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Ahead of the curve: train your horse to be soft yet strong with Alex Bragg’s jumping exercise on a turn

If you think softness is only important for flatwork, think again. Top eventer Alex Bragg demonstrates how jumping on a curve is a game-changer for a horse’s engagement and balance, building all-round muscle strength in the final article of this three-part training series exclusively for H&H subscribers
Bethany Stone Bethany Stone

    • Staying soft yet secure over fences is something we often attribute to the rider, but what does the same phrase mean for a horse? Alex Bragg offers this training exercise on a fan to encourage engagement and softness on a curve.

    “A horse can’t engage the hindleg and deliver a powerful jump if he’s tense or crooked,” says the five-star event rider. “We look for softness in flatwork, and in dressage training you’ll often want that ‘spiralling out’ feeling where the horse yields to the inside aids and seeks the outside rein, stepping under and through with the inside hind. If we apply that same feeling over fences, we keep the engagement of that hindleg for better balance, softness and power.”

    Cultivating that softness takes conditioning: “You imagine the core strength a horse needs to lift his whole body – bearing in mind he is around 600kg – and keep it all carried. They need to be strong.”

    To achieve this as well as banish tension, the muscles need to be strong in all directions.

    “You want to stretch and flex the muscles,” explains Alex. “The further you can stretch and flex, the more range you’ll have and the more athletic your horse can be.

    “The young horse I am riding to demonstrate this training exercise has a short neck,” Alex Bragg continues. “I want him to develop self-carriage, but first, he needs to use what neck he does have to the maximum.

    “It’s important I get his topline as long as possible before I start to collect him, or that’s when you’ll develop tension and blocking at the base of the neck, which will hinder his back end.”

    Alex Bragg training exercise: keep the curve

    Working on: the horse’s softness, strength and balance, keeping him true to the path through the fanned fences

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