Intermediate Jumping: Stadium

The trick to riding a good stadium round isn't so much the jumps themselves as the flat work inbetween. Dressage with speedbumps. Can you get the "right" quality of canter; that is, the canter that combines the ideal combination of speed (neither too fast nor too slow), balance (rocked back on the hindquarters), and impulsion (power!)? Can you turn? Can you turn without losing your speed, balance or impulsion? (hmmmm tricky I know :), Can you hold a straight line? Can you adjust your stride? And can you do this all while going downhill? Uphill? On an excited horse? Because that's what'll be required in competition! Once you can do all that, then we can consider adding speed-bumps to the equation.

So you have basically two types of jumps in stadium: verticals and oxers.

Verticals have no width (well negligible width, if there was no width you wouldn't be able to see it. Maybe THOSE are what Zel used to jump in dressage w/u?!?!?! hahaha sorry - lightbulb moment. It took me nearly four years, but I finally figured it out! Those of you who knew my last horse @ age 4 will know what I'm talking about :). Ok back to our regularly scheduled program. Verticals -- straight up and down, one set of standards.

Oxers, conversely, have lots of width :) Or @ least some. They can be a variety of styles:

ascending: the friendliest type of oxer, the back rail is slightly higher than the front, which helps the horse to judge where the highest point of his arch should be. Triple-bars are an often seen version of these that use three sets of rails instead of two. A rider fence (as in one that freaks out the rider but not the horse), they often *seem* quite intimidating, but in reality they usually ride really well.


square: these are when the back rail is in line with the front rail (theoretically creating a square with the ground -- or a rectangle depending how wide/tall the jump is :) These are by far the most common in competition. A green horse will tend to way overjump these, putting the highest part of the arch over the back rail rather than the middle, but once they learn to size them up accurately it's all good :)





swedish: this looks like a giant floating X. The top rails are angled, so the front rail has the left side higher and the back rail has the right side higher (or vise versa). These can be intimidating since the "official" height is where the two rails cross -- meaning the sides could actually be higher than competition height. These can be jumped right in the center, in which case they ride like a square oxer (personally I find them slightly easier than a square oxer, but that might be just me :), or slightly off-center to the side where the back rail is higher, creating an ascending oxer. - fan - this has one standard on one side and several (usually three) on the other. The trick to these is to find the line you want to ride and hold it. If you can do that (remember the whole steering thing above?) you're set.

So you're at the show. There are people walking around the course. Maybe you should walk around too? It's a nice day out, what else is there to do? hahaha but why are you walking? Well to memorize the pattern of course! Well yes, that is true. But eventually you get really good at memorizing patterns from the beautiful little sketch posted near the in-gate. My suggestion would be memorize the course BEFORE you walk it. So that you know where you're walking and can focus on other things.

What other things? Ah now there's the question of the day. What things should you be considering while walking the course?

• where you're going: Not just the *order* of the fences. Admittedly that's step one, but not nearly enough. Exactly where are you going to turn, how wide is the turn going to be, where you're going to take off, where you're going to land, where you're going to be looking while doing each of those things. You need to have a plan. Then you need to ride the plan. But if the plan only states "jump fences 1-12 in order" or even "jump fences 1-12 in order, on the first try" you're still not likely to have a brilliant round.
  
• how you're going to get there: what is the correct speed/balance/impulsion to approach that fence. An uphill oxer away from home may require a very different ride from a downhill vertical towards home.
  
• what's the footing like: common sense here. If it's slippery, slow down. Check for any rocks, holes, hazards etc. Does it change throughout the course (esp grass to dirt, hard to soft, etc). Depending on the conditions it might be worth considering putting studs in too (see shoeing)
  
• what spooky items are out there: is there a path just the other side of the ring? Where are the spectators? Where is the judge? Where are the shadows (and keep in mind these can change between when you walk and when you ride!)? Are there any dirt patches that are a strange colour?
  
• what are the "trappy" fences: on angled terrain? oddly spaced related distances? really flat cups on a maxed out vert? optical illusion (esp when combined w/ light/shadows)? skinny fence off a tight turn on a half stride? All things you should be aware of and have a plan to ride.
  
• what's the striding on any combinations: not much to say about this. Know the distance. Know what that means for your horse. Ride accordingly. Ie) short strided horse, away from home, uphill, to a really long two -- you're either going to really gallop or really collect and do it in three. Either could work, but you need to know before you go out which you're going to do. A long strided horse, downhill, towards home, to a short one -- I'd strongly recommend coming in in a reasonably collected and very balanced canter. Triple combinations become even more fun as the distances between each pair of obstacles work together to make it easy or not to clear the combo.
  
• terrain: uphill, downhill, across-hill, flat... How does the land lie? And what are you going to do about it? Remember we want a good combination of speed, balance and impulsion. Going downhill, horses tend to loose their balance (falling on the forehand) and often pick up speed -- your ride needs to account for this. Uphill speed and/or impulsion are more likely to be lost. It does no good to get to the fence if you don't have enough power to jump it!
  
• towards/away from home: not rocket science here -- most horses accelerate towards home (and home is almost always the in-gate) and decelerate away. Keep it in mind as you're planning your ride.
  
• how are you going to enter: gate's open, now what? What gait will you enter in? Are you trying to energize your horse -- if so, power canter it is! If you're trying to chill them out a quiet trot or even a walk might be appropriate (the walk may not be ok if you have to go a long way to the judge because you'll waste everybody's time). Where will you stop to salute? Can you strategically trot by the really scary fence on the way so your horse can see it? Think it through.
  
• how to ride the first fence: the hardest one because you're really not in the zone yet and still have ALL the rest of the course spinning through your mind. How are you going to approach? What gives you the best line? How much time/space do you need to establish your canter before that? Where are the start flags (make sure you go through them!)?
  
• how to finish: you've cleared the last fence AND gone through the finish flags (important!) Now what? Just galloping out the gate is not exactly recommended both because it's incredibly unsafe and because it's poor training. Where can you circle or stop safely?

So now you see why I suggest you memorize the course before walking it? :)

Now lets see how the best in the world do it. Notice him showing his horse a scary fence and some of the spooky things (ummm people :) before he starts. Look at the different types of fences and see how the ride changes -- from sitting way up and balancing to a tall, skinny vertical, to letting the horse get longer and more forward to a wide liverpool or an oxer.