Help Your Horse Jump

Jumping horses is an aspect of many equestrian disciplines and in many of these disciplines we often see a horse refusing, drifting, jumping crooked, taking a bad take off spot, or rushing the fence. Horses can make these mistakes when jumping for many reasons and the rider can be the cause of the mistake, more often than not. Riders can interfere in many ways with a horse’s jumping and it’s important that you have an experienced and capable instructor and an experienced and capable horse when you’re learning to jump.

When jumping you should be in a two point position: Stand up, fold from the hips, keep a bend in the knee, look forward, weight down in the heel, and move your hands forward toward the horse’s mouth while going over the fence. This position keeps you in the centre of balance when the horse jumps. It also brings your hands forward, giving more length to the rein and allowing the horse to lower his head and neck to jump properly. The ideal angle in the knee when the rider is sitting in the saddle with their leg using the stirrup should be 90-110 degrees.

Below lists the five most common ways that riders interfere with horses while jumping:

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