Difficulty levels of Equestrian Challenge Courses

Series Summary

The horse has been used in warfare since as early as 4000 BCE. There is archaeological evidence in the steppes of Eurasia of fortified towns being built to defend against horse-riding bandits and raiders. In 1350 BCE, the Hittite tribe developed a written manual for successfully breeding and conditioning chariot horses. Thus, since before written history and throughout the recorded development of mankind, horses have been a powerful ally to victorious armies and successful agriculturalists. In Medieval Europe, the heavy armor of mounted knights required a new style of horses, strong like a draft horse but athletic like lighter breeds. The destrier, and lesser so the courser and rouncey, became the type (not breed) of horse that would fetch the highest price among nobles and elite military officers.

In this free equestrian video, experienced rider and trainer Mara Keith-Hunter teaches you how to ride a horse through challenge courses. You will learn a good warm up for your horse, including walks, trots, and canters, and how to start getting into jumps. Mara shows you each step in building a challenge course. She trots and canters over ground poles, uses small fences from both sides, and works into simple challenge lines. With experience, oxers can be added and trying a complete challenge course in full canter.

Video Transcript

"Today we'll be talking about how to train your horse to jump. It's important before you start to work on jumping your horse over fences, you have a solid background in walk, trot, and cantor work so that your relationship with your horse is one that can easily be taken to more challenging exercises such as jumping. Today we'll be starting with working over simple trot and cantor pulls and we'll be moving on to jumping basics small fences. It's important that when you start to set your fences, you consider the level of training your horse has and use very basic, easy to manipulate, obstacles. For instance, we won't be using any large fill or items underneath the fences that could cause your horse to spook or lose its confidence. It's also important that you have a trainer that can help you go through the steps and give you advice on teaching your horse."