{"id":15105,"date":"2019-07-12T11:25:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T01:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=15105"},"modified":"2019-07-17T14:55:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T04:55:41","slug":"jump-by-jump-with-george-sanna-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2019\/07\/jump-by-jump-with-george-sanna-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Jump by Jump with George Sanna – Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Missed part one? It\u2019s here<\/a>. Part two is here<\/a>\u00a0Part three is here<\/a>\u00a0Part four is here<\/a><\/p>\n

Our guest jumping trainer, George Sanna looks at what happens when you put two fences together\u2026<\/p>\n

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Combinations \u2013 twice the problem?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMore than twice the problem, because two jumps are already twice the problem of one, but with combinations, you have a compounding effect. With a single fence if you approach and jump it poorly, it is not such an issue because you have time to re-group and get organized for the next jump, but with a combination, you will often jump in, and jump in clear, and leave yourself unable to jump out. Not only do you have to jump the fence in cleanly and well, but you have to jump it in a way that enables the horse to jump the next jump comfortably.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain there is more pressure on the horse and rider to get a good distance coming in. If you get too deep, your horse will shorten up, go up in the air, land short, land flat footed, take a stride and be too far away from the next jump \u2013 or jump in a little long and flat, maybe leave the jump up, but he takes a stride and he is too close to the next element and either takes it out at the roots or feels he can\u2019t jump it and pulls up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s more than twice the problem in many ways, but the flip side is, if you jump in well, you don\u2019t have the issue of having a bad distance coming out because the distance is set up for you. If you jump in well, then you\u2019ve actually jumped in for two jumps \u2013 you\u2019ve got two distances. When you talk about combinations and related lines, there is not an issue of finding a distance, we have a plan. You walk the combination \u2013 or line \u2013 and you have a plan. It might be to jump in normal, it might be to jump in forward because the distance is long, or it might be to jump in collected because the distance is very short.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou try to ride to that plan as best you can. There is not an issue of seeing a distance in a combination, you ride to a plan, and if you execute the plan well, it\u2019s done. If it is a little long, you jump in forward, the horse lands he\u2019s got momentum he takes a stride and jumps out. Jump in collected to a short one, pop in, he\u2019ll balance himself, and he\u2019ll jump out. If it is a little long and you jump in short, it is salvageable, provided you land and you kick. Similarly, if it\u2019s short and you jump in a bit big, you may well get the fence jumped if you sit up early and you say \u2018whoa\u2019 and tell the horse clearly that it is short, then once again the horse can jump the fence quite well, if it is not extremely long and flat or extremely short and backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cNormally with amateurs we assume inconsistent distances and the odd distance error, normally amateurs will come undone in combinations. When things start to unravel, it will be at a combination normally \u2013 jumping in with crappy distance \u2013 with a single jump and an honest horse, he would manage the first fence but then he can\u2019t jump out, he gets scared and that is normally the beginning of a downwards spiral.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do we work on this at home?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJust following up on the amateur thing, you\u2019ve got to set your standard to the lowest common denominator \u2013 you\u2019ve got to assume you are going to give your horse the average worst ride \u2013 not the most shocking one \u2013 but an average bad distance, but the jump is still at a height where the horse is going to be able to get out the other side of the combination. It\u2019s not going to be a metre forty, it\u2019s going to be 90 cm \u2013 depending on what level of amateur we are talking about \u2013 so the question is, with rider\u2019s average ride or slightly less than average ride, will the horse be able to get out of the combination? If you are thinking \u2018they are going to have to nail this, otherwise the horse is not going to jump out of the combination\u2019 \u2013 then they shouldn\u2019t be pointing at it. You\u2019ve got to assume they are not going to nail it, they are at best going to be not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor the novice riders the combinations need to be set easier. Often you are teaching kids with shorter striding ponies and you\u2019ve got to understand how difficult it is for little horses to jump normal distances. If you can imagine you are riding your normal striding horse and you open up all the distances in the combinations by two or three feet \u2013 how difficult would that make it? If you don\u2019t catch that forward and positive and going, then your horse can\u2019t jump it \u2013 well that is the pressure a small horse is under with normal distances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as course builders, building junior classes in particular, with a mixture of horses and ponies, it is very very difficult. Generally it\u2019s smart to make your combinations with two strides and normally with a vertical out, so that the ponies can chip if they have to and not end up draped over the back rail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The combination becomes more complicated when it starts to vary oxer to vertical or vice versa?<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cYes and no. Vertical to vertical increases all the aspects about the vertical. The questions of balance and the pace required to jump a vertical are all accentuated in a double of verticals. If you go in flat and long you might get away with it going in, but you won\u2019t get away with it coming out \u2013 the balance and the collection of the canter, the distance, all those things we talked about with the verticals are increased with a double of verticals.\u201d
\n\u201cOn the other extreme, a double of oxers, then all the things we talked about \u2013 being forward, in front of the leg, strong off the ground \u2013 they are even more the case for a double of oxers. Vertical \/ oxer, ideally you need to have a vertical balance with a oxer canter pace, vertical distance, vertical connection, but with a little more than you would normally jump that vertical if it was just on its own. Oxer \/ vertical, you\u2019ve really got to jump your oxer, you\u2019ve really got to think, I\u2019ve got to jump my oxer and then I have to be very good with my upper body, to encourage the horse to rock back, and sit up and give him a little bit of room to that vertical. I need to be good with my release over the back of the oxer, so my horse is not already shortening his body over the oxer, I\u2019m encouraging him to jump the back of the oxer, but when he lands, get my shoulders back, whoa, close my fingers on his mouth a little, really compress his stride, to give him room to the next jump, so he doesn\u2019t sprawl over the vertical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The treble is just adding another element?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe principles are exactly the same but the problem has a capacity to compound, just like the problem compounds from a single fence to a double, then the treble has the capacity to compound further.\u201d
\n\u201cLet\u2019s say the course builder wants to set up a scope test \u2013 and he has a decent sized oxer coming out of a treble. A lot of riders make the mistake of thinking, okay this is strong coming out, I need to get into this combination really positive and really forward, and give my horse the opportunity to jump out \u2013 but in fact, that attitude nearly always has the opposite effect, and that is that you end up jumping strong over the fence coming in, whatever it is, so you get deep to the fence in the middle, it backs them up and they lose a lot of their momentum, so they have to suck back off that second fence, they climb up and land short, and that actually makes it longer to the last element.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn that situation the ideal ride is to come in a little bit under-done, you don\u2019t jump in too big and then you press forward over the middle element, so the last element comes at you. Conversely, if the test coming out of the combination is short and tall, then it is the opposite. Try and jump in a little forward, try to back up over the middle element, so they land steeper and you can get them back earlier. You\u2019ve got to understand the dynamics and the physics of how horses jump \u2013 how things work.\u201d
\n\u201cYou can get away with a bad ride to one jump, over a double you are less likely to get away with it, and over a treble, you are even less likely to get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Expert’s Eye<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"ExpertEye1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Photo 1:
\nLooking at that photo, where the jump is not even in view, he has certainly got a canter that is very up and collected and connected. He\u2019s sitting pretty upright, the horse\u2019s front end is up, he\u2019s got his hocks well underneath him and he looks like he is approaching a combination \u2013 as opposed to say, a triple bar or a water jump. He is really together, which is always the best way to get into a combination \u2013 not to fall in going long, but to come in, connected.<\/p>\n

Photo 2:<\/em>
\nThis doesn\u2019t add a whole lot, he is certainly getting there, he certainly has no appearance of running at it. By the look of the canter and even on the take off, he is not running the horse forward. He is not too worried about the back rail by the look of it. He\u2019s got the horse nice and active and forward and strong.<\/p>\n

Photo 3:<\/em>
\nOver the jump itself he\u2019s got what I\u2019d call a medium release, sort of an automatic release \u2013 not a big release. Once again, not looking like he is at all worried about the back rail, he\u2019s not over-riding the horse, but he is probably a little more forward than he would be over a vertical for arguments sake.<\/p>\n

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Photo 4:<\/em>
\nHe is fairly right there, but once again he\u2019s got a shortish release at this point, and I see as the jump goes on that he is getting a little behind the horse and making sure it doesn\u2019t over-jump this vertical. For the landing side he is actually sitting up \u2013 he looks like he is figuring that the distance to the third part of the combination is quite short \u2013 he is sitting up against the horse quite noticeably.<\/p>\n

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\"C10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Photo 5:<\/em>
\nHe is jumping that oxer out very comfortably by the look of it. He has given the horse a little more release \u2013 as you do coming out. When there is another element to come you have to balance the horse more, here his release is softer, and the horse has got his head lower. Judging by the way he has ridden it, he has come in with a pretty collected canter, he hasn\u2019t jumped in too strong over the first element, he hasn\u2019t chased him to it. He\u2019s had just a normal distance to the middle, and he is worried about the distance to the last being quite short, so he is sitting against the horse. Then he is comfortable with that distance and he has given the horse a good release coming out.<\/p>\n

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