How do I get more comfortable jumping at a faster pace?

[AmateurInTheArena]

I’ve been leasing a horse for about nine months now, and one of my biggest challenges has been finding a comfortable, consistent pace over jump courses. On the flat, he’s quite slow and lazy, but once we start jumping, his stride opens up dramatically. While can feel out of control and like he’s running away at the time, when I watch recordings, our pace over fences looks completely fine.

He hasn’t always been the most reliable over fences (stopping, running out, and rushing), but we’ve done a lot of work to work on those issues. That said, I think that’s left me with a lot of tension and nervousness when jumping him now. I find myself pulling to the fence, which I know just makes things worse. I’m usually a confident rider, but with this horse, I feel nervous unless we’re going at a snail’s pace.

How do I start to relax more, trust the pace, and give before the fences? How can I get more comfortable riding forward, without feeling like I’m completely out of control?

[OverandOnward]

Frankly, not enough information to comment. Because …

Question: What is your trainer situation?

IMO you need an experienced trainer on the ground to really work with you on this. IMO not safe to figure it out on your own (although of course 20 people will post that they did). Someone who is feeling a lack of confidence needs more support.

This is one of those progress points where every rider, every horse, is different enough that, while of course many common techniques are important, it is best to have a customized coaching approach by someone who is there in person at every session. IMO.

[fivestrideline]

Agree that you need boots on the ground for this. And NOT someone that’s going to reach for the needle or a contraption. To me it sounds like you may be dealing with more than just anxiety surrounding speed.

Some things to mull over:

• his anxiety related to jumping is now/always has been YOUR anxiety. Are there other horses you can take lessons on and jump? It’s much easier to build confidence if you’ve got a horse that is trustworthy to practice on.
• I had a horse that rushed and stopped as a kid. Saddle fit was at least half our issue. It was normal then for me to get off and move the saddle up between rounds and/or use a breastplate. The horse tolerated it on the flat but jumping made him stop or scoot off; a properly fitted saddle and some joint help made a huge difference. Check your tack again and it wouldn’t hurt to look into minor chronic issues that might be contributing.
• there’s going “faster” or “with more pace” and there’s going forward with the horse pushing from behind. It’s a difference that really is hard to find without good help if you aren’t well versed in this already, and sometimes it’s hard to tell on one horse but not another. Having a coach talk you through it is really the only way to nail down the Feel.

There are things you can try, some more out there than others, but you really need to have knowledgeable in-person help to determine if these “hacks” are useful, unhelpful, or downright dangerous. Neck straps, tied reins, no reins, etc. can all be helpful, or they can be detrimental.

Does your coach have you working on anything? Can you swap to another ride for a bit, or take more frequent lessons?

[Blugal]

Agree with the previous posters about getting help.

One exercise I can’t recommend enough is cantering poles on the ground. Try putting 3 on a curve, one stride apart (10-11 feet at centres is a good starting point). Once you are comfortable doing a normal canter through, try lengthening after the poles, then coming back to your normal pace for the poles. Then try riding towards the edges of the poles so you have a bigger stride. Then you can also gather the canter and ride towards the inside of your curved poles.

Next set up 2 poles 54 feet apart. Canter through in 4 strides, and then in 5 strides. Which is harder? Make sure your horse is straight, connected, and doesn’t change leads. If the 4 strides is harder, practice it more until you are comfortable and can immediately achieve that more forward pace.

If the 4 strides is easy, you may have a longer-strided horse, and you can roll the poles out a couple feet further apart, then see if that challenges you. But make sure you also practice adding a stride.

You and your horse will get a lot more in tune if you practice this thoroughly. You’ll have a better feel for your pace, and better eye for your distances. It’s a workout without a ton of concussion on your horse since you are not actually jumping.

If you like, raise the poles on one, or both, ends, so you are doing cavaletti.

[SolarFlare]

Along with all the advice above - you need to get more comfortable with an open canter on the flat, without any jumps. Practice your jumping canter every ride, even if you need to start off with a very short amount and add a bit each day.

When you start cantering, if you feel comfortable, you’re probably too slow. Push for 10% more canter, establish that rhythm, and ride that - again, no jumps so you’re not having that additional factor to worry about.

Practice lengthening and shortening your canter stride to get your brain used to the idea that you DO have control over the canter.

@fivestrideline

there’s going “faster” or “with more pace” and there’s going forward with the horse pushing from behind. It’s a difference that really is hard to find without good help if you aren’t well versed in this already, and sometimes it’s hard to tell on one horse but not another. Having a coach talk you through it is really the only way to nail down the Feel.

This was something I needed to work on after my coach and I went back to basics and helped my horse get straighter and stronger. My brain was subconsciously yelling that we were too fast, but we weren’t - he was just actually pushing from behind. I had to force myself to allow more canter every ride on the flat until it just wasn’t a big deal any more. When we finally added jumps back in, he was much more ridable and I was more comfortable with a better-quality pace.

[AmateurInTheArena]

I am working closely with a trainer, and this is something we’re working on in my lessons. We are making (slow) progress, but I like hearing from others who experienced similar things and mainly wanted to see if others had exercises or mantras or something else they used to help themselves.

[AmateurInTheArena]

@SolarFlare

When you start cantering, if you feel comfortable, you’re probably too slow.

This is a good reminder, and one I definitely find true when I watch videos of my ride. I think I’m having a similar issue you did, where we went back to basics for several months and the horse has gotten stronger and better at going forward while pushing from behind.

It sounds so obvious but you’re right, I need to be more proactive about practicing the forward canter pace on the flat to get more comfortable with it.

[AmateurInTheArena]

Thank you! This is exactly the kind of help I was hoping for. I work closely with a trainer, and she’s given me ideas about what to work on outside of lessons, but I love getting exercises from other people too.

[OverandOnward]

IME – Some riders – When they first start learning to canter, they feel it is very fast. I think the reason is that they have no other experience of moving as fast as a cantering horse when outside of the protective bubble of a vehicle. They may not have much experience cycling, skiing, or doing anything else in the open air at 15+ mph.

For someone new to canter, the visuals change dramatically from trot to canter. Suddenly the environment is whipping by – or at least, that is how it feels. If they see video of themselves cantering they will see that it doesn’t look fast at all. It looks very controlled.

Their body is sending out alarms that this is a risky dumb thing to be doing, catastrophe is imminent! It is almost like a fear of heights. The inner alarms can override everything else.

The alarms can go off at any time there is a change in the ride that feels like a big change to the body. Perhaps the balance is different, or the aids, or whatever, but the body doesn’t feel confident about the new demands.

There are techniques to help rationalize and calm those alarms, but it is a step-by-step process.

Seeing a video of what you were just doing, during the ride, can help some riders adjust their perspective. Frankly, help them to feel safe.

Breaking down the new ask into much smaller steps, adjusting expectations downward, can also help re-build confidence. As mentioned in a post above, go from jumps to poles on the ground. Sitting. Two-point. If even that feels alarming, then just one pole on the ground. Canter on a long stride for half of a (large) circle, then bring back the stride. Lengthen and shorten. Gradually work up to one circle as you feel confident. And so on.

Much smaller steps. Maybe that is the hardest thing to overcome – adjusting expectations. Breaking it down into something that seems so little against the usual expectations. That is the way to build up, only when there is confidence in each step.

In addition to a trainer who knows the steps, you might take a look at some of the work now being published on the internet and elsewhere on overcoming performance anxiety and fear. I can’t give a recommendation as I haven’t looked at it closely. I’m sure there are good tips there.

[beowulf]

Find a hunter-pacing buddy.

[Bonnie2]

These are all good suggestions. You could also try practicing a short, medium and long canter. When you can consistently produce three canters, try a course with just standards - no rails at all. Decide where on the course each canter would be appropriate then ride your course. It can be hard to remember your course, steer, look for a spot, and regulate your canter. Break it down into smaller pieces. Good luck!

[Janet]

First, your trainer knows MUCH more about your horse, and about YOUR strengths and weaknesses, than any of us do. So discuss it with him/her.

I think there may be TWO distinct but related issues.
One is just gettig used to jumping at a more forward pace on ANY horse.
The other is getting used to riding a horse, with a history/habit of rushing) without “picking”

I have had to deal with the second, starting when Belle was quite green.
As has been discussed, Even though she was already competently jumping 2’6" courses, I went back to a sinhle rail on the ground, focusing on maintining a steady pace with a loose, or no, rein.
Starting at a walk. If she started to jig I asked for a halt, then continued at a wlak. When I could tie a knot in the reins, and rest it on her neck, from 4 or 5 strides before to 4 or 5 strides after, I started trotting her over the single rail, with the same process.Once I could reliably rest the reins on her neck at the trot, I worked on the same thing at a canter.

Then I added a second rail at approx 18 - 21 ft (distance might depend on your horse’s stride), and started again with the walk.

When that was reliably consistent on that with the reins resting on the neck, I turned the second rail into a very small X.

Whe we could consitently do that, I turned the ffirst rail into another X, and then gradally raised bot X’s, and turned it into various gymnastics.

By the end of the summer, I could canter a half circle, line up with the gymnastic, drop the reins, go over the gymnastic, and pick them up on the other side.

I m not saying she never rushed, or I never picked, again, because we both did. But we were both more comfortable witht he whole thing, and I had an exercise i could fall back on whenerer either of us started to relapse.

[Blugal]

A very good point - one must learn to let the horse carry itself, and the horse must learn to carry itself. This means you insist on a canter that stays the same, without you pulling on the reins (half-halts are fine). I often do this on a 20m circle in 2-point (you can rest your hands on the crest if needed) with little or no rein contact, and just keep practicing until it’s happening. Sometimes the real solution is for the rider to learn to turn to using their leg first - e.g if the horse is on the forehand, you need to activate its hindquarters to push the withers up - not use the reins to try to haul the front end up. Doing a 10m canter circle here and there will also encourage use of your leg, and the horse’s the hindquarters; the reins can just neck-rein the turn, without pulling.

Once these basics are in place, it’s a lot easier to jump and know you can rely on the pace.

[LCDR]

Two things really helped me long ago. Cross country clinics with Bruce Davidson and Lucinda Green. The other was fox hunting regularly which gave me thousands of hours of saddle time over all sorts of terrain. I still think about hearing Bruce yelling “faster” over and over and over while he had us working on the right speed for our levels.

[RAyers]

Oh dear lord, XC clinics with Bruce Davidson. “KICK! STOP PULLING!” That was one way I learned to gallop at jumps. But that was more reinforcement of how I was taught 20 years before then. Of course the same thing was yelled by my mom at me. “KICK ON!” By today’s standards, it is amazing nobody was killed.

I have a GREAT steeplechase story from Rebecca Farm where they allow the Novice and Training 3-Day folks a chance to school steeplechase. Classic me and “what rules?”

@AmateurInTheArena, the question you need to answer first is, what level are we talking about here? Some folks here are from the era of steeplechase () where we were jumping at speed and learned it by doing it over and over and over, and hitting the ground a lot while our trainers watched on until we learned to literally jump like steeplechasers or timber jocks. Our experiences in learning are different but we are very aware of how we developed various gallops at various levels.

In the end, in modern XC, no fence is ever jumped at more than 400-450 mpm, even at the top levels. That tells me that you are still in the lower levels just getting comfortable with XC?

[Blugal]

That reminds me of being taught to jump at speed by Nick Holmes-Smith back in the 1990s. This was for Training riders wanting to move up to Prelim, and Prelim riders wanting to do a 3-day with steeplechase.

He set up a show jump on a flat stretch with a very gradual incline. The jump was set as a big and wide but inviting triple bar with I think a cross-rail as one of the faces. We had warmed up practicing our 450 mpm (he had flags at 400, 450, 520, 550, 570m so that you could do one minute and see how fast you were), then 520, then we were supposed to beat the 570m, so that we were going approximately 600m.

Then off you go, gallop to that nice inviting triple bar from what you believe is 550+. Nobody had a bad distance or a bad jump. It was fun, exhilarating, and confidence-boosting.

[add_leg]

This is what the last year of my riding has been focused on - one of the things that helped the most was going out with my trainer or an experienced friend in open space and having them go Novice/Training/whatever speed (usually one above where I’m showing) and then forcing myself to keep up. A few times and suddenly you realize what it’s supposed to feel like and it starts to feel more comfortable. Then taking that and just galloping a single inviting fence. I went from time faults to speed faults in the matter of like three months, whoops.

[OverandOnward]

Along with being consistently stable in a proper position, leg and ankle where it should be, rein skills for anything that comes up, able to flow with the horse absorbing the motion in the hips knees ankles. Get all that right, and suddenly it feels as if all things are possible.

The rider also needs to feel comfortable that they have the basic skills to pull up a horse going faster. They may not need those skills for their individual training rides. But one of the scariest things is your substrata brain telling you that if this horse gets away, even a little, you don’t know what to do to stop it.

[add_leg]

Yes! Adding on - my trainer had me go out once I was more comfortable, gallop and then she’d give me a marker and have me halt like I was about to fall off a cliff. Just a few times, not ripping the horse’s face off, not trying to make a reiner, but just enough to have the confidence that I could halt this horse when, and if, needed, no matter the pace.
(Background: I had a bolter send me through a fence as a kid that got me a helicopter ride out, so learning this involved a LOT of mental stuff for me too!)

[RAyers]

@Blugal you reminded me of something. Maybe this thought will help the OP? This picture from 20 years ago was where my trainer said he wanted me to jump this at 550-570 mpm. It had a good approach and the whole time my reptilian brain was going, “PULL UP!! PULL UP!!” Meanwhile my frontal lobe, the entire time was responding with, “Will you just shut the fuck up.” The crowd cheered as we galloped off. I was thinking, “Wow! These folks are nice!” Turns out I was just the first one to jump this option.

@AmateurInTheArena, Getting comfortable at jumping from a faster pace is really a function of just doing it, practicing your equitation (as others here have wonderfully laid out), and having a willingness to ignore internal monologs.