Training to Jump?

[SpiritRider24]

Hi,
Ok, so I'm incredibly new to this board so i THINK this is the right place to post this. lol. But anyways, i started out riding when I was 10 at a local riding stables and I rode Quarter Horses/ Arabians/ Paints/ Crosses Of there and I rode there for about 2 years. I had started jumping just before they shut down and I was only jumping abou a foot or so maybe at the time. Sine then I've jumped probally 3 feet. lol. And on a Walking Horse ( who knew?) Well anyways, my dad wanted a horse to trail ride on and I figured Daddy was right about everything so I wanted to trail ride too. So we bought a TWH and an Walkaloosa. Well, it's been 3 years and quite franky I sincerly prefer Quarter Horses to Walking Horses. lol. And since I started Jumping at the riding stables I've ALWAYS wanted to jump. I've even got the horse my mom use to have ( 14 H gaited mare) to jump over ditches and my Walkaloosa to jump over logs when we go trail riding. But I REALLY want to compete. Right now me and my dad are looking at an 8 year old AQHA mare that has done western pleasure. She seems to have a pretty laid back personality and wants to do whatever you ask her to. How hard do you think that it will be to train her to jump so that I can show her in the local shows? My mom has told me that it's suppose to be really hard to train them to jump yet I'e got two of ours to willingly jump on the 1st attempt. Anyways, I was just wanting ya'lls opinion. lol. Sorry for such a long story!:D

[Pink's lady]

Knowing next to nothing about gaited horse, I guess they're not able to jump? Could they not be trained? maybe not.

Anyways - it's fairly easy to teach a horse to jump, you just need to be patient and fair about it. It's no harder than teaching a horse to canter.

Firstly you need to make sure the horse is totally happy with walking, troting and cantering over poles. You can do that on the lunge, in hand and ridden. Start in walk with one, and build up to three then five, then trot and canter. Then practise going between jump wing (that can often be quite scary for some horses).

Once they're 110% fine with poles, put them up so they have to make a bit more effort to get over, then finally have to jump. Start with X-poles so it's inviting and have it at the end of a line of three flat poles, to help with striding. Then you slowly increase the height, width and scaryness of the jumps.

It's not rocket science, but you need to take it slow and calm. If you over-face a young horse, that can last with them all their life and they may always be nervous of jumping. Make sure they spacing right so thy don't have to fumble, that the rider (i.e you) are balanced and gentle going over, so they don't get a yank in the mouth, and they they're not pushed further than they can manage.

With a bit of common-sense and time and patience, you can teach just about any horse to jump. Wether they'll make it the Olympic is another matter ;)

[SpiritRider24]

Wow...thanks alot! That was really helpful!:D Basically with gaited horses, they just weren't bred to jump. There have been a few that can jump, but they aren't bred to do so and probally won't be too great at it. Also was wondering, the poles that you get them to walk, trot, and canter over, where can you get them? I was also wondering if there was any specific saddle that you needed? Is there an online store that may have some good decent priced ones? ( I'm only 15 and I can only afford so much...lol) THanks for all the help tho!!!:D

[jUmPingIsLifE]

Gaited horses can definatly jump just fine. the problem comes when you want to show. I know of a quite a few paso fino's who could hold their ground against the warm bloods. we had a great TWH on the same 4h circut as me that had a great jump.

many judges will be prejiduced and if you do flat classes you wont be able to do it really because the horse doesn't trot. if you never had to trot in the show ring you would probably be fine with a gaited horse.

it is quite easy to train a horse to jump, but only an EXPERIENCED jump rider can make it easy. if you dont know what your doing there is no way to teach a horse. since you have trained other horses over fences you may be just fine.
start with poles until the horse is perfect then go to cross rails...basically what the other poster said..running out of time for a long post.

[SpiritRider24]

Oh...well the whole "Gaited Horses Can't Jump" is something that my old instuctor used to tell me. Guess we were wrong there....lol. Thanks for the info tho! It was really imformative. Still just wondering about the poles and the saddle? Thanks ya'll!

[Pink's lady]

Poles are just that - thick poles of wood. They're usually round (but I have square ones cos it was cheaper), about 6-8inches thick (preferably more) and about 8-10 ft long. They need to be smoth so the horse can't injure themselves, and heavy enough not to fly about if they're knocked. Very heavy duty drainpoles, filled with sand would do. Or you can buy specific poles, but they're expensive. You'll need at least 6 poles to teach a horse to jump, preferable 12. Then you'll need something to hold them up -wings. You can use verious types, as long a they're safe if the horse accidently charges into them.

As for saddles - you can jump in any english saddle. It's damn hard jumping in a western. The horse needs to be trained english first before you can start jumping and used to the saddle. You can get proper jumping saddles (forward cut knee rolls and a flat seat) or just a normal General Purpuse saddle (I'd suggest on of those). Dressage saddles (deep seat and long flaps) aren't realy good for jumping in , but you can.

It is ESSENTIAL that an egnglish saddle is a good fit. They come in various widths and shapes and they MUST fit the horses back otherwise they'll cause pain. It's a skilled job fitting an english saddle and you need to know what you're doing, otherwise get a saddle fitter out. There's loads of saddles out there, but you can't just pick one and stick it on and hope for the best.

Teaching a horse to jumping isn't hard, but it needs common sense and a lot of horse experience. Try to get as much jumping practise as possible and lessons before you try and do as much reading as possible. If you do it badly, you can serously injure the horse, or frighten it for life.