Are you an eventer looking to sharpen your showjumping skills so that clear rounds become your new norm? We speak to international event rider Jeanette Brakewell and accredited trainer Cameron Beer to discover how to improve both horse and rider’s reactions and make sure you leave the coloured poles in their cups
It’s easy for event riders to neglect training over coloured poles in favour of cross-country schooling practice. But whereas a little rub on a fixed fence or brushing through a hedge is part and parcel of efficient cross-country riding, most of us need to adjust our skills to learn how to stop a horse knocking down jumps when each one costs four penalties. We need to sharpen our showjumping reflexes (both horse and rider’s) so that our hard-won, speedy clear across country is not nullified by rails down.
The boldness of a natural cross-country horse doesn’t always translate to the jumping ring, where a careful bascule, pinpoint accuracy and a good jumping technique are required. This is tested to the utmost at a three-day event, with the showjumping phase on the final day, when the horse may jump flatter and feel a little more fatigued than normal after his efforts on the cross-country.
Of course, it all starts long before you even get into the competition arena. A good warm-up is crucial to securing those fault free rounds so make sure you use your time wisely, ensure your horse is listening to you and that you’re in the correct canter.
How to stop a horse knocking down jumps: warm-up exercises
1. “Shoulder-in is a good warm-up exercise to sharpen your reflexes for showjumping because you’re positioning the shoulders, so the horse has to work around your inside leg more,” says Jeanette Brakewell, who won individual silver at the 2002 World Equestrian Games.
“It’s important that the rider’s doing shoulder-in correctly. Put the horse on a nice angle and let them carry themselves on that line, don’t hold them there. If you apply too much pressure and hold the horse there, they tend to slow down and switch off.”
2. British Eventing UKCC level 3 accredited coach Cameron Beer suggests doing a warm-up exercise called 4-4-4 which works on changes of pace within the canter to help sharpen both horse and rider reflexes.
“Do four strides in collected canter, four in working canter, four in medium canter, then back to working, then back to collected,” he suggests. “If 4-4-4 is too much, start with 6-6-6 but not more than six because that defeats the point of the exercise.
“It’s a simple warm-up exercise but it’s helpful as it works the gears. Often riders have stayed in one gear forever and it takes them 10 strides to change to another gear. In this exercise you’ve only really got one stride to change it.”
Training quick reactions for the horse
Ensuring your horse responds to your aids in a timely manner is also important.
“As a rider, it’s important to be aware that you’re always training the horse to be reactive to your aids. That means using your aids with good timing and the correct amount of pressure,” says Jeanette.
“Some horses are naturally more reactive than others. For horses that aren’t reactive enough, it’s important to sensitise them. That doesn’t mean riding with loads of leg and loads of pressure. You want your horse going in a reactive, fresh way – not a dull, bored one.
“To get a better reaction from your leg, you don’t necessarily apply a stronger leg aid – you might use a quicker, sharper aid and then relax your leg. If the horse thinks, ‘Oh, you’re not telling me to keep going so I’ll slow down,’ you give them another quick reminder with your leg saying, ‘Come on, stay in front of me’.
“That should help activate the hindlegs so they can carry their own balance, rather than dropping onto the forehand and ignoring the leg.”
Building “A frames” on fences as well as using gridwork exercises can be a useful tool to hone accuracy, rhythm and confidence.
An “A frame” on the fence can help sharpen the front leg action and encourage straightness.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
“The key to gridwork is to ride with good balance and enough energy, so the grid does the work in teaching the horse to use its body properly,” says Jeanette. “The distances are all set, so once you’re in you can focus on your position and your balance.”
Jeanette recommends adding ground poles or dressage boards (positioned wide enough for the horse to easily work out and go between) in front of the middle of the fence if you’re struggling with straightness.
Training quick reactions for the rider
Working to sharpen showjumping reflexes is not all about the horse. To test rider reactions, Cameron likes to change the profile of fences – although they don’t need to be big or difficult.
“I would use an ascending oxer, with the back rail three to five holes bigger than the front, and with a ground rail,” says Cameron. “I’ll do that off the turn, and then an unrelated related distance to a double of verticals on a short distance, or a bounce, or a plank with no ground rail.
“It’s about the rider having to come in brave to that ascending oxer – they can’t cheat and come in quiet – and then put the horse back to the correct gear for the different fence coming up next.
“Then mix in lots of blind turns and rollbacks. With the blind turns make sure you put a wing in to go around as that breaks up their eye. Then they come around that wing and suddenly pick a distance. You have to think about the canter quality, trust your eye and be more reactive rather than just counting canter strides.”
Cameron also believes in applying pressure to riders during training to mimic the competition environment, providing it’s a safe time in their stage of training to do so.
“Sometimes I will say, ‘We’ve warmed up. We’re going to jump the course once and I’d like you to jump a clear round’,” explains Cameron.
“That makes the rider feel a little more nervous, but it’s important to put the rider under pressure in that situation because then their reactions might feel a little blurrier, and they have to deal with that – which then puts them in that competitive mindset.
Practise at home as if you were in competition environment. Here, Bubby Upton jumps an oxer in training on her Euros 2025 ride Its Cooley Time.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
“If you train too safe with no pressure, then the rider may not have the right reaction when pressure’s put on – but that only comes when you know they’re comfortable with all the questions being asked, you have all the building blocks, and they have in their head what the priorities would be for them and their horse.”
From frustration to riding club champion
Following a frustrating spell in the showjumping phase for event rider Esther Bowness and her 13-year-old Irish grey mare Blackwater Grey Lady (Polly), straightness was a key part of their homework with trainer Catherine Vale.
“Catherine’s favourite phrase is ‘straightness is greatness’, because it doesn’t matter what angle you’re coming into the fence, you’ve got to be straight,” says Esther.
“Catherine gave me a few simple tips like keeping my body upright and tall, lowering my hands and riding straight and I found that my mare wasn’t fighting me into the fence, and she was much more relaxed over it.
“I was also told to balance the canter. I started leg-yielding Polly to make sure she’s listening and off my leg on both reins and then did a few teardrop shapes in canter to ensure we’ve got that uphill canter that you need for showjumping.
“Those tweaks were massive in terms of what they’ve achieved because I was thinking about them rather than micromanaging Polly into the fence. We’ve gone from knocking fences down to consistently jumping clear and we recently won the senior 80 showjumping competition at the British Riding Clubs National Championships.”
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Working on a freelance basis, Emily has attended a wide range of horse shows and events as Horse & Hound’s onsite reporter, as well as writing features for both the magazine and website since 2004. Emily assisted the British Horse Society with the launch of its national equestrian awards initiative, and also plays a key role in the press teams for major sporting events including Wimbledon and the London Marathon.
