Cross country - Schooling Fences on the Arena 

by Wendy Shaeffer

Our sport of Three Day Eventing has evolved significantly in the past ten years. The standard of jumping is far higher and the degree of technical difficulty seen throughout the cross country courses demands an excellent standard of training to produce an adjustable, responsive equine athlete. The Championship course at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany was a prime example of a course with extreme technical difficulty and was likened to ‘Dressage over Cross Country fences’ where horses needed to both hold their line (straightness) and be rideable to an exact distance to the fences. The inaugural Adelaide International Horse Trials in 1997 began the trend of technical lines with a one stride combination of narrow, round cafe tables followed by a curving five stride line to a third cafe table which caused many problems. From then on I certainly stepped up my level and intensity of training to jump these narrow, technical ‘cross country’ fences in the arena! I like to initially train the more technical ‘cross country’ fences such as bounces, arrowheads and apexes using rails, wings and barrels which can be knocked down on a flat arena. The ability to build a huge variety of lines and distances as well as the scope to ‘play’ with heights, angles and widths makes this equipment an essential tool and these training sessions are invaluable for training the modern event horse. While nothing can replace the experience gained both in real Cross Country training and in competition, arena schooling allows far more technical fences and lines to be jumped with less risk of falls or injuries that similar mistakes at fixed fences may produce. In this article, I describe a selection of fences, exercises and courses which I use in training my horses from the babies at Intro level through to my top horses preparing for Three and Four Star competitions.

COURSE1

• I begin with using one part of my bounce fence (1) as a cross pole with placing rails 8–9 feet either side which I jump from a trot in both directions.

• I then make a bounce of crosses 12 feet apart, which I jump, from canter, on the left rein in this example away from the narrow fence.

• I would then progress to jumping my narrow fence (2), again away from the second narrow fence (4). With my real babies, I begin with two barrels on their sides and poles acting as wings (Figure A) as my aim is to get my horse comfortable with and focused on jumping over the barrels as this forms the basis for many more advanced fences and exercises. I would trot my first attempt to maintain straightness, then canter, and then progress to one barrel if I feel the horse is capable at that stage. Narrow fences such as the Jump for Joy™ Arrowhead (pictured 1) are a more advanced type of fence as would be the barrel standing upright with a single pole placed on top (Figure B), the length of which can be varied depending on the experience of the horse and rider.

I have described jumping both the bounce and the narrow fence away from, not towards their related fences as I am particular about not cantering past fences (especially narrow ones!) which I will later want my horse to jump.

• Once I have trained the narrow fence (2) sufficiently, I progress to cantering to and jumping my apex (3) in both directions, which I build with a barrel at the point and wings (Figure C). Again, I will often start with the barrel on its side and the angle of the apex small – a glorified oxer really! I will then progress to either a wider apex with the barrel still on its side or stand the barrel upright with a relatively ‘skinny’ apex (Figure C).

• I may then raise my cross bounce (1) to a bounce of verticals (height varying depending on stage of horse) and ride the line from the bounce to the narrow (4) in 4 or 5 strides; often a careful 5 the first time! I will then reverse the line riding narrow (4) to bounce (1), usually in a steady 5 to the short bounce.

• My final line is then riding from narrow (2) to narrow (4) in the 4 or 5 strides; again I would usually choose to ride a steady 5 strides but if the horse focuses on and draws to the narrow (4) then I will take the 4 strides! I will then reverse this line riding from narrow (4) to narrow (2) which is generally a more difficult line as the horse may be distracted by being pulled off the straight line to the bounce (1) which we have done previously and then redirected to narrow (2).

• I will then finish by riding a combination of lines and fences to make up a course, jumping each fence in each direction. E.g. Bounce (1) off left rein (i.e. away from narrow (4)), Apex (3) on left rein, narrow (4) to narrow (2) on left rein, bounce (1) on right rein to narrow (4), apex (3) on right rein followed by riding a ‘teardrop’ shape where on landing, I veer right into the bottom left hand corner of the arena before changing rein back to the left then coming to my last line of narrow (2) to narrow (4) off my left rein. I find that riding these as a course puts the horse and rider combination under more pressure having to put it all together!

EXERCISE 1 – SERPENTINE OF NARROWS

The use of either barrels and rails or an arrowhead fence gives us many options on both heights and widths of these fences, which can then be optimally adjusted to the level of the horse/rider combination and progressed in distinct and measurable stages. I would begin a real youngster with two barrels on their side and guide poles (Figure A) but may start an experienced horse with short rails, i.e. 4–6ft on top of the barrel.

• After warming up over cross rails, cross bounces or similar exercises I begin this serpentine exercise by jumping the middle narrow (2) in both directions.

• I would then progress to jumping narrow (2) to narrow (3) off the right rein having ridden around narrow (1) and narrow (2) to narrow (1) off the left rein having ridden around narrow (3). My distance of 54ft is 2 paces short of a true 4 stride distance but it still can be ‘long’ in the 4 strides with the curve in the line so many horses will put 5 strides in before they really focus on where they are meant to be going. Once more tuned in to the exercise, the 4 strides comes up more easily!

• Finally, I would ride all 3 narrows (1, 2, 3 off the right rein and 3, 2, 1 off the left rein) in both directions. Again, this exercise may work better in 4 strides on some horses, better in 5 strides on others depending on both their natural stride length, their inherent tendency to ‘get quick’ or ‘pop up in the air’ over their fences and their adjustability.

COURSE 2

I love this course as I can jump many lines from so few fences! I would do only some of these lines on younger horses, while putting together the whole course can provide a real test to even the most experienced horses and riders.

• After warming up, I begin by jumping ‘out’ of the arrowheads (1) and (2). Again, with youngsters these fences will consist of a barrel on its side, rails and wings while I will start the more experienced horses over a standing barrel with the ‘width’ of the arrowhead (i.e. how far apart the wings are and how large the angle of the apex is) being dependant on the level of the horse/rider combination.

• I then progress to jumping ‘in’ to the arrowheads (3) and (4); I start with a ‘wide’ one and narrow it up as I go with a less experienced horse.

• I then move on to jumping the apexes (5) and (6) off a long approach on both the left and right reins. Again, I start with the apexes relatively narrow.

• After I have confidently negotiated the apexes off the long approach, I progress to ride them out of the corner (7) and (8) off the left and right reins. I then progress to jump both apexes as a related line, i.e. out of the left hand corner to apex (7) then right curve to apex (6) and out of the right hand corner to apex (8) then left curve to apex (5). If I’m happy with how my horse is jumping the apexes in all directions and in related lines I can then widen them to the point where it is also possible to jump them as arrowheads.

• I then jump these apexes as arrowheads in related lines to the vertical (9), the liverpool oxer (10) and the second arrowhead, i.e. arrowhead (1) to liverpool oxer (10) and reverse (10) to (3), arrowhead (2) to vertical (9) and reverse (9) to (4) and arrowhead (1) to arrowhead (4) and reverse (2) and then on to (3).

• Finally, I put a course together to test all elements at the same time! E.g. arrowhead (2) to vertical (9), arrowhead (1) to arrowhead (4), liverpool oxer (10) to vertical (9), long approach apex (6) then long approach apex (5), down long side then out of right hand corner to apex (8) then left curve to apex (5), down long side then liverpool oxer (10) to arrowhead (3), vertical (9) to liverpool oxer (10), down long side then out of left hand corner to apex (7) then right curve to apex (6), then down long side and up to vertical (9) to arrowhead (4) to finish!

EXERCISE 2 – APEX AND NARROW SERPENTINE

This exercise is a progression of Exercise 1 with the positions of the barrels changing to make the serpentine much tighter while the addition of apexes increases the technical demand! The distance between the barrels (15m) is of more importance here than the actual distance walked between the barrels (54ft, i.e. 2 paces short of a true 4 strides) as the tight curve will add one (or two!) extra strides.

• Again, I begin this exercise by jumping the middle narrow (1) in both directions. I would begin with the narrow as a standing barrel with a short rail on top then take the rail off to just jump the barrel with 4 short placing poles forming a square around the bottom of the barrel.

I would then jump both apexes (2) and (3) in both directions, i.e. off both reins. Similar to Exercise 1, I would jump the narrow (1) off the right rein, left curve to the apex (2) and the narrow (1) off the left rein, right curve to the apex (3).

• I would then put all three fences together, i.e. off the left rein to the apex (2), right curve to the narrow (1), left curve to the apex (3) and off the right rein to apex (3), left curve to the narrow (1), right curve to the apex (2).

I consider some of these to be very tough ‘rideability’ exercises as they place enormous demand on a horse’s strength and posture to contain their jump in a small area as well as their ability to cope with the mental stress of tight turns to very narrow fences.

Wendy conducts clinics throughout Australia and Internationally using these exercises. For further information contact her on +61419038867 or email wensbe1996@yahoo.com.au.