A question that I receive often from my scholars is: when do we start counting strides? When used right, counting strides is an especially practical tool that can help you and your pony make light work of a sequence of jumps. I indoctrinate my scholars to follow this rule of thumb for counting strides: do so when you come across related lines of maximum eight strides. Lots of jumper/hunter courses include several jumps of this length. Hunter courses typically are comprised of a couple of related distances requiring counting. You do come across courses in big jump fields with lengthier lines that really must be counted, but they are mostly designed for top bracket horse riders.

Jumper courses differ moderately from hunter courses where stride counting is concerned. Jumper courses permit more creativity on the issue of the amount of strides you take with your pony. The maximum 8 rule typically applies; nonetheless jumpers can add strides or subtract them dependent on their horses’ stride spans, the event type and the class of competition. Usually horses need to gallop in jumper speed classes, and this lengthens their strides, and thus, decreases their number.

Judgment is subjective in hunters, and footage signs, if provided, can help define the number of strides required of any pony. When a course planner shows a line to be seventy-two feet long, he intends that horses take 5 strides over that line. Judges are conscious of this and use this info to help in determining the standard of competitors. A pony that appears to zip down a 72′ line would always have a shorter stride than a horse that appears to ramble down. At these events, stride counting is an absolute must because it helps you adhere to what the judge will be looking out for. You know where you stand when you do 6 strides in a 72′ line and fail to pin well.

There are numerous interpretations to bending lines where there is no footage posted. Where there is no footage posted in long lines, judges will undoubtedly anticipate that competitors may vary significantly in stride totals. The same line could see rivals totalling nines, tens and even elevens. In unmarked long lines, judges often do not hold competitors to any prescribed number of strides.

The complicatedness of horse riding events has grown as time goes by. Stride counting is pretty much a requirement in today’s world of equine events. In this post, I have hardly covered the fundamentals of stride counting. I would stress on learners it’s essential they get together with knowledgeable instructors to ‘walk courses’ riders get experience from every course ridden, and soon they’re going to reach the stage where stride calculations become 2nd nature.

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