Cross-country anywhere with the McNabs

It’s all very well nailing your jumping skills while you’re practising over individual obstacles, but the real test comes when you’re piecing together a course. So much of riding a competitive, artful round lies in the preparation. So, this month, we’ll show you a simple exercise that’ll improve your confidence over some of the big offenders – angles and corners – giving you more options to help shave off valuable seconds while out on course. Plus, we’ll delve into essential course-walking techniques that’ll set you up to arrive home bang on time.

Get in formation

In the past few issues, we gave you some masterful tips on how to ride perfect straight lines and circles, adjust your horse’s canter and see a stride in any scenario. Now, it’s time to put together these skills and work over angled fences and corners. These types of fences are classic rider frighteners because so few get the chance to practise over them regularly. But, you can easily build them in the arena at home so you can soon learn to feel comfortable with them.

Exercise

Start your session with the most straightforward obstacles first – in this instance, the two uprights. This is a great way to check that you’ve created a positive, responsive canter, and assess whether you need to make any adjustments to your horse’s stride. The lines are built on a comfortable three-stride distance, but if you need to adjust his pace, make sure you do so well before you approach the first fence.

When you’re ready to tackle the corner, ride down the three-quarter line on the right rein, so your horse can pop the confidence-giving upright before trying something new.

Pick up your copy of August Horse&Rider, on sale 24 June 2021, for more exercises you can use do over this set up.