Bounces

People will use bounces to help the horse learn to quickly pick up and place his/her feet. The reason it is called a bounce is because there are no strides taken in between the jumps. The bounce will  teach the horse good balance, to push off with his hind end, and to fold his front end well. It will also help teach a horse to slow down.
When sitting up a bounce you can have 2 jumps or even 10, usually people will use between 4 or 6 jumps depending on the size of their arena. Your jumps are usually 15 inches to 18 inches sometime a little higher. When spacing the first and second fence should be 3 meters apart and the rest should be 3 meters and 3 inches.
During the exercise you need to keep the horse really straight, in between your hands and legs. When entering the bounces you need to have a connection between your hands and legs to engage the hind end. While riding over the bounce the riders body needs to be kept straight, the eyes need to be focus ahead. the riders hands need to be light and elbows need to be elastic so they can follow the horses movement. Their legs need to keep light pressure to keep the horse moving, but must stay and still as possible.
After the bounces the horse needs to say straight as they ride away. Sometimes its a good idea to place a single fence after the turn to keep the horse straight after.

 

 

 

~ Jaida
Give a horse what he needs and he will give you his heart in return.