Horse facts

Chapter 1 Jumping

Many horses like to jump but it is important that you don't 'over jump' the horse! To begin with you need to walk, trot, canter and possibly gallop over some poles! You need to change the distance between the poles for the different speeds that you go at! Eg... For trot you have a small distance between poles, for canter you have a larger distance and for gallop You make the distance even further out!

After you have done that, you can begin jumping! Start on a little jump first to get the horse used to jumping and make sure that you get the correct rhythm towards the jump! To get into a good rhythm you need to keep it going without making the horse too fast! You also need to be in a straight line towards the jump and to get a curved turn towards it, not a sharp one! You can also (to get in the rhythm) count three strides out loud before a jump!

When you have completed a little jump a few times then you can move onto a more challenging jump! Before you jump it, you need to first walk your horse around it a few times and let it look at what it is going to jump! To jump a wide or a bigger jump you need to get in the correct position! To get in that position you need to stand in your stirrups, lean forward and put your hands forward! When you land you need to sit straight back in the saddle to prevent you falling over his/her head!

There is also a jump called a bounce! That is where two or more jumps are set out I front of each other's with a medium distance between them! You have to canter up to theses jumps or it won't work! When you land from the first jump you need to stay in the jumping position she cause the horse will go straight to the next jump and if you are not in the position it could hurt you or your horses back and you could fall off! Bounces are very difficult to get the hang of do I would recommend that you only only do the jump if you have jumped larger jumps and your horse knows what to do!