Mystified!!!

[sweetbriar]

I'm having some problems with my mare. She's a terrific jumper and I'm currently jumping around 2'6"/2"9'. She jumps perfectly at home but when I take her to a show we start to have problems.

For example, I jumped her in the 2"6" clear round and she was brill. Her jumping was great. I took her into the novice class and we got eliminated. She refused the bogey fence (which I understand fully) and the fence before it. She also had one refusal at another show at a plain upright fence. I usually know when its coming because she starts to weave all over the place and she gets slower and slower until she stops.

I am anxious to have her checked over by the vet to see if there is anything physically wrong.

Last year we did have 2 'accidents' in jumping classes. She fell at one fence and hit the wing of another. I gave her some time off jumping and went back to jumping very small fences in shows. She jumped them fine and I always praised her efforts and made much of her.

She can also be 'nappy' and some of the refusals have occured we are moving away from the entrance area.

I have only started experiencing these problems this year. Should I just give up jumping her or should I be patient? Perhaps she's still lacking a little confidence. What do you all think?

[lamprellsarah]

i wouldn't push eher anymore.
you need to get to the bottom of this i would get her checked over by a vet, and see if he can spot anything, even if he can i would get a back therapist in and maybe get them to check her over it sounds like she's having some type of problem!!
i take it it has nothing to do with her being in season mares can get irratiable at this time of year!!
teeth been done recently?? maybe they need doing!!??
by the sound off it shows put a lot of pressure on her sounds like she maybe worries?? and does she pick up these vibes from you??
the more you expect bad behariour the more you may get it!! i tend to find!!
if all this is checked out, i would keep the fences small still carry on building up her confidence don't overface her!!
so yeah keep getting her confidence up and be patient, i take it she's also fairly young too!!

anyway good luck!! and enjoy it!! also x countyr can be great for nappy stoppy horse maybe you could do a small course!! my horse would never stop doing x country but will always consider it on a show jumping course!!

[Mehitabel]

is there anything about the fences she refuses that reminds her or you of her accident? like colour, type, location in the ring or anything?
other than that, i'd agree with sarah. perhaps you're more relaxed about clear round than the actual class, and she's picking up on that.
since you say she doesn't refuse at home, i'd be inclined to think it's more of a mental problem than a physical one.

[sweetbriar]

Lizzie is in her mid to late teens. She has her teeth checked twice a year by a horse dentist. She has had a brand new saddle fitted in the last 9 months.

I am going to get the vet to look her over. She came up sound after she fell but maybe there's something else there that hasn't been picked up on.

Its funny you should mention her being in season. She is at present and, having talked to another mare owner, I know it can be a problem. She said that when her old mare was in season she couldn't jump her because she'd just refuse or play up.

When I'm competing I do get nervous. In fact, I was feeling so proud and confident after the lovely clear round I felt that she could jump anything. I remember going into the ring thinking 'wow what a little star she is'. I always talk to Lizzie when I'm jumping because I find it helps her.

The fence she refused was a small oxer. It was an oxer that she refused last year and fell in the middle of. Saying that, she jumped a similar (and I though scarier) jump in the clear round with no problem.

She was a riding school pony and I do wonder sometimes how much that has affected her. When I gave her back to the school she was jumping well. She was then jumped by some very poor and unconfident beginners (not their fault, riding school should have known better) and she's not a novice pony. One girl rode her so badly it took me a couple of months to get her jumping confidence back. Those that tried to jump her usually ended up on the floor or screaming because she's so strong and they couldn't stop her.

The only other person who has sat on Lizzie since she came out of the school is a very capable little 11 year old at my yard. She jumped her over a practice fence and nearly ended up in the next county. I regard her riding to be well above average for her age and she said that Lizzie was strong. She has a very bouncy trot and canter. Her jump is like taking off into space. I hope the little girl tells the yard owner about Lizzie because she told one beginner who couldn't cope that she was 'easy' and to 'take her back teeth out' if she wouldn't stop.

[lamprellsarah]

the fact you have jumped scarier doesn't matter she remembers this jump and is scared of the same thing happening.
does this jump ever get put down, changed or removed, cos i would try going in to a show where her bad experience won't haunt her!

[Rachel C.]

I had a similar problem with my old pony. In fact identical problem! There were a number of factors which people thought could be the problem, but in the end we discovered it was due to my height I was too "long" a rider to balance perfectly over the bigger jumps, and she didn't like them for that reason. However when I was the right size for her we had the same problem with her being nappy and not jumping. Adding studs was suggested might help, to give her more confidence in the ground, but her feet were to poor, so I restricted her jumping to good ground only, and I never jumped on slippery ground. When it was purely napping, then it helped not to hang around any othre horses. I don't mean to be negative, but with my mare we never properly got over the problem despite countless checks/instructors/supplements/training programmes, she was just a happier pony at 2'9'' than 3' end of story!

Very Odd .....she had all the ability to make it to the top, just not the right attitude......

Oh well, Rachel

[sweetbriar]

I've been giving some consideration to not jumping her at all. The silly thing is she loves to jump. She always comes 'alive' when she jumps (ears pricked, very bouncy, very strong). The last hunter trials we did she cleared a 3ft pallisade as if it was nothing.

I'm not sure how you class a 'long rider'. I'm 5ft 6' with long legs and arms.

Just as an experiment I hacked out last weekend and on the way back did a little 'detour' by one of the local common areas. There are a few tiny log jumps there. She was incredibly nappy and tried to go home. When I got her going we just trotted up to one of the little logs and she did exactly the same thing. She just slowed down and refused to jump the fence. On the way towards home we were jumping brilliantly when I went and turned her away from home we started to nap.

I think that also she may have lost confidence in going into the ring after her fall. She thinks that bad things are going to happen if she jumps in there and so she naps or refuses. All I can do is to help give her confidence and make much of her efforts. It may take a while to get her confidence back, I can only try. If not then I may just give up competitive riding with her and just hack her out.