An SJ Question and a question about Appaloosas

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spotty_pony

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One of my boys is a brilliant jumper, but he tends to prefer jumping out hunting or hacking and lacks confidence over show jumps. He has never been overfaced, and on average he never jumps over 3ft. Also, he is only jumped every couple of weeks.

I jumped him tonight in the outdoor school with the floodlights on as there was a nice course set up (about 2ft6ish) and after three refusals at the first fence I got off and put them all down as cross poles/small uprights and jumped he around them until he was jumping them confidently and without hesitating.

I think it might be because he is a bit out of practise as we haven't jumped any show jumps for a while, and also they did look quite spooky with the floodlights shining on them! But I was just wondering if anybody could suggest some good confidence building exercises I could do with him? Should I go back to basics?

Also, my other questions are could he possibly have been spooking because he couldn't see them properly? He is an Appaloosa and I've heard they suffer from 'night blindness'. Is this common?

Any advice much appreciated. :)
 
What type of appaloosa is he? There is a link between colour patterns and night blindness, the less spotty they are i.e. few spot, roan the more likely they are to have night blindness. Try jumping a few times in the daylight and see if he still refuses.
 
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