The Magazine November 2022
More from this issue
On your toes
Posted 30th September 2022
Olympic eventer Laura Collett swears by gridwork – for its mind, body and technique boosting benefits. She shares with us a little more about those
Quick thinking and excellent head-to-hoof coordination are essential qualities for a horse you’re hoping to event, but they’re pretty important no matter what discipline you pursue. Gridwork, where you put your horse through a line of jumps on a set striding, is a great gymnastic method to really make him think about where he’s putting his feet and boost his technique to no end. This grid in particular is what I’d call a whole-body workout – it’s quite intense, so it’s something you’ll need to build up to over time, but I promise you the benefits are well worth the investment. Ready to have a go? Let’s take a closer look.
TOP TIP
As a whole, this is a really challenging line of gymnastic efforts. So, like last month’s polework exercise, you can chop and change the different elements if you need to.
The set up
For this exercise, you’ll need…
- six pairs of wings
- up to 15 poles
Introduce your grid as a line of poles on the floor. Ultimately, you’re aiming to build a grid that starts with a placing pole into a cross-pole, on a one-stride distance from an oxer. This is followed by two strides before meeting two cross-poles on a bounce distance. You’ll finish the grid two strides after the bounce with an upright that has a placing pole before it.
Get going
The how-to for this grid is simple because the striding is designed to take away any guesswork. As a rider, it’s your job to stay in balance, with soft hands that don’t interfere with your horse. Come around the corner in trot, making a square turn onto the centre or three-quarter line depending on where you’ve set it up, and let the grid do the rest of the work!
How to: square turns
Square turns are one of the simplest ways to boost the quality of your approach to a fence. They give you the best opportunity to straighten up your horse’s body before meeting the jumps, which means he should push off evenly with both hindlegs.
Get your eye on the grid early, as you turn onto the short side, then apply your aids by pulling your inside shoulder back, using your inside leg to push your horse’s barrel around the turn while your outside aids support his body and stop him from falling out
Find out more of Laura’s expert advice for sharpening up your horse’s head-to-hoof coordination in November Horse&Rider – on sale now!
