indoor jump courses: greatest hits edition

Phew, is everyone staying warm out there right now? This cold snap is intense even in Maryland, I shiver to think about how some of you are coping in colder climates, ugh.

So in line with the season, I'm talking today about indoor-friendly jumping and cavaletti exercises. Charlie and I have had our last 3 jump lessons inside, and while it can feel tedious or confining, we really are grateful to have that option.

And along the way, a number of you are also stuck inside this winter and have commented on my trainer's creativity in setting up a variety of fun exercises in the small space.

This is my 5th winter riding in this indoor, and over the years I've diagrammed, charted, and otherwise captured many of the courses. So here are some of my favorites!

spacing is approximate. while one track is prescribed in yellow, obvi there are unlimited options for stringing stuff together

It should be noted that few, if any, of these diagrams are to scale. In almost every case, tho, the arena itself is the size of a small dressage court: 20x40m (roughly 65x130'). 

Likewise, each of the exercises can be adapted to virtually any height: ground poles, cavaletti, taller jumps and oxers. You wanna do it? These configurations can work for it.

slightly different central pinwheel configuration 

In a small space, diagonals are often the most versatile when it comes to using as much space as possible to turn. The downside is that they mean frequent and rapid changes of direction. This can be tough for horses that prefer to land on one lead vs another, or who are very unbalanced when hitting a turn on the wrong lead.

great for practicing rollbacks and landing the lead

Then again, tho, if you feel like you and your horse match that description, this is a great way to address practicing it.

another variation. slightly more unfortunate outline. 

My favorite indoor configurations are those that require the fewest pieces of equipment, the least precise set up, and have a lot of flow.

In other words, I like exercises where you could always at any moment turn and aim for something else. That there aren't any "dead ends" or that you don't end up in a situation where everything has to be approached from the same direction or location.

similar idea of the jumps all in a line, but this time on the E-B line

Tho in my (limited) experience, the highest versatility courses often end up with the least combinations or related distances. At least in a small space. The exceptions being some of the following examples. 

lol i get that the perspective of this image is funky, but it's intended to be six ground poles ridden L to R or R to L, aplus extra cross rails on the diagonals

Offset configurations can help address that issue. Like the above line of ground poles. Theoretically it could just as easily be a combination of ground poles, cavaletti, and jumps. But when I rode it, it was just ground poles.

The image isn't to scale, but each of the blue lines shows a different path through the poles that adds or excludes poles to arrive at different configurations.  The two bottom blue lines can be done at trot or canter (for 3 strides between  the two end poles, or a line of four poles set at one stride distances). The other blue lines would have to be done at trot.

adjustability exercise

Riding in small indoors often promotes a smaller quieter and sometimes more backed off canter stride. It's easy to get a little dull, ya know? So exercises that focus on adjustability can be key to staying sharp.

Like the above oldie-but-goodie, tried-but-true set of two cavaletti spaced about 4 strides apart that you then aim to get various numbers of strides with each attempt. Can you get the 4? Can you get 6, too? What about 7, omg??

another cavaletti exercise, this time set on a roughly 20m half circle from E to B

For me, I am easily soothed into a false sense of security on a too-quiet stride, so it's important to keep practicing riding my canter forward. I don't have a diagram for the exercise in the video above, but it was a good one for helping to stay on an open stride by removing all actual turns.

The bending line of cavaletti sits on the 20m half circle from E to B, and is two bending one-strides. Much more challenging than it sounds, but great practice!

the ultimate in simplicity. striding really doesn't matter

These next two, above and below, are also some favorites for their plain old simplicity. Again, anything from ground poles to actual jumps can be used. And especially for the above if the poles are set kinda far-ish apart, distance really doesn't matter bc you can just add or subtract bend to get even striding.

a little more specific here - nothing to scale but in this instance the bending lines are closer together

Each of the jumps can be approached individually, and of course the jumps on or around the A-C center line can be put together for bending lines. And you can sorta see how easy it would be to just keep cruisin around hitting up jumps whenever you want.

the above is not very well suited to a 20x40m arena, but provides more of a to-scale level of detail on spacing for bounces, one strides, and two strides. all the distances are slightly shortened, which can help horses practice compression. 

Obviously tho, whenever you're in a tight space situation, grids are always a good fall back plan haha. Personally I tend to not really do them outside of lessons bc the set up and progressive nature of the exercises lends them to times when you have at least a ground crew lol.

Still tho, they're so so so useful for horses and are great practice, even in small doses.

example of a grid of one strides up the long side

In our indoor we will often set up one stride grids along the long side. Sorry the above is dark but you get the picture. It's a pretty good representation of what the exercise looks like. It can be verticals, oxers, or some combination thereof.

We often put the jumps right up along side the wall bc we have these nifty hanging standards that hook over the edge of the wall - perfect for space saving! If you don't have those, tho, you can always bring the grids in off the track a bit so any other riders can still get around the jumps.

example of a grid of bounces up center line

The center line is also a great place for setting up the grid too. This is useful bc it allows you to approach the grid from both directions without having to worry whether your jumping elements can be jumped both ways (like if you wanted to use an ascending oxer, for instance).

Another benefit to grids on the center line is that they also serve as practice for center line turns in dressage tests. Or at least, they do in this size arena haha. You have to be planning for that turn and approach to the grid well before you even reach the corner -- good practice!

I'm sure there are countless other examples scattered across this blog of cool exercises we've done inside. But these were the ones I could find most immediately. Think you'll set any of them up? Or are there any other types of exercises I missed that are your go-to favorites for riding in small spaces?