SCHOOLING solutions
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
• Tips to help you feel positive and confident
• Howto ride dog-leg turns between fences
• Easy ways to cope if things go pear-shaped
THE RIGHT SUPER simple polework grid is able to test all the skills needed to go clear in the showjumping ring — rideability, flexibility, straightness and suppleness. In training sessions with Antonia Platt, the international showjumper is using one of her favourite basic grids (Your Horse, January, Training/Schooling Solutions), but now is upping the ante to practice whizzing through the gears, nailing tricky lines and honing control in every pace. By the end of this second session any rider will be armed with a toolkit of ideas and skills to help them jump that vital clear round.
THE GRID EXPLAINED
Take four poles and set them up to create a tunnel to the first pole and three strides to the second. Then grab twomore poles and set them at an angle so that a four-stride ‘dog leg’ can be ridden to them in both directions.
For more (search ‘jumping distances’).