A riderless sport horse negotiates a series of ground poles and small jumps, finding his wings along the way. This is free jumping, where the obstacles are aligned in a row down a chute positioned on the long side of an arena. It’s fun to watch, yet a bit mystifying too. How does one teach a horse to free jump?

Here, Ciaran Thompson, head trainer at Spy Coast Farm, a sport horse breeding and training facility in Lexington, Ky., shares his knowledge on this subject.

Why Free Jumping?

Thompson lists a number of reasons to free jump horses. These include assessing jumping talent, showing a client how their horse is progressing, as a marketing tool for selling young jumpers, building confidence in an older show horse, or helping a horse through fear of certain types of fences.

“It’s a great way to give a horse time to figure out jumping fences by himself so he gains confidence,” explains Thompson. “Then when it comes to doing it under saddle, he already has a greater understanding. He’s used to it without the influence of a rider, so it’s not sensory overload. It gives him the best chance possible of becoming a confident and capable jumper down the line.”

In the spring of their 2-year-old year, Spy Coast free jumps the colts they are considering as stallion prospects to sort out which will be gelded. This allows them not only to observe the individual colt’s jumping talent, but also assists in evaluating each colt’s temperament and trainability.

“With stallions, you want to be looking to pass on all the best traits that you possibly can,” says Thompson.

In addition to all of these reasons, free jumping can be a fun way to bond with your horse, as long as you prepare properly. Thompson offers the following step-by-step advice.

Study the Process

To observe the process, you can go to breed inspections, young horse shows, and/or clinics on free jumping. Take notes and ask questions. Volunteer where needed and learn by doing.

Pay attention to how horses going through the chute react to different jumps, handlers, the longe whip, and other cues. Observe where their eyes and ears are focusing. Learn to read their body language to predict whether the horse will go through the chute willingly or if he is thinking about stopping before a jump. See if you can tell if the horse feels relaxed and confident or rushed, confused or panicked.

Facilities & Equipment

A smaller arena is better for free jumping so the horse doesn’t wear himself out in between jumping passes. It also makes the horse easier to catch. Thompson says something on the order of a standard dressage ring dimensions (20 meters by 60 meters) would work well. A larger arena can be subdivided for free jumping, and an indoor arena is generally better than an outdoor for this purpose.

◆ You’ll need enough poles, jump standards and jump cups to build the jump chute, with extras built into the count.

◆ For the sides of the chute, additional jump standards can be turned sideways and used with extra rails, or stand-alone fence panels may be used. The materials should be safe if the horse runs through them. Things such as yellow plastic caution tape, carpenter’s saw horses, tall potted plants, traffic cones, or stacked straw or shavings bales may all be useful chute barriers.

◆ Thompson says they use three handlers when free-jumping at Spy Coast: one to lead the horse into the chute, one along the middle of the chute to keep the horse on track and moving through, and one to catch the horse on the far end.

◆ Enough lead ropes and longe whips so that each handler has both.

◆ Cord or leather lace (about 36 inches in length) to loop through the near bit ring to lead the horse up to chute that easily slides away for quick release.

◆ Bucket filled with feed or treats to entice the horse to stop and be easily caught after each jumping pass.

◆ Quick release snaps on rein ends to easily detach/attach them to bit rings. These are great for inspections or any time you are free jumping the horse in a bridle.

◆ Camera or video camera to record the session.

Jump Chute Construction

There are a number of variations on the theme for free jump chute building, but they all use similar distances between poles and jumps:

◆ 9 feet between the placing pole on the ground (which encourages the horse to trot into the chute and sets him up for takeoff) and the first cross-rail fence.

◆ 21 feet from the cross-rail to the first vertical

◆ 22-24 feet to the final fence, which eventually becomes an oxer.

The distance between fences may need to be adjusted for horses with different stride lengths. Watch to see if the horse struggles to make a too-long distance or has hard time fitting into a too-short distance as he travels through the chute.

There also need to be points along the inner jump chute wall that can be quickly opened (to at least 4 feet wide) on the takeoff side of each jump in case a horse gets flustered and stops in the middle of the chute. This allows a handler to enter the chute, calmly catch the horse, then lead him safely out the side. The horse can then be prepared to re-enter for another try.

Introducing Free Jumping to the Horse

Thompson stresses that the horse should lead well, respect your space, and know how to longe and/or free longe before teaching him to free jump. He should know voice commands and consistently follow body language and whip cues.

At Spy Coast, they first lead the horse calmly through the chute (with no jumps up) and reward him with food from a bucket placed at the far end, well after he’s left the chute. He cautions that they don’t want the horse to get used to stopping for a reward immediately after the final jump, but rather the horse should get used to landing and traveling away from the jump before getting his treat.

At the same time, they tell the horse “whoa” so that he can equate the word with stopping at that spot and the reward. They do this with the horse a few times, then trot him in-hand through the chute with a reward again.

Thompson explains how they progress slowly from going through the empty chute at liberty and then introducing ground poles and later jumps in the chute. They start off with just a single pole at the end.

“From there, we build it up to where we have three poles down and maybe the placing pole at the beginning,” he says. “Then we lead the horse over the poles until he is comfortable with that. Then we add a small cross-rail at the end so he moves down through the poles and pops over the cross-rail. When the horse is confident with that, then we make a second cross-rail, then a third. Usually they get the whole idea and seem to say, ‘Oh, I’m popping around and going to the food.’”

Over time and several sessions, they build up to verticals and oxers, and perhaps later the jumps become higher and wider, depending on the experience and age of the horse at the time. The handlers should also be well-versed in helping the horse safely progress beyond poles and cross-rails.

Thompson emphasizes that throughout the process, the horse needs to remain quiet. Don’t rush him through the chute by pushing too hard with voice, body language or whip. If the horse makes a mistake, then go back down a level and start again until he is confident.
He advises keeping the jumping sessions short, no longer than 15 to 20 minutes.

Safety Tips

Thompson says that communication between the humans in the ring as a horse is free jumping is key for safety. If possible, he would like to have the horse track be separated from the middle of the ring all the way around, not just in the jump chute, so that there is a safe place for people to be.

He advises that one person keeps an eye on the horse at all times while others are resetting the jumps to avoid a horse running in before the chute is ready and potentially running over a person or hurting themselves.

Handlers should all have longe whips—not only to direct the horse through the chute, but also to push him away from the handler and other people in the ring. Caution should be taken when catching a horse, since they can sometimes spin and kick out at the last moment.

Thompson uses protective legwear (tendon and bell boots) on horses with shoes, but doesn’t usually use them on younger barefoot horses, since he wants to be able to evaluate their jumping without any effect on style that the boots might cause.

Reading the Horse

Over time, you’ll be able to see when your horse understands what is being asked. At this point, you’ll know you can safely progress.

Some horses need to have the jumps changed more often to keep them thinking about the task and not rushing through the chute. Others need more time to figure things out at a lower level. Some will need adjustment in distances between jumps or extra ground poles placed to assist them in jumping better.

Thompson points out that as a young horse develops, his jumping style may change a bit. He also shares that there are horses that, no matter how carefully you prepare, consistently want to speed through the chute. Those horses may learn more by jumping under saddle.

Find full instructions on setting jump chutes, including diagrams, here.

About the Expert Ciaran Thompson is the head trainer at Spy Coast Farm in Lexington, Ky., in their Young Horse Development Center. Growing up, he was an active member of Pony Club in Ireland, where he received his A rating. He has been at Spy Coast Farm since 2017, starting as Young Horse Trainer, developing 2- and 3-year-old horses, and has been Head Trainer since 2022, overseeing the production of horses from their first rides under saddle to competing at FEI events in both show jumping and eventing.

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Although horses are naturally athletic and many can boldly jump over obstacles of astounding heights and widths, there are also those who aren’t quite so sure why they should put themselves in such a compromising position.

A horse may stop at a jump for all kinds of reasons. He may be afraid of the jump itself, or his fear may be more related to what he has experienced from the rider when jumping; sometimes a rider’s lack of confidence relays to the horse, or the horse has been the victim of numerous bad distances.

Jumping from a distance that is too long or too short puts the horse in a physically difficult spot, and he may not want to keep jumping. It’s also common for riders to cause further discomfort to the horse in the air after a bad distance, sometimes accidentally pulling the reins, falling back into the saddle too early, or falling forward onto the horse’s neck.

Allow Your Horse a Thorough Investigation

No matter the cause of the horse’s anxiety, the answer to getting him comfortable jumping again is to go one step at a time, creating enough new positive experiences to outnumber the negative experiences he has had.

Start by allowing your horse to investigate and sniff the jumps. Done at a walk either mounted or unmounted, this is easy to do at home but also a valuable aspect of schooling shows. The horses that benefit from this most are those that hesitate before leaving the ground or that jump with a peek when they do go over.

Once the jumps have been thoroughly inspected and sniffed at the walk, flat your horse very close to the jumps and their fillers. Trot and canter just alongside each jump, never pointing him at the jump, but making sure he feels relaxed having the jump close to him. If not, he may need to stop and sniff the jump again.

Next, place flower boxes or other fillers perpendicular to the plane of the jump in between the standards and off to the sides, creating a chute toward the center of the jump. Trot your horse back and forth through the fillers until he is moving confidently past them.

From there, make a small cross-rail with the rails and filler. At a schooling show, this may be where you need to start if taking out the fillers to trot through is impractical. This is also a good place to start for those horses that are more concerned with the distance than the jump itself.

Walk or slowly trot your horse over the jump so that he can have time to process the idea of jumping over filler and so that you can easily follow the motion of him going over the jump. Be sure to praise him when he goes over.

Once your horse is happily taking you to the jump (this is important—he should be moving confidently toward and over the fence), try cantering it. I would caution against making it any larger than a small vertical, as you risk another setback to his confidence. Remember, you must make a large library of positive experiences.

Stick to Small Stuff

For horses that have stopping issues at jumps rooted in too many missed distances, it’s important to honestly evaluate your riding. Your horse may need a tune-up with a trainer or more advanced rider for a few rides, or you may need to accept dropping down to jumping ground poles and small cross-rails until your eye becomes more consistent.

Adjustability of the canter is also crucial for these horses so that you become more familiar with your horse’s proper jumping canter and so that the horse is well-versed at moving forward off of your leg and coming back to your hand.

Some horses may have trouble with combinations or lines specifically, and the same concepts apply. Small jumps and a patient rider will do the trick over time, and it’s important to keep encouraging the horse to go forward, even when the striding is not quite right, so that he eventually gets the confidence to open up his step.

When the jumps are small, it’s completely fine for a horse to add a step, whether it’s two strides in what should have been a one stride, or six in a five, especially when the horse has a history of refusals.

Eventually, with repetition, he will begin to get the correct striding, but this is another process that should not be rushed if you want the lesson and the confidence to stick. Take the time to meet your horse where he’s at and build his confidence back up piece by piece.

This article about training a horse that’s stopping at the jumps appeared in the August 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Picture this: You are cantering around the corner, peacefully counting the rhythm of the canter, when suddenly a few strides out from the jump, your horse takes over. Out of seemingly nowhere, he is scooting toward the jump, the distance has disappeared, and he’s launching himself as if he wants the jump to be over with as quickly as possible. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone!

As with any training issue, it’s important to rule out any medical explanations. These horses should be looked over by a veterinarian and perhaps other specialists, like a dentist or chiropractor.

With pain/discomfort off the table, rushing is almost always rooted in anxiety. Your horse may find jumping stressful for any number of reasons. He may feel overfaced by the size of the jump, by the speed at which he’s approaching the jump, or by the complexity of the course. He may also have experienced a lot of missed distances or a rider who was unbalanced and accidentally punishing his jumping effort.

Keep it Positive

In order to reverse the effects of these negative emotions and experiences, from this moment on, your horse must have a consistent positive association with jumping. This will most certainly take time, and you as the rider should expect to be patient and allow the process to take as long as it takes.

While usually I prefer that horses only jump twice a week, many horses that rush do better jumping five to seven jumps or so every day so that it feels less like a special event to them and more like a standard routine.

The jumps should be low. Even if your horse has plenty of scope, he should be presented with only small jumps until his anxiety subsides. (I consider small jumps to be cross-rails through 2’3″). It’s OK if your horse just needs to go back to ground poles or even trotting and cantering through empty standards.

There should not be any right or wrong in these exercises. That extends to leads/lead changes, breaking of gait, or any of the details that normally would be important when jumping. Your horse is feeling enough pressure from the jump alone, so it’s better not to add any pressure through other expectations. (Many young or green horses are most concerned about the lead change that they know is coming after the jump.)

Gradual Introductions to Start

Begin by walking over ground poles or tiny cross-rails. The slow speed gives your horse plenty of time to assess and negotiate the obstacle. Tiny is preferred so that he has less chance of hitting it and scaring himself.

After he has walked over regular rails, add towels, flowerboxes, or other small fillers to continue to build confidence. Once all is going well, you can move up to a slow trot. If trotting leads to rushing, go back to the walk.

After your horse has mastered relaxed trot jumps from a slow trot, you can test the waters by adding speed with a regular trot or the canter. However, when adding speed, it’s important to also capture the horse’s attention with something other than the jump itself. Give him a job unrelated to the jump that happens to occur near the approach or landing side of the jump. Some examples include circles, figure-8s, and transitions.

The key is to not make this feel like a punishment. Whatever you are asking your horse to do, you should ask about five strides before or after the jump so that there’s space for him to breathe and relax as he approaches the jump, jumps, and lands.

Exercises to Try for a Horse That’s Rushing Jumps

Two of my favorites are a downward transition five to six strides in front of the jump and a figure-8 after the jump, either in trot or in canter, with a simple change.

From here, you can string a course together with lots of circles or transitions interspersed between the jumps. The more turns the better, since long, straight lines are not the best idea yet. It’s hard to influence your horse to rebalance on a straightaway without using a lot of hand, which is counterproductive to relaxation.

Once you have made it to the point where your horse is ready to canter some jumps, a good option is to canter a jump on a circle and allow your horse to fall into a rhythm. By creating the same track to the jump and facilitating the same striding over and over, you allow your horse to relax into a predictable pace and not worry about his takeoff distance.

After your horse has built a confident foundation in these exercises, you can begin to ride regular courses again. Just keep the concept of relaxation at the forefront so you can continue to help your equine partner let go of his anxiety surrounding jumping.

This article about training a horse that’s rushing jumps appeared in the July 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Many times, I have seen riders canter to the first jump of a course and have it be less than stellar. But then they land, change their canter, and lay down the ride of a lifetime. I have named this “first jump-itis.” The cure is to establish a quality canter right away so that you can approach your first jump with impulsion and confidence, rather than using it as a reminder that you didn’t quite have enough pace.

Mastering the Canter Transition

It all boils down to a need for better preparation. First, examine the canter transition itself. In a lesson, you can’t use the whole ring to get going, as you and your horse are going to be exhausted before you even get to the first jump. In a group, you will get reprimanded for wasting time. At a show, you are only permitted an opening circle or 45 seconds, depending on your discipline.

Before you ask for the canter, be sure your horse is responding to your leg by developing a marching walk. This walk will feel as though your horse is truly taking you somewhere, not as though you are begging him to take each step. If the squeezing leg aid is not enough, don’t hesitate to give him a kick or tap him with a crop behind your leg.

Once the marching walk is established, use your inside leg to step your horse over toward the rail for a few steps, getting him thinking about his hind end.

Next, bring your outside leg back for one or two steps at the walk, then squeeze to give the canter aid. Be sure to sit tall and stay back (not throwing or perching your body forward) throughout all of this. The best transitions into the canter have an uphill, lifted quality to them, and this will be difficult to achieve if your weight is forward over your horse’s shoulders.

If your canter transition tends to involve a few (or many!) trot steps, be sure to do your homework to correct this. Your horse should move directly from the walk to the canter. Should the situation call for cantering from the trot, you can set your horse up to canter in a similar manner as described above but in a sitting trot. The whole process, once practiced, will take less than 10 seconds.

Canter Quality

Now that you have the canter, focus on its quality. It’s always better to have a little more pace in the canter than you think you need, as that will allow for you and your horse to have more options to choose from if you need to adjust as you approach the jump.

If your horse is being responsive to your leg, it will be easier to ask him to move up for a longer distance or collect for a tighter distance while still maintaining a springy energy to the gait. This indicates continued engagement of the hind end, called impulsion.

What typically happens when your first jump goes poorly is that the canter lacks impulsion, so you’re left with only the options of hoping to get to the jump at a good distance or to chip in to a tight distance. The option to move up to a more forward distance is not available if you never tuned up your horse to engage his hind end to be responsive to your leg aid.

Practice Makes Perfect

Remember, there’s no situation where a canter lacking impulsion will be useful. Whether there is a scary filler in the first jump on a hunter course or a tight turn after the first jump in a jumper course, a slow, weak canter won’t help to answer the question at hand.

A great exercise to actively practice building your pace to the first jump is by only jumping one jump: Set up a jump on both quarter lines of your arena, one for each lead (see opposite page). Make the jumps a comfortable height for you and your horse, 3 to 6 inches lower than the highest you regularly jump, or your competition height if you show.

For hunters, practice an opening circle and then head straight to the jump. Once you’re consistently meeting the jump with power in your canter off of each lead, increase the difficulty by adding in some attention-grabbing filler to the jump or make the jump an oxer.

For jumpers, don’t allow yourself more than half the ring to cultivate the canter you need. After being successful with the exercise from both leads, add a cone about 42 feet (three strides plus landing) beyond the center of each jump and turn before it to simulate a jump-off track.

Congratulations, your canter is a success!

This article about canter quality for jumping appeared in the April 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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There is often a misconception among jumping riders that in order for a practice course to be interesting or beneficial, it needs to be a lengthy, complicated track. While it’s important to test yourself and your horse in this way, it’s also important to take time to return to basics and use practice tracks for jumping. By using a course that is easy to remember, it frees your mind up to focus on the details. This course is also a great idea for anyone that is making do with a limited number of jumps or a smaller riding area.

The jumps are to be set up as pictured in Figure 1. The jumps can be any height that you and your horse are comfortable with, even if that is just ground poles. Feel free to switch up the order and direction in which you ride the jumps, but for the sake of our discussion, I will be using the course described in Figure 1.

Ride a Practice Course Three Ways

There are three different styles in which to ride this jumping practice track: hunter, equitation, or jumper. When practicing more of a hunter-style course, your goal should be to establish a tempo and then stay on that tempo with only tiny adjustments.

Your inside leg should be used to create an inside bend and to push your horse out into every turn, going all the way to the rail. Use your corners to re-evaluate your rhythm and make sure you are not slowing down nor speeding up. It is easy to gain momentum after the first one or two jumps!

Next is the equitation style practice track. If possible, give yourself markers of some kind. Place the markers as shown in Figure 1. Now the goal is to execute the same track in a tighter space, turning just outside the markers for all of the turns during the course, including before the first jump and after the final jump. Now your organization skills are starting to be put to the test as the questions arise faster due to a shorter time between jumps.

The last track to try out is the jumper practice track. This time you will be turning before your markers from the equitation track, or you have the option to move them in closer to the jumps to challenge yourself. Your focus should now be on the responsiveness of your horse as you move through a tighter track with a faster rhythm. Remember not to cut your corners so tightly that you sacrifice straightness. Your horse should be straight for the last two to three strides before the jump in order to give him time to properly prepare for takeoff.

Other Points to Address

This exercise can also be used to address problems specific to certain horses and riders. If your horse tends to rush toward the jump or immediately after, the practice track allows for halting after each jump.

Horses that can be wary of new or different jumps can be acclimated by placing different fillers underneath the jumps. Because the track is simple, it is easier for the horse to negotiate the potentially scary obstacle in front of them rather than also dealing with a prescribed distance in a line or a tight turn before or after the jump in question.

Because of the simplicity of the track, this is also a great time to experiment with how small changes in your body affect your horse. Examples include shifting your weight slightly in the air to help your horse land on the correct lead, adjusting the timing of your half-halt in the turn, and experimenting with the strength of your leg and rein aids while turning.

If you or your horse already prefer a certain style of riding over the others, I encourage you to branch out. Not only will it contribute to your growth as a rider, but your horse will also benefit from doing something different.

When riding your jumper on the hunter track, they will start to soften in the corners and refrain from rushing as they realize they aren’t being asked to turn quickly and find the next jump. This softness will greatly improve your ability to adjust your horse’s stride length.

While riding your hunter on the equitation or jumper practice track, your horse will start to become more responsive to the aids as the turns come up quicker, which comes in handy when you need to make small, invisible adjustments on course.

After riding all three jumping practice courses, it is very likely that you come across something that you or your horse find difficult. This creates a great opportunity to select future exercises that specifically target these problem areas.

This article about jumping practice courses appeared in the June 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Like many equestrians, you may dream of jumping your horse. The sensation of piloting your horse while he takes flight is like none other in riding. Simply put, it’s fun. Plus, the ability to calmly and safely hop over low obstacles can be part of a well-rounded horse’s schooling. Unfortunately, too many horses are rushed into jumping, and as a result, they become tense and resistant. By starting slowly as you introduce your horse to jumping and establishing a solid foundation, your horse can learn to develop confidence in his own abilities and become a reliable partner over jumps.

Step 1: Finesse Your Flatwork Before You Introduce Your Horse to Jumping

Before you consider jumping, be sure that your horse is fully schooled in the principles of flatwork. First, he must walk, trot and canter at a consistent pace. Occasional half-halts are fine, but you shouldn’t feel compelled to hang on the reins to keep his speed in check. There’s a certain amount of “letting go” that’s necessary in jumping, and your horse should not surge forward the moment you soften the reins.

Next, your horse should willingly lengthen and shorten his stride in response to gentle aids. Remember that collection doesn’t simply mean going slower; your horse should become rounder through his body and noticeably shorten his stride. Conversely, lengthening equates to your horse stretching his entire frame so that he covers the ground in a longer stride. He won’t necessarily go faster. Both of these traits give you the ability to make subtle adjustments on your approach to a jump.

Third, your horse must understand the difference between leg pressure that means “go faster” and leg pressure that means “move over.” Once your horse moves laterally away from leg pressure applied behind the girth, it’ll be easier to ride a straight track to the center of each jump. Otherwise you’ll be forced to pull him to the center using a direct rein, and invariably that creates a crooked horse that is more likely to run out at the base of a jump.

Finally, check your horse’s power steering and brakes. Rudimentary patterns, such as circles, serpentine loops and figure-8s, reinforce your aids and help your horse develop his natural sense of balance. They also simulate the lines and turns found on most courses. By practicing these patterns on the flat, you can evaluate how easily you might navigate your horse around an actual jump course.

Step 2: Practice Over Poles

Ground poles are the foundation of future jumping exercises. Although they appear simple, ground poles can teach your horse invaluable lessons about pace, balance, length of stride and straightness before you ever introduce him to jumping.

To begin, gather a half-dozen or more brightly painted ground poles and scatter them around your arena. Set most of them perpendicular to the arena rail, about 10 feet inward, so you have the option of foregoing them. Don’t worry about measuring distances from pole to pole. Just leave plenty of room so you can work on your horse’s adjustability and vary the number of strides he puts between them. Also set one pole on an angle in the center of your arena so you can ride a long approach across the diagonal.

Gradually incorporate the ground poles into your flatwork. Walk over a few poles so your horse gets the idea. Then progress to a posting trot. Guide your horse over several poles, then circle or reverse direction before trotting over a few more.

Ride toward each pole with a sense of purpose but without driving your horse to the poles with your leg aids. Keep your horse on a straight track to, over and away from each ground pole. If he clunks a pole here and there, stay calm and continue on to the next one.

Eventually try cantering over them, which is more challenging than it appears. Ideally, your horse should maintain his canter rhythm as he goes over the poles. He shouldn’t make sudden leaps, break to a trot or switch leads.

Small adjustments as you approach the poles are fine, such as steadying his pace or collecting or lengthening his stride. However, grossly altering your horse’s stride to reach a pre-determined take-off spot is a bad habit to avoid. Cantering over ground poles is where your horse learns to trust his own judgement and develop an eye for a takeoff spot.

Step 3: Cross-Rails and Placement Poles

Once you and your horse are comfortable working over ground poles, it’s time to move up to cross-rails as you introduce him to jumping. The configuration of cross-rails invites your horse to seek the center of the jump.

Begin by stacking several ground poles between a set of standards. Then trot back and forth over this miniature obstacle, being sure to start and stop on a straight line. Resist the urge to make your horse jump the stacked poles. Focus on maintaining a steady trot from start to finish. When you remain calm and consistent, it allows your horse to comprehend the task before him.

Next, set a small cross-rail (about 12-14″ high in the center) between your standards. Again, just trot over it in a straight line with a crisp halt afterwards. Your horse may hop over it or haphazardly trot over it, one leg at a time. Either effort is fine; don’t rush him. When he seems confident with that task, it’s time to encourage him to actually jump.

Raise your cross-rail to about 18″ and then set a ground pole on each side, about 9 feet away from the cross-rail. These act as placement poles, which help ensure success. Placement poles regulate your horse’s pace and length of stride, and help your horse put his feet in the correct spot for leaving the ground.

Approach this little exercise at a steady trot. Your horse should step over the first placement pole, jump over the cross-rail, and then regain his balance so he can step over the placement pole on the landing side. Encourage him to canter away to reinforce forward momentum, and then stop in a straight line.

Despite the sense of accomplishment that comes from jumping, don’t be in a hurry to try more advanced exercises. Even more important, adhere to the old adage: “Trot first, canter later.” The trot’s slower speed gives your horse a chance to think about the process of jumping.

This means you’ll spend weeks—perhaps even a month or more—trotting cross-rails and low (up to 2’3″) verticals with the aid of placement poles before attempting to canter a single jump as you introduce him to jumping. Yet, with a successful foundation, you and your horse will be jumping with joy for years to come.

This article on how to introduce a horse to jumping appeared in the January 2020 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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