How To Practice Cross-Country at Home with PolyJumps

The countdown is ON until the 2025 British Event Season kicks off! With the fixtures list set and ballot dates organised, some of you might have even started getting your entries in for the earlier events. And as you cross the days off the calendar until you leave the start box, getting yourself cross-country ready is the number one priority.

Getting out cross-country schooling is super important to make sure your horse is fit and ready to tackle whatever challenges the course throws at them. However, as we battle through the tail end of yet another wet British winter, the ground may still be a little too wet and water-logged to start training on the grass.

If you’re ready to start practicing some cross-country questions but are worried about ground conditions, there’s no need to start stressing that you won’t be ready. We have teamed up with some of our sponsored event riders to bring cross-country schooling to you!

Here are some of our tried and tested ideas to simulate cross-country schooling from the comfort of your own arena. All you need are a few PolyJumps products, and you’ll be ready to hit the start box in no time!

First things first… make sure it’s safe!

Before you start pulling fences apart, it’s important to make sure whatever you put together is going to be safe for both you and your horse. Course builders and venues spend hours making each jump safe. We don’t recommend using any bits of wood or old fencing lying around to make some rustic fences, as these can easily splinter and cause your horse a nasty injury if they hit the fence.

Furthermore, it’s important that whatever fence you build must be collapsible should there be an accident (we really hope there isn’t!). The FEI has invested thousands of pounds into the safety of cross-country courses, and with the emergence of frangible pins and MIM clips to ensure the safety of each pair in the event of an accident, it’s super important that you too make sure your fences are safe enough to jump at home. We are doubtful you’ll have any problems, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Now, onto our favourite cross-country challenges that you can build at home…

1. Corners

Corners are a cross-country course staple from BE90s all the way up to the 5* level of competition! They can be technical and tricky to ride, often catching out greener horses or less experienced jockeys. So, what's the magic formula?... Practice!

Much like their shape, riding corners is all about angles. Once you understand the approach, it’s just a case of practicing it until you can do it with your eyes closed (don’t try that at home!). So, in order to practice corners as much as possible, you’ve got to be building them at home and we’re going to show you how.

You’re going to need to use Upright pole stands and poles for this one. We recommend our Upright Pole Stands because you can adjust the cups to make different angles so you can build your corner fence much more easily. Simply take 3 upright stands and position them in a triangle, with 1 upright stand at the point and 2 upright stands opposite and further apart to make the ‘base’. Put your poles in the cups at the desired height and adjust the bottom 2 upright poles to make it wider or narrower, the wider apart the upright stands, the wider the corner will be to jump. You can fill out the corner with multiple poles, fillers, or even a flower arrangement to make it look more authentic!

Now you’ve built one corner you can get to practicing. As you get more comfortable jumping one, you can start to add in more corners on a related distance, just like you might find on a cross-country course. To make it really tricky, try setting up a few corner fences on bending lines to test your control and rideability! 

2. Skinnies

Skinny fences and combinations are another principle of the cross-country course. The higher the level of competition, the skinnier the fence! In fact, fences can be as skinny as 1.2metres (4 feet) at 5* and championship level.

Skinny fences are technical to ride and require a lot of accuracy to get right. If you don’t ride accurately to the fence, the width can make it inviting for the horse to run out to the side, and if you’re not straight enough the horse may not follow through the flags with his whole body which can initiate a 15-point penalty at the higher levels. This is definitely something you want to avoid, so making sure your horse understands the question is key for a smooth ride.

For this you’ll need skinny poles, around 1.5m in length which is half the length of a standard pole, and some jump wings or blocks. To make this more challenging, use blocks like our MultipJump blocks to make it harder for your horse to stay straight. If you really want to challenge yourself, line up a few of our MultiJump blocks without poles, take one away until you’re just jumping one individual block- that will really test your accuracy!

3. Coffin ditch combinations

The perhaps unfortunately named ‘coffin’ combination is a test of 3 elements on a cross-country course usually involving a rail (A element), a ditch (B element), and a rail (C element). All three elements must be jumped in one motion one after the other with no interruptions. Depending on the level of competition the elements will vary in distance, at the higher levels each element comes up with only one or two strides between each, making it a test of adjustability, elasticity, and bravery.  At some events, these elements may even be presented as a bounce combination!

Building practice ditches in the arena is a little tricky, but you can practice the elasticity and adjustability needed to jump these combinations well. Using a water tray as the ditch, build two small verticals with the water tray in between on a related distance, a little bit like gridwork. Increase the complexity of this challenge by raising the height of the verticals or reducing the strides between each element. This is also a great challenge for young horses learning to put their brave pants on and tackle new or ‘spooky’ questions on the course!

4. Trakehners

Trakehners are the king of rider frighteners, it’s a tale old as time! These fences strike fear into the hearts of some eventers out there and it’s easy to see why. A rail over an open ditch, varying in width and depth depending on the level… we’d be nervous too!

However, with a bit of confidence, these fences are actually quite simple to jump as the ditch creates a natural ground rail or take-off spot for the horse to jump from. And if you’ve got a bold cross-country horse, they won’t bat an eye at the ditch underneath them.

Like a coffin, these fences aren’t that easy to simulate at home but there are ways to get both yourself and your horse used to jumping fences like this. Using your water tray, a pole, and some jump wings, put your water tray underneath the raised pole which can be set up on an angle to make it more challenging. Want to make it a little ‘scarier’? Try wrapping your water tray in a couple of black bin bags to emulate a dark ditch underneath. Once you’ve mastered the Trakehner fence, all other fences will seem like a walk in the park and your nerves will be a thing of the past! Just remember eyes up, and leg on!

Looking to stock up on jumps and not sure which pieces to add to your collection? PolyJumps have got everything from wings, poles, fillers, blocks, and so much more! Get in touch and we’d be happy to talk you through our stock and help you chose the right pieces to get your prepped and ready for a busy season ahead. Let’s make it a good one!