The gymnastic exercises presented in this article address the horse who has some jumping experience but has not been introduced to more technical aspects of the sport. Never forget that it is essential to maintain the calmness and confidence of your horse throughout his training over obstacles. If you preserve these two elements, you will be able to make the most rapid progress with him and produce the most long-lasting and beneficial effects.

Approach these exercises at a calm, regular, balanced pace with quite a long or possibly even loose contact. I place a great deal of emphasis on awakening the horse’s initiative at an early stage of training and attempting to maintain that initiative throughout his career; thus, my emphasis on soft reins.

Do not ride your horse as if you must give him a good ride, but rather attempt to be an intelligent passenger. Once he gets to the obstacle, he must arrange his footwork and propel his body over the fence. At this point, it is your job to stay out of his way. If you run into difficulties, you should either lower the obstacle or, if you are jumping gymnastic obstacles in sequence, remove the last obstacle and lower the others until you get your horse going forward again. Once he is calm and balanced, you can resume the exercise.

Your goals are for your horse to maintain his rhythm, balance and regularity of stride over obstacles. I think that we should teach the horse to balance himself, not to expect us to balance him. An excellent exercise is to count in rhythm with his stride as he proceeds down the line of obstacles. For example, if you have obstacles set up to produce one stride in between them, as the horse lands over the first element you should be able to say out loud, “land.” Then, as he reaches the end of his stride before leaving the ground over the second obstacle, you should be able to say, “one,” in rhythm with the takeoff. If there are succeeding obstacles, you should be able to repeat this down the entire gymnastic line.

This sounds like a very simple exercise, but you will find it surprisingly difficult to perform correctly while your horse is jumping. You may find that the timing of your voice is not in rhythm with your horse’s landing. This is the most common mistake I see in my clinics. Riders who make this mistake usually have some weakness in their jumping positions that causes a loss of balance. This loss of balance is very distracting because the rider will think more about self-preservation than about maintaining balance and rhythm in the landing phase of the jump. If you land out of balance, it means there is something wrong with your position. If there is something wrong with your position, it is usually that your lower-leg position is faulty. Most of the time, if you improve your lower-leg position, you will improve your landing after jumps.

Your horse should maintain an absolutely steady, regular cadence down the line of obstacles. Your counting should also be steady, regular and cadenced. Riders who become agitated when jumping will find that their voices rise in volume and pitch. Many riders will quicken the cadence of their counting until their voices and their horses’ strides are no longer in synchrony. Many times, these are the same riders who will blame their horses for rushing.

Practice keeping your eye on the next object in your horse’s path. For example, if you are trotting toward a pole on the ground, look through his ears at the pole until it goes out of sight. With young ­horses and inexperienced riders, I do not ask the rider to alter the horse’s step in front of the pole because I want to ­awaken the horse’s initiative. Whether he takes a slightly long step or adds a step before the pole, I am equally satisfied. If he steps on the pole, the chances are good that he will learn from the experience and not do it again. If he continues to step on the poles on the ground, I ­suggest that the rider find another prospect, as this one is probably too dumb to improve over obstacles.

Look sequentially at each object in your horse’s path. If you are trotting over a series of ground poles followed by an obstacle, look at the first pole on the ground and then keep your eye on the obstacle until it goes out of sight ­between your horse’s ears. This will help you maintain a straight line through the gymnastic exercises and will also help you develop your timing. You can’t see your stride if you don’t see the jump.

These exercises rely on cavalletti to stabilize your horse’s length of step, speed and balance. If an obstacle follows the cavalletti, use the posting trot until your horse steps over the last pole, then softly lower your seat to the saddle. This ensures that you are in touch with your horse’s back when he leaves the ground.

Do not lean forward while negotiating the cavalletti. When your horse leaves the ground to jump the obstacle, you should have the sensation that he has brought his withers up toward your chest.
For all cavalletti and jumping work, your horse should wear protective boots or bandages on his legs as he may knock his legs while learning to ­coordinate them.

For this column, I am excerpting Gymnastics 2 and 3. To learn Gymnastic 1, which consists of four cavalletti exercises, click here.

The four exercises that comprise Gymnastic 1 will fit comfortably in a 75 x 150-foot (22.8 m x 45.7 m) arena.

After you have warmed your horse up at the walk, trot and canter, then trot into the exercise marked A in the diagram on page 19. Cavalletti set at this distance will produce a working trot for most horses. These exercises are all designed for horses with some jumping experience. If your horse is extremely green, he probably should not be attempting this exercise yet. However, if he is slightly inexperienced or is an experienced jumper but has not done much work over cavalletti, you can pull the first and third poles in towards the centerline of the arena. This will produce a 9-foot (2.7 m) distance between two poles. Horses find this exercise easier and will soon become stable and regular at the trot, which is always your goal. You can then put the four poles together as shown in the diagram and work in both directions over four of them on the ground. After you have established your horse’s balance and rhythm here, you can proceed to the curved poles in Exercise B.

At the posting trot, proceed on a circle in either direction though B. Keep your horse’s direction adjusted so that the length of his step on the curve feels the same as it did over A.

Once you and your horse have become adept at this, you can then start to enter, for example, closer to the 3-foot (90 cm) end of the poles where the distance is shorter, and then let your horse angle away from the center of the circle. This will cause him to go from a working trot to a medium trot or possibly, if your angle becomes too great, even take a couple of steps of extended trot. If your horse takes two steps between the poles or breaks into a canter, you have probably asked too much flexibility from him. Aim closer to the 3-foot (90 cm) end of the curve, and enter B again at the posting trot.

Alternatively, you can enter from the outside of B, where the rails are farther apart. This will cause your horse to take quite a large step at first. Guide your horse toward the 3-foot (90 cm) distance between the last two poles. This will bring your horse back to a working, or even a slightly collected, trot. Having worked in both directions over B, including being able to angle both ways, you can then proceed to Exercise C.

The poles positioned at C will produce the sensation of an extended trot and you may find that your horse cannot reach enough in his fourth step to get out over the last pole without “chipping in” an additional step. Simply remove the last pole and continue. You will find that, after a couple of days’ work over cavalletti, your horse gets the message and you can replace the fourth pole. You should work in both directions over the 5-foot (1.5 m) poles at C until your horse can maintain his regularity and length of step.

After a short break, proceed to Exercise D.

These four rails on the ground, set at 4 feet (1.2 m) apart, will produce a collected trot. Although this exercise can be ridden either posting or sitting, you should definitely use a rising trot until your horse becomes adjusted to them. Using rising, rather than sitting, trot encourages your horse to lift his back while he elevates his step. In addition, it will be less complicated and will allow you to work on his cadence, rather than worrying about your position. Again, work both ways through D until your horse is relaxed and steady in his balance and rhythm. He should be able to deal with the rails without any interruption in the flow of his movement, changing only the length of his step to adapt to the various distances that you have put in his path.

After another break, you can now link these four elements together in order to produce various transitions that will be of great benefit in teaching your horse to be flexible. For example, enter A on the right hand in a working trot, where the rails are 4-foot-six (1.35m) apart. As you leave A, turn right in such a fashion that you produce an arc through B that causes your horse to change the length of his step from working to collected trot. In other words, start exercise B from the outside in. This will put your horse into a slightly collected frame. Proceed directly then to C, which will produce an extended trot. After the extended trot at C, turn right and enter the shorter cavalletti at D.

If your horse has difficulty with this, you can do A, B and C as I have described and then, in a posting trot, circle (or repeat a circle until your horse has settled down to a working trot), turn and enter D, thus producing a collected trot. If you have successfully done this, walk, reward your horse and let him relax and consider his effort while you plan your next series of repetitions through these exercises. When you resume the posting trot, work in both directions and vary the relationship between the exercises to improve and confirm your horse’s flexibility.

Take a moment to remind yourself of your horse’s bad habits. If he tends to rush at the trot, he will not need too many applications of C. He should come from outside in rather from inside out at B, as this will cause him to continually rebalance and collect his step rather than rushing forward. If, on the other hand, your horse is choppy-strided or lazy, a bit more emphasis on and a few more repetitions at B, going from inside out, will teach him to lengthen his step. The total amount of exercise over these rails in any one period should not exceed 45 minutes, including the periods of rest between exercises.

Excerpted from Modern Gymnastics: Systematic Training for Jumping Horses by Jim Wofford. $24.95

As Jim discusses the highlights of the course, you’ll gain insight into how Rolex’s course designer Derek di Grazia will test the horses and riders at each obstacle and why. Find out the best way to approach each obstacle and what questions the riders must consider at each fence. Discover the influence of the materials and build of each jump and learn what they look like from the horses’ perspective.

“The Practical Horseman cross-country course walk is one of the highlights of the Rolex weekend for me,” said Jim. “I am always impressed by the number of participants and by their keen interest. Their questions tell me that they are sincerely interested in learning more about our wonderful sport. It is a privilege to be with fans like that.”

To participate in this informative—and entertaining—event, meet Jim by Fence 7 at 4 p.m. on April 26. (Check back for location and time.) Plan to spend at least two hours on course. Wear comfortable, waterproof footwear, and come prepared for the weather conditions with an umbrella, jacket, sunscreen, bug spray, water and, if you wish, a portable chair or blanket to sit on.

In addition to the course walk, Jim will be at the Practical Horseman booth in Sponsor Village signing copies of his completely revised book Modern Gymnastics: Systematic Training for Jumping Horses during lunch break on Friday and Saturday. Eventer Allison Springer, who appears in the photo on the cover, will be joining him.

“I am excited that my new book is finally ready,” said Jim. “I have revised and expanded my original book on gymnastic jumping. The color-coded diagrams and montage-style photos show the reader exactly what I mean when I describe a gymnastic, and the expert riders in the photos give the reader excellent visual role models.”

If you can’t join us in person, be sure to follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/prachorseman (#RoadtoRolex13) to catch exclusive coverage of the entire event. We'll be posting photos, videos, results and updates and bringing you the entire inside scoop as it happens. Updates and other news will also be available at www.facebook.com/practicalhorseman.

For a schedule of events or to purchase tickets for the 2013 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, visit www.rk3de.com.

Louis (Paddy) Neilson is shown here on Haffaday jumping the fabled 13th fence in the 1971 Maryland Hunt Cup. Paddy knows as much about riding over obstacles at a high rate of speed as any man alive. When he tells you “speed magnifies mistakes,” he means that the increased velocity of racing over fixed obstacles will expose even the slightest ­weakness in your position. Position always—always—starts with the lower leg because the ­stirrups are the ground for the rider. If you look closely at this photo, you can see that Paddy has a classic leg position: His stirrup leather is vertical, his heels are down and his toes are turned out to a natural angle. The solidity of his lower leg allows him to have a soft touch on his reins. I have never seen a rider with good hands who did not have a secure lower-leg ­position. This is true regardless of the jumping discipline—timber racing, cross-country ­eventing or hunters and jumpers in an arena. I teach people to have a more erect body position over fences than you see here, and by that measurement, Paddy has brought his upper body too close to Haffaday’s neck. ­However, as your speed increases, your hip angle must close if you are to stay with your horse. ­Considering that Paddy and Haffaday are going between 20 and 30 miles an hour (800 ­meters a minute), Paddy looks about right to me. If eventers are to improve in all three of their disciplines, they must learn from riders who specialize in that discipline, be it dressage, show jumping or timber racing. Eventers who ­focus entirely on the two technical disciplines are missing a third of their education. As an aside, if you look at the photo of Bill Steinkraus in the online continuation of my March 2013 column and ­compare it with this photo, you will be struck by the similarities of position between two ­masters of their art.

© Douglas Lees

In February and March, I reviewed the correct positions for dressage and show jumping, respectively. This month we are going to study the basics of your cross-country position.

The first thing people notice about the cross-country phase of eventing is that speed is a factor, one that becomes increasingly important as you progress from Novice to Advanced. One reason is “speed magnifies mistakes.” That is a quote by Louis (Paddy) Neilson, one of our greatest timber-race jockeys. Paddy knows something about riding at speed over fixed fences, having won the Maryland Hunt Cup three times between 1968 and 1989. The Hunt Cup features fences constructed of wooden boards and posts and rails that can reach nearly 5-feet tall.

Paddy’s statement is a chilling reminder that the basics of your cross-country position must be as flawless as possible if you are to avoid accident and injury, because the speed of this phase will magnify your every error.

Higher Level, Shorter Stirrups
The correct cross-country position at the lower levels (Pre-Novice through Training) is the same as the show-jumping position: You should adjust your stirrup leathers until you have a 90-degree angle behind your knee when you are seated. If you’re riding at these levels, you are accustomed to this length due to your work in the show-jumping arena. At these levels, the required cross-country speed is not fast enough and the variation in the terrain is not dramatic enough to require you to change your position.

You must, however, change your position as the requirements of the levels change. Beginning at Preliminary level, your speed and the size of the drop fences increase and the variation in the terrain becomes much more challenging.

As your speed increases, you need to shorten your stirrup leathers and close your hip angle. This allows you to stay balanced and connected with your horse’s motion. In general, I suggest you shorten your stirrup leathers 1 inch for each star level. This means at the Preliminary or one-star level, you should ride cross country 1 inch shorter than your show-jumping length, for Intermediate, ride 2 inches shorter, and so on.

Some trainers have recently begun suggesting we return to a position that was widely used in the 18th century, standing straight-legged in the saddle with long stirrups. Fortunately we have scientific research to confirm that this is not the most effective galloping position for your horse—hence, it is not correct. I discuss this research in “The Science of Galloping.”

Regardless of length, your stirrup leather should form a vertical line at all times: uphill, downhill and on the level. The stirrup leather can support your weight only when it is vertical. Many riders try to ride shorter in a saddle not ­designed for shorter stirrups, with the ­result that their leg gets pushed back when landing over fences. Riders in this unstable scenario typically let their stirrups back out to show-jumping length to compensate, even if the speed for their level requires them to ride shorter. (For more on the interaction of saddle design and rider position, click here.)

If you are going to ride at speed cross-country, you owe it to your horse to be able to ride in a balanced and harmonious fashion—and the shorter the stirrup length you ride with, the fitter you must be to be able to sit quietly at speeds up to 20 miles an hour. We ask our horses to do difficult things; we should not make their task more difficult by interfering with their natural movements.

You will be able to partly improve your fitness while you practice this position. During both your trot warm-up sets and your conditioning canters, shorten your stirrups at least one hole from the length you use for your competitive level. Do your warm-up trot sets in a two-point rather than posting. If you listen carefully, you can hear me laughing … most of us cannot trot in a two-point for three five-minute sets, much less stay there for our conditioning canter sets. Even though you will probably fail, stick with it. Make a project of your fitness while you condition your horse. When you gallop through the finish line with a clean and fast round, feeling as if you and your horse could both go back through the start line and do the same course again, then your efforts will have been worth it. Working with short stirrups is hard, but once you return your stirrup leathers to your competitive length, your position will become second nature for you.

In my February column, I talked about the beneficial effect of riding without stirrups. Riding without your dressage stirrups makes your position more independent; when you regain your stirrups they will feel shorter, even though you have not changed the length of your leathers. In the same way, after you practice galloping with very short stirrup leathers and then let them down to your competitive level, you will feel as if you are riding longer than you actually are, which will make you more confident and secure in your cross-country position.

Swap Sensitivity for Security
The speed of cross country requires a few more adjustments. You may recall that for show jumping, I want you to place the ball of your foot on the tread of the stirrup, with your little toe against the outside branch. Once you start galloping at increased speeds, however, move your foot a little deeper into the stirrup and place the ball of your foot against the inside branch. This foot position is not as supple and sensitive as the show-jumping position, but it is more secure. The shorter your stirrups, the more dramatic the penalty for losing them—­remember, speed magnifies mistakes.

Bruce Davidson is famous for his Olympic and World Championship gold-medal-winning ­exploits as an eventer. What we should think about is that his results are based on a ­thorough and complete understanding of each of the three disciplines that comprise eventing: dressage, show jumping and cross-country. Shown here on Appolinax over the 13th fence in the 1983 Maryland Hunt Cup, Bruce looks as if he is out for a Sunday canter. His confidence is based on his secure lower-leg ­position. His stirrup leather is just behind the vertical, which means that Bruce “saw a long one” in the approach and closed his legs to make sure Appolinax stood off. His slightly ­defensive upper body confirms my suspicions. At this speed, the slightest hiccup can ­catapult you out of the saddle. Bruce is making sure that when his horse lands, he will be in a ­secure balance. Once eventers become comfortable timber racing, the speed of upper-level ­eventing feels slow by comparison.

© Douglas Lees

When you are competing in rain and mud or have just been through a deep water jump, the tread of your stirrups and the soles of your boots may become slick. In these cases, I encourage you to place your foot “home” in the stirrup—your foot is so far into the stirrup that the heel of your boot is against the tread. There are situations where it is wise to sacrifice sensitivity for security.
Remember to keep your reins shorter when you will be galloping. If you ­adjusted your reins when you were seated, you will find them too long when you rise to your two-point position because your upper body will be closer to your horse’s neck.

Stillness at Speed
Now that you have made all these adjustments, it is time to discuss your actual galloping position. Cross-country courses typically have 20 to 30 jumping efforts. That may sound like a lot, but it will take you several hundred galloping strides to complete the course. My point is that you will spend a great deal more time galloping than you do jumping. Therefore, now that you have a saddle suitable for cross-country work and have gotten yourself as fit as your horse, it is time to talk about the position that is safest and most effective for galloping cross-country.

The terminology varies, but to be in the most efficient galloping position, you are in what I call a “two-point,” meaning your weight is carried in your knees and ankles and you are suspended above your horse’s back.

I want you to keep your seat close to the saddle while you gallop, without sitting down or—even worse—“posting” at the canter/gallop. Your back should form approximately a 45-degree angle to the ground, and your elbows should be well in front of your hip bones. When you practice your dressage and show-jumping positions, you can often look at yourself in the arena mirror to check on your position. While this is not possible outdoors, all of us can have a friend take photos or a short video with a smartphone.

Make sure you absorb your horse’s motion in your knees and ankles, not in your hip joints. Have the feeling that you are standing on a trampoline, allowing the trampoline mat to push your knees up into your hips and back down. Watch your shadow as you are conditioning your horse; does the distance between your seat bones and your saddle remain constant, or is your upper body moving back and forth? If you can see this extraneous motion, your horse can feel it and will be unbalanced by it.

That we should be quiet in the saddle at the canter and gallop is easy to understand but difficult to put into practice. You will have to study videos of yourself, watch other riders who have discovered how to gallop in balance and persevere until you find the answer. Success in modern eventing requires technical perfection in all three phases. It is not enough to study the subtleties of dressage collection or develop accuracy in your approach to show-jumping obstacles. You need to study every aspect of your cross-country riding—because, after all, speed magnifies mistakes.

ANSWER: It’s essential for anybody starting to event to feel comfortable and in control on cross-country. One part of the solution is finding the correct bit for you and your horse. The other is practicing riding in large pastures at home, to improve both your and your horse’s balance and confidence in the open. (Many horses with limited experience riding in the open have trouble finding their own balance on uneven terrain and need to practice doing it just as much as their riders.)

Test your horse’s reaction to a new bit by riding him in a large open field, practicing transitions and riding up and down hills.

© Stacey Nedrow-Wigmore

While selecting your bit, keep two things in mind: First, a bit is only as harsh as you make it. Milder bits can be much more severe than stronger bits if they require you to yank more on your horse’s mouth. Second, different horses like different shapes and styles of bits; there is no perfect bit to suit all horses. So, it may take a little experimentation to find a bit that works for you.

Whenever you change bits, adjust the severity level very gradually—never jump from a mild bit to an extremely severe one. The general progression from milder to stronger bits goes from a loose-ring snaffle to an eggbutt snaffle, a Dee ring, a full-cheek snaffle and then to bits with more leverage such as pelhams, gags, etc.). Your Dee-ring bit is on the milder end of the spectrum and, because it doesn’t seem to be working, I’d try something a little stronger, such as your Tom Thumb, which is actually a good “middle-of-the-road” bit. Like other pelhams, it has a fairly soft mouthpiece with just a little added ­leverage to give you some extra control. I would recommend using rein converters with it, so you don’t have to deal with the complication of riding with double reins.

To be sure that you don’t catch your horse in the mouth in the air over jumps, ride with some sort of breastplate or martingale yoke. This will give you something to hold on to when you feel your balance slipping. It’s a normal instinct to pull on the reins when you feel out of balance or your horse suddenly spooks. Knowing that you have the yoke there to grab ­instead of the reins will raise your comfort level significantly.

You’ll know you’ve gone to too ­severe a bit if your horse starts fighting the contact and throwing his head up and down. Some horses even bolt and run away in reaction to an overly strong bit.

The best way to test your horse’s ­reaction to the bit—and to begin building your confidence on cross-country—is to practice riding out in large open fields, preferably with some hills. Without doing any jumping at first, try walking, trotting and cantering around the fields. Make plenty of transitions: walk to trot, trot to walk, walk to canter, canter to trot, etc. Practice walking up and down the hills, teaching your horse to listen to your transitions and half-halts. Gradually build up to trotting and cantering on the hills.

When you start to feel more comfortable in the open, try trotting a few small cross-country fences. Make sure you feel completely confident doing this before trying it in competition. I even recommend trotting cross-country courses in competition at the lower levels. It helps both horses and riders build confidence, while instilling the idea of staying under control throughout every ride.

Four-star eventer Sharon White was short-listed for the 2007 US Pan American team and selected for US Equestrian Team Developing Rider training sessions in 1996 and 1999–2003. She has trained with top riders and coaches such as Bruce and Buck Davidson, Torrance Watkins, Jim Wofford, Jules Nyssen and Mary Flood. Based in Summit Point, West Virginia, Sharon and her parents, George and Carol White, ­co-own Last Frontier Farm, a full-service training and breeding facility.

This article originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of Practical Horseman magazine.

1) With your stirrups, go at the posting trot, then cease posting at the top of the "up" phase of the motion and stay poised above your horse’s withers, taking the shock of your horse’s movement in your knees and ankles. You can do this exercise at all three gaits. Maintain a soft, consistent connection with your horse’s mouth by carrying your hands just above the withers with supple elbows. Do not straighten your knees or rest your weight against your horse’s neck. (While this is more comfortable for you, an incorrect position avoids the difficulty of this exercise and, even worse, drives your weight straight down into your horse’s withers with every step or stride.)

2) Posting the trot without stirrups is an excellent exercise to strengthen your lower leg position. It has additional advantages: it's an exercise that you can do without any special facilities, and is something you should do before attempting my next exercise.  Before you start, place your knees a little high in the saddle so that you have sufficient leverage to produce your posting motion. This exercise is surprisingly difficult to do, and you will find your knees slip down after a few minutes. When this happens, practice lifting your knee up in the saddle. This is the same motion you need to make when attempting to regain your stirrup after it becomes dislodged, so you are practicing something that will make you safer and more effective, as well as fitter. While posting, remember to relax your elbows as you rise, so that your hands do not move up and down with your posting motion.

Build a similar gymnastic in an enclosed area to form your “jumping chute.” Make sure your horse is calm, and understands the exercise, before you start jumping without reins or stirrups.

© Jim Wofford

3) For this third exercise, you need three things: a neck-strap, a jumping chute and a suitable horse. By “suitable,” I mean you need a horse that will trot and canter quietly over gymnastics such as you see illustrated here. The neck-strap is easy; use a spare stirrup leather, adjusted one-third of the way up your horse’s neck. The jumping chute is a little more complicated. Using an indoor arena, or an enclosed outdoor arena, place a gymnastic line of jumps down one long side.  Start with a placing pole 9 feet in front of a small vertical, then build a second vertical 18 feet away, followed 19 feet later by an oxer. Put wings on the inside standard of each jump. (The wall serves as the wing on the other side of the jump.)

Once you have measured the distances and made sure the jumps are perpendicular to the wall, remove all the rails except two poles on the ground 9 feet apart on the end of the gymnastic where you will build the first vertical, leaving all three wings in place.

When you first start to build the gymnastic, keep your reins and stirrups. Rehearse your horse through the gymnastic as you gradually add one more jump. If your horse shows any signs of over-exuberance, teach him that you expect him to trot quietly into the placing rail and the following gymnastic, then canter away from the gymnastic and pull up to a halt in the corner at the end of the line of jumps. I have my students perform a turn on the forehand or a turn on the haunches, depending on the level of training of the horse, and walk out of the corner before attempting the gymnastic again. This helps prevent your horse from bolting through the corner while he attempts to launch you into the rafters.

Once your horse is settled, take a short break while you tie a knot in your reins. This is just to shorten the reins, and place a knot in your reins you can easily locate and pick up again … after you have jumped the gymnastic without your reins.

Bill Steinkraus, who combined form and function to win a show jumping gold medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, still sets the standard for riders who want to ride well over fences. In this photo taken at the first fence of the 1967 Hickstead Derby, his lower leg position provides him with a stable platform for his aids, and Bold Minstrel is responding with an effortless jump. Horse and rider's nonchalant attitude belie the fact that this fence is well over 4 feet. Bill's foot has entered the stirrup correctly, with the ball of his foot on the tread of the stirrup, and his little toe against the outside branch of the stirrup. His leg is turned out at the same angle as that with which he walks. Although his heels are lower than his toes, they have not been forced completely down; there

I want you to trot into the gymnastic, keeping your stirrups (for now) and holding your reins—but this time, drop the reins on the neck just before the placing pole and cross your arms in front of you. Obviously, regain your reins after the gymnastic and pull up in the corner, as you taught your horse to do earlier. You can do this exercise with your arms crossed in front of you, crossed behind you or extended at shoulder height.

Take another break while you make sure your neck strap is adjusted correctly one-third of the way up your horse’s neck. (If it is too loose, you will find yourself pulling with your hands in your lap, which is ineffective.)  This time, I want you to cross your stirrups in front of the saddle, and hold the neck strap while you jump the gymnastic. Once you drop your stirrups, make sure that you keep your knees up against the knee roll of your saddle. If you allow your knees to slip down in the saddle, you will not be able to follow the jumping motion correctly. (You may need to remove the stirrups altogether if they cause too much interference with your thigh.)

Practice the gymnastic several times using the neck strap, to make sure that your position is secure. Once you are confident in the strength and security of your lower leg, you can do the same arm exercises as before, but this time do them without your stirrups. Continue to pull up to a walk at the end of the line, for safety reasons.

Unless you are a very experienced rider, you should not expect to complete all of these exercises in your first session. If you are just coming back to jumping after a break, it will take you several lessons, plus some serious gym-time, to develop the strength and fitness required. However, the added stability and security of your jumping position will be worth the effort.

I mentioned last month that we need to go back to basics, and I wasn’t kidding. Over the next several months, I intend to review the fundamental mechanics of each of the three positions used by eventers (dressage, show jumping and cross country) and to provide exercises to improve each. The result of sound basics in each of the disciplines is better communication with your horse, which leads to improved performance. Practicing your basics is hard work, but it is absorbing and intriguing and it pays off in better results

Show-jumper Bill Steinkraus, the first U.S. Olympic individual gold medalist, says the rider’s position “is a stable platform from which the skilled rider can apply his aids with the precision of a surgeon.” This is especially true of our dressage position, where we begin our return to basics.

At the halt, you should sit in the saddle on three points: the two seat bones and the pubic bone. If you are aligned correctly, an imaginary vertical line will pass from your ear through the point of your shoulder, your hip and your heel. In The Gymnasium of the Horse, Gustav Steinbrecht says your upper body will form a right angle with the horse’s back. This explains why ­upper-level dressage riders appear to sit with their shoulders behind their hips: Their horses are collected, which causes a lowering of the croup. While the relationship between your position and your horse’s back should not change, your horse may change the relationship between his back and the ground.

While seated, maintain a slight forward arch in the small of your back. There are good reasons for this. First, it is the natural shape of the human spine. In addition, it allows you to have the maximum range of motion possible in your waist. Sitting in this position at the halt is easy. The difficult part is maintaining a correct position while your horse is moving. I can take a person who has never ridden, buy her thousands of dollars worth of boots and breeches and put her on a horse at the halt. By adjusting her limbs, I can photograph her exactly in the shape we are discussing. However, the moment the horse moves, that person will dissolve into terrified gripping and pulling.

We can learn to follow our horse’s motion only by ceaseless practice, and the best way to practice maintaining the correct dressage position in motion is on the longe line with no reins or stirrups.

Get Started
I am going to suggest exercises to help you develop a deeper, more balanced three-point position. By moving your arms while keeping your legs still or applying your legs while your arms remain quiet, you will ­increase the independence of your position.

Before you begin, make sure the horse you use is suitable—he’s quiet, preferably with three good paces. You also need an experienced person holding the longe line. Tack up your horse with a snaffle bridle and elastic side reins.

For safety reasons, practice the following exercises in an enclosed area only. Wear an ASTM-approved helmet but no spurs. A safety vest is optional, as is an air vest. (If you’re wearing an air vest, make sure the lanyard will allow your full range of motion during these exercises; otherwise, you might accidentally cause the vest to inflate with interesting results.)
Some of my more-advanced exercises will test your balance and the security of your three-point position. If your coach or friend holding the longe line suspects that you are even slightly dislodged, he or she should bring the horse to the walk or the halt until you regain your balance.

Start each of these exercises by holding the pommel with your outside hand and putting your inside arm behind your waist as shown in the photo on the facing page. You can maintain this position while engaged in leg exercises; however, if you are engaged in your upper-body exercises, you will have to release the pommel and perform the exercise without using your hands for security.
In between exercises or if you feel insecure in the saddle, grasp the pommel to pull yourself forward into the deepest point of the saddle and hold yourself in the correct position. While holding the pommel, allow your legs to hang as straight as possible and let your toes point down. (When you regain your stirrups, have the feeling that the stirrups push your toes up, rather than push your heels down past the stirrup.) At first, you will have to resort to holding the pommel quite often when you work on a longe line without reins or stirrups; use the pommel rather than grip with your legs.
Your ability to maintain your position without either holding the pommel or gripping with your legs will improve with practice. You want to develop as deep a position as possible, and any grip with your knees or thighs will cause your position to become shallower rather than deeper. As your position improves, you will need less and less contact with the pommel until finally you have a dressage position that is truly independent of your horse’s motion, one you can maintain without reins or stirrups.

After you have briefly warmed up your horse, you can begin the following exercises at the halt, walk, trot or canter, depending on your horse, your fitness, the stability of your position and your confidence. Take great care that when you move one part of your body, you keep the other parts quiet. This is easier to say than to do, but it is an essential skill if your aids are to be precise. Once you progress to doing the exercises in motion, practice them for a few minutes in one direction, halt, change your horse’s side reins for work on the other hand and repeat the exercise.

I envy you guys, I really do. Shakespeare called jealousy the “green-eyed monster,” and that’s me these days. The reason I am so jealous is that some of you reading this are going to take part in rebuilding our U.S. Eventing Team from the ground up.

I never had that experience. When I joined the team as a rookie in 1966, it was a well-oiled machine—and in many ways a colder, more impersonal environment than we are used to these days. The U.S. Equestrian Team owned many of the horses, and riders were merely plug-and-play cogs. (I might be the only U.S. rider ever to be off the team, on the team and off the team all in the space of four days.) That was the way it was. We just shrugged and did not worry about anybody taking care of our needs. The way I figured it at the time, any fool who joined a team made up of Mike Plumb, Kevin Freeman and Mike Page was going to get a medal. All that fool had to do was show up for work every day, take care of business and learn as much as possible from watching these pluperfect players of the game, all future U.S. Eventing Association Hall of Famers. Remember, this was before Jack LeGoff had even arrived as our coach; he was the icing on the cake for us and a big reason for the U.S. team’s dominance of the international eventing scene for another 15 years.

Ups and Downs
But that was then, and this is now. Any sports franchise goes through highs and lows, and our present situation—no medals at the 2010 World Equestrian Games or 2012 London Olympics—is as low as the U.S. Eventing Team has fallen in a quarter-century. While our decline was as swift as it was precipitous, it is not the only time it has ever happened to us. We finished with team gold and Karen Stives won the individual silver in 1984 at Los Angeles; we were at the top of the eventing tree—­admired, respected and imitated around the world. But we went from the top to the bottom in one Olympic cycle. Only two years later, our team finished in disarray at the 1986 World Championships in Gawler, Australia, and we failed to even finish a team, much less medal, at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. That’s the way Olympic-level sport works: Sometimes you are the birddog; sometimes you are the fire hydrant.

Then the cycle started all over again. First the upside—Dorothy Trapp Crowell’s lone individual silver medal in 1994 with the incomparable Molokai. Next came team silver and Kerry Millikin’s individual bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, then team bronze at WEG in 1998. David O’Conner won the individual gold medal at Sydney in 2000 and led us to a team bronze medal. At the 2002 WEG in Jerez, we won team gold. Then Kim Severson and Winsome Adante won a silver medal and the team won a bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the late Amy Tryon and Poggio earned an individual

bronze at the 2006 WEG in Aachen and Gina Miles won an individual silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong on McKinlaigh. After that, though, no medals were earned at the 2010 WEG, and our team finished well down the line at the recent London Olympics. We have been riding shotgun down the avalanche, and now we are here at the bottom … again.

Let’s Come Out Swinging
We are in what baseball players call a “slump.” There is no denying it. While it is not what we wanted, it is what we have got, and we need to deal with it. I once asked Troy Glaus, MVP of the 2002 Baseball World Series, how he dealt with slumps. He said two very important things—­listen carefully, folks—to get out of a slump: “You go back to your basics,” and then he said, “You swing your way out of a slump.”

This is pretty important advice from someone who knows something about battling back from adversity, and we need to think about it. To get better, the first thing to do is to recognize we are not good enough. That’s a fact. You have to admit something is wrong before you can fix it.

The next thing to do is to look at your competition and figure out what they are doing that puts them, not you, on the medal ­podium. If you do that, you ­notice that each successful team has a system and their riders all ride in a similar fashion. If form follows function, medals follow form, and we need to match our methodology with sound basics. Taking a look at your competition will tell you how they are currently doing things and will inform your return to your basics.

It seems to me that in many ways we have written the book but lost the plot. In the past, the style with which our eventing teams rode reflected our systematic, sound, clear and consistent basic technique. I realize that any system beats no system, but if we are going to go back to our basics, we must first examine those basics. Before we start exposing our horses and riders to a certain progression of requirements, we should question those requirements …

Let me ask you something: If I longe a horse, can he jump an obstacle while on the longe? Sure. What about if I longe the horse over an obstacle and put a rider in the saddle? Same answer. OK, if I give the rider a blindfold and a neck strap, can the horse still jump? Where are you going with this, Jim? Of course the horse can still jump. But what if I blindfold the horse? Have you lost your mind?
No, I haven’t lost my mind ... any more than usual. I just want to make sure we agree that the horse must see the fence. If we agree on that, it follows that to get the jump we want, we should understand what our horses see and how they see it. I think it is also important that riders see the fence, but I will get to the riders in a minute. Let’s talk about our horses first.

Although I have consulted several veterinarians and veterinary textbooks, I will spare you most of the scientific language and share, in plain English, what I discovered. Humans have binocular vision, which means we can change our field of focus without moving our heads. Unlike humans, horses have monocular vision, which means they have a fixed field of focus. They see objects in focus, but they have to change the attitude of their heads to change their focal points. Basically, they focus in line with the planes of their noses. You observe this when you turn a horse out in a paddock: He runs around for a minute, then usually stops and lifts his nose, surveying his environment for threats.

Your Horse’s Eyes
We have already decided that it is important for your horse to see the jump. My point here is that we now also know how he needs to carry his head and neck to see the next jump in focus.
Once we understand how your horse focuses his eyes, we need to determine where he focuses them. If we watch what horses do, the answer soon ­becomes ­apparent: Your horse looks at the top
rail of the jump. Although you may have heard a great deal about ground lines, the truth is that once your horse learns how to jump, he transfers his focus from the ground line to the top rail. How do we know this? Very simple—your horse will successfully jump a hanging-rail ­vertical or even a two-rail oxer, which are obstacles with no ground line or ­filling at all.

Speaking of oxers, we now know that our horses focus their eyes, but what about depth perception? How does your horse measure his effort over a spread fence? Because horses have monocular ­vision, scientists tell us they cannot measure depth in the same way as humans, who have the advantage of binocular vision. Although I am usually guided by scientific findings, in this case I am more convinced by my observation of what horses actually do while jumping. The pragmatic answer about depth perception in horses is that although they do not see depth exactly as we do, somehow they do perceive depth and react to it correctly. Any rider with even limited experience has felt her horse change his body during takeoff. Quite often, horses will grunt with extra effort as they suddenly realize they have almost miscalculated the spread of an oxer or the width of a ditch.

Just as with depth perception, horses do not perceive color in the same way as humans; however, they react to color as if they see it. In years past, experts told me that horses see color in monochromatic shades of gray. More recent ­research indicates that horses have dichromatic color vision, while human vision is trichromatic. This means that horses will not see color the same way we do or be able to see as many different colors. Never mind. It does not matter to us exactly how our horses see color. What is important is that we recognize they do see color and train them accordingly, keeping in mind, for instance, that at competitions they will respond to color … especially if they are a green 4-year-old just off the farm for the first time.

Another aspect of horses’ eyes is their ability to see in changing conditions of light and dark. This is especially important for eventers and foxhunters, but hunter and jumper riders might consider the implications when competing in a stadium environment with changing patterns of light and shade in the early morning or late afternoon. Again, I will try to boil down the scientific terminology about rods and cones to the part we need to know. Because a horse’s eye has a larger lens, he will see better in the dark than we do—but it will take the lens in his eye an extra bit of time to adjust. Horsemen have noticed this for generations. We teach inexperienced riders, for example, that if an obstacle is just inside a shade pool from bright sunlight, they need to make a slightly wider turn or slow the approach to give the horse time to adjust his eyesight to the changed light conditions.

I think the most important part of all the information above is that your horse points his nose at the rail to see the ­obstacle in focus. This should immediately inform our thinking about the correct frame for your horse as he approaches the obstacle. Many coaches still insist that your horse should approach in a dressage frame (“on the bit”). However, scientific research shows that to see the obstacle in focus, your horse needs to approach it with his nose pointed forward (while you ride him with a technique I refer to as “on the contact,” rather than “on the bit”). Although I realize this might be a new technique for you, I hope you are willing to give it a try in light of the scientific information we have gained.

One final point: Horses develop their “timing”—the ability to predict and influence the remaining strides before an ­obstacle—in the same manner as ­humans (as I’m about to explain), by focusing on the jump. Every time your horse moves his head and neck during the approach, he must take one more stride after his head and neck are still, before he can refocus his gaze and ­recompute his stride to the next obstacle. You have probably heard from your coaches that they want your hands and your horse’s head and neck to be quiet in the approach. It is hard for your horse to see

the jump if his head is moving.

Her base of support, too, is excellent, with her seat out of the saddle. She is waiting for her horse, and while her seat is close to the saddle, she is not dropping down into it. I would caution her to be careful, though, as high-headed horses like this one tend to push their riders back. Her head is up, her eyes are looking between her horse’s ears, and her back is flat and relaxed.

I like her short release, with her knuckles resting against her horse’s crest, but I’d like her to try using an automatic release with her hand about 2 inches lower. This would give her a straight line from bit to elbow and would finesse her control. She is skilled enough that she can use a following hand because she does not need her horse’s neck for balance.

Her horse is breedy with a refined head and a lovely eye and ear. He is not a stylist, however, as his legs are loose and sprawling, and his back is so hollow it is actually inverted. He’s not having any trouble with this fence, but he isn’t showing classic hunter form.

This team is turned out like winners. They reek of class, and everything about them is trim and clean. I would note that, strictly speaking, rust breeches are traditionally worn with brown boots—but even I occasionally wear black boots with them instead.

This article originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Practical Horseman magazine. Is this photo of you? Email Practical.Horseman@EquiNetwork.com, and we'll identify you!