually was and what I was doing. Then taking that awareness and practicing it on ground poles and small cavalletis on a circle. I have to constantly keep telling myself slow in the air, support with leg. It's become my mantra.

[findeight]

Nobody ALWAYS sees a spot. Nobody. Never seen any of the leading clinicians teach riding to a "spot", they stress riding to, over and following thu on landing. My own trainers were always "stop looking for a spot and ride the canter, stay straight".

You learn to see your entire approach, the jump and the landing and several strides after as a continuous and rythmical....ummmm...what word here, event?

You should not be thinking about riding to a "spot", ride the entire thing as one.

Does that make sense??

Come off the corner and ride what you have all the way thru the landing. Making adjustments all the way to a "spot" will take the rythm out of your ride and, if your horses are like mine were, get the horse POed and worrying about you instead of the jumps.

It works. You get to the ideal take off place, over and away if you retrain your mind to not look for a place at the base to ride to.

[kporkchop]

Great perspective findeight...that makes me feel better! Now, about the finesse part...?? Does that just come with keeping my forward canter rhythm?

[Liveforeq]

I have a TB mare that if I try to push up for a spot I end up goosing her and she gets upset, what works for me is to remember to keep riding forward out of the corner that way we never seem to get into the goosing issue! Hope this helps!

[ponies123]

I agree with Findeight, I was just helping a friend master "steady from the corner" the other day. She's on a big mare who is heavy on the forehand and she would come out of the corner and pick pick pick the whole way up (half-halting non stop) and then kick right at the base. I have always been taught to keep my canter from the corner. Establish your pace in your hunter circle or coming away from the last jump: if you need more kick up a bit and if you need less, half-halt a bit but do it BEFORE you turn the corner for that next line or jump. And then sit down in your saddle (nice and light, not with a driving seat) and leave.it.alone. That's the hardest part for me, I can't make myself sit there and do nothing, but horses tend to jump the best when you have them in a nice, flowing pace with a slight feel of their mouth and are sitting up looking down the line. Of course if you get long or short in to the first jump you can adjust the first stride down the line, but other than that "picking" the whole way to the jump is going to throw off your distance.

As for the finesse, that just comes with more saddle time, but think of sitting up and "doing nothing" (obviously you're not doing nothing, but make it look like it). You should not have to kick up to the jump because you're going to keep your same pace from the corner. Just close your leg and sit down and up.

All of this can be practiced with ground poles!

[findeight]

Great perspective findeight...that makes me feel better! Now, about the finesse part...?? Does that just come with keeping my forward canter rhythm?

Exactly. But you have to add keeping the horse STRAIGHT off that corner and on that same straight line to the other end of the ring over the dead center of any and all jumps. No dropping shoulder. No crooked haunch. No drifting to one side or the other in front of the fence or, really, anywhere after you come off the corner.

That means good and correct use of rein and leg aids to keep the horses body straight, quiet with the shoulder and upper body, weight equal in each iron and keeping your eye UP and fixed on a point right smack down the center of your intended track-and stay there.

When you do that, the pace and track take care of themselves and you "find" the fences just fine plus it looks effortless. That is finesse.

What you described in your OP is picking. Something we all tend to do sometimes, it is hard to believe you don't need to do anything else. But you don't. As your trainer no doubt reminds you as they do me.

[Prime Time Rider]

I agree that work over ground poles is great practice that you can do by yourself without wear and tear on your horse. Plus, if you miss to a gound pole the consequences are minimal.

My favorite exercise is to set a ground pole line for a certain number of strides (say four) and then practice cantering the line in four strides, then adding a stride. Establish a good canter, come out of the corner just like you're riding a "real" course, and practice getting the line in four strides, or adding for a five. The added benefit is that it helps my mare listen and be patient when we do the add.

I also have 3 ground poles stacked on top of each other across the center of my ring so that I can canter them on a circle on either lead. Again, I practice coming out of the corner and maintaining my canter to the base of the "jump". Straightness is key here, as cantering the poles on a circle can encourage your horse to bulge if your not careful.

You can even build an entire course consisting of ground poles and flower boxes and practice riding a "course". You can do this without your trainer.

These ground pole exercises have really helped me in jumping "real" courses.

[findeight]

Let me add this for a cool and really revealing excercise you can do sans trainer.

See if you cant get into the ring right after it gets dragged and set maybe 3 ground poles 3 or 4 strides apart-you should move them in to about 10 or 11' strides for this. Or, if you are ambitious, set your poles and then rake or drag something down the center of the track down the middle of your poles and all the way to both corners. This also works in mud that is not too chewed up.

The object is to see your track. Literally, you need to see the hoofprints and learn from what you see.

Go ride down the poles and then look back at your hoofprints. You thought you were straight right? Looks more like a snake or the trail of a drunken sailor trying to stagger back to his ship.

That's where distances go when they vanish, closest distance is a straight line and it ain't there.

Might want to do this alone the first time, can be quite enlightening-and embarassing.