When introducing younger horses to corner and skinny jumps for cross country, Australian Olympic eventer Clayton Fredericks says it’s all about calmness, confidence and encouragement as well as ensuring your horse is in good balance with a good quality of canter.
“If you do your homework early and have your horse in good balance and good rhythm to where he has the necessary impulsion and is looking for the jump, then you can just stay in the middle hardly affecting him the last few strides to the fence,” he explained. “This will give younger horses loads of confidence. Even though we’re practicing these in the arena right now, the ultimate goal here is that we are training for confidence on cross country.”
In this lesson, Fredericks helps two riders introduce their young eventing horses to corner and skinny jumps with a traditional, perpendicular approach by encouraging confidence and relaxation. He then tests the riders further with a combination of corners and by increasing the angle of the corner jump, which is considered the more modern approach to these types of fences.
We hope you can use Fredericks’ savvy tips to help your young eventing horse tackle corners and skinnies with ease!
Perpendicular Approach to Corners
“We’ll start by thinking about jumping a corner with this narrow fence. I’ve positioned the rails close together so it’s almost like an upright or small oxer. I want you to ride it soft and relaxed while keeping the pace, but due to its width, you might be up half a gear.
“I’ve given you good ground lines, and I like to put out a couple side rails to help the horses zone in on the jump and prefer to use the soft, foam rails with young horses. If they do run out, it prevents injuries and stumbling. I also place blocks inside the jumps to keep the horses away from rails and to help guide them on the line.
“At this stage, I want you to ride the jumps straight on, dissecting the angle of the arrowhead—meaning the shaft of the arrow comes in on the perpendicular to give you a way to ride the corner. This is considered the traditional way to jump a corner. Later on in this lesson, we’ll talk about how the angles to corner jumps has changed in modern sport.
“The first time you come over this, a younger horse might take a little look, so it’s important that you’re not only reading the stride, but you’re also reading your horse’s attitude and how he feels on the approach. You may need a little leg for reassurance.
“To prevent your horse from popping out to the left here, think about using your outside leg as sort of a wall or block to help guide him to the right. Close the door with your outside rein and leg and try to use your hands as pair to keep his shoulders straight.
“If you horse is a little hesitant and you feel he dwells a little on takeoff, be quick about it and give him a little bump with your leg so he never thinks he’s allowed to dwell.
“I love that this horse is giving the skinny great air, but you might want to push him across it a little bit more. You don’t want him too lofty like that over every jump. It looks spectacular, but it could be a little quicker across the fence, but without rushing or driving him too deep.
“The hard part about riding is there’s so much to it. There are so many aspects you constantly have to consider—your balance, your horse’s balance, what his attitude is like, the striding.
“Make sure you don’t lean in toward the skinny. When you get to a fence, your shoulders should be slightly behind your hips, meaning you’re behind your horse with your body. It’s not all about legs and hands. Most of the time, your body language is more important. And if you’re secure, behind your horse that will be much more reassuring to him than when you’re using a lot of leg or you’re holding him overly tight because that can create a lot of tension.
“Ultimately, you’re trying to get your horse in good balance, with a good quality of canter that is suitable for the jump you’re doing and then just allowing him to jump the fences. The horse jumps; we don’t.
“Horses lose confidence when they’re getting kicked or pulled and don’t understand why. The quickest way to teach a horse to stop at fences is to pull them in the mouth over the jump. That’s why I’m very insistent on giving an adequate release so they can use their shoulders, legs and bascule over the fence. I don’t mind if it’s a crest release or an automatic release as long as you’re skilled enough to follow your horse’s mouth completely.”
Navigating Corners on a Combination
“Next, we’re going to make things more challenging by jumping the upright to the corner and then come around and jump the blue planks to the corner. I haven’t set these on any specific distance, because I really don’t want you guys to be thinking about a number. It’s very important that you understand distances and striding, but what’s even more important is that you know how your horse travels at different paces.
“So this exercise helps us create a situation where you can start to get a feel for what your horse’s stride is. This way, when you get to a competition and walk a standard distance, you recognize if it might be a little short or long for your horse. Then, you can make a decision on what you’re actually going to do in the moment. Not every horse is going to fit in the same box of the standard distance because every horse has a different length of stride.
“This is even more important on cross country. You need to know your horse’s length of stride at different gears. The faster you go and the more open the gallop, the longer your horse’s stride.
“Part of your problem on the first part of the line was created by the fact that you didn’t allow you horse to look for the way to go. You were focusing on your striding again and fighting him for the stride. Just go with him instead.
“I can’t stress enough how important it is that you’re always aware and reading what your horse is doing. Very well ridden the second time. You came around the corner, changed the balance and let your horse see where he was going. That first time, he wasn’t even looking, so you got a bad jump and it was hard to keep flowing from there. This time you got a deeper stride and it was still nice because you were reading what he did. Then, you were a bit more forward and flowing like we talked about.
“With young horses, it’s very important that we’re training them to look and seek the fences and prick their ears on the jumps, so they want to take you there. Horses actually enjoy jumping and you can see it when the prick their ears forward wanting to meet the fence.”
Modern Approach to Corners
“In the more modern approach to corners, we’re seeing them being jumped on a much bigger angle on the front. But corners on these angles are generally not done on a curve as much; they’re more of a straight line. So, the test is a little bit different. You want your horse to hold the line and still jump the corner, but the risk of a runout is greater.
“So, we’re going to adjust these corners so it’s angled quite a bit more on the front to give you a feel for that. Keep in mind that the corner isn’t necessarily any wider; we’re just changing the face of it so the line is a little bit riskier.
“In an effort to make this a good training exercise for the younger horses, I’ll use some poles to help show you the line. You’re still on the line of the blocks, but it’s much more angled at the front.
“The first time through, you were way too negative. Trust your horse. This exercise is about training him, so trust him. Gallop down the line and let him look. You don’t have to rush it, but get on the line and judge what stride he’s going on.
“What’s interesting is that from your horse’s perspective, he sees the line or the flag and doesn’t really know that it’s at a much bigger angle. All he sees is the flag or at this point the white wings of the jump. Ride positively and keep him forward and looking. Don’t dwell. By being negative in yourself, you’ve started to encourage him to be a little negative.
“The second time was much better. Could you tell the difference in how you rode it? This is good training for us, because again from your horse’s perspective, the angle makes very little difference. But from your perspective, you’re trying so hard to be accurate that you end up slowing down which takes his attention away. Just get on the line early, ride that line and then judge the distance.”
About Clayton Fredericks
Clayton Fredericks helped Australia win an Olympic eventing team silver medal in 2008 and was a member of the 2012 Olympic eventing team. He also won team bronze and individual silver medals at the 2006 World Equestrian Games, and he won the 2007 Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*. He served as the international technical advisor for the Canadian Eventing Team from 2012–2016.