United States Eventing Association

Grid Pro Quo with Ashley Johnson

Don't let winter weather get you down. Use the off season as an opportunity to fine tune your riding! In this winter weekly web series, we will revive past Grid Pro Quo articles from our magazine, Eventing USA, to help you brainstorm ways to keep you and your horse in tip-top shape even if you only have access to an indoor arena.

As any good trainer will tell you, creating a quality canter is the most important part of jumping. These are three exercises that will help you create the quality canter you need while challenging you as a rider to think ahead and react correctly; the best riders in the world can think quickly while keeping their horse settled and focused. Riding and training horses is all about building blocks, and all of your training goals are geared towards making your natural reaction to be the correct reaction so that you can be safe and efficient on cross-country. While these three exercises are typically set up in my arena, they are all created in an effort to make both the rider and the horse more proficient on cross-country. Riders will learn to set up their horses early so that only small adjustments are needed within the zone of the jump. Horses will learn to think quickly and make the appropriate judgments while waiting for the rider’s instruction.

Exercise #1 is all about looking and thinking ahead. I like to vary the exercise by going over one rail, skipping a rail, and then doing all three rails in a row. To be successful, the horse and rider must think on their feet and operate as a team, being present and balanced every step and not overly anticipating what is next. Exercise #2 gets you jumping out of stride in a consistent rhythm. The horse and rider can take the opportunity to relax into a tempo and line, focusing on quiet hands, small adjustments, teamwork, and consistency, which will create a better jump. Exercise #3 is practice for meeting your first jump well and then reacting quickly and appropriately. I refer to this as a “cross-country gymnastic,” as it helps riders stay relaxed when riding a skinny jump or a corner out on course. Jumping straight is jumping straight, no matter how wide the jump is. This exercise challenges riders to create this straight feeling, and it also asks the horse to think on his feet because he will have to jump into something slightly unexpected but still maintain proper balance, tempo, footwork, and most importantly, work on building a partnership with the rider.

These exercises can be done at any level from Beginner Novice on up. At the lower levels, riders can put all the rails on the ground and start the exercises at the trot before moving on to the canter. Once you are ready to set up jumps, keep them low to start. In general, I like to see my Beginner Novice and Novice riders be able to do the first part of Exercise #3— just riding through the tunnel—with rails on the ground. My goal for Training-level riders is to be able to do Exercise #3 at a low jump height. Preliminary level riders and above should be able to do Exercise #3 at their competition height.\

Exercise #1

To get started with Exercise #1, you will set three ground rails equidistance from each other on a 20-meter circle or larger. Novice-level riders and below can start by trotting the exercise, and Training-level riders can start by choosing a single rail to canter over a few times to get warmed up. Continue by cantering one rail and skipping the next one. This keeps the rider alert, as you have to pay attention to where you are in the exercise—you cannot just tune out. After going around the circle a few times going over one rail and skipping the next, you can begin to canter over all three rails. At this stage, the lower-level riders should be concentrating on committing to the tempo and balance of the canter, thinking ahead, and making appropriate turns for each subsequent rail. For the more advanced riders, the goal is to put the same number of strides between every rail, going around the circle twice. Then take a break and repeat in the opposite direction. If you and your horse are skipping through the exercise, challenge yourself by raising the rails to small cavalletti. For this particular exercise, it is best to start in whatever direction is your strongest. This allows you to get a feel for the flow of the exercise before moving on to your harder side.

Exercise #2

Moving on to Exercise #2, start with just the rail on the ground and the vertical 54 feet beyond. Add in the oxer only after the first two elements are being jumped comfortably. The purpose of this exercise is to help the rider ride consistently to the same distance of a jump without micromanaging the footwork and instead tapping into the own natural development of their eye. This exercise is as straightforward as it looks on paper. From the rail to the vertical, the rider should find four strides. And from the vertical to the oxer, the rider should find four strides. This allows the rider to know where they are from the jump ahead, twice in a row, from four strides away. Too often riders do not truly focus on seeing their distance early and will suddenly “see” something and make a drastic change two strides away. If you ride this exercise over and over, the rider will start to relax and trust themselves from further away. One of the keys to successfully completing this exercise is to focus on meeting the entry rail well every time. As you approach the exercise, look at the first rail until it disappears between your horse’s ears, then look to the vertical, and then on to the oxer. The better you meet the rail, the better you will meet the vertical and then the oxer. This is a great exercise for riders that tend to get tense at the base of the jump because they will know what to expect every time. This exercise is also particularly helpful for horses with big strides because it helps them learn to stay on a consistent stride. The added oxer after the vertical will also help these horses because the vertical to the oxer will ride quieter than the rail to the vertical, but once the horse is in the line it will meet the vertical well over and over, thus setting the horse up for a better balance and canter to the oxer.

Exercise #3

Finally, the “cross-country gymnastic” of Exercise #3 should start with just rails on the ground. This is great to do after you have completed the first two exercises, because Exercise #1 has prepared you for the quick thinking aspect of this new exercise, and Exercise #2 has helped you solidify your steady, even canter. I will start by letting the lower level riders trot and then canter through all of the possible options of this exercise as rails on the ground. For these riders, the ultimate goal will be to jump straight through the center of the exercise at a low height. To make the exercise easier, move the center jump more in line with the other two. To make it harder, move the center jump out so that the tunnel is a bit narrower. The 21-foot distance is a quiet one stride, so the rider can focus on the line of jumps and creating a connecting canter without feeling like they have to chase their horse through the exercise. When starting, I will always halt on a straight line afterwards. This final halt will disappear depending on the individual horse’s needs. For the more advanced riders, challenge yourself! Canter straight through the tunnel and then turn back to the exercise and jump one of the angled lines. If your horse is being good and quiet, continue on to jump another angled line back the other way. If your horse is getting quick, go back to halting after the jumps. When you and the horse are confident, raise the fences up to your competition height. Remember, you don’t have to complete all of this in one day, especially if this is your first time tackling these exercises. You can always start with Exercises #1 and #2, and then come back the next jump school and try all three exercises.

About Ashley Johnson

Ashley runs a successful teaching and training program called Ashland Eventing out of her Totem Hill Farm in Ocala, Fl. Ashley, an A graduate of the USPC, has competed through the CCI3* level and is an an ICP Level III Certified instructor. Before turning to horses full time Ashley received her BA Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University in English, theater, and art history. In her training program, Ashley loves creating educated and confident horses and riders as well as starting horses from the beginning and bringing them up through the levels. Her current upper-level horse, Tactical Maneuver, finished in the top fifteen at the Jersey Fresh CCI3* this spring. Ashley thinks of her business as a boutique operation where horses and clients alike get as much time and attention as they need. To learn more about Ashley, visit her website.