Do you jump your dressage horse? this is why you should think about it!!

For years I’ve taught flatwork as part of my jumping lessons and having spent a lot of time in the jump saddle it has been really refreshing looking at life from a different angle – from the perspective of a Dressage Horse. There are huge benefits for the Jumping horse to have improved flatwork but then there are also benefits for the Dressage horse to jump. Now… it mightn’t be for all dressage horses but in my experience, it really helps them become more creative, more confident and builds bravery together as horse and rider which we can all do with when we are inside those white boards!

Why try it?

1) Creativity jumping is a great way for your horse to be expressive in a different way and it requires the horse to sit on its haunches to push off before a fence; a great way to start building hind end strength required for collected gaits.

2) Variety; varying the nature of your horse’s work can give longevity to his/her career and can help reduce injury by reducing the amount of repetitive workload

3) Improved canter quality: Jumping demands the development of an adjustable canter with a sense of urgency.

4) Confidence/bravery: there is something very powerful about a task that can be tangibly accomplished. You’ve got an obstacle that you both need to get to the other side … ‘we can do this' quickly evolves into “we can do things!” and a horse with that confident, can-do mentality can take on the world!

Of course, it is important that you provide obstacles with which your horse can easily achieve success, and only increase the difficulty when you are completely sure he/she is ready!

How do I get started?

We started Sal off with lots of pole work; shortening and lengthening of strides in trot and canter, building up to small jumps and grid work before a few outings and some training shows.

A bit of inspiration?

Many Dressage riders jump their horses e.g. Charlotte Dujardin with Valegro. Take a look at the full article in Horse and Hound here

Don't forget the fun!

There is a lot of reward in producing a horse to a point where there is trust to try something completely new like when you teach a dressage horse to become confident over poles, jumps, grids and eventually doing courses. As a coach though I am particularly proud of coaching Sal’s owner Aisling to also jump him despite him being ‘Green’ and not just poles but eventually taking him Cross Country.

We took Sal to Lullymore Equestrian Centre and a very enjoyable moment was watching Aisling introduce Sal to Water – where the Dressage Diva got his toes wet and we had lots of Fun - well, i was definitely laughing!!