surprise, it's grids again!

I feel like every boarding barn at one point or another fantasizes about having fun low key boarder-centric "grid nights." Where anybody can show up, exercises are inviting and progressive, and everybody can get what they want out of it. 

As an unabashed grid lover myself, this thought has definitely seemed attractive given all the icy weather confining us indoors. 

full exercise required 3 sets of standards and 7 poles (6 if you don't build an oxer). elements spaced 18' apart. mounting block recommended when you don't have ground crew! 

So! A couple of us endeavored to make it happen, yay! Tho naturally, we picked a weeknight where the indoor had been completely cleared of equipment ahead of our at-home dressage show this weekend, whoops. Meaning we had to bring all that equipment back inside to set up, then take it all back out again when we finished. Nbd, tho, was worth it! 

exquisite form when your technique is basically to just canter largely over the jump lol --- this is why we oxer, kids! 

My go-to set up is pretty simple. We started with just 3 ground poles on the rail (since again, remember this indoor is 20x40m, making for pretty tight turns even when you use every inch of space...). Walked trotted and cantered the poles in both directions as we warmed up, then quickly graduated to crossrails. 

so nice we did it twice!! 

First progression was just setting the 3rd element (we were tracking right) to be a cross rail, so horses could trot or canter into the poles and jump out the final element. 

when you forgot your crop in the barn and had to use yer b*slapping hand instead lol... 
also omg loookie who it is!!! it's Punky!! and he did joooompies, yayyy!!!

Then we changed directions, kept that crossrail (which was now the 1st element), then set the middle and last elements into verticals. Middle was pretty small, but last was a little bigger -- the height you see above. 

after everyone took a turn going one way, we'd progress the exercise configuration, and change directions

For Charlie, I didn't feel like he needed a ton of repetitions over each configuration. He's experienced at grids, and let's be real -- we're both very much in "winter" shape right now. I'm not even gonna admit how hard I huffed and puffed lugging around like... jump poles lol. So we did two passes each iteration and called it good. 

last two elements of the final configuration. omg emma pitcher heels down

For the final configuration, we cannibalized the poles and standards from the center element to create a 3-stride vertical to oxer combination, with placing pole in the middle. Ideally we would have kept a jump in the middle, and ideally ideally, we would have done another version with an oxer going off the other lead.... But. Eh. That seemed like a lot of unnecessary work LOL! 

if you want to feel badass about jumping the top of the standards, consider investing in teeny standards <3 

I had also in my head while planning the exercise intended to use the indoor's resident barrels as filler for the oxer.... But again, the arena was cleared in advance of the dressage show. And ain't nobody got time for extra trips lugging around equipment that wasn't mission critical lol....

goodness i love his face <3 we left the in tiny bc really the whole point was to set him up well for a good out over the oxer

Obvi it was fine, tho. The oxer was probably right around N-ish, maybe small N, since I think the standards are 3' tops. It's been so long since I've had to measure anything tho omg, and my eye is so off right now haha! Nothing makes a jump look big quite like short poles on short standards inside a tiny indoor. 

pictured: a good out over the oxer, well done sir! 

Charlie didn't care, tho. Naturally. He was a little dull and under-powered going around, bc ugh homeboy is sick of the indoor.... But he perked up and made good work of his last two trips!! 

video of literally 4 trips thru the grid

So it was a good time had by all, I think. Everyone took turns dismounting to make adjustments, plus obvi all the setting up and tearing down. And all the horses were on their best behaviors! 

We'll see if it becomes a regular thing haha. The forecast looks like it could be getting nicer, which means people might prefer to be outside in the larger arenas, even tho the lights aren't quite bright enough for any real complicated jumping. Maybe not, tho, who knows!

Does anybody else have favorite go-to exercises that can work from ground poles up to full sized jumps for large groups of varying skillsets? #asking4afriend lol....