Signs a horse/rider is ready to start cantering into jumps?

[Keket]

Okay, I know I'm bombarding with jumping questions, but that's because I love it and it's new to me!

Coquette is a very smart mare. She gets bored very easily. Once she figured out that the little crossrail was easy, she wanted to canter into it. I am not ready to canter into jumps. She's not ready to canter into jumps, despite what she thinks. The height of the jumps just went up by a bit (to about 1ft6-1ft8, because RI felt that Coquette wasn't putting in a proper effort and didn't want to let her be lazy), but we're still trotting them, cantering out of them.

So when are a horse and rider ready to canter jumps? I'm in no rush, both of us are green and need to establish a good foundation, but I'm wondering how you know when it's time? :)

[dilaika]

Well...before you canter jumps, you should be comfortable trotting in. A couple of things that you should be able to do and should do to prepare would be:

-canter in the two-point. You should be able to canter around in the two-point without you falling down or your horse taking off. Practice sitting for a couple of strides, two-point for a couple of strides, up and down (or sitting on the short sides, two-point on long, whater, you get the idea). If your horse's pace changes, you're not doing it smoothly enough

-canter a pole on the ground. Your horse should "jump" it a bit, but not too much. Before you canter a jump, you should be able to canter over a pole, staying up off your horse's back without your horse's pace changing

I don't really know about your set-up or anything, but if both you and your horse are just learning to jump, it might be a good idea to see if you could ride a different horse who really knows what they're doing to get the feel of it, and maybe your instructor could jump your horse a couple of times. Learning together might work, but it probably wouldn't hurt for each of you to get a feel with an experienced partner.

Honestly, I prefer cantering jumps. Although it can seem scary at first, the canter flows into the jump much more easily (as my trainer says, "a jump is just a big canter stride"). Just relax and have fun with it.

Also, if your horse is cantering in when you don't want her to...you might consider setting a trot pole or several trot poles before the jump so that she has to pay attention to where her feet are going. Also, if she's smart, she may be anticipating and getting bored. Don't give her the opportunity..even if you're doing the same jump, try coming at it from different directions, cut across the the ring once, halt afterwards sometimes, do differen things so that she has to pay attention to you and doesn't get bored.

[MelanieD]

I'd canter into jumps as soon as the horse could canter the same route minus the jumps easily. Canter over some poles on the floor first then go on to jumps. I find cantering over jumps easier than trotting and most horses seem to find it easier to get a good rhythm over jumps in canter.

[Keket]

Well, we can canter poles quite well, and I'm reasonably confident in canter two-point, so I suppose all that's in place. So I guess it's mostly a matter of when I feel ready. Trotting them gives me more time to make sure everything's right. :)

[Shadowlark]

Do you have access to another horse who "knows how" so you can do it a bit first?

The first time you send her in at a canter she may go HUGE on you because se doesn't know how to do it yet.. Make sure you have a grab strap on her, I would HATE for you to have a confidence shaker right now. Falling is one thing.. falling onto the jump.. sucks

Some things that would help would be lunging her over a jump so she can find her footing etc. without you up.

Other wise the above suggestions were all good

[Keket]

Do you have access to another horse who "knows how" so you can do it a bit first?

The first time you send her in at a canter she may go HUGE on you because se doesn't know how to do it yet.. Make sure you have a grab strap on her, I would HATE for you to have a confidence shaker right now. Falling is one thing.. falling onto the jump.. sucks

Some things that would help would be lunging her over a jump so she can find her footing etc. without you up.

Other wise the above suggestions were all good

I wish I had access to a good solid confidence giver, but I don't. Hence why I'm learning on Coquette. I always have a grab strap, she wears a running martingale with hunter breastplate. I'll try lunging her over it. I never did before because all we had were high jump standards and I found the line got tangled on it. But we've figured out how to rig up a jump with traffic cones. Do I need a placing pole for a canter jump? How far from the jump should it be?

[dilaika]

you might try with a pole....a canter stride for an average horse is about 12 feet, when jumping they generally do about 6 feet for takeoff, 6 feet for landing...

if you're not sure, just trying it without a pole isn't a bad idea, definitely just to see how she reacts.

The first time you jump from the canter on her, as someone else said you can't be sure how she'll react (it should probably be similar to how she canters a pole)... so get into two-point early and hold on, make sure to grab mane so that you won't pop her in the mouth...don't go into too deep a 2-point or too forward (first time, she might refuse)

basically, just relax and have fun with it! If you're ok cantering poles, the difference between that and a small jump is mostly just psychological. You can always set up a tiny little x-rail that she could walk over (x-rails are better for beginning b/c it helps w/ steering and staying in the middle)

honestly, the different between trotting and cantering in really isn't as big as you think

[Shadowlark]

A barrel is a great jump standard in a pinch :) on it's side it's about 2'6 so set with a cross rail it whould be perfect for you to lunge her over. It's nice to give them a chance to find their legs and stride before you do it together since you are both so green :)

[BeachRiding]

Glad you posted this Keket! I am at about the same stage as you jumping with my horse. I have cantered a jump once and found it much easier and smoother, but haven't had the guts to try it again.

Thanks for posting this!

[showjumper-zoe]

Echo decided when I lernet to jump she poped 1m and I'd onlt been ridinng a week she has taught me lots the old mare.

[Ms Kitty]

When I started jumping I was so young I didn't realise you could jump from a trot, it was more like point-kick-and approach the fence at fast canter and hope for the best, lol! Let's just say that the results of that were quite interesting, though I did learn to stay on well.. :p

Would you be able to loose school Coquette over jumps in canter on his own? So he would get some sort of idea where to take off for the jump etc. And when he starts doing it well on his own, then start doing it whilst riding with one hand on the neck strap just in case..

Nina x

[Laura+Phantom]

I actually prefer to canter into jumps, apart from the fact I can't judge the take off point in trot very well, Phantom jumps huge in trot and catleaps, but if we go in with a nice bouncy canter, he jumps really smoothly and it feels so much nicer, despite him being green with his jumping.

[Trewsers]

I ask Storm to trot over small jumps, but usually she takes over (yeah, I know I shouldn't let her but she's a good little jumper) and she decides to canter over them. I'm a real nervous nellie and she helps me no end - I'm probably doing it wrong in letting her.

[Lucy J]

to be honest, i am a wimp for jumping in canter due to control issues, but it is actually much easier and more comfortable to jump from a canter than a trot. its just that the speed makes it more scary. i just have to block out my fears and go for it and the result is usually a cleaner round!

[Lot1983]

When I started jumping I was so young I didn't realise you could jump from a trot, it was more like point-kick-and approach the fence at fast canter and hope for the best, lol! Let's just say that the results of that were quite interesting, though I did learn to stay on well.. :p




And that is an excellent method!

I has taken me months to realise that I do not need to get my horse cantering miles away and infact I can hold him in an active trot until I get to the placing pole, the first few times I jumped him with leg on I swear he lept about 6 foot over it!

I still love jumping naughty ponies though!! :D

[Keket]

When I started jumping I was so young I didn't realise you could jump from a trot, it was more like point-kick-and approach the fence at fast canter and hope for the best, lol! Let's just say that the results of that were quite interesting, though I did learn to stay on well.. :p

Would you be able to loose school Coquette over jumps in canter on his own? So he would get some sort of idea where to take off for the jump etc. And when he starts doing it well on his own, then start doing it whilst riding with one hand on the neck strap just in case..

Nina x

We lunged her over some barrels (only about two inches higher then she's jumping now) yesterday. :) Her first time jumping from a canter, and she was very good about it. She's quite comfortable in it, lands on her correct lead, gets a good take-off point, and even when she didn't get a good take-off point, she managed to correct for it and come out with a clean jump anyway.

I haven't got a well-schooled horse to try on, but if I survive learning to jump on Coquette, I'll be one hell of a good rider! :p I can't just point and kick, there's something of a learning curve, but I'm learning to do a lot of things at once!