Always stops to look at jump first?

[MB1201]

Hi I'm looking for any tips.

My loan pony is still green to her jumping but has done it long enough to be confident over small fences- once you get her going she really flies over them , but with every single jump we do, she will find a way to evade it and have a look first, 9 times out of ten the second time she will jump it fine but it does seem like a general ' is this safe' look, she will run out or wiggle into the fence and it is very difficult to get her over it. We make sure that she is driven over the fence and know we are doing this correct,y as second time she'll go forward into a nice rhythm and pop over it. How can I get her to trust me and the jump and go over everything without needing to look first? Want to go show jumping but we'd be eliminated by fence three 😂!!

 

[Shay]

There isn't really enough info in your post to guess - what does your instructor say?

 

[SirDuke]

Not sure if this is super helpful but my horse used to do that, particularly cross country....we found that it just went with time. As his confidence grew, he'd take a look less and less. Once he's had a good look at a rustic log, for example, he stopped looking at different rustic logs. We still may have a stop with a new type of jump, like last week when we tackled a corner for the first time, but I just think it's a sign that they are green or lacking in confidence. We used to stop at the first jump of a showjumping course every single class - then it was only the bigger classes - now we don't stop. It just takes time

 

[applecart14]

A lot of it is down to the rider, are you totally confident or are you worried your horse will stop so are 'almost glad' he has seen the fence first? Just wondering because that's how I used to be - this was me lacking in confidence. Even now if I think Bailey will run out or refuse a fence (which happens much less frequently now) I will show him the jump as we enter the arena first. Watching Bailey on video the week before at Weston Lawns, it does make me smile, literally every jump he has a good look at as he is going over!