Adjust Your Horse's Stride with Gymnastic Jumping Exercises

According to successful show jumping rider and trainer Brian Morton collection can be defined as the shortening of the horses outline and stride with increased impulsion and engagement from the hind end. And as he hastens to point out If you are not able to shorten your horses stride you will never be able to get a horse to fit a stride into a line that is set short. And if you lose the impulsion when you shorten the stride you will never be able to produce a powerful round jumping effort off a short distance.

First think about the quality of your horses canter on the flat. Brian recommends shortening the horses stride until you can comfortably canter a 10 metre circle. If you are able to maintain a threebeat rhythm easily youre beginning to work toward collection.
The feeling of collection is one of adjustability. When youre working in a collected gait the horse is not stuck in that gait says Brian. The horse is still in front of your leg still engaged. Theres still a lot of contained energy in the movement then its easy to release that energy and send it out on a longer stride again.
While a good start its not enough that the jumping horse maintain collection on the flat he must also have the ability to hold that collection over a jump or a course of jumps. To encourage your horse to maintain collection throughout the arc of his jump Brian recommends the following two gymnastic jumping exercises.
Establish forward impulsion in a nice working trot rising and then well in advance of the jump drop into a light sitting trot focusing on maintaining the impulsion and rhythm all the way to the first pole. Over the pole close your leg just a bit and maintain