Basic Jumps For Horses

Many people that ride favor basic jumps for horses that are centered on gymnastic exercises. Gymnastic exercises are excellent for improving balance, strength, centeredness, feel and position. These jumps can be challenging and are essential for beginners. These types of exercises comprise of ground pole that have no more than two strides between each pole and are commonly used for training the riders and the horse.

These ground poles can be used in various different ways such as ground lines, oxers, jumps, verticals and bounces and set up to the various degrees of difficulty. One needs to understand the stride distance before setting up jumps. For instance the average canter stride is 12 inches so you would need to allow at least 6 inches for takeoff and 6 inches for landing. For instance; if you set up jumps with three strides there should be at least 48 inches between the jumps.

A good place to start when doing gymnastics is to set up jumps with longer and shorter strides. The jumps need to set up correctly to avoid unnecessary accidents, and will also allow the horse to go through without having to adjust the jumps. Jumps such as the bounce, cross rail and one stride to a vertical are popular jumps. One can start off with a cross rail which has a ground rail of 9 inches in front. You can then trot in and canter out which is a well known start for gymnastics.

Once you and your horse are comfortable, then you can add height to your gross rail as well as add a third jump that has no strides in between. A jump that is particularly great is the bounce which gets the horse round his neck and back. The keys to building jumps is to introduce the horse to them one at a time until the horse is comfortable and always trot in and canter out.

Additional jumps such as the square oxers jump allow for a number of possibilities and jump designs. And the most common are the fans, verticals and hogs backs. There are hundreds of different types of show jumps, and the jump and course designers simply choose a few core styles in order to create some variety.

There are several different types of materials used for jumps such as metal, plastic, gates, walls, brush and flowers. Jumps can be made to look attractive and colourful. Riders should take note of all the different jumps in order to practice them at home before shows and competitions.