Building confidence??

[Gemma16]

Hi everyone, I've been doing a bit of jumping with Taffy recently which he seems to enjoy, BUT he is very green at it and seems to rush up to them then kinda have a lil panic, try to duck out but jumps it.

I was just wondering if anyone could suggest any exersices to help me build his confidence when jumping?

Thanks:)

[Showjumper]

Trot and canter poles, raised cavaletti, lots of rein changes and transitions to keep him focussed on you. Start low and gradually increase the height an width.

[Nerys]

Same as showjumper, pretty much.

I'd get him trotting over cavelletti and ground poles. You might want to try some gymnastic jumping as well, which is basically this pattern:

||||-X-X-X-X (| ground pole, X jump, - stride)

where you gradually build up from the small elements (ground poles) and gradually add another jump until he's doing poles, stride, jump, stride, jump etc over four jumps.

[DITZ]

Gemma I had the same problem a few weeks ago, and i was at my wits end it was so terryfying. I have lessons so we were making progress but i found my instructor was moving too quickly for him by introducing grids etc. I decided that to slow him down I would to take 2 steps back in order to get 1 forwards. I put just one small cross pole in the field and made it my aim to get him to walk up to it and over it. In the first session we progressed from turning the corner seeing the fence and bolting at it to turning and cantering. Next session we got a trot halfway into it then canter up to it and over it. Next session he trotted all the way up and over and finally on the next session he walked up to it and over it. Remember to praise each time even when he goes at it flat out, he is scared and lacking confidence. Once you have him calmly doing this you could start introducing little grids and combinations but he needs to get his head round jumping at all first.

[Tootsie4U]

Good advice above.. but one more thing to add: TRUST HIM! (or at least until he gives you a darn good reason not to;) )

[Gemma16]

Hi DITZ, that sounds like more achieveable advice. Maybe i'll try the grids and poles a bit later when he's actually got the whole point of you have to get over the jump! And yey its fun.:D ;)

Showjumper and nerys that is good advice too but just a little advanced yet for him. But I think that will be the next step.

Thanks all.

I'll no doubtly be back on to ask more advice soon.:D

[Gemma16]

Oops sorry tootsie4u, I do trust him so no probs there just have to get him to trust me that it is ok to go near the scary jump.;)

[kedwards]

The type of exercise that Nerys described is actually easier for a green horse because the striding is already arranged for him. It sets him right up for the jump and gives him confidence that he can actually get over it without rushing.

In it's simplest form, you can set up 4 trot poles (about 4'6" apart, depending upon his stride), followed by a cross rail about 9' away from the last trot pole. Naturally, he has to be comfortable going over trot poles before starting the exercise.