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Serpentine Over Fences: Another Useful Jumping Exercise

5/6/2011

4 Comments

 
Holly and I filmed a demonstration of the Serpentine Over Fences jumping exercise this week. I have seen Holly use this exercise several times. If you like the Circle of Death, I think that this exercise is even more difficult and very useful. It builds on the principles a horse and rider can learn from the Circle of Death such as coordination of the rider's aids including eyes, hands, leg and seat to choose an appropriate track to the fences. However, in the serpentine exercise, the rider must change her track by jumping straight over each jump and shaping a nice round turn before developing straightness to the next fence. The track is shaped like an "S" so the horse changes direction after each fence.

This was Patrick's first time through the exercise. I like it for him because he has a little bit of an outside line-diagonal line-outside line hunter mentality. I like exercises that involve turns and jumps coming up quickly because it really sharpens him up and gets him listening to my aids better. It prepares him to be more handy and to execute the challenges of an equitation course. Although we didn't always get the perfect track, I could tell that he was starting to "get it". He felt more responsive as we continued with the exercise and perhaps as I gave him better directions with my aids. The exercise seemed to tire him out even though we kept the jumps low. If you think about it, it's quite a few jumps in a row with a lot of tight turns. Challenging! I like it!
4 Comments
Margo
5/5/2011 11:48:49 pm

Hey, Erin.

I was just wondering how old Patrick is. He's so cute! I want to try out that canter! =P

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Erin
5/6/2011 01:26:13 am

Patrick is turning nine this Spring. He is very quiet and comfortable. I love his canter! Thanks for reading the blog and for the nice compliments!

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Crazy Horse Girl link
5/9/2011 03:13:19 am

I am really loving your blog! You are really generous to take the time to share tips and lessons learned from your own experiences. People may not realize how much time goes into doing something like that.

From a person who really enjoys learning, videos like these are really beneficial in helping us plan our own rides to sharpen our skills and keep us and our horses fresh!

Thanks much to you and Holly. Your blog is now a daily stop for me!

Reply
Erin link
5/9/2011 11:41:00 am

I'm glad you're enjoying the blog. You are absolutely right that it is time-consuming to put together the multi-media features. The reason I do it is to share some of the great resources and information that Holly and I feel lucky to have access to. When I hear that the blog is being used by readers, to learn something new, or maybe try something new during a ride, it really makes my day!

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    Erin Jones (amateur adult rider, Erin's Bio)

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