Jumping in Horseback Riding

to hand gallop. You should also be able to ride these gaits securely in two points or half seat. Its common for instructors especially those teaching kids to hurry through the basics and get the student jumping before theyre really secure. After all jumping can be loads of fun and its pretty glamorous too. This is often a mistake and ultimately leads to unsafe unhappy riders and unhappy horses.
Its difficult to say how long it will take to develop a secure seatit varies for every rider. A really keen athletic rider on a wellschooled horse may be able to start jumping after a few months of lessons. Others may take longer either because they arent as athletic or are keen but apprehensive. This is where a good instructor or coach can make a big differencesomeone who will know when to give the student a little motivational push without overwhelming them.
Riding Over Poles
After you have mastered the basics you can start riding over poles. Often instructors will start with just one pole that will be ridden over at the walk. You will then learn to walk and then trot over a line of poles both at a posting trot and twopoint seat. Once youve mastered that youll start cantering over the line. Its important to understand the spacing between the poles so its easy for you and your horse to accomplish this exercise safely. This is where your coach is a good resource.
Progressing
From poles you will move to cavelettipoles that are raised a few inches off of the ground. Again youll trot and canter over these as your horse moves with greater impulsion to lift itself over these tiny jumps. Once youre secure going over the caveletti the next step will be a small cross rail. This will be just high enough to encourage your horse to actually jump rather than step over the rails. As you approach this cross rail its important to keep your seat securely in the saddle. Look forward beyond the jump at where you want to go after you land.
Dropping your head to look affects the horses balance. Your coach will help you learn to gauge where to ask your horse to take off fromroughly the same distance from the jump as it is high. As the horse lifts its forequarters over the rail you will lift yourself up into twopoint and let your hands go
forward up your horses necka movement called the release so you dont inadvertently bump its mouth or use the reins to hold yourself up with. A horse needs to stretch its neck out as it jumps to help it balance and you dont want to interfere with this you will momentarily have no contact with the bit.
As you land sit gently down in the saddle and bring your hands back to the normal position. Be sure not to fold your legs back or push them forward. Your leg position should not change greatly from riding on the flat.
After you have mastered a small line of cross rails you will gradually increase the height of the jumps. As you become skilled at riding jumps in an arena or ring you will graduate to riding different types of jumps including oxers jumps that are two or three rails wide water jumps and other more complicated and intimidating at least for the horse types of jumps. Jumping cross country or field hunting is even more challenging as you learn to deal with distractions and solid jumps that dont fall down if your horse hits them.
Jumping on Trails
Western and trail riders probably wont go beyond the cross rails stage. Most often if a trail rider encounters a downed tree or another obstacle on the trail its easy enough and safer to find a way around. In trail classes any jumps are quite smalla test of obedience rather than jumping skills.