Meet the Moderators

Meet the Moderators of these forums

Meet the Experts

Meet the Experts in these forums

Presently, there are no Experts to meet.

Your Horse Forum and Community

Got something to say?

Got something to say?

You are in... Forums > Riding and Training > Jumping > *HELP* Jumping, striding, big fences, Does it matter?



Jan 11

Posts: 2

Jazzaria says:


I am doing an investigation; "Does the height of jump affect how much ground the horse covers?"

I have done a practical at home. (Here is a mini overview of what I did)

1. Horses will need to be tacked up etc, ready for jumping
2. 2 jumps should be set up, 1 spread at B and an upright at E
3. 1 horse should be jumped at a time
4. Horse 1 should jump both jumps, first the upright: 30cm, 50cm, 70cm, 90cm.
5. Horse 1 should then jump the spread on the other rein. It should be 30cm wide then 30cm, 50cm, 70cm, 90cm up. It should then be 60cm wide and the horse should jump the heights again. If the horse isn’t tired and is happy, the spread width could be increased to 90cm and these heights can be jumped again.
6. These jumps all need to be filmed from the same angle/height to make analysing the stuff on the computer easier.
7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 exactly the same with Horse 2.
8. The videos then need to be loaded onto the computer and print screens need to be taken of the point of take off, the point of landing and the highest point the horse reaches (forelegswise) over the top of the jump... This will give the amount of ground the horse covers plus the height they have jumped (scope will need to be taken account for not just the height of pole).
9. The print screens can be marked up and measured not to scale on word.
10. The photos can then be compared and conclusions can be drawn from the measurements e.g. horses tend to jump higher when the jump is wider.



I need to ask opinions to back up my conclusion which was:

“In conclusion, the results show that as the fence gets taller, both horses tended to cover more ground, however as the fence got wider it made no difference as to how much ground they were covering. Jazz covered 7.8cm (not to scale) jumping the 90cm upright and covered 7.05cm jumping the 90cm spread which was also 90cm wide! Therefore, I’ve decided that yes the height does affect how much ground the horse covers.”




So therefore, I am asking...

• Do you think the height makes a difference to how much ground the horse covers?

• Do you think horses should generally take off further away as the fence height increases or do you think they should get deeper?

• Do you think that when loose jumping (no influence from rider) horses tend to cover more ground when the fence height increases?

• Should bigger fences be ridden to in a more upright/forward pace (automatically covering more ground) in comparison to smaller fences/warm up jumps?

• Does striding matter more when jumping bigger fences than smaller fences? If so, why?

• Do ponies with smaller/shorter striding genuinely find jumping bigger fences more difficult in comparison to bigger more rangy horses? If yes, is this because of size of horse or length of stride?

• In you opinion are horses with a bigger stride more capable of jumping bigger tracks in general or does this have no influence whatsoever?


Thanks xxxxx

(No critisism on the practical I did, it was just something I had to do for the dissertation and I am leaving the results/conclusion as they are as I have already done all the work I just need to include more research into my chosen subject! Thank you!)

Reply to this Topic 


Post a message in Jumping

To post a reply to this topic, please Log In.

Terms of use
