There were so many groups, so many sessions, and so much activity throughout the weekend that it was impossible not to experience at least a little bit of everything. For whatever reason, however, I gravitated to the show jumping ring again and again.
And as a result, there are lots of notes and takeaways haha. The tl;dr version is that if you have a chance to ride with or audit lessons with Peter Wylde, you should. There’s so much information, so many notes, bc literally every single thing about the course itself, and how he wanted it ridden, is Intentional and On Purpose.
Olympian Peter Wylde & Boyd tag-teamed the show jumping demo
Day 1’s riding sessions kicked off immediately with demonstration rides — first with Boyd on Fetiche des Rouges (Radish), then with Peter on Cooley Nutcracker (Bali) — while whoever wasn’t riding provided commentary and insights.
The way they warmed up, put together the exercises, then rode the course was exactly how every single lesson, horse, and rider did it too — everyone from the BN group, to the modified group, to the random non-clinic lessons like with Boyd’s assistant riders etc, young horses, olympic horses, Nox & Lulu, everyone did it the same.
Which, ya know, means you can do it too!
Boyd and Fetiche des Rouges (aka Radish)
It started with warming up on the flat. Now again, the Windurra horses would have arrived at the ring with usually at least 20min hacking under their belts, so adapt accordingly for yourself. But it was virtually the same for everybody:
Peter started the groups trotting forward on a circle in a light seat, not too fussy about the connection to start. Change directions, trot forward. Sit the trot, canter a circle or two — collected to rolling canter to collected, return to sitting trot, canter again, back to sitting, change directions, rinse repeat: sit, canter, canter on, canter collected, sit, canter, sit, post, walk.
The transitions, especially with the sitting trot, were intended to help collect and balance the canter and bring the trot together. The contact and connection were developed through the exercise rather than as a fussy starting off point.
video of the full course
Then it was right into warming up over fences. See the diagram below. Riders started with a simple low vertical (with a somewhat impressively heavy gate as the top element) placed at least 14-15 steps in from the rail so that it can be approached from both canter leads.
warm up was universal — everyone did exactly the same series, including boyd and peter and their other non-clinic lessons with working students and assistant riders etc.
Riders did their first pass on the left lead, which in this course was the tighter turn (larger diameter than a center line turn but smaller than a 20m circle). To Peter, the landing was almost more important than the jump. For many horses, this meant landing and quietly bringing back to walk *before* the turn. Peter likes this first jump to be far enough from the end of the ring that riders have to ride the landing first rather than relying on the wall.
Repeat again off the next lead — which Peter had riders approach from the quarter line rather than the rail, creating a slightly wider turn than the other direction, but still a small enough half circle approach to develop connection and engagement in the forward step.
Peter was up next in the Demo with a schooling ride on Cooley Nutcracker, Liz Halliday Sharp’s Paris Olympics horse
Then with the magic of a jump crew, the vertical is raised and riders do it all over again — really focusing on schooling the landing side of the fence. Jump the jump, then deal with the horse first, then the turn.
The oxer was next, positioned at the other end of the ring on the same line as the first vertical (tho I didn’t see anybody ride the line directly). Same idea with the approaches off each lead, tho for the second trip Peter had riders go all the way out to the rail and open the canter up a bit, before collecting into the corner to make a good straight turn.
warm up vertical
Some horses did more repetitions than others to get the landing right, but basically without deviation, next came the bounces! A simply constructed straight line of low vertical to X to low vertical, 9’ distances, ground lines on both sides of everything, to be ridden off a circle in both directions.
More advanced horses put much more of a curve into their line, like Peter and Bali below, with a main focus on holding the correct lead, while greener pairs rode it a little straighter. But everyone basically did it twice on a circle each way. Peter loves this exercise especially for helping develop connection and softness in the flatwork.
warm up bounces, ridden in both directions
Next came the main feature of this particular course design: Peter’s quadruple 2-2-2 line, which is apparently one of his favorite exercises that they use often.
looking tidy down the quadruple 2-2-2 line
This gymnastic grid measures 30’ to 31’ to 32’, with placing poles to the B, C and D elements spaced 8.5’ out. Riders were instructed to ride in collected and connected, land and wait, wait through the first stride to the cavaletti, relax hand over the jump, then wait, wait, etc, down the whole line. Staying straight and steady.
This line is intended to really help a horse understand his footwork, especially helping him bring his hind feet together to push off, while also getting comfortable jumping from a close distance. It’s generally positioned going away from the in gate to help avoid rushing.
distances in the quadruple were 30’-31’-32’, with V poles and ground line boxes for each of the four elements. cavaletti was spaced 8.5’ from each jump except the first (which had no placing pole)
Peter’s preferred construction uses three height elements with a rail and panel toward the top of the jump, and a third rail toward the bottom. Boxes for ground lines, placed slightly ahead of the jump. Heavy cavaletti for the placing pole 8.5’ out, and ~2” diameter / 9’ length PVC poles to create the “V” guide rails.
lovely demonstration of the quadruple line by Nox & Lulu!
Alternatives could include just using 3 elements instead of 4, tho the length of the line is really the main point of instruction bc jumping in too hot will catch up with you. You could also do three oxers instead, and maybe add 1’ to the distances between (tho keep the cavaletti the same). Peter also likes using lines of 5 or 6 bounces especially for horses that are tricky on the flat.
Peter advised always starting with a low height bc it’s a LOT to jump into!
He likes using the “V” poles for basically everything (obviously) as a straightening device, and says they can often be just as effective on the floor too, or even on the landing side — tho he advised placing them at least 6-10’ back from landing so horses aren’t stepping all over them. The idea is to passively train out drifting while building the strength to jump straight and square.
For less careful horses, he might rest the poles so that the ends are about 6” above the height of the rail, with a gap between them as narrow as about 18”. In the gif above, that would look like bringing the poles to the inner edges of the red bands instead of the outer.
picture for my own benefit — basically two full steps from the cavaletti to my feet here, then slightly plus 1’ to the ground line box, which is itself pulled out slightly ahead of the jump
Anyway, from there, the next schooling exercise was to put the first line together — starting with the same oxer riders warmed up over, then bending in a patient 7 strides to a vertical jumping into the corner.
Peter said he likes to set a lot of distances that are about 3’ short, and especially likes starting and finishing his courses with shorter distances to help the horses not anticipate or spool out. Again, everything is all about the little details.
this oxer doubled as a warm up jump, and as the first jump on course — bending in a short seven to the vertical
For most lessons, the riders did this line at least twice — starting from the right lead, then rolling through a polite and organized turn on the landing to come back down on the left lead — letting the canter open a bit on the long side before collecting again — to jump the line a second time, this time walking in a straight line on landing into the corner.
straight to the corner! no cutting in, finish riding the landing before the turn
The important detail in these polite landings is the smoothness, to show the horse the improvements not by roughing them up, but by calmly and firmly asking for just the one answer: walk in a straight line before the turn.
Peter advised that the worst thing you can do is have a tantrum on a sensitive horse here… which like. Yea, I can see that LOL. But that doesn’t mean you can hide from the issues either. You have to confront them, and help the horse understand the rideability on landing.
second line on course, another oxer right bend, this time on a true 12’ stride in seven
The idea is that if you start your ride by focusing on those little details, the course should basically put itself together. Riders started again with the same first oxer bending to blue vertical in a patient 7 strides, then down the quadruple 2-2-2 gymnastic.
like so!
Then onto the next bending line, this time actually set to a true 12’ stride but still in seven. For folks who might be interested in setting this up at home, but who would prefer to have both a right and left bending line, you could square that turquoise oxer instead of putting it on the diagonal to change that bend from right to left.
then a finish down a triple combination again set on slightly short “comfortable” distances
The course finished down another combination set on distances that were all about 3’ short, again to help horses learn not to keep snowballing as the course goes on. And riders were instructed to finish their circle politely. As with every other line, fix your lead, fix your canter, as if you intended to keep going.
An alternative construction could include a 5-1 oxer-vertical-oxer instead, which is apparently another of Peter’s favorites for practice. He said he sometimes likes putting a liverpool at the A element jump to force riders to ride forward into the line even tho the distance is short.
sketch of the full course, lmk if you want any additional details
Overall, Peter described his training approach and course design to be all about helping horses and riders avoid the round snowballing out of control. Sometimes he’ll use cones in the ends of the ring to cue walk transitions in the middle of a course, or maybe he’ll plop in a trot jump like you’d see in an equitation round.
But basically, he wants riders to be able to create a transition at any point in the course, to break up the building adrenaline, and develop tools and techniques to prevent desperation. “Develop” being the operative word there — rather than “demand.”
Personally, I can’t wait to try setting some of this up, and practice some of the techniques and approaches from these lessons. But ya know. Rehab comes first… so in the meantime, maybe one of you will give it a shot and let me know how it goes?
