Stride length and pole placement

[IrishWillow]

Ok, there’s been a bit of a debate on pole/jump placement (when setting up a line) in regards to where you would start your measurement.

I think of it this way:

I (24 feet) I

If you’re cantering this and its just poles on the ground, and you got tape measure out and literally put these poles exactly 24 ft apart, you’d get two strides here. If this was a larger jump, it would probably end up a one stride, bc you’d jump, land 6 feet into the 24, canter 1 stride (12 ft) and take off 6 feet or so in front of a larger fence to be able to clear it. Smaller fences that are not going to cause you to land/take off that far from the jump are going to cause this line to ride as a 2 stride, unless your horse is just super long strided or very athletic.

Am I wrong here?

Do you start your measurements AT the poles? As in 60ft from pole to pole is a 5 stride?

I’m not a novice, I’m just curious if I’m thinking about this in the proper manner?

[RugBug]

@IrishWillow;4350837

Ok, there’s been a bit of a debate on pole/jump placement (when setting up a line) in regards to where you would start your measurement.

I think of it this way:

I (24 feet) I

If you’re cantering this and its just poles on the ground, and you got tape measure out and literally put these poles exactly 24 ft apart, you’d get two strides here.

24" would be a one stride, poles or jumps . In a perfect world, you’d be over the first pole in the middle of your canter stride, so you’d have 6’ of in, one full stride for 12" and another half stride of 6’ for the out…all totalling 24’.

12" would be a bounce

36" would be two strides

@IrishWillow;4350837

If this was a larger jump, it would probably end up a one stride, bc you’d jump, land 6 feet into the 24, canter 1 stride (12 ft) and take off 6 feet or so in front of a larger fence to be able to clear it. Smaller fences that are not going to cause you to land/take off that far from the jump are going to cause this line to ride as a 2 stride, unless your horse is just super long strided or very athletic.

This is really the same as the poles. 6’ landing, 12’ for one stride, 6’ take off. It would be a long one stride if the jumps are small because your landing stride and take off distance aren’t going to be a full 6’.

@IrishWillow;4350837

Do you start your measurements AT the poles? As in 60ft from pole to pole is a 5 stride?

60’ is a 4 stride (you just divided by 12’ without subtracting for landing and take-off. Probably just a math error? :winkgrin: A 5-stride is somewhere around 72’.

I start measuring with my heel against the pole or ground line. When I’m setting courses, I’ll measure from the back ground line of the in to the front of the out if it’s a vertical or the middle of the spread if it’s an oxer.

[IrishWillow]

I think when you said “in a perfect world” poles 24 ft apart is 1 long stride. I’m usually riding green and/or young, so it ends up being two alot! Something to work on.

“24’ would be a one stride, poles or jumps . In a perfect world, you’d be over the first pole in the middle of your canter stride, so you’d have 6’ of in, one full stride for 12” and another half stride of 6’ for the out…all totalling 24’"

I think we’re saying the same thing. I started thinking about it, and its one of those things that I’ve been doing/thinking about the same way for so long, I started to get underconfident about it… just wanted to make sure I was measuring from the same spot as everyone else. I can ‘walk’ a line out pretty accurately, but I’ll usually grab a rolling tape measure and confirm that I’m setting everything up far enough apart.

And yeah, I meant 4 stride. LOL. See what I mean??? :winkgrin:

[dmj]

I’ve always been taught that, in aline, you allow for/walk off a full stride extra (12’)for takeoff and landing - similar to what is being said above.

[Crazy4aOTTB]

I get what you are saying! I am currently working with my mare on lengthening her stride or actually me getting the really forward pace that I need to “do the strides” She is pretty short strided and we have been doing the adds the past two years at the shows. She used to rush and like to leave long and has come so far over the past two years. But now show stays the same pace and pretty much finds her own distance. But to use to continue to move up we need to start doing the strides at shows. Yesterday we worked on just poles on the ground set at 60’ feet apart so a 4 stride. It was tough but we did it with lots of attitude from her.
But I do feel that just poles on the ground is probably harder since you don’t have the true 6’ landing and take off. I did feel that if we put the jumps up it would have been easier and we would not have had to have such a strong pace. But on the other hand I felt like it will be beneficial when it comes time to jump real jumps as we won’t have to have such a strong pace.

[IPEsq]

If you have a green, shorter strided horse, it would be better to adjust your distance (say, to 21’–or for bounce rails/tiny jump bounce to 9’) than to stuff 2 strides into 24’. For longer lines, sure, do the add if that’s better for that horse. But, for in and outs, the add can be just as “wrong” for training purposes as having to run to get the step.

[Synthesis]

Funny, but I almost never set poles on the ground at the same distances as I would if there were jumps. I’ve always found that encourages the horse to flatten instead of push.

Instead I ride poles for the add or set at shorter distances so I can maintain the energetic round canter. This is what works for me, ymmv

[RugBug]

[QUOTE=Synthesis;8920542]
Funny, but I almost never set poles on the ground at the same distances as I would if there were jumps. I’ve always found that encourages the horse to flatten instead of push.

Instead I ride poles for the add or set at shorter distances so I can maintain the energetic round canter. This is what works for me, ymmv[/QUOTE]

If I’m doing just poles, I leave them the same distances and then am working on adjustment: so adding, getting the distance, perhaps taking one out. But yes, poles set on the distance are going to be hard because you are not really using that 6’ landing/take off.

[equisusan]

My trainer (Grand Prix rider) sets our poles with a 3-4’ landing and 3-4’ take off so for a 5 stride line with poles we set at 66-68’. Rides more like the step you’ll really need to jump. You can still add and leave out to practice adjustment but if you want to practice what a 12’ step feels like we find this works better.