Jumping exercises with Piggy March

During our visit to Piggy March’s yard just ahead of her taking first and third place at the 2019 Blenheim Palace Horse Trials, we were lucky to observe her schooling Jennifer Saunders’ Cooley Monsoon through a simple exercise to help improve his reactions.

Eddie can be a bit lazy at home so Piggy is keen to keep his training fun and highlighted the importance of not nagging him, getting a reaction straight away instead.

She had set up two fences set at a bounce distance, followed by one stride to an upright and three strides to an oxer.

Piggy started by working Eddie in walk, trot and canter, making changes within each pace to keep him responsive.

She then began playing over individual fences, riding figure of eights and linking fences together.

Moving up and down the grid piggy made sure that Eddie was balanced and rhythmical, check out the video above.

Following on from this Piggy popped down the grid of fences:

Tailor this exercise to a less experienced horse

If your horse is new to this type of exercise, start by removing the poles and cantering down the distances.

You can then add the poles in and gradually add in fences, as Piggy does in this video:

About Cooley Monsoon aka Eddie

At the original time of writing in 2019, Eddie was an 11-year-old bay gelding, competing at 4* level. That year he finished in fourth place at both Houghton International and Burnham Market International (1) CCI4*-S, and also won the Advanced Intermediate at Rockingham International.

Sire: Ramiro B
Dam: Declans Folly
Damsire: Krakatan
Foaled: 2008