Designing Gymnastic Grids: Stride Calculator Tips for Coaches

A gymnastic grid only works when the distances ride as you intended. Too short and the horse chips or rushes; too long and you lose the rhythm that makes the exercise educational rather than punishing.

Start with the horse, not the poles

Before you open a tape measure, decide:

Horse or pony? A large horse at 3.50 m stride needs more room than a 128 cm pony at 2.80 m.
Height today? Lower fences allow a slightly shorter stride; at 1.20 m+ most horses need honest take-off and landing room.
Going? Deep sand or grass shortens the effective stride; all-weather often rides longer.

Use the free stride calculator on YardForge to convert metres ↔ strides for your horse's profile before you set poles.

Standard grid distances (starting points)

These are schooling defaults — adjust for your arena surface and horse:

| Exercise | Typical distance (horse) | Strides | |----------|-------------------------|---------| | Bounce | 3.9–4.3 m | 0 (bounce) | | One-stride double | 7.0–7.7 m | 1 | | Two-stride double | 10.0–11.0 m | 2 | | Three-stride line | 13.5–15.0 m | 3 |

Walk the line in boots and count your own steps if the ground is unfamiliar — then plug the metres into the calculator to confirm stride count.

Build the grid in 2D first

Moving poles repeatedly tires horses and wastes lesson time. In the course designer:

Set your arena size (or map it with GPS if it is non-standard).
Place poles and fences on a scaled canvas.
Let the stride engine flag combinations outside your target range.
Switch to 3D viewer to check approach angles before you drag equipment out.

Templates such as bounce grids and related-distance exercises are built in — search the template library when you open a new course.

FEI and BS checks for competition grids

If you are schooling a course that must later meet British Showjumping or FEI tables, switch the competition standard in the designer. Distances that are fine for a Tuesday grid may be illegal for a Saturday class at the same height. Our guide to BS course-building rules covers the published limits.

When to shorten or lengthen

Shorten if more than half your riders add a stride or hit the base of the second element.
Lengthen if horses are landing flat and drifting past the ideal take-off point.
Leave it if the exercise is deliberately demanding — but say so in the lesson plan.

Share the plan with your yard

Enterprise yards can save the grid as a course and share a read-only 3D link with working pupils. Instructors selling structured plans can also list lesson notes on the Learn marketplace.

Next reads: Show jumping distances explained · Polework exercises for show jumpers · Open the designer