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‘Help! My horse is running out at skinnies’ Olympic eventer Ginny Elliot’s tips on how to stay between the flags
The key to accurate cross-country riding is flatwork, says Olympian Ginny Elliot. Here she explains the importance of the lower leg and outlines her own approach to jumping skinny fences, while accredited trainer Cameron Beer suggests an exercise to build up your skills until they are second nature
Skinnies are a common bogey fence in eventing, but what makes them so difficult? We ask Olympic medallist and five-time Burghley winner Ginny Elliot and BE UKCC level 3 accredited coach Cameron Beer for their help, advice and top tips on how to stop your horse running out at skinny jumps on a cross-country course so that you stay straight as a die between the flags.
“The ability to control the body of the horse with the lower leg is the most important part of being able to jump a skinny,” says Ginny, also a former world and European eventing champion.
“Your leg aids need to be really good and responded to by the horse – that’s the only way you can control the horse’s body.
“If I put my right leg on the horse should go left, if I put the left leg on the horse should go right, and it should happen instantly. If both your legs are together, the horse should stay straight.”
Making sure your horse moves instantly away from the leg on both sides, without accelerating, is imperative before embarking on skinnies training.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
Cameron Beer agrees, stressing the importance of perfecting those aids.
“Before you attempt a skinny jump, it’s important you can leg-yield off both legs without the horse speeding up and you can do a calm but quick straight line, halt and – in a perfect world – a rein back,” says Cameron, who’s evented up to CCI4* level. “To be fair to the horse, you have to make sure those aids are concrete.
“Most problems at skinnies occur where horses don’t understand the question, run through the bridle and don’t allow the rider help them in that moment. You have to break down those simple communications for the horse.
“If you don’t have those communications, and then you come to a fence and your horse loses a bit of confidence and wobbles, the aids aren’t there to put it back, and that’s unfair on the horse.”
A copybook example of accuracy between the flags at a skinny fence at five-star level, but the foundations start without even jumping a fence.
(Image credit: Alamy)
How to stop horse running out at skinny jumps – an exercise
A simple exercise to improve those skills involves placing a pair of jump wings narrowly together with nothing between them. Ride towards them and halt before them. Once your horse has halted gently put on a leg aid to go forwards and walk through the wings.
“This exercise trains the horse to come to the skinny, slow down in a straight way, pause, think and then go forward rather than getting to the narrow gap, panicking and rushing through, as most horses do,” continues Cameron.
“You can evolve this exercise to having something on the floor that the horse can walk over so you come in, either hold or slightly slow the pace, apply the leg, and over they go.”
If the horse wobbles as you approach the fence, straighten them with your leg before going forwards and over the object.
“The horse needs to learn that when it comes to a narrow fence and you apply a leg aid that they respond immediately,” says Cameron. “You need to be very systematic in your training so the horse feels so confident in those aids that they will never have a run out. Then you can build it up very simply.”
Once you have nailed these aids you can focus on controlling the horse’s body and achieving straightness as you approach the fence, which will help stop your horse from running out at skinny jumps.
Ginny Elliot’s approach for how to jump cross-country skinnies
Ginny explains her process: “Whenever I was approaching skinnies, my first thought once I got myself lined up was – is the body following what I can see in front of me, that is the head and the neck? I think that conscious thought’s really important to be successful at jumping skinnies.
“It’s like driving a car and trailer. Don’t forget what the trailer is doing versus the car. Straightness is everything.
“Come off a corner and then when you straighten up, think has the body followed? Is it in line with the head and neck? Once you’ve got control of the body, for me, there’s very little reason why you shouldn’t be jumping the accurate fences like skinnies, very successfully.
“There should be minimal interference with the horse’s mouth from three strides from the fence. You need to be totally organised with speed and balance to allow the horse to focus on his job. A sudden pull or straightening movement from the rider close to the fence can cause the horse to lose vision of the fence, balance and concentration,” says Ginny.
Although skinny fences were less prevalent in Ginny Elliot’s heyday (pictured on Priceless at Burghley, 1985), the key skills of straightness and balance across country were the same.
(Image credit: Stuart Newsham/H&H Archives)
Troubleshooting: how to stop a horse running out at skinny jumps
Sophie Taylor went back to basics with her five-year-old New Forest pony Bramble after they had a run out at a skinny jump at two events.
“I couldn’t trust him to hold his line so we went back into the school and began working on our straightness and accuracy,” says Sophie, who works for British Riding Clubs.
“We started by riding through two parallel poles on the ground, making sure we could stay straight through the centre of them. Once we could do that confidently on both reins we added a small narrow fence with jump wings at one end, focusing on holding our line and jumping the middle of the fence.”
Going back to basics: practise riding between two parallel poles on the ground to ensure you can hold your line and so improve your straightness.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
As Sophie and Bramble became proficient with that exercise, they gradually increased the height of the fence and moved the guide poles further away before removing them completely. All the time, the aim was to remain straight and jump the centre of the fence.
“It was something we worked on over several months for short periods of time,” explains Sophie. “As we became more confident and our accuracy improved, we increased the difficulty by taking the jump wings away and jumping two skinnies in a row.”
Sophie and Bramble, who’s now nine, are now confident in jumping skinnies and haven’t incurred any further penalties.
Another key to jumping skinnies successfully is to ensure you and your horse are confident riding through narrow spaces.
“It’s often the narrow gap people are nervous about, rather than the actual fence itself. Make sure you ride through narrow spaces regularly so that it’s not an issue,” says Cameron.
Ginny concludes: “Flatwork is, in a way, more important than anything for cross-country riding. If the flatwork is good, the cross-country and the showjumping will be good, it’s as simple as that.”
The Olympic eventer gives her step-by-step guide to an exercise to help you with skinny corners, and fences that require
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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.
