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Sharp and snappy: Gemma Stevens’ gridwork exercise that will teach your horse to be both careful and bold
In the second of a two-part focus on gridwork, exclusively available to H&H subscribers, Gemma Stevens sets up a grid to encourage horses to jump carefully off a forward-going stride
Gridwork is often known as gymnastic jumping, because it helps teach the horse to be more elastic and enables both horse and rider to hone certain techniques without worrying about the perfect stride. Grids are typically set up on slightly short distances – seven yards to one horse’s non-jumping stride rather than the eight you’ll see used in competition – to encourage the horse to be sharp with his front legs and not flatten. However, in this session, Gemma Stevens chooses a gridwork format set out on “true competition striding”.
“This grid is inspired by my friend [CCI5* winner] Laura Collett, who uses it sometimes when she’s schooling racehorses,” says Gemma Stevens, an international showjumper and event rider who won eventing team gold at the 2018 World Equestrian Games. “It’s amazingly useful for getting horses to be more careful when jumping out of their normal stride.”
The set-up: four fences with one stride between each – and a placing pole 3yd in front of each fence
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
“Heavy canter poles that don’t roll are a must for the placing poles,” she adds. “I am teaching the horse to be careful by being aware of where they are putting their feet. And it’s safer because if they roll under the horse’s foot they can turn an ankle. I’m just using big heavy poles, but you can also raise them on a small block.
“Each fence has a placing pole 3yd in front, which makes the horse do a little jump on the final step before taking off over the fence, which encourages them to pick their front legs up.
“The distances for this grid are true, because I don’t want the horse backing off. It is designed to make them sit back, jump the pole and then snap up.”
Gridwork with Gemma Stevens
Gemma warms up her first horse, an advanced eventer, for 10-15 minutes in walk, trot and canter. She incorporates transitions, flying changes and makes sure the mare is listening to her aids.
After cantering down the line with the poles on the ground, just to familiarise the horse with the task in hand, Gemma shows the mare the first fence prior to asking her to jump it.
Before starting jumping, Gemma canters down the line with the poles on the ground to familiarise the horse with the task ahead. Note the placing pole 3yd in front of where the fence will be to encourage the horse to be quick with their front legs.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
“She can be a monkey at the first, so I always show her it before we start jumping,” Gemma explains. “It’s her quirk but I don’t let it bother me. She’s an amazing showjumper and has real fight about her; it’s what makes her so good. But she can be really spooky, even in the school.”
Gemma builds up the grid fence by fence, starting with a 2ft 9in vertical. Gemma points out that it’s important to have a helper on the ground to adjust the fences so that she can keep coming – off both reins – with a fence added each time she completes the line. The grid builds up rapidly into a vertical to two oxers with a final vertical to finish. Although Gemma has a large arena, she says it would be doable in a short arena with just three fences rather than four.
The four-fence set-up consists of two verticals and two oxers, with V poles – either tight or wide – arranged to suit your horse.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
The fences have V-poles resting on the top bar, which together with the placing pole gives the horse a lot to take in visually, and assess what to do with their feet. However, Gemma doesn’t use extra poles as ground lines underneath the top bar to teach horses that they need to focus on the height of the top rail. The mare performs exactly as required, cantering in strongly and basculing beautifully.
“I’m moving up quickly with her because she’s a five-star horse and she knows the exercise; this will just sharpen her up,” says Gemma. “The first time you do this, you should start small because it takes horses a bit of getting used to.”
The true distances between fences combined with the placing poles the horse needs to negotiate are the essence of this grid.
The mix of oxers and verticals encourage the horse to be both forward and careful.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
“It’s a mix of encouraging the horse to be careful, and staying on a natural forward stride,” Gemma explains. “You have to be brave and keep coming at the fences, but let the grid do the work. It really helps them snap up out of an onward stride. If you’ve got one that’s dangly or doesn’t lift the shoulder, this is a great exercise.”
They are now jumping 4ft as the final fence, and the mare gives the V a slight tap.
“The grid drew that mistake out of her; she was blasé and she’ll learn from that,” Gemma says.
Before the next attempt, the V is widened slightly and the horse jumps perfectly.
“You have to read your horse and react each time to what they need and whether to adjust the Vs,” Gemma explains. “If you do have a horse who is worried about them, position them wider initially and gradually bring them in.
“I knew this horse would be sharp enough second time, so I widened the V to encourage her and she was super careful – so I’ll leave it at that. It’s important not to overdo it and finish the session with them feeling happy.”
Modify the grid for younger or less experienced horses
Gemma’s second ride of the day is a totally different prospect – a gangly five-year-old gelding just starting out his eventing career. Gemma laughs as she works him in, having swapped from a highly tuned advanced ride to a baby just finding his feet.
“He’s hilarious, legs everywhere,” she says. “He’s very green. He’s by Chilli Morning, and they tend to be late developers and babyish so you don’t push them early. They only become ‘wow horses’ when they are older.”
The five-year-old’s inexperience doesn’t hold him back from schooling through the same grid as his senior stablemate, however. Gemma simply builds up much more gradually, and keeps the jumps relatively low.
Keep the fences small to start with, or with a young horse according to ability and experience, but the set-up works for all levels.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
“With a young one, I come in trot initially so they learn not to jump the fence and the placing pole in one go – I’ve had a few do that!” she says, trotting quietly through the line a few times with the poles on the ground.
Next she adds in the first vertical and again repeats, rather than moving straight into adding extra fences.
“He jumps in slow motion,” she grins, as the horse carefully works his way through the grid. “He has to learn to have quicker reactions but already he’s seeing where he is long and he really tries.”
Gemma plays about a bit with the V-poles, first pulling them together to teach him to be more careful and then widening them to give him the confidence to jump through. After three goes of the full sequence, Gemma senses he’s done enough for one session.
“Always end on a good note, and he’s made a good effort today,” she says. “This is a hard exercise and really makes them work.”
Gemma has some advice for green horses if they are struggling.
“If they keep knocking fences, sometimes it’s right to stop and come back the next day and try again,” she says. “It’s amazing how horses seem to absorb what they’ve been taught overnight.”
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
