Shying/refusing jumps

[miggy]

Our little sec A will occasionally violently shy at a jump for no apparent reason. just tiny cross poles so not being overfaced, has even done it occn with a ground pole. Theres no rhyme or reason to it, always jumps that she has seen before, nothing scarey, all different riders. Comes into the jump then a few feet away, stops and leaps sideways dropping her shoulder.
She hasnt done it for ages but tonight did it with a child-who came off twice. My daughter is just plucking up the confidence to canter and jump and if she does it with her that will be the end for her jumping (and obv feel bad about the other child coming off)
Any tips?ideas ?
Tonight after she did that I put my daughter on a we did it on lead rein a few times then she trotted over it on her own-fine.

[eml]

Just a thought but does she do it when the child gets into jumping position in anticipation of the jump? One of ours takes this as a signal to run out , not so violent as yours but similar reaction?

[miggy]

Hadnt really thought about that. Think probably not as when mine are jumping little jumps we dont do jumping position really but will watch for that.
She doesnt do it often enough to really get a handle on it but its confidence zapping when she does do it, because its so unexpected and hard to sit.

[loziasa]

Could it be a reaction to pain? Even if it's only a teeny weeny ground pole or cross pole, it could be that your horse has pain at some point during its jumping action i.e back/spine/muscular pain. This could be an strain, or it could be down to some ill fitting tack causing soreness/stiffness. It could even be his teeth, and possibly the movement of the riders hands pulling/tensing the rein, causing soreness in the mouth.
Maybe even it has been in the past that he had pain that was exacerbated by jumping, and now there is a memory there of 'owwww!! that might hurt you can forget me doing that!'
I know of a horse that I saw at a demo who would be mounted from the ground but would never ever stand to be mounted from a block. It turns out that the horse was previously owned by a rather plump owner, who would always mount from a block. The weight of this owner eventually meant the horse had a back prob and couldn't be ridden. The horse got a new owner, and because he related being mounted from a block with pain, he wouldn't allow the new owner to mount from a block, but the floor was fine. Its really strange!
Could this be a possibility?
:)

[miggy]

Wouldnt have thought it would be so sporadic if pain. We are talking once every 4 mths-that kind of frequency, with nothing changing in between and being perfectly happy to canter round a course of 1ft6 jumps in the mean time.
Also tends to be the first jump if shes going to do it which I would have thought would be more likely the second, if something hurt the first time.
Not ruling anything out though-thanks :)