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What’s in Your Ring? Grid Variations with Alice Roosevelt

What’s in Your Ring? is a new EN series in which riders share their favorite jumping exercises. It’s easy to get stuck in a training rut, and we hope this will inspire you with fresh ideas that you can take home and incorporate into your own programs.

This week’s edition comes courtesy of Alice Roosevelt, a New York young rider who has enjoyed a successful year with her horses Fernhill Zoro and Get It Together. After winning the Open Prelim division at Town Hill Farm H.T., she and Zoro completed their first CIC1* at Morven Park and CCI1* at Virginia in the fall, and had double-clear show jumping rounds at both — in fact, she was one of only two double-clear show jumping rounds in her division at Virginia.

What’s her secret? She kindly takes us inside her ring.

This past summer was mainly about getting to know my new ride, Zoro. I have to give him all the credit for our progress and success as he is the most honest and hardworking horse I have ridden.

Since the beginning of our friendship in March, it has been nothing but fun with the small bay horse who has already taught me so many new things. We instantly bonded when we met in Ireland and have grown even closer over the summer. Although I competed in a couple of Prelims in the fall of 2015, Zoro was the one who took me through many more as well as my first one star events.

This exercise is one that was invented by my trainer, Darrah Alexander, and was set up in our ring for most of the summer. Darrah is a big believer in grids, so there is always one set up, but this one is by far my favorite. The idea of this exercise is that it can be used in a variety of different ways to target different skills. 

Set up

Diagram via Alice Roosevelt

Diagram via Alice Roosevelt

To create the grid, start with one cross rail oxer, then 18ft to a cross rail, 30ft to another cross rail oxer, and then 18ft to another cross rail.  These four jumps are the main part of the grid.  Now add a cavaletti 18ft from the end of one side of the grid; and another one on a bend at the other end.  The one on the bend can be adjusted to create a bigger or smaller bend by making it closer or farther away from the grid. 

You can do a half-grid exercise by adding a jump on the diagonal. We usually have them with a slightly long distance so that the horses have to gallop across and then quickly set up for the short one stride. To make this exercise more challenging, you can add another jump on the opposite rail and jump them all on an S-curve.  However, you may have enough room in the ring to do that. 

If your horse is unfamiliar with grids, start with small cross rails and add a pole every 9ft so they know where to step and they don’t get confused.  As they get more comfortable with the exercise you can make the cross rails bigger and take the poles away.

Cavalettis on a circle: (Light blue)

I like to warm up over the cavalettis on a circle. This is a good way to get your eye in gear when you first start jumping and gets both you and your horse warmed up. Spend a few minutes simply circling over the cavalettis on the ends. You can even figure eight them for a longer warm up or if you get dizzy. 

Half of the grid on a circle: (Green)

Another way that you can ride this is by jumping only one-half of the grid. Begin on a big circle and simply come off a turn to the second part of the grid. You can either skip the cavaletti on the diagonal or keep it there for an added challenge. This can be used to help you train a green horse that is unfamiliar with the grid, to train your eye off a turn as well as being good practice for squaring out your turns. I would suggest only jumping it from the middle of the grid out, and not the other way because you don’t want to confuse your horse by pulling him out of the grid. 

Half of the grid on an S: (Red)

For the half grid addition, you can add a jump on the diagonal and if your ring has room (which ours didn’t) you can add another on the other rail. You can now jump these jumps in an S. However, as I said above, I would not jump the grid first as I would not want to pull my horse out of the grid halfway. 

This exercise can be used in two ways — the first way is by trying to adjust the strides between the jumps and the grid by bending more or less. The second way is by putting the jump on the diagonal slightly far away so that your horse has to gallop across the distance and then set up for the short one stride in the grid.

Just a Grid: (Purple)

The last way that you can ride this grid is simply straight through the middle. A grid is always a great way to help strengthen your horse; Darrah always makes her grids short which forces them to sit back on their hocks and push up.  Grids might be trickier than you think, as a lot of horses get strung out and long in the two stride and over the two oxers, which will make the one stride and then the one stride to the cavaletti challenging.

Many thanks to Alice for sharing. Do you have an exercise to share or is there an eventer you would like to nominate for the series? Email [email protected].