Our trainer for this Masterclass, Australian-born Jeff McVean, needs little introduction, being one of the country’s most respected and influential coaches. During his own career, Jeff ranked in the top 10 in the world. He captained Australia in more than 40 Nations Cups and competed at three Olympics, with his career highlights winning the prestigious King George V Gold Cup at Wembley in 1978 with his amazing little thoroughbred mare Claret, and the first leg of the World Cup at Goteborg in 1986 with Furst Z.
A horseman through and through, Jeff has been involved in show jumping for more than 45 years and remains passionate about the sport.
Our rider for this Masterclass is Auckland’s Sarah Forman, who used to event but switched to show jumping after an accident at home. For this lesson she rides nine-year-old 17.2hh Charlton Catapult (‘Zoom’), who at that stage she’d had for around six months.
1. A good match: suppling to start
Jeff says he typically doesn’t do a heap of flatwork in his lessons – he mainly jumps. However, when Sarah is riding around at the start to warm up, he gives her a bit of advice.
“Every time you ride in an arena, pretend you’re going to jump something. You have to use your imagination and imitate what happens when you’re on course – you can extend down the long side and then pretend to turn back as if you’re going to jump the double, for example. A lot of people just go round and round in circles and everything will go beautifully for them under no pressure, but when they get to the jumps it all goes out the window.”
Jeff has set up a couple of raised trot poles, one just before the corner of the arena, and one just after the corner. He gets Sarah to ride back and forwards over the poles a few times each way in trot (BELOW), practising bending her horse around the inside leg. Riding over the poles allows Sarah to get her eye in and it’s also a chance for her to concentrate on getting the correct inside flexion. “A lot of riders go around the corner with their horse’s head bent to the outside,” Jeff observes.
Jeff wants Sarah to focus on suppling Zoom and keeping him nice and quiet. Because Zoom can be a bit headstrong, Jeff has advised Sarah to put sidewinkers on to stop him looking back at his jockey, which he feels has worked a treat. Zoom has had a few different riders before Sarah, but Jeff says they really seem to suit each other because she is calm and patient.
“He’s not fantastic at shortening up yet and he does throw his head about a bit, so it’s a matter of finding the right bit for him. But he is by Cardento and they do take time – you’ve got to be patient with them. I think this is a very good match because Sarah hasn’t got a lot of confidence of jumping big jumps, but this horse can jump anything.”
When it comes to cantering over the poles, Zoom stumbles over the first one, and Jeff tells Sarah to have a bit more leg on. However, he wants Sarah to concentrate on keeping a nice, slow relaxed canter.
“It might seem like she’s doing nothing, but she’s just keeping the same canter,” he says approvingly. “A European horse needs a good canter. A lot of people seem to think it’s a speed canter and it shouldn’t be – it’s a collected canter.
“Any horse can come round to a fence on the wrong leg and pop over it if he’s balanced. One of the best horses in the world, Kevin Staut’s Silvana, always disunited behind and Kevin just let it go – he didn’t worry about it. I think that’s the secret. The horse can jump anything as long as they are balanced.”
2. Don’t chase: building trust
The first jumping exercise of the day is a little cross rail with placing poles on either side, to make sure the horse is jumping properly (BELOW). “Not enough people do this and it’s so simple,” says Jeff.
The placing poles are set at about 2m, although Jeff is reluctant to set down specific distances for any of his exercises or lines – this varies so much according to the surface and the horse, and he frequently moves jumps in or out according to how the horse is jumping.
Instead of jump poles, Jeff uses flat wooden planks on the ground, because they are safer. “If the horse stands on the plank, it’s not going to roll and he’s less likely to wreck his leg,” he explains.
Jeff tells Sarah that she is the only one who knows how much leg to put on her horse, but she wouldn’t worry if he falls over the fence the first time. In fact, Zoom’s first jump of the day is great, but Jeff stops Sarah to get her opinion. He does this frequently throughout the lesson ‘because this is not a one-way show.’ Sarah is also happy, because Zoom used to have a tendency of stepping over tiny fences; he would still have his back legs on the ground when his front legs were on the ground.
“One of the problems with this horse is that he has so much ability he doesn’t actually have to jump until they get up a bit,” explains Jeff. “And that’s the thing with the Cardentos – they have so much scope, that at this height you look at him and think it’s just an ordinary horse.”
Next, Jeff gets Sarah to pop the cross then canter down in a quiet four strides over a vertical. The aim is for Zoom to keep the same nice canter and jump calmly. Jeff gradually builds the cross-rail up into an oxer, but tells Sarah not to change a thing. He says even if she makes a ‘bollocks’ of the first fence, she mustn’t start pulling, but should just canter down quietly as she did before.
“The idea is that hopefully he’s going to jump that oxer big and she’s just going to canter down there on the same stride, so the horse gets confident as well. I don’t like people who chase horses to the fence. You’ve got to ride these European horses with trust and give them a bit more room, not bury them in the bottom of the fence; then they jump anything.”
Jeff on: partnerships
“You know the secret to all great combinations? The horse has to like you. If they like you, they give you their all. If you turn up in the morning and they’re grumpy and you’re grumpy and don’t want to ride, it goes through to them. They are so intelligent. There’s a fine line as to how determined you can be with them. It doesn’t matter how you ride them, so long as you’re consistent – if you’re consistent, you get the trust and then they become nice horses. “
3. Softly, softly: jumping related lines
Jeff has set up a couple of related lines and gets Sarah to jump a mini course. She starts with an oxer off a curve, cantering a nice six strides down to a vertical. Jeff wants her to just sit and trust Zoom all the way down the line. Then she has another related line – a vertical on a curving six-stride line to an oxer, before turning back and cantering down to some planks (BELOW).
Later Jeff adds a double, oxer to vertical, to complete the course. Jeff tells Sarah if she’s going to be a bit off at her fences, she is better to leave room than get her horse too deep. “This horse doesn’t back up, so if she starts riding him forward at the fence and burying him, he’ll keep punching them out. She has to sit there and let him come off the fences,” he explains.
Zoom has an enormous stride and the lines are quite short for him, but this is deliberate. If he had a rider who was reluctant to ride forward, says Jeff, he would pull the fences out, but that’s not the problem here. “We just need to keep Sarah confident and not get nervous because people are watching her!” he laughs.
Although Zoom is jumping really well, he is fighting with his head in between the fences and Jeff tells Sarah to use ‘10% hand, 90% the rest.’ “When you think he’s getting strong, try something different. Don’t fight him. The more you pull and try to keep him collected, the more he fights. Don’t use so much hand.”
At times, Zoom puts his head down very low and Jeff tells Sarah to ignore this, rather than trying to pull his head up which will only confuse and frustrate him.
“He doesn’t know whether you want his head up or down. So when he’s got it down, try leaving it down,” he advises. “Also, when he puts his head down, don’t watch his head, because that puts him off and it puts you off! Every time you look down, you hold. So keep your eyes only on the jump, not his head.”
4. A bit better: A change of gear
Although Zoom is jumping well, Jeff notices he is getting his tongue over the bit (BELOW) and decides a change of bitting is in order. Finding the right bit, says Jeff, is everything. “We can go for months and then all of a sudden you walk into the stable and think why don’t I try that? It’s experimental. And a bit that suits one rider won’t suit another.”
Sarah has been riding in a Beris Tandem, which is a gentle rubber combination bit. Jeff suggests she tries this Trust sweet iron ported mouth snaffle (BELOW) which he has found to be an excellent solution for racehorses who get their tongue over the bit.
While it might seem a bit of a radical using a snaffle and no flash noseband on this big strong horse, in fact it seems to be the perfect solution. Although Zoom is able to open his mouth, he tongue is much quieter and he jumps better than ever. Sarah is surprised to find she can control him quite easily and he jumps the double beautifully – in fact Jeff feels it’s one of his best jumps all day (BELOW).
“If I rode this horse, I’d love him in this bit,” feels Jeff. “Everybody’s always tried to shut his mouth, but we’re trying something different – throw all the gear off him. So he’s got his mouth open, but that’s no big deal – it’s probably the first time he’s been ridden in a snaffle and his jump is a lot better.”
Jeff suggests Sarah gets herself one of these ported snaffle bits and warns her she’s going to have to trust her horse a little bit. “He might be a bit fresh the first day, but try and go to the practice jump relaxed – you have to back yourself and not worry about the bit and whether you’re going to be able to hold him. Because really, what chance have you got of holding a horse anyway if they decide they’re going to go? He’s got to feel good and you’ve got to feel good. Don’t get too complicated.”
Jeff feels a lot of riders actually want their horses a little bit too light and have too much control. “Some people get annoyed when the horse leans on the bit in one part of its work. They don’t want to sweat in a course – they just want to hack around with it off the bit. Well, how do you think a race rider goes? They come off puffing. It can be hard work.”
5. Be patient:waiting for the stride
When it comes to finding a distance, Jeff feels the key for most riders, including Sarah, is to just be patient. A lot of riders get close to the fence and they want to run, he feels.
“When you were patient coming around the corner and just sat there, then the jump came up perfectly,” he says. “You need to trust this horse. One thing he’s got is plenty of jump – he could jump the World Cup next week.”
Sarah is a little concerned that because Zoom is jumping so well into the double over the oxer that he’s drifting out a little at the second element, which is a vertical (BELOW).
However, Jeff is not too worried. “Why is he drifting out? To make room because he’s a big horse – I’d let him,” he advises. “If you watch the European show jumpers when they get into the doubles and it’s a bit short they will come out across a vertical on an angle to give themselves more room. Everybody has this thing about having to go straight, but if that were the case there would be a lot of European show jumpers sacked. Of course, you have to careful if he’s running to the right over an oxer and you make the oxer six foot wide instead of five – that’s different. But over a vertical it doesn’t matter.”
Jeff on…thoroughbreds vs. warmbloods
“I remember when I got my first warmblood, his head was going one way and I was going the other way. I’d already won the King George V Gold Cup, but I was still quite young and I had no idea, being used to thoroughbreds. That warmblood, Furst Z, got me in the top 10 in the world, but it started off absolutely terrible. I had this fancy thing that was amazing, but I was hopeless – I couldn’t ride one side of it. In fact, it was so bad it was scary, until I went to Ted Edgar and worked out how I had to change to ride these sorts of horses.
With warmbloods, you have to get up and work them in the mornings and a lot of people don’t do that. You could choose between lungeing them for two hours or riding them for 10 minutes and the 10 minutes will be better, because you just make them do what you want them to do. The other thing about a warmblood is that you have to remind it every week to jump again. Once you’ve taught a thoroughbred, he knows how to jump, but these things, they forget! “
Conclusions
Jeff
For me, the time to make a mistake is at home in your lessons, and then we can work on it. We’re still experimenting with bits with this horse, but I think they went really well today in the end. Fingers crossed we’ve got the right bit!
With Sarah, it’s just a matter of getting the mileage now. I’m not a big one on changing positions, because we all ride slightly different. She sits well – sometimes he throws her a little bit forward, but that’s only practice.
This is the perfect horse for Sarah. His jump is enormous. He could jump 1.60m oxers, but he’s not rideable yet. It’s a good combination and I like what Sarah is doing. By just using kindness and consistency and not being over-dominant, she seems to be getting his trust.
Sarah
I have had half a dozen lessons with Jeff now, since I got Zoom. He is relatable and seems to genuinely care about you and your horse. Jeff has a positive, relaxed way of teaching which has helped with my self-doubt.
Today was great because we were working on me focusing on the fence I am jumping, not what my horse is doing with his head or what’s happening around me. It was really interesting to find that I had control in a snaffle when two months ago I was having trouble in a Pelham. I have learned that I don’t need to go faster to jump a bigger fence and that I need to use my body before my hands to make my turns smoother. I am looking forward to what Zoom and I can achieve with Jeff’s help.
- This article was first published in the October 2017 issue of NZ Horse & Pony
