Distances between jumps?

Question

I want to set up some home-made jumps - how much space should i keep between jumps?

Thanks!

Answer 1

That depends on a lot of things.  Your skill level and the horses skill level.  If you have not jumped a lot I would put them very sparse until you and your horse build up strength and confindence.  Do you know how to count strides?  This is a very important step to setting up multiple jumps in a row.  You will have to help your horse get the right distance so he does not end up short of long for a jump.  You can work on this coming up to one jump.  Put down a ground pole then count how many strides it takes for your horse to reach the jump from the ground pole.  If it feel like he left to early (far away from the jump) you know next time to ask him to go a little faster.  If he jumped to late (to close) then you know to try and shorten his stride.  I am talking about the canter stride.  You should try cantering some on the rale and counting out the strides.  See home many you can get down the long side. Set the ground pole like 20 yards from the jump.  Do this for a while then maybe replace the pole with a jump after a couple of weeks of working on it.  Get someone to help you and tell you how it looks and how your position looks.  You should not ride with out someone around to call for help if something goes wrong.

Answer 2

A show jump is usually somewhere between 3 to 4 strides between jumps.  If you are looking for a challenge, try changing it up (2 stride>4 stride>3 stride...) and make a line.  Good luck!

Answer 3

A jump should be three or four strides between it and the next jump, unless you are doing a bounce.

Answer 4

it depends how many strides you want in between them. I like bounce and gymnastics, but my instructor likes 4-5 strides in between.  a canter stride is like 3 medium steps of a human.

Answer 5

I will probably get a thumbs down, looking at the other answers, but I jump my 15:2 cob over 3ft high and lower, and I have 4 good human strides in between each, he manages them superbly.

It would probably need to be longer if you were riding a 17:hh horse.