Jumping Advice Please 😁

[WetLettuce2]

Im having lessons jumping but it’s mainly focused on quality of canter, contact, and riding away - not so much the jumping bit ! Any advice on positioning over a jump ? Particularly where my hands, elbows and lower leg should be ? I’ve watched endless videos and mine don’t look quite like them 😁

Also, I feel like I’ve been jumping small cross poles forever, but have made the huge improvement to 65cm recently 😁😁How do you get confident and competent at bigger jumps ? I’d love to be able to jump 90s some day.

I’m only at the jumping small x-poles stage myself but my dd is currently competing at novice eventing (so jumps at 1.10) and 1.20 at showjumping so I’ve watched a lot of lessons.

The biggest part of jumping is the flat work so concentrating on the quality of the canter and what happens before and after the jump sounds like your instructor is telling you the right things. My daughter’s showjumping improved hugely when she really got to grips with flat work, especially the adjustability of the canter.

In terms of your position over a jump you want to stay in balance so you’re moving with the horse not in front or behind, you want to give with your hands so you’re not socking them in the mouth when you land and try to keep your lower leg stable (most people let it swing back when they start) but lower leg stability over a jump comes with improved position generally. You don’t need to fold that much when you’re jumping little jumps (most riders over fold because they’re copying other riders).

Confidence with bigger jumps comes from doing smaller jumps well! If you nail your technique over smaller jumps and grids then the bigger heights will come easily (as long as your horse has the scope - but most horses can easily do 90s).

Check out the positions of eventers in the 70s/80s - remove the horse and they’re still standing. I swear, if I see one more pair of hands at ears - yet still quite remarkably pulling on the mouth - and heels on flanks over a 20cm x-Pole I’ll scream! 😂

Yes like Please says it sounds right to me to focus on the canter, line, rhythm etc over too much concern about position, that what my jump lessons on my own horse are like too, mainly. I've never really been able to understand why the focus on preparation for jumping involves so much practicing of 'jump position' when really over small fences you don't need to fold forwards at all, and actually trying to come in to a fence in that position and ride away in it after seems to make you more unbalanced, my instructor yells 'sit up' at me all the time! That being said practicing doing laps of the school in trot and canter either 'hovering' above the saddle or in a light seat/jump position (or alternating between the two without sitting down) is a great exercise to develop lower leg stability and also helps to get the horse moving forwards in that nice forward jumping canter. Your hands should be forward about a third of the way up the neck (not resting on the neck though) and you should try and give/release as the horse jumps, elbows should be roughly where they are for flatwork, ie by your sides, soft and ready to give, not fixed and rigid.

How you get confident, lots of repetition really, grids, related distances, small courses. Try not to obsess about the height (I know we all do it, my teacher put up this vast, terrifying spread the other day, I was convinced it must be 1.20 at least, got off and looked at it after the lesson and it was 85cm on the back rail, still chuffed with myself for jumping it though 😂). Basically my teacher tries to instill in me that jumping is the horse's job, mine is to decide the line and pace, quality of the canter and so on, put him in the right spot and he'll jump it is his mantra, and you can practice doing your bit just as much over a small crosspole as a big oxer, so once you feel confident in your ability to do that consistently and your own judgement to know when there's something wrong in your approach (not enough canter, dodgy stride etc) and take action accordingly then you'll be away and flying. Do bear in mind that while 90cm is pretty small in competitive terms it is probably about the upper limit of the average riding school horses scope, so it might be worth investing in some schoolmaster lessons at a big school or on a riding holiday or similar for your first time jumping bigger heights, if it's a height the horse finds easy it will be a lot more forgiving of any small mistakes you make, and there's nothing like success to build confidence!

You don’t really have enough time to fold over a little x-pole at that height, get out of their way, off their back and give them their head. Over folding just restricts their front end and puts them off balance when they land.
At that height they very much take it in their canter stride so just ride the canter and make sure you don’t yank them in the gob

So much good advice thanks !