# Human striding for gridwork exercises?



## Ginn (3 March 2011)

As the title really...

What (human) strides do you use for grids as this is something I am never sure I get quite right??


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## kickonchaps (3 March 2011)

I stride using my normal walking steps, and 9-10 of my steps is a standard double (upright to spread or vice versa) at 90cm-1m. I'm 5'8 so my steps are fairly long!


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## woodlandswow (3 March 2011)

it all depends on what size and how long striding is your horse.. it will vary
..
i normally do.. standing in front of the fence
2 strides for landing, 4 for a stride then 2 ish for take off.. but i have a long striding horse..
this normally works so you can then do.. 2, then another 8 +2 for a 2 strided double etc..
hope this helps and anyone please correct me if i am wrong!!


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## vikkiandmonica (3 March 2011)

woodlandswow said:



			it all depends on what size and how long striding is your horse.. it will vary
..
i normally do.. standing in front of the fence
2 strides for landing, 4 for a stride then 2 ish for take off.. but i have a long striding horse..
this normally works so you can then do.. 2, then another 8 +2 for a 2 strided double etc..
hope this helps and anyone please correct me if i am wrong!!
		
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I do this, and then for a bounce, I do 4 strides, so like, a landing 2 and a taking off 2. For a pony, I do 2 for landing, 3 for a stride and then 2 for take off


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## kerilli (3 March 2011)

if you can train yourself to have a 1 yard stride (to take exactly 4 perfectly even strides to do the length of a 12' pole, in other words, which is easy to practice repeatedly - Tim Stockdale showed this in his lect/demo last year) then it's easy. you just do that same stride repeatedly and you can check distances perfectly.
from (bitter) experience a long time ago, if you have someone argumentative 'helping' you do gridwork (great mixture, there), have a ready-made 'yardstick' of exactly a yard so that they can measure distances for you...   saves a LOT of arguments.
then... approaching from canter: 
one horse stride = 7 to 8 yards depending on height of fences.
two horse strides = 11-12 yards ditto. 
if approaching the first one from trot, the first distance should prob be about a yard shorter, but then back to normal distances after the next fence as the horse should land in canter.
bounce = 3-4 yards, depending on approach pace and height of fences.


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## TarrSteps (3 March 2011)

As above - whose strides and how long are they? 

When you see sjers walking distances they are actually measuring the physical distance, not just how many of their own steps they're taking.  So they know what a 3'/1m (depending on how old you are  ) step feels like, and they know what the horse they're riding will produce naturally (although it will have been taught to go on a 12' stride, it will also usually have an inclination to go longer or shorter) and can work out their ride accordingly.  Course designers play with the distances and the fences in order to ask specific questions, so they aren't - after the most basic levels - set on a particular distance and that distance only.

For grids and other exercises at home, you have to decide what you want to achieve with the exercise and know where you're starting from.  If you don't know the horse well it's best to set something conservatively "normal", keep the fences low, then have your helper adjust the distances as needed.  It sounds complicated but it's really quite easy once you get the hang of it.  A good idea is to get a laminated sheet of standard distances or, better yet, there are some very simple course designing books (the Threshold Guides does one) with all the measurements and when they're applicable.


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## VoR (4 March 2011)

TarrSteps said:



			As above - whose strides and how long are they? 

 So they know what a 3'/1m (depending on how old you are  )
		
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Just to clarify this 3' is actually a shorter distance than 1m (which is about 3'3"), so the stride needs to be 3', 8 steps for a one-canter-stride double and add 4 steps for each additional canter-stride, i.e. 12 steps = 2 strides, etc.

Or at least that is my understanding from those who been unfortunate enough to teach me SJ!

The difficult thing is getting a consistent 3' step!


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## Ginn (4 March 2011)

TarrSteps said:



			As above - whose strides and how long are they? 

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Should have said - yes fully aware it varies between humans and horses! Was just wanting a guide as mine seem to come up wrong so we invariably end up making a mess of grids and related distances of less than 4 strides.

However I think I have now established why... I was always taught (by someone same size, v similar human striding and v similar horse to walk 2 "large" (5 heel to toe steps of my size 6 feet with boots on) for take off/landing and 3 "large" (same as above) human strides per horse canter stride....

Might explain why we 9/10 flatten subsequent fences with the front end (which I'd put down to my riding over anything else!).

Main objective with the gridwork is to ease us both back into jumping without having to worry about strides; to build confidence; to give madam something to think about; to work on rhythm etc.

Other than 1 x-pole in august I haven't jumped for 18months and Madam hasn't since June except for twice on the lunge where it became quite apparent she had lost confidence, hence wanting fun, simple, structured and confidence building and I am very aware than re confidence the striding will make a big difference with T.

Will try and find a suitable piece of wood which I can convert to a yard stick as that might make all the difference too! (D'uhh, why hadn't that ever occured to me before!)


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## footballerswife (4 March 2011)

from personal experience: stride. set up grid. observe. adjust. xx


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## TarrSteps (4 March 2011)

VoR said:



			Just to clarify this 3' is actually a shorter distance than 1m (which is about 3'3"), so the stride needs to be 3', 8 steps for a one-canter-stride double and add 4 steps for each additional canter-stride, i.e. 12 steps = 2 strides, etc.

Or at least that is my understanding from those who been unfortunate enough to teach me SJ!

The difficult thing is getting a consistent 3' step!
		
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It was actually a bit tongue in cheek, sorry.  The striding on course maps in North America is often still in feet and distances are set on a 12' stride (which doesn't mean they are actually all multiples of 12, just that that's taken as the base measurement) for exactly the reason you state, even though we've pretty much switched to FEI class heights and Canada is officially metric.  1m as a base measurement doesn't really work as well!

I certainly learned in "old money" and would have no idea how to teach anyone differently - what do people do with metric measurements?  

When I was a working student we had a line on the barn aisle floor measured out in "strides", so each time we walked down it, we had to make our strides fit the measurement.  3' for me is slightly shorter than normal and I know what the "feel" of it is.  A lot of people also measure the "extra" by foot lengths, same as setting trotting and placing poles, which are not multiples of 3'.  It's definitely a skill worth developing.

Just read your post, Ginn, sorry!

Okay, as a starter, if you're going to canter in, put a pole down for your first "jump" take one BIG step then four 3' ones, then another large one, then set another pole to give you a conservative canter stride.  Canter through it and get your helper to adjust, then set the fences.  If you need a placing pole in front of the first one, do 7' for trotting in, 9' for cantering, although a BIT shorter is safer and will help her jump better vs too long.

The "standard" grid for a horse with a natural 12+ stride (16hh ish, although lots of shorter horses make the distances easily, is, if you're trotting in set it x - 18' - x or small I - 21' - I - 24' - II.  Or put 2 strides in the last bit if you have room, so 36'.  If you canter in make the first distance 21' etc.  Move it in if she's struggling but also make sure you have enough pace coming in and keep your leg on.  If she's getting very close, steady but don't pull the distances out too much as you'll need her to learn to contain that stride for courses.  When you're ready, you can start adding bounces or making a 2 stride distance followed by a 1 or whatever, depending on what you're working on.  Also, set it so you can turn off either rein as you won't be able to jump it both ways without altering it.


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## racingdemon (4 March 2011)

generally i know that 8 of my (5'5) paces is a comfy 1 stride for my horse, so when i walk a course, i'm trying to get a feel of what i might need to do on approach.... theory & reality rarely combine as i'll usually be wrong off the corner/previous fence & all goes to pot, but in theory and all that!!!


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## TarrSteps (4 March 2011)

footballerswife said:



			from personal experience: stride. set up grid. observe. adjust. xx
		
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But yes, you do need a helper who can adjust if she's struggling, especially at this point.  And start small until you're sure she's comfortable, although you may have to pull the distances out as the fences go up. Later on, I adjust to get what I want but I don't want grids to be comfortable for the horse, unless I'm specifically looking to build confidence, as that sort of defeats the purpose of teaching adjustability and using the distances to improve jumping style.


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## Ginn (4 March 2011)

Well worked on the basis of 2 human strides for TO/landing and 4 for a canter stride which worked quite well. She found them a little long to begin with but in many ways that helped as she had to approach in a nice forward canter which had we shortened the distance we wouldn't have got  Massive improvement in confidence and by the end she was trying (and more often than not!) suceeding in bouncing the last (1 stride) distance (which made the final jump "interesting" but the objective of forward, fun and confidence boosting was definately achieved  I think previously I had the distances too short which coupled with a not forward enough canter resulted in the mess... Now we've got that bit sussed I'll set up a 5/6 stride distance and work on pushing for less and collecting for more to get her listening a little more between fences


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