Leaning at Jumps - Flatwork Exercises?

[SadieRidingHorses]

I have a problem that’s pretty typical for an Adult Amateur, I think; I lean at jumps. Generally I do it because I see the long spot and anticipate take-off before it happens.

I’d like to stop, so I can move up in height, feel more confident going XC, and, you know, not be a lawn dart when I ride less honest horses. Also, my dressage trainer says (accurately) that I sometimes lean into canter transitions.

So, any suggestions on flatwork or even unmounted exercises that I can do to resolve my leaning tendencies? Is it core work? Any suggestions appreciated!

[endlessclimb]

Funky posting always seems to get me back over my leg. Stand two, sit one. Sit two, stand one. Stand three sit two.

Also, imagining showing the soles of my boots to the fence on approach keeps me back and my weight in my calves.

I’m interested to hear other ideas!

[Always_WIP]

Count your rhythm (not your strides to the fence). Just a 1,2 or a 1,2,3. It doesn’t matter whether your horse leaves on a 1 or a 3, but it has helped me sit back and wait for the horse to jump rather than jumping ahead.

[ClevelandEventer1]

Some great tips here so far - counting the rhythm (must be out loud, or I cheat) is a favorite. I’ve also benefitted from the instruction - “let the fence come to you,” and thinking about keeping my shoulders tall to the fence which helps engage core muscles and keep leg on. And of course, I can never canter enough poles on the ground.

[Willesdon]

Remember, always, it is the horse’s job to jump the fence not yours.

[Highflyer1]

Jimmy Wofford made me hold a crop under my chin over the fence.

[SadieRidingHorses]

@Highflyer1 interesting- was it tucked under your chin? How could you keep your eyes up?

[cbg]

When I came back to riding after a long break I was doing the same thing. I took away my stirrups when I jumped (sometimes for flatting too, but always for jumping) for months. I even showed (in the jumpers) without stirrups a couple of times.

Without stirrups I couldn’t really lean up and was able to figure out the feel I was looking for to avoid doing so. As a bonus my leg and core got much stronger which also helped.

[Jealoushe]

Imagine a glass of wine on your helmet as you go over the fence, don’t spill the wine. Thats from Selena O Hanlon

[Highflyer1]

No it was upright, perpendicular to the ground with the handle under my chin. I held it with my right hand and the reins with my left. (This was just through a grid.) Once you’ve whacked yourself a couple of times you get better about it!

[endlessclimb]

This made the visual more confusing, especially with the left-hand right-hand comment. I need a diagram.

[EventingMaff]

Having ridden many greenies, I always tell myself I’d rather be left behind then get ahead (better to throw my reins away so not to grab the mouth then become a projectile!). I find that once I know how far back / late to go into 2-point it takes to actually be left behind, I get less anticipatory about shifting my weight forward.

I haven’t done this, but maybe try intentionally to be left behind a couple times over some small jumps (by staying seated and sitting up tall before the jump) to find your balance boundary on the other side of the spectrum and then slowly correct back towards ‘center’ from there?

[beowulf]

Try practicing seeing your distance and letting the horse come up to you over fence.

You can train a better eye by trotting and cantering a ground pole in the ring. Practice calling out how many strides to the pole – start with something small like 3. Call out 3, 2, 1…and when you nail this, start calling out 4 strides to the fence. One thing that is important - don’t try to adjust the horse’s canter to meet your call out… IE if you called out 3 and you see it’s going to be a four, don’t kick the horse forward to make the 3… This exercise is all about understanding your horse’s rhythm.

Another exercise to help is to trot fences, canter out. Come in at posting trot, and try to sit the last four strides – then 2 – while keeping your eyes up. Look at something in the distance, not the fence – and then let the horse’s shoulders come up to your hand.

If you have the same issue in canter transition, think of visually “bumping” your horse up to the canter. When you ask for your canter cue, lift up your chin and your hands at the same time – hard to lean forward too much when you do that.

[Xanthoria]

imagine your head is on a line or rail and stays still all thru the course - that helps me keep the head up.

[Feliz]

Tipping forward is my number one bad habit … on the flat I’ve found it helps to visualise what I’m going to do - particularly sitting up straight and tall. I try to remind myself to check-in on this every so often. When my horse is going well it’s relatively easy, if he gets quick and anxious then I default to this - very much a WIP.

Jumping-wise - I get good results imaging that I’m jumping a massive drop fence - if my shoulders go forward I’m going to be toast on landing Of course I have to remember to do this …

[subk]

First, I disagree that leaning is a function of seeing or not seeing your distance. It’s anticipatory either way it’s just that it’s uglier and more obvious when you miss.

Another of my favorite Woffordism is to “do the opposite mistake” which is to get left behind. Over a small cross rail intentionally try to get left behind. One of two things will happen 1) most likely you don’t actually get left behind but do what with your upper body. 2) You do get left behind and for some reason “finding” the right place between the two mistakes the next time is much easier.

Another way to think about it is to lean slightly backwards as you are approaching the fence. Again there is a good chance that what you feel as being your shoulders behind your hips is actually your shoulders over your hips. Sometimes we need to identify where vertical is before we can identify the feeling that we are more forward than vertical.

Or just tell yourself to pull your shoulders back and sit on your pockets and wait for the front of the horse to rise up to you.

Years ago Jimmy Wofford had the opportunity to watch all the riders riding slow motion over each jump at Rolex. (As a part of his announcing gig.) Afterwards at a clinic he told us that in terms of nano seconds the Brits and the Germans were the best and waited the longest for the horse to lift his front end before they fold their bodies. Most fascinating was that Jimmy saw a correlation between horses doing a better job bringing their front legs up and having them even in these European riders. The horses of the American riders who were more likely to be folding slightly earlier in the jumping sequence were more likely to have their front legs uneven as they rise and come over the fence. The upshot being that leaning and being early really DOES (Edited that!) have a negative affect on your horse’s physical performance over a jump.

To clarify: Leaning and folding early are not exactly the same thing, but they feed on each other. Most people that leaning also fold too early, but folding too early can be an issue without the leaning.

[pony_grandma]

Leaning and folding … think SINK. Butt behind you and sink down into your leg and heel. Rock solid position.

[SillyHorse]

I’m going to suggest you go to a FB page called “Judge My Ride.” Kevin McGinn discusses this issue and offers lots of actual exercises that don’t involve your having to imagine anything. They retrain your body to wait, keep a strong lower leg with a flexible ankle that you sink into, develop a following hand, and give the horse the best chance for success over the jumps. Even though most of the people who send in photos and videos are hunter and jumper people, he loves eventers! I’m not necessarily suggesting that you send a photo or video, but just to read his comments. Many of the people he “talks” to are fighting the same problem as you.

[beowulf]

@subk

First, I disagree that leaning is a function of seeing or not seeing your distance. It’s anticipatory either way it’s just that it’s uglier and more obvious when you miss.

Leaning is usually at its root, a confidence issue.

Install confidence and the leaning forward tends to resolve. Best way to install confidence is to break it down into something small and easy, so you get that little confidence boost and remember you are perfectly capable of handling what you are about to do. The canter poles are a fantastic exercise because if you are 100% confident in your take off point, you likely will not lean.

Another exercise done often by BNT clinicians when there is a chronic leaner, is to make them walk a jump. A stiff one – like a Novice or even Training log. After a few go arounds most riders are drastically improved.

[subk]

I don’t disagree that it may be a confidence problem, but the reality is that most amateurs and even highly experienced ones don’t see distances on a regular basis. (raising hand!) I will bring Wofford in again since this has been a personal issue and I’ve had several conversations with him specifically on it over the years. He has told me that most riders–all but world class ones–don’t see distances but 9 out of 10 times and secondly aren’t seeing distances more than 3 or 4 strides out. So I’m not real optimistic that most of us have the capacity to not have to worry about never seeing a distance. (Missing 10% of the time is ALOT!)

So the real answer is how to be confident when you DON’T see the distance. Leaning is one of those self fulfilling prophesies–they create the very problems that you are trying to prevent, so the fix to it feels counter intuitive. (and it’s hard!)

By all means do the work to improve your eye, but to truly fix this you’ll need to learn how to ride forward when you don’t see a distance (for a lot of us when we don’t see the distance we have a blank “feeling” approaching a fence.) Learn how to recognize that blank feeling and understand that the best, safest response to it is to close your hand, put your leg on and feel yourself stretching tall. There isn’t a single “spot” to take off from but instead an “area” in front of the jump and the better the horse’s balance the bigger the ideal area becomes. With a good canter you can ride forward and have a take off a foot from the base and it can be lovely. The only difference between that and a chip & vomit is the balance of the horse’s canter. Leaning destroys the balance.