Help with overcoming showjump fear

[Jane&Ziggy]

As you probably all know, before I had him Ziggy was on a yard for 2 years being "produced as a showjumper". Obviously he failed, and his experiences have left him really terrified of coloured poles and jump wings.

I need to help him overcome this, not because I want to showjump, but because it's restrictive and potentially dangerous. If I'm entering a little walk and trot test and there's a jump beside the school I don't want him doing inadvertent loops and getting silly, and what if I enter a TREC and there's a little coloured jump obstacle?

I am going to get some poles and wings and have them in the field for in hand work. I was thinking about using them for clicker training too, getting him to come to me over the poles and through the wings, so he is choosing to do it. I wanted to ask for two pieces of advice:

(1) Would loose jumping help him - or is this likely to have been "done to him" on the jumping yard? I don't want to reinforce any bad anchors.

(2) Any other creative ideas for helping him overcome this phobia?

I know a few of you have dealt with this issue with your horses, so all experiences very gratefully received.

 

[Feffie]

Put hem in wierd places, poles out in the field, maybe leave a jump up, stick a pole in his stable, shelter, put some wings in the school and free school him, ignore any silly behaviour too.

 

[tiga]

I would put weird stuff over and around them so he has to think more about the strange stuff than the actual poles and jump wings. Then do groundwork around them and just leave them around while going your normal stuff.

 

[Joyscarer]

I'm no expert but I fancy having a muse on this one :redface:

It seems to me that the key would be in getting the horse to want to be with the jumps and not to see them as something to be avoided.

Any chance you can feed him next to them. Or work him in the arena and make his rest ponit near a jump. I personally would be looking for ways to reshape the thinking but I wouldn't be surprised if getting him used to the jumps at home wouldn't be enough and that the trigger of a competition senario would lead you to think you weren't making any progress at all.

 

[Wally]

I have had experience of two over faced ex show jumpers, some that had flown quite high before being frightened.

Both these horses NEVER got over their fear of jumping, it was so stressful for them we decided it was just not fair and let them be flat work horses only.

 

[Claire1605]

It's like Victory and his fear of bicycles. The vet doesn't think he would ever get over it.

Victory is fine with bikes when he is in the paddock it's when he is being ridden he knows he can't get away and he doesn't have his field mates with him. You can ride one on the yard and he just looks with a look of "and ... what mum?"

You could try leaving poles and wings in paddocks etc and see how it goes but for some horses something gets instilled in their brain which can never be corrected.

 

[Bodshi]

I have no experience but I just think you've done so well with him so far that I can't see why you can't go that little bit further! I think if you can get him used to jumps just being around without any pressure to jump it will help him even if he never jumps again - at least he won't have to stress himself up every time he sees one. After he's happy with that maybe you could take him to a few shows without actually entering him in anything?

 

[ladywiththebaby]

I am totally unqualified to comment really but I'll add my tuppence! I think that although from Wallys and Claires experiences there are obviously some horses who can never get over their fear, I'd hope that there are some that can? Or at least get a bit better. I would start by leaving a few poles out and about in the field and see how he reacts. You'll easily be able to tell his anxiety levels as you're so tuned in to him so you'll know when the challenge is too easy / too hard for him.

I think once he's got used to them being around a bit that clicker training him to touch one would be a good idea. Again you'll know from him whether its too much to ask of him or not, and can make sure you time it right.

Even if he doesn't ever get over it, at least you'll know you tried to help him as much as you could. Good luck!!

 

[newforest]

As you probably all know, before I had him Ziggy was on a yard for 2 years being "produced as a showjumper". Obviously he failed.QUOTE]

I find that quite sad that a yard would scare a horse like this and then say they're no good.

Anyway back to the point.

I guess with anything like this i would introduce gradually, maybe leaving a pole somewhere but well away and not focusing on it at all.

Getting him to focus and trust you, that nothing bad will happen with the pole and see how you get on, maybe approach and retreat a few times. With any horse that's terrified of something it's the same idea with a big object.

Jack used to be terrified of water, he's leap puddles, run for his shelter if it rained, bucked if he got splashed. The only way he overcome it was by me not making a thing of it, so not focusing on it. I actually started to tell him to go around the puddles and he chose to go through, reverse pschology?

If you want to do trec you can miss the jump out and score a 0 that's no big deal, the jumps we had were rustic ones. So that's another angle, rustic poles and see what response you get.

 

[skyenfaye]

For the poles you could try leaving them in the entrance of his field, so he steps over them every day and they start to become normal. If going straight to coloured poles is too much try a rustic pole then gradually increase it to say, a White pole, then a yellow and White pole etc. Once he has gotten used to the poles you could start to leave wings on each side of his gate maybe.
Doing flat work, you could build a square of poles and put a bucket in it so he steps over them to get the food. Then try raising the poles even I it's just like 5cm or something. You do clicker training I think. Or that could be some one else. :redface: but if you do is that the sort of thing you'd use it for? I know nothing about it but it seems like a reasonable thing to do. You could click and treat every time he steps over the poles? If that's how it's done......
Then you could start riding him over a pole in the middle of the arena then add more and make a line of trottig poles. Then you could try raised trotting poles and eventually a small jump possibly?
I hope that made SOME sense.:giggle: