*Exclusive* Improve your horse’s footwork while jumping and have fun with Gemma Stevens’ gridwork exercise

“Gridwork is fun,” says Gemma Stevens, who competes internationally  in both showjumping and eventing. “We do it twice a month in the winter – the horses tend to enjoy it.”

For this session, Gemma sets up wings down the centre of her arena with hexagonal poles on the ground. The final set-up will follow the diagram (below), so you want to have everything you need ready before you get on the horse – and you will need a helper on foot to adjust the fences as necessary.

Gemma warms up briskly in walk, trot and canter for about 10-15 minutes.

“I’m making sure I’ve got all my controls, that the horse is listening to me, and that she is limbered up and elastic,” Gemma explains asking the horse for a few flying changes.

The grid is set up to ride away from the stables, so horses aren’t encouraged to rush down the line. Gemma canters over the poles, which are all still on the ground, to familiarise her horse with the task in hand.

Gemma Stevens’ gridwork exercise with an experienced horse

The first horse Gemma rides is rising eight and competing in 1.30/1.35m classes. Gemma begins with a raised placing pole to a 2ft 6in upright, building up to bouncing over two more uprights at the same height.

“Now I’m going to build up the fences gradually according to the horse’s ability,” Gemma says. “This horse is experienced so I can build this up quite quickly.”

Each time the horse goes through the line nicely, another jump is added. Gemma has someone on the ground to raise the fences – “you always need a helper for gridwork” – and they add in one fence at a time. Gemma keeps moving, approaching the grid off both reins, with the fences being put up as she canters back round to the start, taking short breaks in line with the horse’s fitness.

After the double bounce, there’s a stride to an oxer, followed by another stride to another oxer, then two strides to an upright to finish – equalling six fences in total. Gemma has put guide poles in V-shapes on the ground in front of the three final fences, to encourage straightness.

“Grids help encourage the horse’s elasticity and footwork, but I find them really great for building confidence,” explains Gemma. “I never make it really difficult or overly demanding for them.”

Gemma incorporates oxers in the middle of this line to teach the horse to open up their jump, before closing it down again for the final vertical. The first time she tackles the oxers they are slightly ascending (the front rail slightly lower than the back one), but they are squared up (level front and back) next time round.

“This format makes the horses really elastic,” she says. “And I keep the striding in this grid on the short side because I want to encourage the horse to be bouncy – I’m working on the shape of their jump rather than pushing them for the distance.”

After they have jumped all six fences once, Gemma starts raising the height, one fence at a time. The oxers are now at about 3ft 6 and the final vertical at 3ft 9. Gemma is happy with the horse’s first attempt at this height so calls it a day there.

“The horse was super tidy and I’ve achieved what I wanted to,” she says. “I like to push them a bit the last time down the line, but I won’t jump more than two holes higher than they are jumping in competition. Then they finish the session feeling good about themselves.”

Adjustments for less experienced horses

The second horse Gemma Stevens rides for the same gridwork exercise is rising six, and has been competing in young horse showjumping classes up to 1.20m.

Gemma starts the jumping phase as with the more experienced horse, cantering through the grid with the poles on the ground and then building up over the 2ft 6in bounces. She repeats them a couple of times because the younger horse is keen, but green, before moving on to the oxer at about 3ft.

Gemma explains that this horse has a tendency to rush. While the older horse has V-poles as guides on the ground, this horse has them on the fences.

“It’s not to make her more careful, because she already is, but to help slow her down and encourage her to back off a bit,” says Gemma. “She used to go down a jumping line flat out, so I keep the distances short and I use the Vs to make her back off. I let the grid do its work to slow her down.

“If you have an onward bound horse, you can also add a canter pole or a plank on the ground between each fence, to give them something else to focus on,” she advises.

Troubleshooting

“The whole point of doing the gridwork is building confidence,” says Gemma Stevens. “If the horse does feel green, I’d pat them and come again or I’d take a fence out. Don’t hesitate to bring the height right down if they aren’t happy. If you haven’t got their trust, you’re always going to struggle.

“To take a horse back a step feels like a negative move at the time, but a few weeks later it will be worth it and you’ll be in a much better place.”

Pole choice for gridwork

Gemma uses hexagonal poles for grids, both on the ground and on the fences.

“I don’t like using a round pole on the ground because you don’t want anything that will roll,” she explains. “You can use ‘soft training pole’ on the ground or these hexagonal ones. The important thing is that it cannot roll or the horse can turn their fetlock or get the pole caught between their feet.”

Gemma doesn’t insist on ground lines.

“I don’t use ground lines on the bounce fences as I want them to learn to be careful in judging the fence without them,” she says. “I don’t necessarily use them on the oxers in grids either.”

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