I feel incredibly stupid that I’m not getting this concept. I’ve read so many articles, but I can’t really wrap my head around it.

I realize that this is probably going to be the most brain dead question, but here goes.

What does counting the rhythm of the stride achieve? I’ve heard of people counting down, or even singing a song to the rhythm, but I can’t figure out how this is supposed to help you know when to take off/get in jumping position?

And then I hear plenty of people say that they don’t even count strides? I just don’t understand what “seeing distances” actually means. Are you seeing the strides between jumps? How does this help? How does one know when their horse should take off? Say there are 6 horse strides in between a jump. How am I supposed to know this, and say I DO figure out that there are 6, what am I supposed to do with this information? Is the horse supposed to take 5 strides then take off at 6?

I see reading online that a lot of math is involved, and I absolutely suck at math to the point where I think I have an undiagnosed ability (dyscalculia).

Can someone please paint the whole picture for me in the most simple way possible? I’m a new rider and I don’t jump and I certainly don’t compete, but since I’m attending a H/J barn I’d like to try and go that way. I just want to try and get a clear picture of this early on so I can think about it. Thank you in advance!