SJ Yesterday-still knocking poles-advice plse

[GraceT]

Morning all

I posted last month that we had been out unaffil SJ and got a good cricket score of 16 faults! Got some good advice from you guys here about keeping his attention in the warm up etc, so went out indoor SJ yesterday and got a good warm up, he was off my leg, forward and keen but stopable:)

So did the 60cm and got 8 faults and then did the 70cm and again got 8 faults. The rounds were video'd which was really helpful as I could see he just didnt bother to lift his feet up! The first jump in the second class was tiny and he just went through it! The rhythm of the round was perfect and the jumps with fillers he cleared better, so I think it must be the height, what do you think? Shall I bite the bullet and go higher??

Also does anyone know any good grid excersies for this and the strides I should use(he is 15.2)? Thank you!

[goeslikestink]

no no dont go higher not ready yet

grid work and pole work jump small -- 1st

[goeslikestink]

i have pm you with a book recomendation as it would take to long for me to write it out for you
and he is an x 3 day eventer and has been teaching bsja for over 30yrs and is a freind of mine

[GraceT]

no no dont go higher not ready yet

grid work and pole work jump small -- 1st

He has jumped 1m 10 at home (not with me!)

i have pm you with a book recomendation as it would take to long for me to write it out for you
and he is an x 3 day eventer and has been teaching bsja for over 30yrs and is a freind of mine
Thank you!

[DavidH]

Could you post the video's on here. Might help to give you a more comprehensive answer

[GraceT]

Could you post the video's on here. Might help to give you a more comprehensive answer

No sorry they were on a hand held video camera with a tape-very old fashioned I know!!

I have just spoken to a BSJA Trainer who one of the ladies at my yard has and asked him if he can do some gridwork with me and he's going to get back to me so that will help I think, and maybe just getting out there and doing loads of clear rounds?

[Iron Maiden]

Gridwork was really good for my old horse, he was a great big thing with very hairy legs and he didn't think twice about clouting jumps (he even knocked down a cross country fence the first time I hunter trialled him :eek:). We did raised trotting poles at first, which seemed to teach him some respect for poles - he nearly went flat on his face otherwise! Then we did lots of gridwork to help him get more athletic and encourage him to use himself. I had to learn not to drop my contact too - if I dropped him on his nose in front of the jump he would take it out by the roots, and it was all my fault! Hopefully with a good trainer the gridwork will make a big difference :)

[Kc..]

well i have the same problem with my horse if it's small he tends to just rub it and not really bother..

Never been able to get him out of it.. :(

[ranee]

gridwork get him thinking about what hes got to do.
also is he knocking at home?i have just found out why my mare was abit like it had the physio out and she was unbelivably tight through her wither and back end,and my poor honest pony was still trying.so if you havent had his back checked in a while maybe try that aswell

[GraceT]

gridwork get him thinking about what hes got to do.
also is he knocking at home?i have just found out why my mare was abit like it had the physio out and she was unbelivably tight through her wither and back end,and my poor honest pony was still trying.so if you havent had his back checked in a while maybe try that aswell


Hiya

He had his back checked in the summer. He dosnt knock them at home no, and he doesnt knock jumps with fillers etc cos he respects them more i think.
I am still waiting to hear from the SJ trainer about my lesson and also am going to book the place where we went SJ yesterday beacuse the day before their shows they set the course up & you can hire it so we can practise there also.

[Elvengirl]

I had to learn not to drop my contact too - if I dropped him on his nose in front of the jump he would take it out by the roots, and it was all my fault!

A girl that rides in my lesson has this problem too, she goes to shows and her horse is as honest as they come but just knocks poles even at 3'3". If she drops him in front of the fence and leans up the neck he really finds it hard to clear the fence with his front end but still tries. (if it was my horse he'd let ladies go first, he's so polite that way LOL)

Do you think you are getting ahead when he knocks poles? It's hard to know without seeing you ride, but gridwork will help him and it will also help you stay back and jump with the horse. Do you have access to really tall jump standards? I find making big x-rails (3ft or so at the cross) makes them tuck up a bit more, you could incorporate that into a grid too. What about distances? Are you giving him good distances to fences that give him the best chance of getting over?

[GraceT]

A girl that rides in my lesson has this problem too, she goes to shows and her horse is as honest as they come but just knocks poles even at 3'3". If she drops him in front of the fence and leans up the neck he really finds it hard to clear the fence with his front end but still tries. (if it was my horse he'd let ladies go first, he's so polite that way LOL)

Do you think you are getting ahead when he knocks poles? It's hard to know without seeing you ride, but gridwork will help him and it will also help you stay back and jump with the horse. Do you have access to really tall jump standards? I find making big x-rails (3ft or so at the cross) makes them tuck up a bit more, you could incorporate that into a grid too. What about distances? Are you giving him good distances to fences that give him the best chance of getting over?

Hiya

yes I do sometimes go before him if i'm not looking up & ahead:rolleyes:great idea about the big cross poles. The distances are not a problem I dont think. How many strides between a double grid? ie two cross poles?
Thanks

[Sammii819]

My horse is the worst for knocking down jumps anything under 90cm he knocks over then at 110cm he isn't too bad but he is at his best at 120cm, he isn't affiliated or anything like that, he's 15yrs old and 15hh. Just doesn't do small jumps he doesn't see the point in them. Go higher see what happens you might be surprised at what he does. If you have plastic jumps to practice over if he does knock them it won't hurt so much. bite your lip and take the giant leap or rather get your horse to.

[GraceT]

Spoke to my instructor last night and she said dont worry about him knocking the jumps at that height just keep going till i am really confident and then go higher, said they are definatly too small for him but thats fine at the moment.

[Colour_Crazy_Gi]

My girl knocks poles when they are 2ft 9 and under then any thing above that she acctually tries :p

[Siogfinsceal]

Hi Grace T, one of the people I teach has a horse who used to be terrible for knocking. She still does it a bit but shes gotten so much better. In lessons I worked on various excercises rather than bigger fences as I wanted to teach the mare to pick up (this mare is 15.2 too but as shes long in the body we needed to teach her to connect her back end and front end). These were excercises that I learned from my own RI who is at it way longer than me. The kind of excercises we used were:

- trotting poles
- cantering poles
- raised trotting poles
- Small fences with placing poles in front
- small fences in canter with a placing pole both before and after the fence (to teach her to pick up on landing as well as take off)
- grids
-small bounces, this really seemed to help her pick up
- doubles with a placing pole in front and one in the middle
- loose schooling

[holz]

My mare used to have 4 faults every round i jumped. I Did lots of one stride grids and bounces. Also if u put a narrow cross pole i found that helps as they have to pick there feet up. Spreads with the the back pole higher than the front one works as well. I would recomend going a bit higher to give your horse something a bit more to think about but at the same time dont over face yourself or your horse. Hope this helps xxx

[GraceT]

Hi Grace T, one of the people I teach has a horse who used to be terrible for knocking. She still does it a bit but shes gotten so much better. In lessons I worked on various excercises rather than bigger fences as I wanted to teach the mare to pick up (this mare is 15.2 too but as shes long in the body we needed to teach her to connect her back end and front end). These were excercises that I learned from my own RI who is at it way longer than me. The kind of excercises we used were:

- trotting poles
- cantering poles
- raised trotting poles
- Small fences with placing poles in front
- small fences in canter with a placing pole both before and after the fence (to teach her to pick up on landing as well as take off)
- grids
-small bounces, this really seemed to help her pick up
- doubles with a placing pole in front and one in the middle
- loose schooling

Thank you that is very helpful :)

[GraceT]

My mare used to have 4 faults every round i jumped. I Did lots of one stride grids and bounces. Also if u put a narrow cross pole i found that helps as they have to pick there feet up. Spreads with the the back pole higher than the front one works as well. I would recomend going a bit higher to give your horse something a bit more to think about but at the same time dont over face yourself or your horse. Hope this helps xxx

Hi Holz

I have been practicing with cross poles and approaching in trot and he has been ok, we have hired our local RC's indoor school friday with a full course of schow jumps so are going to practice different heights with out the stress of having to compete. I have also booked a lesson for January to do grids and bounces.
Hopefully next time we go out all will be better!

[Stencilbum]

Hi Grace T, one of the people I teach has a horse who used to be terrible for knocking. She still does it a bit but shes gotten so much better. In lessons I worked on various excercises rather than bigger fences as I wanted to teach the mare to pick up (this mare is 15.2 too but as shes long in the body we needed to teach her to connect her back end and front end). These were excercises that I learned from my own RI who is at it way longer than me. The kind of excercises we used were:

- trotting poles
- cantering poles
- raised trotting poles
- Small fences with placing poles in front
- small fences in canter with a placing pole both before and after the fence (to teach her to pick up on landing as well as take off)
- grids
-small bounces, this really seemed to help her pick up
- doubles with a placing pole in front and one in the middle
- loose schooling

And so speaks the voice of experience :)

I was going to suggest placing poles as well as this helped ours enormously in this area !

I think many people don't give their horses the credit for the intelligence to sort out their strides into a jump. They can figure it out with practice, but this doesn't happen overnight, the grid work, trotting poles, placing poles etc help to establish consistency of pace and stride, and the horses do learn to understand the value of this !

All imo of course ;)

[fishiz3434]

i've acctually been having the same problems with my girl, i acctually wrapped my flyboots around our practice pole at the stables because i dont have bell boots and she was knocking the poles so often i didn't want her to hurt herself and for sum reason she's not hit the pole since even with out the boots wrapped around the pole, she obviously didn't want to touch them and found it a lot easier to jump without knocking the poles lol i dont know wat else you can do but that worked for me :)