WHO the exercise is for:

Everyone. Cross-rails are important for horses with lazy legs, where others may use simple verticals if they wish.

HOW to set it up:

Put 2 small cross-rails 3.5m apart (more advanced combinations may like to try up to 4 fences in a row). Very long-striding or green horses may like up to 4.5m between fences while learning what a ‘bounce’ is all about.

WHAT to do:

This is a canter exercise. Approach the grid at a collected canter – it is important that you give the horse a good straight approach (at least 3 straight strides). A bounce requires a lot of impulsion and you may find you need to use a lot more leg than usual. As you get more comfortable with the bounce grid you can put the jumps higher (leave distances a little long if the jumps are 90cms or higher) or shorten the bounce distance.

WHY we do it:

Bounces are great for getting that impulsion right up there, and for teaching us as a rider to not just ride into the first part of a combination, but to stick at it leg-leg-leg right up to the end. When we shorten the bounce distance we’re asking our horse to be very snappy with their front end. Cross-rails instead of a simple vertical help us stay in the middle of the grid (not drift/lug to either side) and also make our horse jump a little higher than the centre of the fence, encouraging him to be a little more careful and give fences a little extra clearance.

MORE tips:

You can incorporate 1-stride combinations into your bounce grid for variety, but keep the fences low if you are doing this. Horses can get very confused if they are asked to do bounce-stride-bounce without strong guidance from their rider, and may end up refusing because they are not sure what you are asking. If you do want to incorporate a 1-stride into the combination I would suggest you do it as the last element of the grid.