Olympian Vittoria Panizzon shares her “baseline” gridwork exercise, which can benefit horses at any level, in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers
This gridwork exercise for improving technique is a favourite of Vittoria Panizzon. It uses wide parallels to develop jumping technique and is particularly useful for training horses for eventing. It can help horses regain their jumping bascule after a cross-country session where they are likely to jump with a flatter technique.
It’s also a great gridwork exercise for improving the rider’s balance, as it requires a light seat and giving hands so that the horse has total freedom to use his back and neck fully.
How to ride this gridwork exercise to develop technique
The aim: to develop the horse’s shape over a fence and build strength, as well as rider balance.
The setup: the final grid will be a cross-pole, with a placing pole, followed by at least two parallels with ground lines, three for experienced horses. But you should build up gradually, fence by fence.
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
You’ll need a helper on the ground to put up poles and move wings forward.
Jump the cross-pole a few times until the horse is jumping calmly.
Add in the subsequent elements of the grid one at a time, with ground lines at each fence. Initially, the distances between each element should be about 7m.
Each time the horse jumps through well, pull the wings 5–10cm forward. You can raise the fence a hole as the horse understands the exercise. This makes the distances between fences shorter, as the fences get higher and wider. The parallels shouldn’t be too high (90cm–1m is ample for most horses) but well over 1m wide for experienced horses.
As the fences get wider, you can add a diagonal pole on top of the parallel. This encourages the horse to make a good shape but also prevents the horse misreading the fence as a bounce.
Jump through each altered grid once or twice. Don’t hang around between each approach as you don’t want the horse to switch off.
The number of times you do this exercise, and the height to which you raise the parallels, will depend on the horse’s experience, level and fitness.
Start small and build up gradually so that the horse understands the exercise. You want to set them up to succeed.
(Image credit: Jasmine Punter)
How this gridwork exercise helps you and your horse
Vittoria explains that this is her baseline exercise, which she was taught by Sarah Bullen.
“As the parallels become bigger and wider, it helps develop the bascule and strength of the horse, as well as the rider’s balance,” she explains. “It encourages the horse to use themselves really well, getting stronger with their push from behind and making a big, round shape.
“I tend to have the groundline a little in front of the fence because I like to help them learn to make the best shape by spelling it out for them. There are times to let a horse make a mistake to sharpen up and learn, and there are times to set them up to succeed, and as this exercise gets harder I want to be encouraging them.
Vittoria emphasises that this exercise relies entirely on the rider dropping their hands so the horse has full use of his neck.
“This style is the way I was brought up to ride in Italy, with a military instructor who had us riding through grids with no hands, and would make us jump off drops cross-country with no reins,” she says.
“So I did it a lot as a child, and similarly Sarah would also make me release a lot, to give the horse plenty of freedom. Horses gain so much trust in the rider if they know they will always get the freedom they need to jump.
“Horses gain so much trust in the rider if they know they will always get the freedom they need to jump.” Vittoria demonstrates a giving rein.
(Image credit: Jasmine Punter)
Vittoria offers another challenge to teach horses to look after themselves, to sort out their own technique.
“While the grid is still small, I like riders to go through with no hands, and then putting their hands over their eyes. It’s not a gimmick; it helps the rider, which helps the horse. It’s the best way to get the rider in the right place – the horses jump beautifully when the rider has their hands over their eyes!”
Learning to be well balanced to make the horse’s job easier is a major factor.
“The rider must always stay in jumping balance, in a light seat between the fences,” Vittoria explains. “This is because as the striding gets shorter and the parallels wider, the horse needs to stay round in his back, which they cannot do if you are sitting into the saddle.
“I like to come into the grid in trot, because that means you can’t just hang on to the reins and be pulled over the fence. The rider has to get the timing right to fold, and the horse has to push over the fence, so it fine-tunes both rider balance and the horse’s reactions.
“You don’t need speed to jump big, but the right technique and balance.”
Variations
The grid above can have multiple variations and tweaks to improve certain horses’ weaknesses, such as:
An upright rather than a parallel as the final element. I build this higher than I would the parallel. This encourages the horse to really lift his shoulders because they have to combine first the stretching and pushing for the parallels, and then lift high for the upright.
Start the grid with a bounce to make them sharper.
Use wing poles to keep the horse straight on whichever side they drift.
About Vittoria Panizzon
Event rider Vittoria has been a stalwart of senior Italian teams since 2005. She has contested three Olympic Games, finishing 11th at London 2012 with Borough Pennyz. Having competed at numerous championships on a range of horses, including at the 2025 Europeans on DHI Jackpot, she is also currently campaigning two of Pennyz’ offspring, Borough Tuppence and Borough Threpence. Based in Redmarley D’Abitot, Gloucestershire, Vittoria is a former junior European champion who has lived in England since she was 17.
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.
