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Improve your horse’s rideability and straightness with Harry Meade’s three-fence jumping exercise
In the third part of this training series with Harry Meade exclusively for H&H subscribers, the five-star event rider shows how he uses three fences in different formats to improve engagement and straightness. This exercise tests being able to jump out of both a short and open canter
For this jumping training exercise, Harry Meade has set up three fences on a two-stride distance of 12 yards (see diagram below). The first and third fences will only be jumped in the second part of the exercise so these start at a taller height, whereas the top rail of the middle fence starts at 70cm. The middle fence has ground poles on either side, which are adjusted during the exercise. The height of the fences can be decided according to what you and your horse are comfortable jumping. In this case, Harry demonstrates jumping up to 1.30m.
Harry starts with the top rail of the middle fence on 70cm with a mid rail below, and then adjusts the height through the session to suit the horse he is riding
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
The exercise targets engagement and straightness, as well as relaxation after the fence because it shows up any problems with rideability.
Starting Harry Meade’s jumping training exercise
Once warmed up in walk, trot and canter, Harry starts by jumping the middle fence at about 70cm on the diagonal. On landing, he rides one-and-a-half small circles of approximately 10m diameter around the first fence and comes back over the middle fence on the other diagonal, repeating the circle around the third fence on the other rein. He repeats this routine over the fence at the same height several more times on each rein, before giving the horse a break.
Start jumping the middle fence on the diagonal small, before incrementally raising the height and widening the ground poles.
(Image credit: Jess Photography)
“The aim is to pop the fence like a small cavaletti – don’t get drawn into lengthening towards the fence or getting forward in your position,” he says. “Treat it as a pole on the ground and stay tall in your position, as this maintains the power created by the hindleg on the small circle, right the way to the fence, without it diminishing on the straight approach.
“It also requires a horse to land after a fence and soften so that within a few strides, the horse has concertinaed into a balanced canter on a small circle, as opposed to lengthening away from a fence, making it difficult to obtain the required size of canter and execute the desired line so soon on landing.”
Harry Meade has advice for those riding over-exuberant horses in jumping training.
“I’d ride with a bridged rein to stop the horse accelerating away from the fence and falling out through the shoulder in the circle, thereby making the circle too big,” he says. “I also have one finger in the neck-strap to discourage the horse from coming above the bridle on landing and run through the rein,” explains Harry, who uses bespoke thin neck straps that he can use “like an extra rein on the horse’s chest. This allows me to have control without riding on his mouth and shortening his neck.”
Bridging the rein and keeping a finger in the neck strap is a useful tip for exuberant horses.
(Image credit: Jess Photography)
He keeps jumping the middle fence, until the horse settles and starts to operate in an increasingly relaxed canter.
The exercise
After a short break in walk, the warm-up routine is repeated with Harry again jumping continuously, but every second time the fence is jumped, the top rail is put up, then every other time it is jumped, the ground lines are widened. These changes are done efficiently so the horse is able to continue performing the exercise uninterrupted, while the fence gets progressively bigger with more generous ground lines.
“This exercise is good for working the canter on a small circle around the fence, then controlling the shoulder out of the circle so you have true straightness over the fence and into the next circle. Even when the fence is at its biggest, I want him popping over the fence as if it’s a cavaletti, landing in balance and self-carriage with relaxation.”
The next level
Harry then switches to jumping the straight line of all three fences a handful of times in both directions.
Jumping straight through the three-fence grid.
(Image credit: Jess Photography)
“The repetition of the figure of eights contains the canter, but the grid on the straight line rides comparatively open and long, so without adding in speed, the horse has to open up his jump, stretching through his body and ribcage without quickening,” he explains. “The two parts of the exercise test both ends of the spectrum, jumping from both a short and an open ground cover.”
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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.
