Strides

[amandaevans]

Is adding strides always better /safer? Even when the jumps go way up?

[snaffle635]

Better/safer than what?

[To the MAX]

Better/safer than what?

I assume than leaving one out.

And yes, I'd rather wait for a short distance than take a flyer, although my actions sometimes show otherwise

[ElisLove]

It totally depends on the situation. Most of the time going a little shorter is better but burying yourself to a 1.50m oxer probably won't end well. Leaving a smidgen long is possibly a better option (depending on the extent and footing and horse's scope and...)

[supershorty628]

There's no cut-and-dried answer. It depends on the horse, the situation, the jump, the reason, the footing...

If you're referring to the old adage of "when in doubt, leave it out!" then I would say that there's probably a 50/50 split on this forum for who agrees with that and who doesn't. I would say that in general, I agree with it to the extent of keeping your leg on. I think a lot of people, if they don't see the distance, take their leg away and start pulling trying to fit more strides in to give themselves more time to find the jump, and that doesn't end well.

But if you're not referring to that adage, then it really depends on the situation. There are plenty of times where you can leave a stride out in a line and do it so smoothly that it doesn't even look like you did. Very useful for jump offs. I have a round from Vermont where I take out a stride in the first line in the jump off just by slightly changing Nikki's pace. There are times when you can force another stride in easily by bowing a straight line.

There's no simple answer to this question

[Pennywell Bay]

Also depends on the horse and its scope. I have a brave mare with a huge stride. She'd rather open up and go big than bite it- and she leaves the ground EVERY.TIME. One of my others would much prefer a closer spot, and will let that opinion be known and NOT leave the ground but send you to meet it. He wouldn't leave a stride out for all the carrots in the country.

[equisusan]

Adding or leaving out a stride is not necessarily related to whether you get to the base of the jump or leave long and weak. Sometimes its appropriate to add a stride depending on the horse and the question being asked. Other times its appropriate to leave out a stride like in jump-offs on the right horse. Your goal should always be to get to the jump straight (and that doesn't mean perpendicular) and at the optimal take off distance for your horse at the height being asked. If you asked me what you should avoid as unsafe I would say long, weak distances.

[goodlife]

It really depends. There are situations that can ride differently depending on your horse. I'm being hypothetical here as I've never ridden either of these horses, but if you're doing a Grand Prix and your two mounts are Flexible and Big Star (lucky you!) and the first line is a very forward five or a very quiet six, you might opt to do the six on Flexible, who is small, catty and compact, and the five on Big Star, who is large, powerful and scopey.

However, when it comes to the triple combination and you end up chipping in on both horses, you'd best be kicking like hell to get out on stride on both Flexi and Big Star. Adding in a combination is never going to go well. Much easier to just try and kick on.

If you're galloping down to a big square single oxer and see nothing, my personal philosophy is forward or more forward. I've never shown in a Grand Prix before so take that with a grain of salt, but I'd rather trust in my horse's scope than pull all the way to the jump, kill any hope of forward momentum/power and crash through it. Others don't follow the "when it doubt, leave it out" philosophy as closely. I'm not saying that a hail mary is preferred to the nice, forward deep distance but when the jumps get higher than 1.20, crawling to the base of a wide oxer is not on my agenda.

[KateKat]

I think if your plan is to add and you ask for it early enough, it can work out. I just watched a big grand prix class where one of the lines could be a flowing/forward 5 or steady 6, and riders chose depending on their horses, how they rode the in fence, and how they knew their horses would react to the out. I saw both options being ridden very well, but you HAD to make your decision early on what you wanted.

However if you're talking about coming to a fence on the half stride and last minute trying to cram one in? Like others have said cramming a stride into the base last minute can be just as bad as trying to take a flyer, depending on the situation. 99% of the time I would much prefer a more basey ride, however like goodlife said when I don't see something, more forward is usually the answer versus pulling to nothing.

[PNWjumper]

I agree with everyone else. The answer is:

It depends.

There are too many factors to answer the question for every scenario.....hunter versus jumper, 2'6" vs 3' vs 3'6" vs 4'+, type of jump (oxer vs vertical vs other), level of rider.

But there is one rule that doesn't change, and that is that it in addition to the factors above, it totally depends on your horse. But before I say anything else, I want to qualify that I'm talking about a *slightly* long versus *slightly* short distance. Hail mary versus crawling to the base? Would rather do neither to a big jump!

With that being said, I have a mare w/ a short(ish) stride who I will add with every. single. time. She cannot, under any circumstances, leave even a hair long to a 1.40m square oxer. Climbing out from underneath isn't much better, but given a choice between slightly short or slightly long, I would pick slightly short every time. Given a 4 1/2 stride line, we would do 5 strides every single time....no exceptions.

My TB with the 18' stride is one I'm perfectly happy to leave slightly long with. Given a 4 1/2 stride line, we'll lope down in 4, no questions asked. Note, though, that I still pick slightly short over slightly long to a single fence with him. I'd rather risk a rolled front rail than a flip over the jump because of catching the back rail. Here's a dandy little photo series from an oxer we left slightly long to into a 2-stride.....resulted in my GPA turning into a sad, very cracked victim of the resulting fall (the pics are, in order, him splitting the front/back rails with his hind leg which tossed me completely out of the saddle upon stumble/landing, followed by my saint of a horse jumping OUT of the 2-stride with me clinging to his side like a frightened baby monkey, followed by the tip of my heel showing over the rail as I hit the dirt...HARD). In contrast, here's a photo out of a 1-stride where we [inadvertently *cough amateur!*] did 4 strides in a 5 heading into a 1 (bonus: it was all downhill), leaving enough room for maybe 1/4 of a stride before leaving for the square 1.40m oxer. Note the rolled front rail.....much better result than the first pic sequence where he split the oxer with his hind legs and almost fell on landing.

So I will say two things. On a purely hypothetical level, I think that adding a stride (at height) is almost always better than leaving one out. But what supershorty said couldn't be more true. The difference between a pro adding a stride and a non-pro adding a stride is often the level of forwardness and momentum in addition to the timing of the request (asking upon landing from fence 1 versus asking 18' in front of the fence). So to qualify my earlier statement, I will say that a forward horse is always better than a behind-the-leg horse. So as long as you can effectively make a forward horse, I think it's usually better to coil up that long stride than flatten it out. So all of that to say that I also agree with goodlife and KateKat.