The hardest part of jumping seems to be the distances!

Anyone agree with me? I was jumping oxers yesterday and the higher the jumps get, the more paranoid I get about finding a good distance. Sometimes you can automatically spot the distance out of the corner, you can decide whether you want to keep this pace, collect his pace, lengthen to get a 3 stride instead of a 4, others you have no clue until your there and you have to make a descision in a split second, wait and lean back, or go extra long. People who don't know much about riding assume the hardest part is staying on asking questions like "do you grab the saddle" do you grab their mane, I'm thinking have you ever tried finding a distance???? I almost got catupulted yesterday, since I couldn't make up my mind of whether I wanted to go deep, I started to decide to go deep to the jump, but my horse decided otherwise. Ugh.

If you keep your horses pace completely consistent, they usually find the right distance. When you decide to shorten or lengthen, stick with it, otherwise your horse wont find a good distance. Hope that helps :)

I agree. It helps me if I count the strides (out loud) before the jump though..not sure why..

I usually let my horses pick the distance unless I know I need to like doing xcountry type fences. They always find the right one

I chose 'other.'

I think it depends on the horse. With my gelding, distance is never an issue, but with the Oldenburg I used to ride, distance is a lot harder. Willie can make both horse and pony strides, and he's extremely adjustable and level headed, whereas Donald (the Oldenburg) is more excitable and a whole lot stronger, so distances and keeping a good pace is much more of a challenge.

We're only jumping small stuff, but so far my horse has very good distance judgement. I used to try to find the distances, but soon found out he's way better at it, so now I just steer and otherwise stay out of his way.

You shouldn't ride for the "distance". Pace, Line, Rhythm. If you are correct in all 3 of these the distance will be there. Every time. But the hardest thing is getting all 3 correctly. :) I do agree though, missing a distance becomes a big deal as the heights get bigger!

Oh wow, that was basically my entire lesson yesterday. I couldn't feel any distances!! I definitely think that's the hardest part.

Upnover stole my post.

The distance or "spot" is the horse's spot.

Getting him there in the proper balance and rhythm is the rider's job.

^Agree. I usually count 1-2, 1-2, with Geof's pace and then I can usually see where he sees he needs to take off for the jump. I can see if I need to push for the stride or bring him back, but usually he makes the best decision :) I think the hardest part is keeping a constant balance. Just because my horse can fall behind the leg easily though!