Training Tips: Jumping Gems

TRAINING TIPS

Jumping gems

With over 30 years’ experience, Clem Smith is one of Australia’s leading show jumping riders with notable performances at home and overseas. He recently shared some of his top tips with CHRISTINE ARMISHAW.

Hailing from a rural background, Clem Smith has dabbled in many equestrian pursuits, including camp drafting, Pony Club, working on stations, eventing and show jumping. These days his expertise centres around breaking in and training young horses, and conducting jumping clinics in Australia and New Zealand.

When I asked Clem whether there was a particular focus to his clinics, he explained that no two were the same. “Every horse and rider combination is different, so you’ve got to work on different things. Some horses travel nicely, but their connection is not as

Riding from a good medium canter gives the rider options as they arrive at a fence (Image by DKA Photography).

good, and other horses have a good technique but are very unrideable. You have nervous riders, you have brave riders, so you’ve got to be versatile.”

While working with equestrians across all disciplines and skill levels, from trotting poles to full-height fences, Clem has, however, noticed a few common challenges. He firmly believes that the key to success over fences is to first be able to school well on the flat. “The horse jumps the jump as good as you can ride to the jump,” he says. “Basically, the horse needs to be moving off your leg, he needs to accept a contact so you can control the speed, and you need to be able to adjust your stride a little as you come into the jump. It’s all about how you travel to the jump.”

Clem is quick to point out that there is no ‘one size fits all’ remedy, but he’s happy to share some of his ‘go to’ tips and exercises that many jumping partnerships have benefitted from.

Impulsion and distance

Clem explains that to improve impulsion, you have to improve the canter. The energy in the canter comes from the rider’s lower leg aid, but along with this, you need to ensure your horse is bitted properly. “To ride a horse with no leg because you know he’s going to be too strong is when it becomes very hard to see a distance,” he says. “When your horse is bitted properly and has a good body shape, it makes it so much easier to ride them confidently forward off the leg. At the end of the day, your horse is only going off the feel you’re giving him.”

But how does this make it easier to see distance? “A lot of the time, the canter is either over ridden or under ridden. Ideally, you ride your horse in a consistent, medium canter, so that every time you canter up to the jump you’ve got options. As you approach, you can either go a little faster or a little slower, and either one of those options is quite OK,” Clem tells me. “Everyone’s got a different way of seeing a distance, some riders like to wait until they’re four or five strides out, while others like to ride forward then wait a little in the last couple of strides. You’ve just got be creative in your canter so you can get a feel of what needs to happen.”

Riding from a good medium canter gives the rider those options as they arrive at the fence. “More times than not, you’re going to find a distance, it mightn’t be perfect, but it keeps the horse’s confidence up,” says Clem. “Particularly as the jumps get bigger you soon learn that just cantering at them isn’t going to work for very long, because the horse will stop! Especially with the careful ones, they’ll stop rather than want to knock ‘em down,” he says.

Improving technique

I ask Clem for a few pointers on what to do to help a horse that has a tendency to take rails down. First we discuss verticals. “The first thing while training would be to go to your ground line and move it out a little, to help stop the horse from going right into the bottom of the jump. It also helps to train the rider’s eye to ride that way,” he explains.

To be effective, a horse has to use his neck and shoulders, and Clem has a specific exercise to help with that: “Place canter poles in front of the jump. Have one pole that’s six-and-a-half metres out from the front of the jump, and a second pole seven metres in front of that. The rider canters in over the first pole, then they canter one stride and over the next pole, then one stride and over the jump. The spacing between the poles will help keep the horse a little in-hand so that he ends up with a better body shape. You don’t want to have the canter stride getting longer on the last stride because that makes the horse less careful.”

Clem suggests this as a good exercise for green riders, as well as more advanced riders. “The placing poles help to give a consistently good distance, which builds confidence quicker, allowing them to start being able to jump bigger. It makes the horses a little cleverer at the same time, without scaring them,” he explains.

For Clem, building on the canter pole exercise and creating flow is key: “If you then add a pole three to three-and-a-half metres after the jump, then another jump three or four strides away, it creates a little focus and encourages the horse not to run away after landing.” He’s found this to be a great exercise, especially for a Thoroughbred or a horse that tends to jump a bit flat: “When you add the pole beyond the first jump and canter down to something that’s three or four strides away, your distance is already created.

To improve impulsion, you have to improve the canter (Image by Equico Studios).

You’ve just got to land, keep the canter and bang, there’s your distance.”

Then we bring oxers into the mix. “When you’re trying to jump a big fence, you’ve got to try and get as close to that jump as you possibly can so the horse can clear the back rail. Otherwise, if you’re taking off on a long distance, you’re going to really struggle to make it,” Clem says.

There are many slight set-up adjustments that can help target the different challenges a combination might pose. Clem offers a variation to the canter pole exercise which can be helpful for a horse that tends to take rails at a spread: “Start by turning the original vertical fence into an oxer then set one canter pole seven meters out from the base of the fence, and a second pole another seven meters out from that. From there, the rider can put on a little more lower leg and the extra space between the poles allows the horse more room to use himself. He can come from a slightly stronger canter to clear the wider fence.”

Creating confidence

the greener or nervous riders want to rush to move up and struggle to wait. They try to catch that big open stride and that’s where the trouble starts,” he cautions. “Whereas if you watch the big fellas, five or six strides out there is a little balance in their canter, and bang, there it is, let’s move up or whatever,” he adds, pointing out that in both cases, be it a green or experienced pilot on board, the horse feels what their rider is doing and reacts accordingly.

This brings Clem right back to that all-important consistency on the flat. “Especially while the jumps are smaller,

greener riders all want to go faster rather than actually balance their canter. I always think if you can’t adjust your canter coming into a meter, you don’t want to try and jump any bigger. Coming off a corner on a big open forward canter is only a band-aid, it might work for a little while but it’s not going to work forever,” he says. Being calm and confident enough to wait comes from strong flatwork fundamentals, which you can’t afford to overlook if you want to move up through the levels.

Visit clemsmithshowjumping.com for information on their training and coaching services, and be sure to check out Team Smith on Facebook.

ABOVE: Clem and Quantico 12 show their style at the recent Larapinta Show Jumping event (Image by Equico Studios). RIGHT: Quantico 12 and Clem in the winner's ring again (Image by Equico Studios).