So you have cantered an endless number of poles, hoof prints and jumps. You are starting to usually see three strides but, sometimes you can see it is going to be long, sometimes it is going to be short and every once in awhile you nail it. Well, now what do you do to change the distance? This was a big step for me that took me a long time to really work out.
What really did the trick for me was having a casual, bold horse. That sounds like a contradiction but in all actuality it is the perfect kind of horse. A horse that is low key enough to 1. let you ride them and 2. not get upset when you mess up, because you are going to mess up! The horse is, however, bold and clever enough to jump from wherever so you have the opportunity to experiment. I am very fortunate to have had the chance to ride and compete Nicole Diana's horse Chequers Superstar a few years ago. He truly is a superstar and did wonders for my confidence jumping.
In the past I was afraid to mess up so I would just stop riding or I would chase for the long one. I didn't want to make the wrong decision and didn't know how to help the horse fix the distance so I would often do nothing. With Chequers I was able to say ok, I see three strides but it is really long. I could then try and move up or ask him to wait and change the three to four strides. Like I said, I could mess up and Chequers wouldn't hold it against me, he would just jump from whichever distance we happened to get to. Now, trying to change the distance and not really knowing what will and won't work will cause you to mess up, a lot if you are anything like me! It is important to keep the fences small at this stage so that if and when you make a mistake it isn't a problem for your horse.
Something that quickly became apparent was the quality of canter I needed when jumping. Denny often talks about how Jack Le Goff always said when jumping you need a canter with enough speed, balance, and impulsion. Speed is just the speed needed for the level and/or height of the fence, Intermediate speed is much faster than say Novice speed. Balance and impulsion, however, are contradicting qualities. Often one overpowers the other. Usually either the horse is too balanced with very little energy and the rider riding backwards or the horse is just running on its forehand with no balance. To get a canter with both qualities creates an adjustable canter that you CAN use to adjust to the appropriate distance. If your horse comes running to a fence with very little balance, your only option is the long flat distance. Conversely, if you come down with little impulsion you are likely to get deep and the horse will have to crawl over the fence or you will get a long weak distance.
Once I really thought about this I was able to analyze my canter after a bad fence. Ok, I got really deep to that fence and the horse had to crawl over, I probably needed more impulsion. So, next time I came to the fence I would try coming with more gusto. Maybe that time I would be too quick and way too long and flat, ok I need a better balance while keeping the forward momentum. Once you know what you are looking for you can start to play around with the canter and work on adjustability.
This isn't something that you are going to get overnight. It takes hours and hours practicing jumping hundreds and hundreds of fences. Every horse is a little different but once you can start adjusting the canter and trusting your eye it can give you an amazing amount of confidence jumping.
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