Conquering Combinations in Eventing

At the lower levels (entry and pre-training), you may or may not encounter a combination on cross-country and in the stadium ring and if you do, they will be simple and straightforward. But as you advance, the combinations get tighter and more technical. At preliminary, for example, combinations can include angled lines, bounce slopes and can involve water and narrow fences. Even if you don’t aspire to move beyond entry or pre-training, practicing combinations at home is beneficial for you and your horse.

2012 Olympian Michele Mueller is a big advocate for grids and combination exercises and incorporates them regularly in work with her own horses and with her students. Here is her advice on riding combinations, and a few of her favourite exercises.

“Combinations – or grids – get your horse thinking, teach him to snap his legs up quicker and build up his strength and confidence. They also help build athleticism and confidence in the rider. You have to learn to stay centred and still, as your horse will need to use his neck and back through a combination. You can’t over-release or under-release and it creates a lot of stability in rider position.

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When you just ride a single fence, you might be able to get away with a mistake, such as not enough impulsion or getting in too deep or jumping from a long spot, as you’ll have several strides to recover before the next fence. But if you don’t ride into a combination with enough impulsion and connection, you’ll be in trouble and take down rails. If you come in too fast, your horse will be flat, won’t be able to get his knees up quickly enough between fences and will chip in, and again, knock down rails

Combinations are understandably a little intimidating for a very green horse. I like to start youngsters by cantering them over single poles and when they are comfortable with that, adding more poles in a line until they are cantering about four in a row, set 9 feet – or a canter stride – apart. Then you can substitute the poles with cavalettis or very low jumps.

Even with my competition horses, I keep the jumps fairly low. I might have them canter a series of bounces set no more than 9 feet apart and no more than 2 feet 6 inches high. I often will make the bounces tighter to really get them to compress. I will raise the verticals and oxers, but usually to no more than 3 feet or 3-foot-six.

Here are a few exercises that I like that will prepare you for jumping combinations. While I like to use plastic jump blocks for the smaller obstacles in these grids or combinations, you can also use cavalettis.

Exercise 1

After you’ve warmed up by trotting and cantering and jumped over a low single fence a few times, you can try this combination. It’s a bounce to a one-stride between two verticals, followed by another bounce.

You might want to build it in succession, starting with a cavaletti or pole set on jump blocks and a small vertical set no more than 9 feet away to create a bounce. Then you can add a second vertical 21 feet from the first one, and the second bounce 9 feet after the second vertical.

At 21 feet, this is a tight one-stride, but if you set the jumps at the usual 24-foot distance, your horse will not be able to compress enough to negotiate the final bounce. Once you’ve done the grid a time or two successfully, you can raise the heights of the verticals, but leave the first and last little jumps low.

As you ride toward this, you want your horse moving with impulsion and connected between your leg and hand, moving off his hindquarters. It can be hard for riders to learn to ride forward enough to get through a combination.

A few strides out, soften your hand and keep your leg on. Stay still and centred, releasing with your hand so your horse can use his neck and round his back as he jumps. Come into the grid trying to keep your horse as straight as possible down the line. He’ll compress through the bounce, have to stretch a bit through the one stride, then compress for the last bounce.

This is a good exercise for horses that tend to rush their fences, because if they come through with too much speed, they’ll crash through the jumps. They often learn to slow down after just a time or two through this combination without the rider having to interfere. I don’t recommend trying this if you are a novice rider with a speedy horse, as horses that rush through jumps can be scary; let your coach or an experienced rider take your horse through until he gets the message.

Exercise 2

In this exercise, which is a one-stride to a two-stride, we are going to incorporate a bending line. You can also add interest and some challenge by making the middle jump a simulated corner by fanning out two or three rails in a V shape. You could start with it as a vertical, add a second rail, then the third to make it wider.

Set the vertical/simulated corner 21 feet (or a compressed one-stride distance) from a cavaletti or low jump (2 to 2-foot-6 maximum). Then set an oxer on a bending line two strides (32 to 33 feet) beyond the vertical.

As you are jumping the simulated corner, look to the oxer so your horse knows where you want to go. Keep your outside leg on, open your inside rein slightly, but don’t crank his head around. You might find you get a better distance to the oxer if you jump over the narrowest part of the ‘V’ of the simulated corner.

Exercise 3

Here’s another exercise that will get your horse thinking and allow you to practice your skills at riding a rollback.

Set a line consisting of a cavaletti or low jump, a vertical 18 feet out, followed by a second vertical 21 feet after the first vertical. You are going to set two oxers three to four strides out in each direction from the last vertical (or you can try this with just one) on a bending line. As you come over the second vertical in the line, you ride a bending line right or left to either oxer, jump it and ride a half-circle to the next oxer before jumping through the grid backwards.

As you are riding the bending line and half-circle, you will have to keep your outside leg and rein on and be looking around the turn. You’ll need your horse moving forward, with impulsion.

If you have enough room, you can even add a third vertical to the line set 24 feet out from the second vertical, then add the oxers on the bending line.

When you are coming through the grid backwards, your horse will have to compress each stride a little more and this will teach him to be quick with his feet. I used to do this type of exercise with Amistad, my 2012 Olympic partner, and although he was a big horse, he mastered this and was really able to snap his legs up quickly over jumps.