Whether it’s pre-season training or a mid-season tune up, incorporating show jumping exercises into your training routine have so many benefits for you and your horse. Jumping exercises work on so many aspects of your horse’s technique and rideability, making jumping courses at home or at shows so much smoother. It’s also a great tool to use as a rider to get your eye in, practice position and balance, and get confident jumping bigger or more technical questions.

Here at PolyJumps we’re constantly thinking of fun and creative ways to use our poles and blocks at home and come up with useful training tools to share with you. Thanks to their versatility, there are so many ways you can set your PolyJumps blocks and wings up to build plenty of unique exercises that improve your skills in the competition arena.

Our list of show jumping exercises for horses was long, so we’ve narrowed it down to a few of our favourites that are simple and easy to set up, but very effective. All you need is a few PolyJumps poles and a couple of PolyJumps blocks and you’re ready to get going!

What do jumping exercises improve?

Show jumping exercises are a useful tool to use in your day-to-day training or to tune up before you head to a show. There are many ways to set up a show jumping exercise at home and each one will target one or a few different skills that you want to work on.

Jumping exercises like grids, bounces, or circles all help to build balance and control, teaching horses to stay in a rhythm and avoid rushing the jump. They also improve the technique and generally refine the overall ‘shape’ the horse makes over the jump, or the ‘bascule’. By working through jumping exercises at home you will notice an improvement in rideability, control, and connection with your horse, all important factors in creating a smooth jumping round when you progress to a course or at a competition.

For the rider, show jumping exercises improves balance and position in the saddle, without interfering with the horse too much. If its confidence you’re looking to build, jumping exercises are a great way to practice bigger jumps or more technical questions without the pressure of jumping a course or spectators at a show.

Exercise 1: 4 fences on a circle

This exercise is tried and tested by many professional riders, both show jumpers and eventers alike. It’s a fantastic exercise that tests balance and control, requiring your horse to listen to you as their rider and stay in a consistent, steady rhythm. Here’s how to set it up…

Using 4 of your PolyJumps standard length poles, place them at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 positions as if you were looking at a clock. Make sure your circle is large enough to canter round comfortably (the smallest we suggest is a 20m circle, but feel free to go larger if you can). Now you’ve got your poles set out, grab 8 PolyJumps blocks and put one at each end of the poles. These will be your jumps.

To begin, canter round your poles on the floor first to make sure the distancing is comfortable, and your horse understands the assignment. Once you’ve got the hang of this, pop your poles up on the blocks and get to work. The beauty of our standard PolyJumps Blocks is the flexibility you have with height, by turning the blocks over and around you can go from a small 34cm cavaletti to a 68cm vertical! The key with this exercise is not to jump big jumps, instead focusing on technique and rideability, so 68cm should be more than big enough.

As well as just riding around the circle of fences, staying in a nice consistent rhythm, change it up by adding smaller circles in between the jumps, or playing around with the pattern you ride around in. It doesn’t matter which sequence you jump the show jumps, so long as it’s balanced and in control!

Exercise 2: narrow X-pole with place poles

Narrow X-poles are a great tool to incorporate into your training routine. They’re easy to set up, easy to execute, and super effective too! Narrow X-poles improve straightness, accuracy, and jumping technique. The narrower the X-pole, the straighter your horse must be on take-off, bascule, and landing. Making the X-pole narrower also improves front end technique as they must snap their knees up and use their shoulders properly, after a while you’ll notice an improvement in their overall jumping shape.

Let’s set this one out. All you need are 4 PolyJumps standard poles and 2 PolyJumps MultiJump blocks. Put 2 of your poles on your MultiJump blocks to make a X-pole and place your other 2 poles on the take-off and landing side of the jump. Roll each pole out to approximately 10 feet (or 3 large-ish human steps), these will be your take-off and landing poles to help you meet the fence in a nice place and help to control the jump.

Approach the jump in a steady, balanced canter. Try to stay as straight as possible on your approach to the take-off pole and let the jump do the work! To make this harder, make your X-pole higher and move your blocks closer together so the X becomes narrower, so your horse has to work harder to stay straight and jump properly. Give it a go in both directions so you’re working their muscles evenly.

Using your MultiJump blocks allows you to alter the height of your jump in small margins, gradually increasing from 18cm at its lowest to 90cm at its highest, making it the perfect piece of kit to use for this show jumping exercise.

Exercise 3: cavaletti and small vertical grid

If you’re looking for an exercise that not only works on balance, impulsion, and rhythm, but is also great for conditioning then look no further. A combination of cavalettis and small verticals set up in a series of bounces is a creative way to encourage hind end engagement, improve technique, and keep your horse’s brain engaged with an interesting exercise that requires them to think about where their legs are going.

This one takes a little more time to set up, but with PolyJumps it’s still super easy due to their lightweight design. Depending on how many jumps you’d like in your grid, get as many PolyJumps standard poles out as you need. Using a combination of Cavaletti Cross or Cavaletti Star blocks, or our Mini Blocks, along with our classic PolyJumps Blocks, set up a variety of cavalettis and small verticals alternating as much as you like.  For example, you could have:

·         Cavaletti, small vertical, cavaletti, small vertical, cavaletti

           Cavaletti, small vertical, cavaletti, cavaletti, small vertical

·         Small vertical, cavaletti, cavaletti, small vertical, cavaletti

You get the gist…

Set each jump on a bounce distance, approximately 10-12 feet apart (or 3 large-ish human steps). Adjust as needed for your horse’s stride so it’s safe to jump through. Then you’re ready to canter through, keeping a nice, balanced rhythm in and making sure to stay straight all the way through. The options are endless with this show jumping exercise, so play around with it and have some fun!

If you’re looking to grow your PolyJumps collection or have any questions about our products, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to get you sorted with whatever it is you need.