rushing towards jumps

[nessa]

my horse joe has been very strong the last couple of days while jumping, as i havent jumped for about a month so i decided to go over some small jumps, and trotting poles as he hasent jumped it for a while.
he was fine warming up and doing ground work, he was a bit faster and stronger than usual, but not too much. so, i went over the trotting poles first to warm him up for the jumps and as i was heading towards him he just sped up and would not slow down so he ended up nocking all the poles :rolleyes:, i straightend the poles and got him to walk over them and got him to halt when i asked, he was fine so i got him to trot over the poles again and he did it properly, after going over the trotting poles a coupple of times i went over a small jump, small enough to trot over, so i asked him to trot and he rushed a bit so i did some half halts and slowed my rising down, he slowed down a bit but about four strides before the jump he just rushed in a fast canter towards it and wouldent slow down he ended up knocking the tiny jump because he was going to fast and jumped it really wide and flat :rolleyes:
and after the jump he kept cantering and it took about a lap of the small paddok i ride in to get him to trot, he did slow down but he just kept cantering, doing a really slow canter arching his neck on the bit snd locking his neck and jaw into place so i couldent stop :rolleyes: after i setteled him down a bit i tryed to get him to do it again nicley but this time i tryed to get him to do it with the pole on the ground so he dident even have to jump it, i made him trot but he still cantered about two strides before it and cantered over it, i kept doing it till he did what i asked and i maneged to get him to do it reasonabley calm, without cantering over it, so i cooled him down and finished up. i rode again yesterday and he did the same thing:rolleyes: hes just got so much energy and is so strong, is there anything i can do to get him jumping properly again without rushing and being strong? he is ridden in a sweet iron eggbut snaffle with a flash nose band, and i used my running martingale yesterday as when he rushes he puts his head up in the air and is even harder to stop. do u think mabey its just the new autumn grass, as its autumn here in australia, and the cooler weather? any help is much appreciated, thanks :)

[ANN H]

I have the same problem with Misty. She gets so excited as soon as she sees a jump. We only have room for 1 or 2 jumps as the paddock is so small. We'll trot a lap of the paddock but as soon as we head towards the jump she takes off in canter. She does calm down when we're on the other side but it can be a problem. I would be grateful for any advice as well. We're starting work on this with RI this Saturday as my friend wants to take her into working hunter classes so we need to calm her somehow.

[nessa]

anyone have any tips, or suggestions? anything much appreciated:) thanks

[Cheeky]

Heya

Yeah .. the new grass could have something to do with it, as I noticed Missy was all 'ansty' when I went to lunge her on Sunday - she just would NOT stop cantering .. and was pulling constantly.

I'd get off and start by maybe lunging him - getting rid of some steam. You could also lunge over a few jumps, let him find his balance.

When you ride over the jump - focus on that one jump. Put a small X bar up, and then go over it .. but then do a circle, and repeate, repeate, repeate!! This will alow him to calm down, and realise that there is no rush for him to get over it as fast as possible. So yeah .. that's what we did with a few horses that would rush - just do a large circle and only do that one jump .. and try to keep it in a trot.

I second having a pole infront - make sure he picks his feet up, you may need two poles before hand. Also make sure you come in with a good working trot - I know its hard when he just wants to canter off into the sunset, but if you can get a good trot out of him, that will help him pick up his feet. The reason he may have gone flat is because he was cantering, but you were asking not to and his strides weren't as large as they needed to be? Just a guess :rolleyes:

How big is your horse?? Where abouts in Aust are you ?? :) I am in WA :p

[nessa]

thanks heaps cheeky:D
i lunged him yesterday and he has so much energy, he was fine at first before i lunged him over a small jump:rolleyes: he was listening to all my voice comands and everything then as soon as he sees the jump he took off rushing over the jump :rolleyes:, i could not get him to slow down at all:eek:
then he eventually tired him self out and calmed down, and i maneged to get him to trot over it :) . i had a small ride today and did a jump a coupple of times,he was much better but still very strong and rushed, so i did some circles before and around the jumps and did some transitions to get him listening better and then tryed the jump again and he was much better he dident rush towards the jump, but he still took off after it and it took about a lap of the paddok to stop! but i did it a coupple more times to make him do it right and i maneged to get him to do it slower but he still would not maintain his trot even though thats what i was asking him to do as it was a tiny jump and small enough to trot over. thanks for your tips, nextime i'll try the poles, and only do one jump. i live in W.A too:D and my horse is 16hh

[Cheeky]

Hey cool!!
Yeah .. I was also going to say lots of flat work :p but it sounds like you have done a lot. Try doing more downward transitions, and geting control of the strides by practising lengthening and shortening the strides.

If he takes off in a hoon around the paddock, try and ask him to do his 'hooning' on a circle. Its a much more safe alternative than arounda paddock :p And dont forget your outside rein is the breaks.

You could even do one rein stops .. teach him to do one rein stops, and then after the jump, as for a one rein stop :p we did that with one horse. worked alright too. Or, you could put a pole a few meters after the jump, and that will be your aim to come to a complete halt no matter what gait your in. That worked for my sister - she loved to hoon, and now she has complete control. And if your horse flies over the pole, you make him back up (after halting) until you get to that pole :p

Just some fun ideas to help get him engaged with what you want :)

[ponylover88]

Have you had his back, teeth and tack checked? My horse rushed at fences because his back was abit sore. We had the physio out and hes ok now.

Also, i second the trotting poles before the jump. Try putting about 4 trotting poles and then a jump together. He will have to trot over the poles (unless he wants to hurt his feet) and trot over the jump. Also, you could take him in short.

While my horse was going thru his rushing phase, i had a jumping lesson with a top showjumper. She said to stop him on the approach. If he didnt stop, ram him into the fence. Make him stop, do whatever it takes. It works ;) i now always bring him back to a trot after the fence unless were doing a course. If its just 2-3 fences ill still bring him back to trot. When hes being super stupid, i bring him back to a walk (had to during a working hunter course before!) and walk him onto the approach, asking for trot a few strides away from the fence. If he tries to break into a trot, circle him. :D

[Floob]

tarquin rushes and gets excited when he hasn't jumped in a while.
what we do is put out a line of canter poles (more versatile) and walk over them, around them stop over them. Then trot over them and walk over them randomly. Then increase the speed to either trotting or cantering only coming at them when he is relaxed and listening, otherwise we go past them.

Then what we do is lay out about 5 canter poles quite close to the short side of the school so that the approach becomes quite short and put a jump at the end asking him to trot ove rthem all just like before. this works best if you have someone building the x pole while you go round once so your horse doesnt anticipate. we then tend to make grids with bounces to get him thinking and using himself well. They won't be able to jump a row of bounces if they are rushing, also helps horses learn to check their own speed.

We are only going be jumping single jumps once he is completely calm and relaxed in both directions.

tarquin usually also get sexcited when cantering, so when we haven't jumped for a while we will only warm up in walk and trot beforehand which makes it much easier to keep the trot rhythm into fences

[dilaika]

The horse I ride is exactly like that. People stopped jumping him at my barn (he's a school horse) and basically only used him for dressage b/c he gets so fast. (He's a TB and both an ex-racehorse and an ex-foxhunter, so he has the speed thing implanted in his brain) I've spent a lot of time working with him, and we're now actually doing jumps w/out him landing fast and strong. Here're a couple of things we do:

-Don't give him a long line of sight. I'm assuming that you're jumping inside an arena - try setting up jumps on the short side or near the end of the arena so that they'll have to make a turn relatively soon after the jump. For some horses, seeing lots of space after the jump blows their mind.

-Don't give him a chance to anticipate. Switch it up; one time do the jump with a nice long approach, another cut across the ring so that the approach is different, another halt after the jump, another halt some strides before the jump and then trot it, switch directions every couple of jumps, etc. Try having several independent jumps set up so that you can do one than the a different one. If horses think that they know what they're about to do, then can get bored/independent and start getting fast. Often, if they can't anticipate they will listen to you much better

-also be very aware of the types of jumps that you do. Do things like bounces where they have to be aware of where their feet are, and so can't get super long and fast. Don't do lines with big distances (like 5,6,7 strides) in between the jumps, do in-and-outs and the such with slightly short distances so that the horse doesn't have the room to really stretch.

-you said that you tried slowing him with your posting; depending on both the rider and the horse, some people (like me) find it easier to slow them when doing a sitting trot up to the jump.

-Depends on the horse, but for some, like the guy I ride, cantering gets them worked up. We don't do an independent canter before jumping, just after jumps (I do plenty of canter work with him when not in jumping lessons and we give him a good warm-up at the trot, so this is ok)

-One thing my instructer has had me work on: instead of pulling on his mouth to slow him down before the jump, just hold steady pressure. Generally, we're taught to do half-halts and the like, but occosionally just holding steady pressure and not giving (obviously doing a small release over the jump and not keeping exceedingly hard steady pressure) works.

-be aware of your position, particularly your hands. Especially over small jumps, you don't have to do a huge release. Just make sure that you give a little, but you don't have to throw your hands at him. On the other extreme, make sure that you are giving them some release. Both giving them too large a release and pulling on their mouth over the jump often makes horses want to take off

-I don't know how honest your horse is, whether he's one that will refuse. The horse that I ride won't...so I can (as an excercise, obviously not all of the time) basically do a trot at an absolute snails pace and he'll go over, which helps

This is what I've been working on for a couple of months...sorry it's a lot, lol. Good luck!

[vikkit06]

hi,

I had a little pony like that and i found t he best thing to do was put youre jumps up and do some trotting work in front of the jump such as turning away about to metres before or a circle or stopping every four stides up to the jump and trotting again and halting all the way up to the fence this seemed to work brill as the horse realised it had to listen to me all the way to the jump at not just to her self.
good luk x

[nessa]

thanks everyone for all your help:)
yes he has had his teeth done they where done in march and he just got his saddle fitted about three months ago and all his tacks fine, he does this when i lunge him whith no tack on too, so its just him getting excited about jumping. i will try the not cantering thing while jumping and only do trotting, so he dosent get too excited, and i'll position the jumps better so there is no where to run off after the jump, i will also try with the poles in front of the jumps and the bounce jumps. thanks everyone for all yor tips and i'll tell you how it goes :)

[lifeofriley]

i have a 15.2hh 5 year old TB X gelding. I jump him and he rushes jumps that are too small. as soon as the jumps are put up a hole he takes them nice and calmly. Try putting the jumps up a hole and try not to interfere with his speed too much, start him off at a brisk trot/steady canter and let him pace himself. horses will only knock a jump if they are being interfered with