Advice on. . .

[Flint12]

Hi,

I have a five year old who i cant ride at the moment as my saddle is a bit busted, sooo. Untill the saddler is out nect week im trying to think of some things to do.

I have been lunging him recently once a week and he has been going really well listening to my voice etc.But now my saddle is busted i thought i would try jumping him on the lunge to give him some variety.

Well i did this tonight and he was really good. I got him going over about 2"6 and then i didnt want to go any higher as it was his first time jumping on the lunge with me. Im going to keep doing it occasionally as it was really fun and flint was flying.

The thing i want advice on is loose jumping. . .

When i free school him he goes loo loo. . .I think it is probably him just being a baby and like having the chance to really go for it.

When i have loose jumped him before i have set up a double with a cross for the first fence and an upright or spread as the next fence. What flint does is happily jump the first one. . . .and stops on the middle(to eat grass through fence). How do i get him flowing through it and not stopping?

Any general help about loose jumping would be super. . .

thanks

 

[lottiiee]

Hi,

I would suggest getting him over canter poles first. So when you can successfully get him flowing over canter poles, I would then raise one of then (middle one) and get him thinking about picking his feet up over that and then raise them all a little and then go for one jump with a placing pole/canter pole.

Then when you can do all of these confidently without any issues, introduce the double (Obivoulsy i mean all of this to be done over various sessions and not all in one go)

To make sure he keeps moving and does not stop, is making sure he respects you and the lunge line. When you use either your voice, posture and lunge line you need a reaction. So when you ask him to move forwards he should do so unless asked to slow down or stop, if these are not in place then there is no hope in getting him over the jump(s).
If he does not move forwards, then before all of this you need to work on loose schooling him and getting him off the aids (I did a little too much work getting my young horse not to be scared of the lunging whip, now she will quite happily barge through it, so I tried a little bit of a plastic bag on the end of the hard bit, which because it's different plus makes a small noise works much better for me and she does move forward with it)
Best of luck if you can make sense of my massive essay!
x

 

[whatevernext]

hello
try to jump him over one jump at a time even if you have one jump on each side if he is going mad he could hurt him self if you go over doubles. wait untill he calms down then try doubles sometimes babies can go mad when free schoolin
cya tomoz