Show Jumping Distances Explained: Strides, Doubles and Combinations

Show Jumping Distances Explained

Walk into any collecting ring and you'll hear riders muttering numbers — "it's a quiet two", "the double's a forward one". They're talking about related distances: the gap between fences measured in your horse's canter strides. Get them right and the course rides like a flowing conversation. Get them wrong and you're fighting for every fence.

This guide explains how distances work, the standard numbers to walk, and how to adjust them for ponies and going.

What is a related distance?

A related distance is any line where the gap between two fences is short enough that the number of strides is fixed — usually anything up to about seven or eight strides. Beyond that, the horse has room to adjust and it's no longer "related".

The two that matter most are:

  • Combinations — fences set one or two strides apart, jumped as a unit and numbered together (7A, 7B, 7C).
  • Related lines — two separate fences on a set distance, usually three to seven strides apart.

The standard distances to walk

These are the everyday numbers for a horse with an average 3.5m canter stride, measured centre to centre:

  • One stride (double): about 7.0m–7.7m
  • Two strides: about 10.0m–11.0m
  • Bounce (no stride): about 3.3m–3.7m
  • Three strides: about 14m–15m
  • Four strides: about 17m–18m

A useful rule of thumb: allow roughly 6m for take-off and landing across a pair of fences, then 3.5m per canter stride in between. So a clean two-stride works out around 6 + 2 × 3.5 ≈ 13m of jumping effort, which on the ground sits near 10.5–11m between the fences.

The exact number depends on the horse, the fence height and the going — these are starting points, not laws.

Ponies ride shorter

A pony's stride is shorter, so the same line that's a comfortable two strides for a horse can ride as a long two — or even a short three — for a pony. As a guide, knock roughly 0.3–0.5m off each stride for ponies, and always check against the actual pony in the stride calculator rather than guessing.

Footing changes everything

Deep or holding ground shortens a horse's stride, so distances ride longer than the tape says. Firm ground does the opposite. A wet, holding arena can turn a textbook two-stride into a real push. This is exactly why YardForge lets you set the going and ground slope so the stride numbers match the day, not just the diagram.

Let the tool do the maths

You don't have to memorise any of this. Lay your fences out in the course designer, set your horse or pony, and YardForge shows the distance and stride count on every line live — and flags anything that won't pass British Showjumping or FEI rules, with a one-tap fix. You can also check any single distance in the stride calculator.

Walk it, ride it, adjust it. The numbers are just there to make the course ask the right question.