CRAFT YOUR CANTER

These adjustability exercises will help improve your horse's canter for jumping.

- SHOSHANA RUDSKI

Whether you have competitive goals of jumping courses in the show ring or just enjoy playing over a few fences at home, you always want to help your horse jump his best. However, it isn't good for him to jump every day. What can you do between jump days? This is the perfect time to hone your skills and work on creating an adjustable canter for jumping.

CIRCLE GAMES

It's easy to accidentally gain speed when going in a straight line down the long side of the ring, and often your horse naturally slows himself down around turns and falls out of balance on the short side of the ring.

This is not so helpful when you have to jump coming out of a turn! This exercise will help you learn how to keep your horse balanced and appropriately forward around windy turns on course, and can be done at three levels of difficulty, depending on what feels comfortable to you.

LEVEL 1: To start, pick up your canter on a 20-meter circle (or a larger circle until you and your horse get more confident).

Let your horse canter a couple times around the circle at his normal pace. Next, see how slow and collected you can make his canter without him breaking to a trot. Think about his hind legs stepping under his body, using your core and keeping your shoulders tall to help him collect.

Finally, push him forward and let him stretch into a longer stride. Go back and forth between the longer and smaller strides and see how accurate you can make his transitions within the gait.

LEVEL 2: Once you master how to send your horse forward and bring him back, it's time to test your skills and accuracy. Staying on your circle, try sending your horse forward for 10 strides. Then, see if you can get exactly 10 strides of a collected canter.