
Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: My Current “Get Jumping” Setup
“The trick to working with both ‘cozy’ spaces and young, never-jumped-before Thoroughbreds is a combination of single fences and a small grid.”
Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on getting your horse jumping — despite space constraints.
It has been a fun (albeit bloody cold) few weeks here at Kivu Sporthorses. We’re up in Lansing, NY — pretty view of the lake, but the ground is still covered in snow, and gets re-covered daily. I was warned that January and February up here feel like they take eons, and my friends were not wrong. That said, with a ridable-sized indoor, all of my young horses who are ready have had the chance to safely and sanely get started over fences and work their way up to small course work. And that is exciting (and keeps me from panicking and packing up and moving everything back South — don’t worry, that’s not happening anytime soon).

The cold isn’t so bad when the horses you get to ride are this nice. Jenna the Boss hacking around at Kivu this week. Photo by Lily Drew.
The trick to working with both “cozy” spaces and young, never-jumped-before Thoroughbreds is a combination of single fences and a small grid. I spent some time writing about the goodness of grids a year or so ago. That article gives a good introduction to how to get the process started and focuses on various iterations of my favorite combinations: the bounce and the one stride.
In an effort not to repeat everything I have written before, that article is a good precursor for this one. Here, I get to focus on the smaller space work and getting these often-leggy creatures coordinated before turns. Right now my arena has the following:
- A simple 18″ cross-rail
- An 18″cross rail with a basic filler
- A small 2-foot square oxer on the short side
- A grid on the diagonal (ground pole (9-feet) – crossrail (18 or 19-feet) – small square or ramped oxer).
With this set up, I can create habits of straightness and bravery, and allow them to quietly sort out their footwork so that they become confident over most things I’ll point them at once we’re outside again.
I cannot emphasize enough how important grids are for getting horses to understand their footwork. At the risk of repeating myself from last time, grids should be done progressively: from poles on the ground at a walk, slowly raised fence by fence until they are able to confidently trot in, canter through, correctly get their legs out of the way and stay straight. That confidence is gained progressively; it is critical to build up the fences and the grid little by little, as opposed to pointing them down a fully established set of poles, cross rails, oxers.
Also, knowing when they learned something and it’s a good time to call it a day is critical. They don’t have to complete the full course, the full grid, or even the sequence of cross rails if it seems that their brain or body is struggling with the task at hand or if they just made a great effort and you want to end on the high note. Take it slow and go incrementally at the rate your horse needs. I often keep this set for a few weeks and work them over it a few times before changing the direction of the fences or their placement.

Koops got to try his hand at the grid this week too. We only popped through a few times and let him end on a successful one stride of cross rails. Photo by Halle Alvertin.
Here’s the progression of my current set up:
- When a Thoroughbred (or any horse, really) has never jumped before, I put all the poles down to the ground and walk over and then trot over the whole set up until they are quiet, calm and feel like this is just another usual day at the office. Thanks to my ground crew, current and former (inGeorgia, Lily, Alanah, and Greta – I know how much you love dealing with pole setting… THANK YOU), the horse doesn’t experience a break in time or workout, and the ground poles then become tiny cross rails and from tiny cross rails they go to small verticals and up to easy oxers. (But you can absolutely stick a mounting block in the middle of the ring and work this as a solo endeavor, too).
- Warm up at the walk, trot and canter, making sure they are reasonably quiet and focused.

Sews (Lord Darnley) has been a joy to bring back to work, and it has been fun to see him get his long legs through the grid footwork. Photo by Lily Drew.
- Walk over all fences as ground poles. When they’re doing that and seeming bored, brilliant, pick up a trot and do the same thing quietly until there’s no fuss or excitement at any of the poles. For some horses, this is as far as you get on day one, and that’s totally OK.
- Raise the poles on the straight side and the diagonal to very small cross rails. Trot in, allow them to jump or fumble over it, but do not let them run out, or stop (I’ll deal with this next week).

It is totally OK if they “jump” like this for a bit. It took Bowing Snowman about three jumping days to sort out his feet, now he’s knees to nose and quiet over cross rails and through the grid. Photo by Izzy Gritsavage.
- Comfortably trot the longside cross-rail. Gently bring them back to a halt. Resume the trot, head to the diagonal x. Back gently to a halt on the backside. At this point, I don’t care if they land in canter or not. I just want them to quietly and willingly go forward, straight and bravely to the fence. The halts on the backside are regardless of their landing speed and aim to come from the core and leg, not the hand. All horses need to learn to listen for a half halt after the fence, so training in the “jump, then gently halt without pulling” sets them up to listen for a check in and rebalance after they jump.
- Introduce the basic filler (this can come in at any time — it does not need to happen on day one, but I like to get the horses to think about the rails and jump up as opposed to long and flat. Fillers help encourage some scope and roundness.)

The flatwork between fences should be similar to the flatwork without fences. Here Bunny (California Emerald) shows off his quality movement on the same day he learned to jump (see video below). Photo by Lily Drew.
- Start into the grid as poles. Walk through, trot through, then raise the back oxer standards to a crossrail. Gently bring them through the pole-pole-x and then back to the halt. Remember to reward them every time they do this, whether it is done well or sloppy does not matter — if they got through, they did a good job.
- Slowly set the grid as they go — back crossrail, then raise the first poles of the one stride into an x. Trot through. Don’t push them to land in canter, just allow them to figure out their footwork. Back to a halt on the backside.
- Once they are trotting through straight with no hesitation or wiggle, raise the back x into a small vertical (18″-2′). Let them trot into the grid a few more times. They’ll start to canter the one stride on their own as they figure out the footwork. As this is going well with a straight, willing horse and no rushing, one can raise the back fence to the small oxer.
- After they understand the grid and the halt afterwards, I will let them flow through the little course: jump the long-side cross rail. Land in trot or canter, carry on to the diagonal crossrail, then back to trot to the grid, then back to the diagonal x, halt and reward.
- The short-side fence — a single oxer or large cross-rail — comes in later as a more challenging option, which I will build up from a crossrail to a vertical to an oxer as they gain confidence. I’ll add this into their small course at a trot, using the squareness to get them up into the air and make an arc over the fence as opposed to just treating them like cavalettis.
Easy peasy. But here are a few caveats:
1. If a horse has been super willing, I try to stop there and not increase the size of the grid oxer until they have had a few more days of jumping. Also note that the size of the oxer inside the grid is not commiserate with the size of the oxer on the short side. If a horse is jumping 2’6″ in the grid, I won’t ask them to jump that as a single oxer for some time. The grid provides them the striding, footwork and consistency to be brave. Pointing them at a big oxer outside of a grid without more experience may not translate and you’ll be a few steps back. Keep all single fences small and inviting while helping them figure out their feet in the combination.
2. A quick note on why we start by raising the second crossrail of the grid first: For horses who are prone to be fleet-footed, I don’t want them to land and rush as they are learning to go over fences. I’d rather them think about their footwork, stay focused and then jump, thus building the grid up from back to front. Starting with the first x could condition them to accelerate over the second one. Now, if you have a horse who is prone to be behind the leg, raise the first crossrail in the grid first and encourage forward movement out over the pole, building the grid from front to back.
3. Stay back, sit up and remain in a half seat for all jumping work. I always find this challenging, but the more a rider can stay up but still over a fence (aka not jumping ahead of the horse, or diving up the neck) the better the horse will learn to jump. Horses with still, out-of-the0way riders can sort out their own feet and bodies without the weight changing above them and altering their balance — aka training them to launch or rush.

You never know when they are going to ping, launch, add, or over jump the fence, so staying up and back is always help. Photo of Leni (Chooselov) being an overachiever over an 18″ oxer by Izzy Gritsavage.
4. If they refuse, run out, stop or drop a shoulder through the turns, come back next week — I’ll address some tactics to create the desire to jump and gently nix “bad” habits.
So go jump folks — and here’s hoping all of us up north get through the cold without too much FOMO from our southern friends.
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