Last week I took Z to Conyers, Georgia for the Atlanta Fall Classic and competed him for the first time in the Jumper ring (and even found myself in the Hunter ring.) As I have said before, my first equestrian sport is Eventing, which includes a phase of dressage, a phase of cross country, and a phase of show jumping. It would seem that doing one of these sports, i.e. dressage or show jumping, by itself at the same level should be no problem. However, at this show I became acutely aware of the differences between the training I have always done for show jumping in eventing and the training that is required for the horse to seriously compete in the jumper ring- especially as the jumps get higher.
My first Experience in the Jumper Ring
This was not the first time that I had ridden in the Jumpers. Several years ago I chose to compete my Training level event horse in the Jumpers when I wanted to improve our show jumping and overall technique. I started taking my horse Finisterre (barn name "Jojo") to lessons with Alejo Maddalena, an Argetinian show jumper that transplanted to Birmingham several years ago. For a number of lessons, Alejo tried to manage my horse's overzealous attitude about the fences and my triage-style riding (where I tried to simultaneously manage and not interfere with the horse's balance and momentum). Eventually Alejo came to me and asked if he could have the horse in training for several weeks- without me. I considered being offended for about 2 seconds. Then, handed the horse over and prayed for a solution.
Alejo was operating from my barn at the time and I got the privilege of watching every ride. At first I cringed watching Alejo ride. He immediately changed Jojo's shape on the flat from the round frame that I had worked on so diligently for dressage to allowing his head to be carried high, nose out. Also, I had struggled with my horse's tendency to become tense and shorten his stride through lots of suppling exercises and trying to stretch him out towards the bridle. Alejo didn't seem to care about the length of his stride. Instead, all he addressed was the horse's balance. I waited patiently to see what this would bring.
Within three weeks, Alejo had Jojo jumping 4 foot (1.20m) with balance- no rushing. When I got on Jojo for the first time to feel the changes, I was shocked. He was a totally different ride. He felt uphill, carried himself and jumped from his hind-end. This was my first taste of a show jumper having a different training goal than I was pursuing in my event training.
I did one or two Jumper shows with Jojo and Alejo. The experience taught me not only the value of exploring a different training method than my own; but it convinced me that riding in the Jumpers was priceless experience for any horse that was going to do Eventing
Owning a Horse Bred for Show Jumping
My horses, Z (Izod WW), Rocky (Irock WW) and J'Adore WW are bred to jump. Rocky and Z have some of the top European show jumping lines on their sire's side. ( Irock WW Pedigree , Izod WW Pedigree ) Orlando, their grandsire was the sire of the 2012 European Six Year old World Champion, Gangster de Longchamps . And the list goes on- Heartbreaker, Nimmerdor, Sandro (Z), Kannan. I am definitely biased, but both of these horses (Z and Rocky) are the most naturally talented jumpers I have worked with or seen. They have an intuition about jumping and getting correctly to the jump that is uncanny. J'Adore is equally well bred ( J'Adore WW Pedigree ) with her grandsire being Carthago Z. J'Adore's talent is best exhibited in her power to push off the ground. As a three year old we have only jumped over small jumps, but the power is undeniable. So with all of this show jumping talent in the barn, I would be a fool not to stay in the Jumper ring for a while.
However taking these talented youngsters from unbroke to competing in the Jumpers is proving to be a very different experience than my previous time in the Jumper ring. Jojo had several years experience in Eventing when he entered the Jumper ring. While he carried a number of bad habits from the event world to the show jumping world, he basically knew his job. Jumping a clear round in the Jumper ring was a matter of perfecting our skills. But now I am bringing youngsters with relatively little show experience into the Jumper ring and I am seeing the process from a very different perspective. Talent is just a small piece of the picture of success, the training program is what makes the talented horse have a big future.
Jumping at Home versus Jumping at an A rated Show
At home I have been focused on teaching the young horses the basics in rhythm and technique jumping at a set height. They have been jumping grids and short courses of fences. The short courses set up at home are generally 5-7 stride lines with an occasional bending line distanced at approximately 4 strides. The majority of the combinations that they jump are in a grid. At the show my goal was to jump around at .95m, possibly 1 meter (3'-3'3"). I was schooling this height at home. I felt they needed the skills that were normally needed to jump around a Novice level event- jump a height of 3' (.95 meter), negotiate a 1 stride combination and possibly a 4 stride bending line. What I hadn't considered was the relationship between the jumps in the course and how the horses would handle jumping a series of fences in which each jump directly affected the next approach.
The simplest description of what makes a show jumping course in the Jumpers different from a show jumping course in Eventing is that every stride counts between the jumps. When I first started walking jumper courses with Alejo, I laughed at how we went from fence to fence counting strides. I never counted strides on a show jumping course in Eventing unless there were four or less between a fence. I always rode from my eye (seeing the take off spot as I approached the jump) not from a conscious counting of strides from one jump to the other. This approach to show jumping comes from my upbringing in Eventing where my instructors focused on bravery and approach before counting strides. The kids that rode in the Hunters before they came to eventing were the ones that learned to count strides.
Here's an example of a Training Level show jumping course I jumped on a horse a year ago. Notice that the majority of the jumps are off of wide turns, and the only jumps on straight lines are at a minimum of 6-7 strides (other than the combination)
Now here's an example of the .95 Jumper course at Conyers Horse Park from this past week. Keep in mind the jumps in this Jumper course are about 3"s shorter than the Training Level show jumping course shown above.
Notice that the jumps in the Jumper course have much shorter turns, multiple combinations and oxers* on related distances to combinations that start with an oxer. Also the majority of the oxers are square oxers or parallel oxers asking the horse to be more careful. Needless to say, I might have done an ok-job preparing him for an event show jumping course, but for the Jumpers, he was a little over his head. He tried, but I could feel his confidence wavering.
Considerations for the Future
I realize now that the training that I did of Z for the show was a bare minimum of what he will need to be successful in the Jumper ring. Z has a natural rhythm that makes distances fairly easy to achieve, but the flip-side of this is that because his strides are so even, he mathematically gets to the fence on exactly what you give him. This becomes a serious consideration when the jumps are as related as they are in a Jumper course. If he backs off of an oxer and doesn't have the impulsion needed he can't get to the next fence in the exact number of strides and will either add a short stride at the next fence or have too long a spot to jump from and be in trouble- especially in a combination. I could feel that Z was a bit intimidated by these questions. He will need to be challenged at home with more similar questions to what he will see at competitions.
This is just a beginning to the observations I made at the show. It is my intention to work through some of the different training issues I experienced and use this blog to document the progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.