Practical Horseman Practical Horseman Extra Volume 1

Compared to riding cross country, show jumping is difficult for a lot of eventers. When you’re out on cross country, you have a chance to relax and get into the flow of the gallop, helping to establish a forward canter. Because you are riding at speed, then collecting for technical obstacles and then galloping again, your horse can engage his hind legs often. All of these things make it easier for him to jump well. In addition, the gallop tends to give a horse some footwork so that you can reorganize and engage him for each jump. Speed makes the horse’s feet move faster—then, it is our job in the approach to a fence or exercise to balance and organize fast feet into proper footwork. In show jumping, the fences…

Sinead Halpin is an international event rider and trainer and has been competing at the top levels of the sport since 1999. She was named to the United States Equestrian Team for the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France, in 2014 aboard Manoir de Carneville, the USEF 2012 Horse of Honor. Aboard “Tate,” Sinead has had several top-10 results at the five-star level, most notably finishing third at Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2011, second at Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in 2012 and fourth at Rolex Kentucky in 2014. She and her husband, Tik Maynard, operate their training business out of Copperline Farm in Citra, Florida.…

Set four raised cavalletti trot poles on a straight line, 3 to 4 feet apart. Walk or measure four strides on a curve and place a single cavalletti (so from the center of the last trot pole to the center of the single cavalletti the distance is about 60 feet). Continue walking four strides on a turn to set the second and third cavalletti. The actual number of strides that you ride isn’t critical. As you advance, you will change the number of strides by jumping different tracks—the center track, the inside track or the outside track.…

Often I will scatter some jumps around this exercise so that I can turn out and come back in whether the additional fences are skinnies or a combination or oxers. So I’ll trot over the trot poles, ride over the three cavalletti and then instead of turning right to do the trot poles again, I stay straight and jump a skinny, then turn left to a second skinny and keep cantering around the corner and return to trot and come back through the exercise again. I don’t add a lot of jumps that have height to them. I can always add more skinnies or a little one-stride or a bounce because the canter that you’re going to have in this type of exercise is going to be a small, quality…

In the early autumn, when temperatures begin to dip at night and we start dragging our own winter clothes out of storage, horse owners everywhere begin an obsessive daily debate: Does my horse need a blanket today? There are many blanketing options available, and numerous factors play into this decision, so you can easily drive yourself crazy trying to decide when to blanket and which blanket to use. To help preserve everyone’s sanity, we asked professional groom and stable manager Max Corcoran, who spent 11 years with Olympic eventers Karen and David O’Connor, to share her blanketing system. Her trick is to follow a few simple rules, set flexible guidelines and try not to overthink it. Unclipped Vs. Clipped Your horse’s blanketing needs depend on whether or not he’s been…