To succeed in showjumping, you must have a good jumping position. Your stirrups must be one or two holes shorter. Bring your weight out of the saddle and lean forward. Push your hands forward, as if you were to grab the bit ring. Keep your heels down and toes at an angle. Keep your back straight. Look ahead. Keep your knee bent. Now practise over some poles and work your way to jumps. Once you have done that, practise on a series of jumps to develop your technique. In showjumping competitions, riders are given penalty points if they knock a pole down. The amount of penelty points depends on how tough the competition is. The rider with the least points is the winner. If there are two winners, there is another round called a jump-off where riders do the course again, but the one who completes it with the least penelties and time is the winner.
Dressage is all about sitting tall and deep in the saddle and showing people that you and your horse make a great team, that you 'listen' to each other etc. There are many different levels but don't worry about them for now. Each move you do is marked out of 10, 1 being not performed and 10 being excellent. A good way of remembering the test is going through it as though you are a horse doing the test! Crazy but incredibly helpful. You can do it in the arena, your living room or even a waiting room if you are totally bonkers! Getting a good dressage seat is also a good idea- it is just as important as learning your test. Here are two exercises you can try: 1) Ride without stirrups! Pull the stirrup buckles down and croos the irons over in front of you. Stretch you legs down and keep your toes in and heels down practise in walk, trot or if you are experienced enough, canter!
2) Put you palm on your horse's haunch (that's the bit behind the saddle- make sure your horse doesn't buck. If he does, stroke the cantle and move your way up to his haunch Do this slowly!) and put your reins into your outside hand, leaning back a bit. If you want get someone to lunge you.
In cross country, you have to use your jumping skills to succeed. You also need to be fit and agile and so should your horse. There are many different types of jump in cross country and some will freak out you and your horse! So what you can do is walk round the course with your pony and see which things might be spooky for you and your pony such as jumping into the dark. Remember, think positive as this will reassure your horse. Good luck and enjoy!
Before World War Two, women always rode side saddle. This has become a recently revived art. Ladies wore garments called habits and bowler hats or top hats for riding. Modern day riders wear normal riding hats. The side saddle has two pommels, one called the leaping head (lower pommel) and the other called the fixed head (upper pommel). There is only one stirrup in which the rider places her left foot. She hooks her right leg over the fixed head. A short cane is used as a replacement of the right leg. To mount, riders have a leg up or mount from the block. To dismount, riders unhook their legs, face the nearside and jump. Traditionally there would be an assistant to help the rider down. Horses who rear sould never be used in side saddle riding as it is very easy to tip backwards and be crushed. It is ok for horses who buck as they can't get rid of their riders. Jumping is actually possible! Modern day side saddle riders adopt the forward position and use the leaping head on the saddle for support. Find the a picture of the side saddle in the Anatomy of All Things Horse book in the Library.