{"id":4153,"date":"2020-12-01T08:51:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T21:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2020-12-03T09:27:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T22:27:16","slug":"colleen-brook-talks-about-exercises-to-improve-your-horses-jumping-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2020\/12\/colleen-brook-talks-about-exercises-to-improve-your-horses-jumping-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Colleen Brook talks about exercises to improve your horse\u2019s jumping style"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Roz Neave took the photos\u2026<\/p>\n

Our model for the session is Liz Koob and Lady\u2019s First, an Anglo Arab mare currently going around D grade. Liz has been with the horse for about eight months.<\/p>\n

Exercise 1<\/strong>: The Poles<\/strong> \u2013 where most showjumping exercises start, and we are also starting out with a basic for every discipline, an exercise for straightness\u2026<\/p>\n

Let Colleen explain: \u201cToday we were working on both directions over the poles. It does seem strange at first, working on curving lines over poles to make our horse straight, but try it and you will see that it works! Straightness is a focus thing \u2013 about riding forward on a line. A curve is a little more difficult than a straight line. There are a lot of good things that this exercise does:\u00a0 It gets the horse\u2019s inside leg active, it gets the rider\u2019s focus up ahead, on keeping the curve in the horse \u2013 and if the rider pulls too much on the inside rein, then the horse ducks across the pole, and if the rider doesn\u2019t use enough outside aids, then the horse wanders off the line. It might look simple but this exercise is quite involved and the rider learns a lot just doing this exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou start by just walking the horse through the poles to get the horse used to it. The markers are there to keep the horse centred, that\u2019s a rider aid. I find without the markers, you have to keep repeating yourself, telling the rider to keep looking on the road ahead, they wobble all over the place. The markers make life a lot easier for the coach, and then you can take them away for skill testing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe distance between the poles is 1.20m\u00a0 approximately, but it is not critical because the riders can pick where they go. I put the markers for that horse more or less in the centre and it worked well for Liz. If we have a big strider, we go to the outside. You can challenge the rider further by saying, go either side of the markers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an essential requirement of any riding: forward and straight, balanced and into the hand.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Exercise 2 <\/strong>– Jumping the jump on an angle <\/strong>\u2013 a single up-right fence \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again we use the markers to get the rider focused. It\u2019s a surprising thing, when you ride on an angle and you are riding in a two or three point seat, you can really feel when the horse drifts off line. When you are sitting, you don\u2019t feel it quite as much. When the horse drifts off-line, you train the rider to activate the legs to ride forward and activate the horse. Many riders are transfixed on the jump and do not think enough about the corner shape, line, pace and everything that happens between the jumps.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you are out of the saddle and you feel the horse drift off your reins, keep the body straight, keep the neck straight\u2026 I\u2019ve used this exercise a lot in clinics and the difference in the focus of the rider\u2019s eyes is amazing. Sometimes I don\u2019t have enough markers and I stand at the end and look at the riders\u2019 eyes. It builds confidence, it keeps the riders looking where they are going and letting the horse get on with the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are serious about jumping then you are just going to have to master the two-point seat. That involves being able to stay in that seat – without relying on the horse\u2019s mouth for balance – and in the centre of gravity for the horse. It focuses a lot more on the rider\u2019s legs. Riders think they are using leg when they sit \u2013 but they will ride in two-point around the corner, and then sit down in the saddle, and they will start pushing and they think they are using their legs \u2013 and in fact, the horse is behind the leg. When you keep out of the saddle, you find very quickly whether the horse is truly in front of the leg or it isn\u2019t. When start riding in two-point, or you are practicing developing your balance, you can have a neck strap to hang on to. I love to see people trotting over poles in two-point. It gets them down in the stirrup irons \u2013 it\u2019s all about balance and it is just a bit of practice. It\u2019s a good exercise to start quite soon, because in fact, most people when they start to ride want to get that crouch down thing happening \u2013 a bit of a fetal position perhaps \u2013 and then when you learn to push your weight down into the stirrups, and keep straight, very quickly, your balance is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf riders are having trouble, I say \u2018hang on to the neck strap\u2019 because usually those riders who have trouble, do not have good balance with their feet, their heels are up and they are not so loose and relaxed down into the iron; they are tight and short in the leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Exercise 3<\/strong> – A Change of Pace<\/strong>: A simple in-and-out, a low upright fence followed by a slightly higher upright fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next exercise involved trotting in to the in-and-out, the distance was nine metres (30 feet in old-speak), which is a very short two strides or a very long one stride. Just two single rails. I like three or two point for the trotting in, three point is good \u2013 riders are not as worried in three-point as they are in two-point – although riders do find it hard to sit in the front of the saddle\u00a0 with their seat just clearing it because when you say \u2018sit in the saddle\u2019, most people want to be upright and sit in the back of the saddle, but that is definitely\u00a0 not where you want to be for three-point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you trot into the exercise, you will get two strides in the in-and-out; two canter strides. When you land after the second fence, you up the pace, come around cantering and ride the exercise again, and you get the one canter stride with a bit more pace. If you come in and jump it in a normal canter, you\u2019ll get one and a half, but if you open up the stride and come in feeling like you are coming in and taking off a little early at the first fence, then it work fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s the beginning of that exercise. You can also do a lot of that with single jumps \u2013 you can practice two jumps, and you can practice take off spots: open, closed, open, closed. I noticed in our clinic with George Morris in January, the first fence that we jumped, was always open \u2013 always a going forward one \u2013 and in the warm up for our course, the first fence was an oxer, so he was really emphasizing go forward, <\/em>don\u2019t get stuck in that backward, tight necked way of riding.\u00a0 Go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cGeorge was always talking about learning to let go, especially on turns. That\u2019s what we were always taught: half halt into a corner, ride out of a corner. You have to think about that if you want to ride a good dressage test. Anne Honner (one of the pioneers of Grand Prix dressage in Australia) used to ask, how many corners are there in a novice dressage test? Something like 70, so you need to know how to ride a good corner. That\u2019s what I see going around the country teaching, riders need to know how to ride good corners \u2013 it\u2019s not about pulling the horse around, it\u2019s riding forward in and out of a corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same with all the good old basics \u2013 as you get older you get more particular about good basics. Everything comes from good basics, and as you get older you learn that more and more. When you are young, you want to do all the fancy stuff, and even if you do it badly, you say \u2018I\u2019m really good at this’, but as you learn more, there is a big turn around in your thinking.”<\/p>\n

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Showjumping star Colleen Brook has some exercises to help you train your jumper\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[393,77],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-show-jumping","tag-colleen-brook","tag-showjumping-training"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56586,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions\/56586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}