Straightness is one very important thing in riding. You must come to a jump straight, and keep your horse straight, even if you aren’t necessarily jumping. If you come in skew, your horse will likely duck out, or if it does jump it, it’ll be quite odd.
Now, coming in to a jump straight makes sense, you come straight to the middle of the jump. If the jump isn’t straight itself, but rather set sort of diagonally, that doesn’t give YOU any reason to come skew. You’ll come right down, aimed for the center. Say, for example, you’re riding in a rectangular arena, and there’s this jump in the center of the arena you have to do. However, it points right at one corner.That gives you no reason to come in skew, by coming rather from side instead of the corner. You’ll head to your jump either from the corner or a little later on, but you’ll look right ahead, coming straight down from the corner, over the middle and straightly, not skew.
Below are some tips for improving your straightness, from my experience after that one lesson where we did nothing but working on straightness, jumping straight, and riding straight.
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Ride between two object to keep you straight before jumps.
Place two cones, or poles, before the jump, in line with it. Ask your friend to, or do it yourself. Place them in such a way so you come in from the side, for example, and go right into those two things, in between. Come right into the middle of the two, and stay there. Remember, the middle of those has to be the middle of the jump. That helps you keep yourself straight, and you’ll come into the jump straight.
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Look, look, look.
Look for your jump. Look for you straightness, and plan in your mind where to turn. This has been quite effective for me to be straight. When you’re heading to the jump, look. Look at it, look for when to turn if you need to turn, where, so that you are in line with the jump. And don’t fidget with your reins. Keep them even and guide the horse straight.
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Practice by trotting over small poles.
Lay out some very narrow poles on the ground, so you can only go over them by going in a very straight line. Trot over them, and practice over them. It really improves your straightness, or did mine, anyway. At first, Wakker would trot over to the side, and I’d miss a few, or all. Gradually though, I was able to trot at least half of them. And finally at the end, I was able to keep him straight right through.
And that is all the tips I have. I hope theses work for you, and if they don’t, don’t hesitate to ask your instructor for tips! These just work for me, they may not necessarily work for you. Google up some tips and find other ways that work for you!
Till next post then! Bye!
PLEASE NOTE: During the December holiday season, my posting may decrease. Don’t worry, though, I’ll try and keep a post per week coming! I’ll try to post more next year.
ALSO: excuse the mobile and tablet version’s of the featured pic….