Having Problems Seeing Distances. Advice?

[Frivian]

I used to have a terrible eye. Every course I would have at least one “oops, long, no short, no long, ahhh!” jump where I would end up on my (very honest!) horse’s neck.

Ever since working with my eventing trainer I have ignored “finding the distance” and focused on rhythm AND letting my horse find his own distance.

I really don’t have bad fences anymore. Sure, they’re not always the “perfect” distance, but I’ve learned how to help my horse jump better from any spot - like everyone said “sit up and leg” and “count your rhythm”. If I have a bad chip or a long weak spot now, it’s because I’ve forgotten to do one of those things.

[fish]

[QUOTE=skittlespony;6034781]
Honestly I find my distances easily, I’m not bragging. but I know other people who have trouble who have tried all of the things people above have mentioned. I found for every single person that has trouble seeing the distances that gridwork is the best thing you can do. It really helps your eye, and your position too!. Usually they will build something like this,
http://www.amandabarton.co.uk/pages/jumping.htm

Look at the pictures at the bottom of the page, im not from the U.K but this is what we do.[/QUOTE]

Your link gets me to “support services” and a list featuring boat sales, Lazy-Boy furniture, etc. No jumping help

[IPEsq]

R. Mutch used to say, Pace, Track, Spot. Always in that order. Can’t get the third without the first two. If you are struggling with one jump in particular, then you need to change something about your approach to fix it. Pace is not just speed, as others have mentioned, but it’s a canter that you can adjust out of. Don’t be at the horse’s top limit of their stride length and then think you can move up to a long one, for example.

Canter poles are great. Then put bounce rails out from your jumps, and work on getting the distance to the pole, not the jump (the jump will work itself out). I am terrible at counting down, and I hate the 1,2 type counts, but I will count up for a long time sometimes. Generally when I have a long approach to a single (pole or jump), I find myself beginning my count somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 strides out. I can see eventually that I’m going to get there this time on 8 or 10 or 11 or 12 or whatever, but if you asked me to count down even from 3, I can’t do it.

[AllisonWunderlund]

[QUOTE=fish;7793595]
Your link gets me to “support services” and a list featuring boat sales, Lazy-Boy furniture, etc. No jumping help :([/QUOTE]

Perhaps because this thread is almost 3 years old :winkgrin:

[winstonian]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;6035002]

I have heard people say “wait for the jump to come to you.” This does not work for me at all and is in fact counter productive because I already want to ride backwards. The one thing that has really helped me a lot is to think “I am going TO that jump,” which makes me think about a more forward canter. [/QUOTE]

I used to have the same problem whenever someone told to me to “wait for the jump to come to you.” What helps me is to think about riding to the jump with my leg and seat, but waiting for the jump with my shoulders (I can easily get into that nasty habit of leaning at my horse when I don’t see a distance). Another piece of advice that really clicked for me in terms of keeping a good canter rhythm was “ride the horse’s hind legs to the jump”. This helps me keep an active canter regardless of whether I find a shorter distance or a longer one. It also helps keep me from jumping ahead of my horse. One of my biggest problems is that I tend to let the motor die if I realize I’m going to get to a tight spot, making it that much harder for my horse to smoothly jump from that spot. If you keep your horse active while shortening, the tight spot works out a lot better and becomes a lot less noticeable.