United States Eventing Association

5 Tips For Cross-Country Riding from the USEA ECP Symposium Day 3

Temecula, Calif.—Jan. 16—Day 3 of the USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) Symposium at Galway Downs was all about correct cross-country position after an informative discussion from sports psychologist Natalie Hummel.

Kaylawna Smith-Cook, who was a demo rider on Wednesday for Tamie Smith’s session on recreating cross-country questions in the arena, rode a one-star horse to demonstrate proper position at the gallop, approaching, and jumping fences, then three riders of varying levels rode over basic cross-country questions like banks, ditches, and water, while the four ECP faculty members coached. Throughout the day, participants were given the opportunity to ask questions and discuss each horse and rider pair.

Here are some tips from the final day:

1. When teaching cross-country riding, ECP faculty member Emily Mastervich stressed that students must understand the three distinct positions—galloping position, preparatory position, and jumping position. Mastervich noted there are different schools of thought on what the galloping position is, and some riders stand more upright, but for the purposes of teaching students, she’d prefer to see more of a distinct difference so that riders aren’t jumping in galloping position or galloping in a jumping position.

For galloping position, Mastervich said, “we're out of the saddle, we’re balanced over our iron. The two points of contact are our stirrups, and in a galloping position, what I would like to see is that the rider has the ability to have their upper body closer to the neck.” She described pushing the rider’s hips back, becoming more parallel to the horse, almost like a jockey.

“I think of the stirrup as more of a platform, and in cross-country, we're going to have the foot slightly further into the stirrup, and I'm going to think of pressing down a little bit more equally between the toe and the heel, rather than just jamming the heel down,” she said. “We want to try to keep the stirrup leather in line with the girth. We don't want it to come behind.”

For preparing for a jump, riders should shift their weight back and open their hip angle, Mastervich described.

“How much balance, how much do we need to change the speed, and how accurate we need to be in the alignment—in the straightness of the horse—depends on what we're jumping,” she said. “You want to be able to say to the rider, ‘Are you jumping? What's the face of the jump? Is it ascending or is it vertical? What's behind the jump? Is the horse going to get there and be surprised by something? Do they have to suddenly go down a steep slope? Is there water behind it? Is there a ditch behind it? Is there a turn behind it?”

All of this needs to be done about six strides out from the jump so the horse and rider have time to assess the jump, then hopefully, by the last three strides the horse can just focus on the jump and the rider is in a place where their job is to maintain the rest and be ready to react.

The jumping position will depend a little on the body type of the rider and the horse’s body type and way of going, but in general, Mastervich wants to see riders getting closer to the saddle. Maintaining contact with the horse and making subtle changes in body position to influence the horse's balance is important.

2. Makenzie Davison rode Erin Kellerhouse’s 7-year-old off-the-track-Thoroughbred gelding Blame It On Kitty (Blame x Easy Kitty) over Starter and Beginner Novice fences to demonstrate how to teach a young horse to confidently jump a bank, ditch, and go through water.

Before they started, ECP faculty member Mary D’Arcy noted how important the basics that have been worked on this week, including the five rider responsibilities (line/direction, speed, horse and rider balance, timing/distance, and rhythm) are for a young or green horse, and added that position can change, especially when the horse might be a little fresh, spooky, or wiggly.

“Like we did yesterday, [can you show that you can] slow down, that you can turn left and right? Then you stay in the rhythm. The shape the horse is not that important at that moment,” she said. “The more you control what the horse is doing regarding the speed and rhythm, the more that's going to feel somebody's home. The horses hate feeling nobody's home. Once you do that, then you feel the horse start to relax. Then you can maybe go in a little bit of your half seat. You're in a safety position.”

Braitling noted she often feels more secure on a young horse with a longer stirrup so she doesn’t feel “perched” on top of the horse, but reminded participants to not allow the rider to get in a chair seat because of the longer stirrup.

3. When introducing a ditch, ECP faculty member Jennifer Rousseau echoed what Smith said yesterday in her discussion on introducing skinnies—set the horse up for success. She had Davison ride “Kitty” parallel to a shallow ditch in walk on both sides, the walk beside it before asking her to present him in trot.

“Quiet, calm, elastic contact, and even if he has a bit of reaction, try and make your reaction quiet,” she said. “And it's fine for him to look at it, he just can't move away from it. So, if you get a horse that wants to move away from the ditch all the time, pick a line you can manage first, and then gradually close into the ditch.

“This may seem like a lot of steps, but if I had a horse that didn't know anything about a ditch, I would make a lot of steps, because a ditch is the one place where you can ruin a cross-country horse for life,” she added.

Rousseau reminded participants that the rider must be connected to the horse when presenting it to a ditch, and she’s fine with a “little forward inclination” of the seat. “Because the last thing you want to have happen is the horse jumps big over the ditch, and you are so far behind it that you hook it in the mouth,” she said. “Unless you're a very educated rider, and you're able to slip the reins really quick. That happens a lot. And then the horse comes around the second time and says, ‘No, thank you.’ right?” Ride with a little hip angle, lower your hands, and keep your leg on.

4. When riding a drop, don’t lean back and anticipate a problem, said Mastervich. “We want the rider close to the saddle, still with a little bit of a closed hip angle slightly,” she said. “Riders leaning back, the more a rider does that, the bigger the horse jumps, or the more braced they become.”

She described the moment that a horse comes up and lifts and lowers, depending on the edge of the drop. “We teach riders that when the horse is crossing the plane of where the ground would have been, what they need to do is allow their hip to follow the horse. You teach the rider to let their hip come forward, so it looks as though their shoulders have come back, but really, the shoulders stay the same places. The hip following the horse allows the rider to stay elastic.”

Mastervich likes to teach riders to start allowing the reins to get longer as they approach a bank by softening their hands and letting the reins slip. She says, “pinkies near your hips” to give riders a visualization. This allows them to follow the horse up or down the bank.

5. D’Arcy reminded participants that when cross-country schooling, put the horses in a position where "they’re obliged to obey; that the question is obvious to them—then, if they get a little bit difficult, you're there with your seat position already in balance. And then you can get to a more effective place get the job done.”

If the horse is impressed by something and overjumps it, it’s wise to go back and jump a smaller fence first before going back to the bigger fence. “The mistake is to jump bigger and bigger and bigger, or to have a poor jump, and then jump it again big,” she said. “You can see the horse’s expression—that they became worried; that they're a little bit backed off—and you’ve got to recognize those moments. It's not always about the rider needing to do it 50 times.”

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USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP)

Coaches are essential to the training of riders and horses for safe and educated participation in the sport of eventing. The USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP), formerly known as the Instructors’ Certification Program (ICP), was initiated in 2002 to educate all levels of eventing coaches with crucial training principles upon which they can continue to build throughout their teaching careers. ECP offers educational workshops and assessments by which both regular coaches, Level I through Level V, Young Event Horse (YEH) coaches, and Young Event Horse professional horse trainers can become ECP certified. Additional information about ECP’s goals, benefits, workshops, and assessments as well as names and contact information for current ECP certified coaches, YEH coaches, and YEH professional horse trainers are available on the USEA website. Click here to learn more about the USEA Eventing Coaches Program.

The USEA would like to thank Galway Downs, Parker Equine Insurance, the United States Pony Clubs, and Strider for their support of the Eventing Coaches Program.