For many years, we taught lessons out of a barn with a huge, open entryway, complete with seating area. We hung the biggest bulletin boards we could find and the wall behind these chairs slowly filled with photos of joyful students with their favorite school horses.
After a while, we dedicated one entire section of the board to two of the most photogenic moments a student can have: their first canter and their first jump. Their form may or may not have been picturesque, but every student pictured wore an identical ear-to-ear smile.
It’s a good idea for ALL students to learn low jumping skills, no matter what riding discipline they prefer
Our philosophy is that all horses jump — sometimes over shadows, or depressions on the ground, in the moments we least expect it. A rider has a better chance of staying on, and riding through these moments with confidence, if they’ve had a previous successful experience jumping in a safe environment.
This goes for Western riders, too. We’ve seen some serious thrills and spills at mounted patrol certifications where lifelong Western riders were caught unprepared by their horse’s attempts to leap over unfamiliar arena equipment.
A Western rider may encounter a fallen log or ditch on the trail, or need to hop over straw bales as part of a trail or Extreme Cowboy class. In these circumstances, they will be much safer if they’ve learned how to stay with the horse’s motion and maintain a balanced position (without getting punished by the saddle horn!).
Early jumping lessons can be easy and joyful — or dangerous. That part’s up to you.
Thorough preparation is key to ensuring a safe, successful introduction to riding over fences. This can take months or years, depending on the individual rider and horse.
Our list of must-have skills for the rider includes:
#1 - A secure two-point position that ISN’T reliant on the hands for balance
Riding in two-point position is a valuable exercise to develop strength and balance, no matter what kind of saddle you use.
But are your students developing good habits or bad ones? A faulty two-point position can cause a face-first tumble if something goes wrong.
You’ll see students make these common mistakes when riding in jumping position:
- Bending at the waist instead of the hips
- Rounding through the back and shoulders
- Looking down
- Keeping the hips open and in front of the saddle seat
- Bracing on the stirrups
- Pinching with the knees
- Balancing on the ball of the foot instead of sinking down through the lower leg
These faults prevent the rider from remaining balanced and absorbing the shock of the horse’s gaits. Luckily, there’s a pretty simple cure: take the reins away and have students practice without help from their hands.
In Yellow Level, we ask our students to maintain two-point at the halt and walk with arms outstretched. Before they learn to canter, they should be able to demonstrate short periods of trot without using their hands to balance. By Green Level, their position should be SOLID — allowing them to trot over a grid of poles without reins or mane.
Longe line lessons can be a big help here. As students practice, take the time to correct ANY position fault that crops up. Draw attention to the way correct alignment feels, as well as how it looks, and use exercises or games to put their two-point skills to the test.
#2 - Strong no-stirrup skills
Before they start hopping over crossrails, your students’ motto should be, “No stirrups? No problem.”
Why? Because an off-balance landing can easily lead to a lost stirrup or two — which means you AND your students need to be confident that they can ride through a departure without them.
Confidence is created through lots of successful repetition, so make sure to include no-stirrup work in every ride.
Important no-stirrup skills to incorporate in your lessons:
- Posting with the leg in the correct position — no knee-pinching or leg-swinging, please. Someone watching from a distance should not be able to tell that the rider is stirrupless! By the end of Green Level, students should be able to do this for several minutes without tiring, but in the beginning, prioritize quality over quantity. Better to practice ten secure, balanced strides than ten laps of wobbly posting.
- Transitions between the walk, trot and halt. Make sure students can still adopt a secure safety seat position without stirrups.
- Retrieving dropped stirrups smoothly, at the walk, sitting trot and posting trot. It is important to practice this on a steady horse at first, in case the rider accidentally bumps with their leg.
- Short periods of time in two-point position, at the halt, walk and trot. A student who can ride over a couple of ground poles without stirrups and still demonstrate a secure jumping position is way less likely to fall after a jump.
- Riding a few bigger-than-average trot strides. This can be practiced on the longe line or leadline for safety. An accidental no-stirrup ride is not likely to be at a serene jog, so students will need to gain experience and confidence riding bigger trot steps.
All of these skills can take a LOT of time to develop, so try to incorporate no-stirrup practice into every ride from Yellow Level on up!
#3 - The ability to hold a line away from the rail
Good jumping is just good flatwork with speed bumps.
Even in the early stages, students will need to maintain a steady rhythm and an energetic working trot while riding a straight line.
If your students spend most of their time working next to the rail, they may not be getting the steering practice they need. Before pointing their horse at an obstacle, they should be able to trot a straight line across the diagonal, down centerline and quarterline, and through narrow pairs of cones or poles with relative ease.
All of this straightness practice should encourage students to guide their horses with intention, keeping their eyes on their destination and riding both sides of the horse’s body. You can put this to the test by asking students to ride over “skinny” poles, or ground poles no longer than 6’.
#4 - Lots and lots of practice over ground poles
There’s a reason that professional jumpers practice so much polework.
Riding over ground poles lets students refine essential jumping skills with reduced risk and impact on the horse’s legs.
Polework can take many forms — we do enjoy a good seasonal layout around here! — but there are a few particularly important skills to practice:
- Trotting a flowing track around a ground pole course, with opening and closing circles, wide turns, a consistent pace and straight approaches and departures. We like to see Green Levels demonstrate an attention to detail by posting on the correct diagonal between fences — and dangling the possibility of a REAL jump is a great incentive for students who tend to be careless with posting diagonals.
- Cantering over single poles, if students are secure at the canter. This provides students with a “sneak peek” of what a jump will feel like, and helps them get comfortable with various takeoff distances.
- Trot pole grids put a rider’s shock absorbers and balance to the test by putting some extra spring in the horse’s step. Grids of 3-6 poles encourage a steady, yet impulsive trot and provide a safe structure for students to practice trotting over poles without reins.
You can Level Up your polework by setting the occasional mid-height cavaletti, stacking poles or building a “baby crossrail” with the cups set on the first hole. These tiny efforts can help students feel accomplished and soften the surprise of the first real jump.
But to use them safely, you need to know your lesson horses well. Some will hop slightly over 6” obstacles, giving student a thrill. Others will leap, giving student a spill.
#5 - A desire to jump - or a willingness to try
This might seem obvious, but all riders approach this new skill with their own unique mixture of excitement and apprehension.
In order to clear a jump successfully, we must believe we can — which means riders who are genuinely fearful are better off practicing over poles for now.
After plenty of canter poles, elevated trot poles, and baby crossrails, students may be ready for the poles to go up incrementally. (No cheating — they will absolutely measure the inches as you reset cups!)
Whenever possible, these students should practice on laid-back horses with flat, easy-to-sit jumping efforts.
Reassure them that the ability to hop over crossrails will ultimately make them less likely to fall, and that you will never pressure them into jumping larger fences until they’re ready.
What isn’t always on this list? Believe it or not, cantering!
In general, we prefer for our students to have taken some cantering lessons before they start jumping, for the simple reason that horses often land in a canter and we want our students to feel prepared.
However, in some individual cases, small jumps can be a good way to introduce a few steps of canter. This could be true for a rider who is most comfortable and secure in two-point position, or a horse with a rough upward transition into the canter, or a laid-back horse that is difficult to convince to canter and not balanced enough to longe.
This is where it is important to consider the strengths and weaknesses of individual riders and horses and tailor your lesson plans to suit their needs.
Every student’s journey to jumping will look slightly different
Take the time to ensure that foundational skills are solid, and that students can approach every jump with control, balance and confidence.
Slow and steady progress will ensure that all your students jump with a smile on their face!
