How Can I Fix My Distances!?

Question

I am terrible at getting my distances some days. I can't even get them into canter poles. I'm not afraid, I will gallop my horse at the jump if I have to- I just completely SUCK at it!

Any ideas? Some days, I get it perfectly.. but more often than not, I have no hope in getting distances. The weird thing is, I can ALWAYS get my distances over cavalettis- just not verticals or poles on the ground. What is wrong with me?

Answer 1

maybe its trying to tell  you something

Answer 2

Nothing, you just have no training and are rushng your horse through. Collect your horse, and call your distance. Once you go over the first pole, land, and then when your horse lands from his next stride call out ONE, and then lands from the next stride call TWO, and so on, to get an even number between poles.

NEVER GALLOP YOUR HORSE TO THE JUMP. That screws them up mega fast.

Answer 3

u cant

Answer 4

if ur horse waz in a frame with impulsion(not 2 b confused with speed)then u could easily extend and collect a horses stride

Answer 5

You can get some more lessions as a rider to be stronger and learn more about you and your horse.

Answer 6

You may have a depth perception problem.Use ground lines and train yourself to watch a series of points going into the pole or jump, each point should be equal to your horses stride to where you want to take off from  i.e. If you are going over a vertical, first determine where your take off point will be. If you can't use a ground pole or dig a line in the dirt, look across at your arena fence. What is directly across? Working backwards find another marker 2 or 3 strides before your ground line. When you go into the fence , count your strides from that point so you can start to recognize where you will take off from.Don't change your practice fences around until you feel comfortable at each fence. If you go into competition, walk or scope out your course first and watch everyone else to see where they are taking off.Count the strides in and make up a silly poem" 3 strides to the flower pot,5 into the gate, round the turn to the barrel that'll be an eight."Plus it helps you keep your course  straight. I taught myself this as a kid,because I sucked at it too!!

Answer 7

Nothing is wrong with you, accuracy just takes some people longer to develop.

Try not looking for the distance until you are three strides out.  You also want to focus on keeping a consistent pace (some people find it helpful to count or sing a song in their head to keep an even rhythm)  

I used to have issues not increasing out of the corner (especially to long run singles) and what helped me was looking past the jump and not at it until I was 3-4 strides out.

Another thing that really helped me develop my eye was my trainer either counting down 3-2-1, saying "wait" or "get it" b/c it taught me to refocus my eye to the distance she was seeing.  

Answer 8

Buy a more expensive horse. I'm sure Home Depot has some kind of sale going down about now.

Answer 9

practice makes perfect or at least better

Answer 10

There is no way to "fix it". Once you are able to see your distance, you will be able to tell if you should gallop on and step it up or pull back on the reins and slow it down. It takes A LOT of practice and lots of hard work. Keep practicing and you will get it!! Good luck!

Answer 11

I am assumeing your problem is you miss the correct take off point by either chipping in or taking off long. These instances will happen even to the best riders. What you need to work on is spotting if your going to get the long or the short.

Stop riding courses, Go back to grids. Set up grids with different stride legnths. This will help your horses adjustabilty as well as your ablity to spot your distance.

Once you have practiced lots of grid work put placing poles out 9 feet infront of your jump and this should natural set your horse up for the correct spot.

Then go back to your courses and just practice.

A lot of the time the reason your horse is not getting the correct stide is you are not riding him foward enough. It has nothing to do with speed but your horse must be tucking his backend and engaging in order to ride to the base of the fence and jump. Work on the flat at puttingyour horse together in a bouncy very uphill canter then take this canter to your fences. Don't get ahead and try and push him but stay very upright and sit to the base of your fence.

Hope some of that made sense.

Good Luck