On the forehand

[xLucyloox]

I hacked my showjumping mare over for my weekly lesson for the first time. I was told that she is very 'on the forehand'. I understand that this means weight is distributed unevenly, more being on the front than the back, meaning heavy weights on the end of my reins and a harder horse to manouver :(
My reason for posting this is to ask if there are any really good and effective exercises for getting her more balanced and have a more 'airy' kind of natural canter, which will in turn help her jumping. She is a good jumper, but being on the forehand means she often takes off far to close to the jump, i lose balance and tip forward and usually results in knocking down poles.

Any exercises, tips or advice more than welcome!

[kedwards]

Doing frequent and prompt transitions are helpful, as they serve multiple purposes. First, they require the horse to stay balanced. Secondly, they often "liven up" a horse since it keeps the horse looking for the next command. Third, they build up the horse's "carrying" muscles.

Work on hills, over trot poles, and through simple gymnastic grids are other examples of exercises that encourage a horse to use himself in such a way that he stays balanced and builds up the muscles in his hind end and topline.

[crazy_in_love]

i have had the same problem with my youngster.
the best exercise's i have found are just lenghening and shortening the canter, like lenghten down 1 side of the arena and do a small canter circle in each corner, this makes the horse work hard...it has to prop itself up on the turn, and takes the weight to its hocks.. when riding this make sure you sit up and really support the horse, or the exercise wont really work. the horse has to stay in the same rythm through the lengthening and shortening..

as above transitions are excelent, walk to canter especially, and maybe backing up and then moving on too.

in trainning showjumping is 75% flatwork and only 25% jumping really

[rocketman]

Grids!

A showjumper must learn to carry itself, find its own balance and jump off its hocks. The whole idea behind grids is for the rider to be a passenger and let the horse learn to sort it out.

Set a placing pole on the ground to trot in to a little crossrails (about 9' away - move the ground rail until you find the best distance to trot over the pole and pop over the cross rails.) Gradually add jumps, one at a time, one stride apart - vertical next, then parallel, then vertical, parallel, etc. The first stride, between the cross rails and the vertical should be about 21" and the distances about 24' thereafter. (Don't add the next jump after the horse has mastered the simpler grid in the previous schooling session.)

The object is to trot in nice and straight, get in a forward seat, grab mane and let the horse figure it out. Once the horse has mastered the basic grid, gradually widen the parellels and thereby shortening the strides in-between, so that the horse learns to back of each jump but stretch to jump the spreads.