Horse loves jumping - a little too much!

crazystevie

crazystevie

Well hello :D
May 9, 2004
1,488
0
0
35
Nottingham
Although I have not ridden Byron yet, I have seen in ridden in the past, and watched him jump. I;ve seen him clear about 1.30 withn ease, and could probably jump much higher. When he was jumping though, he went steady up and over the fence, adjusting his stride himself, but after the fence, got really excited, and became hard to slow down - not bolting as such, but just difficult to settle after the fence. But boy, can this horse jump! He makes the perfect bascule over the fence. He has also been beautifully schooled on the flat, a simple leg aid, and tweak of your inside rein, and he drops onto a beautiful outline, and stays there, even when you ride off the buckle. I've been told he responds well to all your aids, and knows all the basic lateral work - leg yield, shoulder-in, travers etc. (bought off a friend, and seen him ridden many times, so definately true, and I know this horse pretty well. Quite a few people at the yard have ridden him, and all say how beautiful he is to ride) . He is snaffle mouthed, and has a very soft mouth, and doesn;t have any vices as such. He hasn't been ridden since june though.

I was going to spend the next few weeks lunging long reining and loose schooling, to help him fitten up and build up muscle, and then i was going to start riding him, and doing lots of road work to fitten him up. SO it probably won;t be for about 10 weeks til we start any form of jumping.

ANyway what can i do to teach him to settle after fences. I was planning on doing lots of lunging over small jumps, loose schooling over a few bigger ones, lots of pole work, and grids, but really quite unsure as to what kind of grids would be appropriate. Help much appreciated, as this horse has the potential to do so well in eventing, show jumping, and probably would make an ace working hunter too.
 
I would do lots of tranisitions so that he is listening to the aids that you give to slow down and steep up. Also use your voice you can do this either while you ride or lunge him.

Gridwork is also good as it get the horse listening to you and preparing for the next jump iw ould only make the jumps small however just so he gets used to jumping more than one jump

gridworl.jpg
 
A good way to get the horse to settle after the fence is to do a circle after the fence making sure the horse balance and in a good posetive rythmn.
 
Tell me about it! wish the other 2 were like him!

Can;t wait to start riding him though. Most people down at the yadr have rode him, and every single person who rode him commented on what a beautiful ride he is. He's Gonne be great hopefully! Just got to teach him to chill out on the excitability factor. Don;t mind it with my other 2, but he's a good 16'3, and it's a looonnnggggg way to fall :p

Thanks for your advice everyone. I was just gonna work on lots and lots of small jumps to start with, and quite technical grids, to get him to concentrate more, rather than just going at the fence and jumping it, and cantering off excitably the other side. I remember one person telling me that he got that carried away after a jump, that he carried on, out of the school :eek: And it's a pretty high fence around the school, with a drop into a cows field the other side
 
Circling, or asking for a gradual downwards transition to halt after about 3/4 strides will help get his attention and ask him to settle. Canter poles away from a jump will help regulate the length and rhythm of the canter and get him to think where his feet are.

Doing serpentine jumps where you have 3 jumps along the centre line and do serpentines around them varying the direction you turn afterwards will get him to listen and wait for your instuction. But if he's learnt to jump out of the school might not be a good idea.

Does anyone take him BSJA - they need to by the sounds of it!!
 
I will be though, definately. I think he'll make an awesome eventer though, as he's a good allrounder, and I think he'll be really bold cross country. He's 3/4 and 1/4 Irish Draught, so it's in his blood!
 
Best way to bring a horse back after a fence is to put a series of canter poles (3 or 4) starting 1 stride after the fence. The poles have 2 effects, 1)they encourage the horse to look down and hence lower the head making bringing him back easier and 2) they regulate the canter after the fence for you.
 
I like that idea, but i;d be scared that he'd take the hole thing as a spread! i'm much wimpier than you! Do you know how on them vids you posted, you said bl**dy hell, i'll be saying much worse things. This horse takes off way before the jump and lands just as far after. He has a huge fast powerful jump, which is great, but kinda scary! And he's much bigger than my other 2 midgets!
 
He wont jump then if you intorduce them form a low height. If you are worried about the possibility then put the first 2 strides after then another 2 strides after that. What you will find is the horse will steady both in to the fence and after. Its like using a grid but where the grid only regulates the horse for a single stride between fences the canter poles will teach him to come back to you on the flat after the fence. If you are running out of space then can also extent around the corner.

Other option is to halt and i do mean HALT the horse immdeiately after the fence. Do this every time you jump and in a very short space of time the horse will land and check waiting for your request.
make sure when you land after a fence you dont just ask for a check even when he has started to wait for you on landing. Still ask for a halt but as soon as he submits to the request aloow him forward in to the canter you want.
 
Your probably right - i think he'll looks at a littel jump and just laugh. OH i'm scared, i'm not keen on flying! The highest i've ever jumped os about 4foot out hunting, but thats on my little safe Murphy!
 
DavidH said:
He wont jump then if you intorduce them form a low height. If you are worried about the possibility then put the first 2 strides after then another 2 strides after that. What you will find is the horse will steady both in to the fence and after. Its like using a grid but where the grid only regulates the horse for a single stride between fences the canter poles will teach him to come back to you on the flat after the fence. If you are running out of space then can also extent around the corner.

Other option is to halt and i do mean HALT the horse immdeiately after the fence. Do this every time you jump and in a very short space of time the horse will land and check waiting for your request.
make sure when you land after a fence you dont just ask for a check even when he has started to wait for you on landing. Still ask for a halt but as soon as he submits to the request aloow him forward in to the canter you want.
Click to expand...


I have a question about this. I have had horses for only seven years and (as mentioned in the 'how long' thread) have had no formal training. My first horse was an arabian cross who was scared of EVERYthing. He would not even walk up to a ground pole let alone jump something! It took days for him to comfortably approach and step over a pole lying on the ground so when he finally DID do this I simply let him stop and praised, praised, praised. (was working from the ground).

Anyway, short and long of it is that he really never learned to 'keep going' after jumping and even now (5 years and lots and lots and lots of jumps later) he has a very choppy way of landing. He takes his own distance to the fence and it's amazing to watch him size it up himself and jump differently for a short or long distance (we know nothing of taking a distance so Dancer HAD to learn himself!). But when he lands it's all on his forehand ad seems very jarring when compared to how some of my other horses land. None of whom, coincidentally, were allowed to stop after the fence because I thought that it was the 'stop' which messed Dancer up.

When I do have a problem w/excess speed after a fence (and please keep in mind these are barrels and homemade stuff here in my yard - nothing more than 30" at Most) I usually do a small circle and go right back over the fence - sort of like we were lounging around it.

Anyway, for a horse who is really charging after the fence halting sounds like a really good thing - but I was wondering if the choppy front end stuff was a result of my starting Dancer this way or maybe it's just his own way and it was nothing I did???? sylvia
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back