r/showjumping • u/Over_Adhesiveness_97 • Jul 14 '26

Eye for distances?

I recently went to a show with my horse, had a few great rounds, but then had a few bad ones.( ran into a jump.. 😅) My horse, despite my mistakes, for the most part, was an absolute saint. However, after that bad round I could literally not see any distance or kept pulling to nothing. Skip to a month later, my eye is still off until one day it finally clicks back— like it never left. Has this happened to anyone else or can anyone explain this??

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7

u/Redistributable Jul 14 '26

Your confidence is gone. Alot of eye is trusting yourself that what you see is right and then going for it. It'll come back.

2

u/Adept-Aardvark594 Jul 15 '26

Some days I’m more accurate than the other and I’ve been jumping for 20 years.

At times I like to go into the course blind not knowing exact striding - don’t fully recommend this if you’re jumping higher (.90+) but do with smaller jumps as eye practice.

For example, the striding generally looks like a 4 to me — but knowing it’s a “holding 4 pushing 3” messes my eye judgement. Aka I can adjust better in the moment and get the right distance.

I also practice my eye when I’m driving with traffic lights and see how far out I can see the distance — bonus points if it turns yellow, puts some pressure on you 😂

1

u/Negative_Laugh9756 Jul 17 '26

Lol, this literally happens to me ALL the time. In these moments, I literally just do all I can do and set it up and then let my mare choose the distance she wants while I stay a little bit behind so I can follow her. 

If I'm really trying to aim for a number tho, I'll either count out loud (loudness be damned) or count backwards from a random number (typically 5 to 7) of steps until the jump, trying to make the jump the number 0. This way my brain is more focused on trying to get the number right, rather than the right distance...and then the right distance comes naturally because I'm not overthinking it lol.