You want to jump but you’re not really feeling like setting up an entire course? Let me give you 5 ideas of courses you can do with very few equipment.

All of these courses include 4 or 5 poles, and have between 6 to 12 jumps! Let’s go ⏩

⚠️ A must read: How to plan my horse’s training? ⚠️ 

#1 – The cloverleaf 🍀

🛠 Equipment for 6 jumps

• 4 poles
• 4 stands (or blocks)
• 1 block

This first combination has the advantage of not taking a lot of space and you won’t even need a lot of equipment! It’s pretty useful if your arena is small.

This exercise consists in placing 4 poles in the shape of a ➕ with a bloc in the center. You then simply have to draw a cloverleaf by doing a circle between each jump, and end the combination with two diagonals in which you’ll jump the central block.

Variation with 10 jumps

Another possible version of this exercise would be to do it as intended until 5 (yellow-pink diagonal). Then, turn around and redo the cloverleaf at the right hand by doing green – yellow – pink – orange then the diagonal 6 between pink and orange to end. This would make 10 jumps instead of 6.

#2 – The butterfly  🦋

🛠 Equipment for 11 jumps

• 5 poles
• 10 stands (or blocks)

Distance between the fence in the middle and the 4 others:

• 3 strides: 13 to 14m
• 4 strides: 16.5 to 17.5m
• 5 strides: 20 to 21m

This second combination is pretty complete and versatile, depending on what you want to work on and how much space you have. This exercise consists in setting up a fence in the middle of the arena and 4 fences around it.

It will allow you to switch between curved lines with 2 fences, half circles, broken lines with 3 fences.

Basically, it goes like this: middle-side-side-middle-side-side-middle, or orange-blue-green-orange-pink-yellow-orange (aaaand… I lost you 😅).

You can then go over the side fences in a straight line, by going over them with an angle (makes things interesting)!

#3 – The trapeze 🔼 (ok this is a triangle but let’s pretend for a minute here)

⚒ Equipment for 12 jumps

• 4 poles
• 8 stands (or blocks)

Distance between the fences in the middle

• 2 strides: 9.5m – 10.5m
• 3 strides: 13m – 14m

Distance in the curved lines

• 3 strides: 13m – 14m
• 4 strides: 16.5m – 17.5m
• 5 strides: 20m – 21m

Hang on, don’t get dizzy, because this is going to turn 🔀. This exercise is kind of like a variation of the Butterfly, but with a lot more angle.

The combination goes like this: the double in the middle, turn around, go over the four fences, then make a big turn to go over the orange and the yellow with an angle, then symmetrically go over the green and pink with an angle. Then make a sharp turn to go back to the pink and the yellow with an angle.

#4 – The line ↔️

⚒ Equipment for 8 jumps

• 3 or 4 poles (depending on whether you want an oxer or not)
• 6 or 8 stands (or blocks)

Distances:

• 2 strides: 9.5m – 10.5m
• 3 strides: 13m – 14m

If we had to summarize this combination, it could be “How much jumps can I do in a triple?”.

The idea is to start first with the entire line, then to turn around and jump the first fence with and angle, the third with an angle, the middle one with an angle, then the first one and the last one combined with counter canter.

You can start with a vertical instead of the oxer in the middle!

#5 – The mathematician 🤓

Ok, this one is clearly my favorite! 😍

⚒ Equipment for 8 jumps

• 5 poles
• 8 stands (or blocks)
• 1 block (for the arrowhead)

Place these 3 fences (+ – >) or (+ – <) on the middle line.

This exercises consists in going over the 3 fences by doing a serpentine, then to take the middle line and go over the arrowhead and the +. Then, once again, a serpentine to go over the – and the arrowhead and we end with the + in a diagonal!

Depending on the way you place the arrowhead, it will be easier or harder. Indeed, it’s much harder to approach it by the top than the base!

Analyse your combinations with Equisense Motion!

Combinations are great and all, but doing them correctly is better! And on your own, it’s hard to figure out if the approach was right, if we had the right canter, if our horse jumped correctly… 😳

Lucky for you, Equisense Motion, your connected companion, analyses your combinations and gives you information like your cadence between each jump, the quality of your approach by analyzing the evolution of the cadence on the last 2 strides, and the quality of the jup thanks to the duration of the jump. 👍🏼

You liked these exercises? What if you tried hunter exercises? 😇

Indeed, these exercises are close to what we work on in hunter! So if you liked it, you can read this article in which I explain why it’s so great.

Here you go! You have some great ideas for combinations with few equipment.

See you soon for another article,

Camille Saute
Equisense Co-founder