11/27/2024
We are lucky to have this expertise in the house at Northwind in the person of Nelson Mittuch. Seriously. I’m always amazed at how he does it, and now I know. He’s spent his 10,000 hours and way past that studying it and living it.
Gymnastic Lines---A discussion
One definition---there are no doubt others---“A gymnastic line is a series of fences set at predetermined distances to attempt to obtain predetermined results.”
For example, you might start with something as basic as trotting poles, roughly 4 ½ feet apart, A trotting bounce will be around 9-10 feet for an average horse. A trotting one stride will be 18-19 feet for an average horse, a two stride might be 29-33 feet.
So you might set a bounce to a one stride to a one stride to a two stride, and the distances might be 9-18-19-31, or something like that. You have to watch what is happening and adjust accordingly.
The biggest problem with using gymnastic lines is that setting them up and adjusting them is a LOT of work, constant measuring, hauling standards and rails, changing, resetting, and so forth.
The way someone gets confident with doing all of this? You have to LIVE in a jumping arena. You must know distances. You must have an accurate stride. You must be watchful. You can totally mess up a horse if you get it wrong---You can even cause a wreck. So if you want to become a good fence setter, you must make a commitment, and if you are not willing to become educated, leave it to those who know more than you.
A slightly shorter interior distance might get a horse to land, rock back, and get his front end up faster, whereas a longer distance doesn’t challenge the use of his his knees as much. You just have to live it to learn it, A few will, but many won’t. that simple.
