What’s in Your Ring? is an EN series sponsored by Attwood Equestrian Surfaces 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.
Everyone deserves a break now and then, including our hard-working horses. It’s not unusual for eventers to pull shoes, throw the horses out and let them have a well-earned month or so off during winter. While this is great for their mental and physical health, your horse may have lost quite a bit of fitness on vacation, which is important to remember when legging back up for the spring season.
My own young horse got the entire month of December and most of January off. As a result of a nice long break, he got good and dirty, plumped up a bit and might have even grown a little. When I stuck him on the lunge one sunny January day to see where we were, he looked darn good.
We got back to work, taking is slow and steady. For the last month we have picked our way through the mud, taking long walks around the pastures, on the trails in the woods, up and down hills. Then we sandwiched short bursts of trot work over ground poles in the arena between our long hacks. Finally, last week, we started doing a tiny bit of canter work. As I consider a return to jumping over the next couple of weeks, I don’t want to ask too much too soon.
A deep dive in the Evention TV archives unearthed this simple, three-part gymnastics exercise that incorporates trot poles, a low, easy bounce and a one-stride to a vertical. This is a great grid to get the jumping muscles working, get your horse thinking about where he’s putting his feet and allow you to practice your position. It can be built up or down for any level and jumps added to it as time goes on.
While the eventing season is in full swing in Florida, South Carolina and California, many areas of the country are still stuck in the indoor or just getting back in the saddle after a long winter. As you and your horse start back to work, remember everyone’s muscles have had a long rest, so build up the workload slowly and we’ll see you out eventing soon!
