My little cob has never been the best of jumpers, I took him on a moor ride the over day and he was great, he cleared the x country jumps -following a horse in front -it was just over 2ft
A very brief (slightly overly obsessive
) word first
. If you KNOW your horse isn't the best of jumpers, then attempting xc fences is not the best course of action. EVEN if it was just a one off, EVEN if he was wearing super protective boots, EVEN if the fence was barely 2ft - it's not a good idea.
most of the time he just crashes through them or knocks them flying! he just isn't careful enough and dosen't tuck his feet up or actually 'jump' it as such!!
This is kind of my point
. If he did that with a solid fence, he could REALLY hurt himself (boots or no boots - he could still do significant damage). And injury aside - a nasty knock can ruin the most confident of jumpers.
I'm sorry, I know that probably sounds very patronising
! I don't mean it to be
. Some horses jump far better over natural fences than they do over showjumps - but best to find that out with a rustic but easily breakable fence before trying the solid stuff.
I'm sure you already knew all that
, but I'd hate a novice owner to read this thread and get the wrong idea.
Schooling will almost always help with any problem! You can do it on a hack, in the school and on the ground. Anything which gets him listening and respecting your aids (lots of transitions, circles, rhythm changes etc) is good.
Free schooling (or lunging if he doesn't free school too well) over poles, then cavelletis, then jumps is great for jumping problems specifically. It allows the horse to "feel" his own stride, prevents the rider from interfering and reduces risk to his owner
.
A good exercise (both with a rider on and whilst free schooling) is to put four poles in a row and have him trot over them (make sure you get the spaces between the poles right though, or he'll struggle). Then, when he's happy, replace the end pole with a tiny jump. Then start taking poles away. Then you can start putting 2 - 3 small jumps a stride or two apart.
If he goes better when following a horse, there's no reason you can't incorporate that into his training if things get a bit tough (just not all the time or it becomes a habit).
Gridwork helps teach a horse to balance himself, see a stride and lift his feet up when jumping. So anything like the above exercises are usually worthwhile.
As for the running out - resting one end of a pole on top of the jump wing and then putting the other end on the floor (at 90 degrees to the jump) will help guide him into the fence.
Maybe have his back, tack, teeth and general health looked at too - just in case (worth ruling out discomfort).
And you might find having a lesson with a good instructor helps pinpoint anything you may be doing wrong (it's good to have that distanced perspective sometimes).
But cobs can be super little jumpers! I'm sure he'll be fantastic once he gets going.