Building horses confidence Jumping - frequency?

[Jericho]

Horse is a rising 6yr old TB (raced 4 times) and a bit of worrier when it comes to jumping. He has an enthusiastic and big jump and was therefore exposed early last year before we got him to some big busy environments but he couldn’t cope /couldn’t concentrate resulting in sevrral retirements (his xc is awesome though) We got him 6 months ago after this, realised that we needed to put a lot of work in and took him back to basics. Currently jumping him once a week at most - either at a clinic or just at home. He enjoys jumping but he loses confidence very quickly, most sessions he has the odd stop or two at fillers sometimes for no reason so our aim is to just get him to lots of different venues and see different fillers etc but how often would you do this? Is it better to just go out once a week consistently or would it be too much to jump twice /three times a week for a couple of weeks, all very low key easy stuff - mix of Jumping at home, clinics, shows, gridwork and then give him a week off Jumping to process? (We do also just go out to flatwork clinics too so that every trip isn’t a jumping trip and he is very chilled out traveling / standing by lorry/ warming up. Just wondering if we should ‘flood’ his brain a bit with the jumping and do little and often so it becomes all quite boring and run of the mill and he doesn’t even think about it?

 

[blood_magik]

I’m probably in the minority here but I would be jumping 2-3 times a week if it’s only small stuff. You can work some of it into your flatwork to mix things up a little and keep him thinking.

My jumping horses usually jump twice a week when they’re in proper work - sometimes three times if they’re at a show. If they’re particularly up for it, I tend to do a little bit more to almost bore them out of overreacting.

 

[be positive]

I would also be jumping several times a week, sometimes they only require a few actual jumping efforts to achieve what we want, the problem with jumping just once a week is it can become a big deal and they end up doing far too much in one go then don't see another jump for a week which to me means they can become stressed, fed up, over excited because they are jumping too much in one session rather than having short sweet lessons which finish before they are stretched too far.

I like to mix things up while they are still developing, usually poles, small grids and a couple of unrelated fences at home leaving the courses to going to clear round days so they get to see a full course without the pressure of competing if they are spooky types then they continue CR until they have learned that a jump is a jump and stop looking at fillers, it is usually a lack of confidence so building confidence is the priority in every session when they jump whether it is at home or away the need to end on a positive note.

Flooding does not sit well with me, a happy medium of doing enough without them being jaded is ideal.

 

[Jericho]

Thank you both - both very sensible approaches.

Yes I think I am leaning towards incorporating a bit more jumping in to the work week (I have always since I was young never jumped 2 days in a row unless actually competing or more than 3 times a week) our current regime of once every week or so doesnt seem to be doing much at the moment as the first jump is always approached with an air of caution. I want the jumping to be 'just another exercise' and 'oh heres a jump lets just pop over it as we merryily go our way' approach rather than 'ohhh we are jumping, lets over think it and think something bad/scary is about to happen' (will help with rider too maybe)

 

[Bernster]

Following with interest. Me and horse need to build up confidence and I'm not even doing once a week at the moment! But have realised I need to up that if we are to make progress. Will add in some other days of doing the odd bit of jumping. Pole work we do anyway as part of flatwork, and he's really got the hang of that now.

 

[be positive]

Following with interest. Me and horse need to build up confidence and I'm not even doing once a week at the moment! But have realised I need to up that if we are to make progress. Will add in some other days of doing the odd bit of jumping. Pole work we do anyway as part of flatwork, and he's really got the hang of that now.

It is just as important for the rider to get enough jumping experience under their belt to improve their confidence, most people with one horse will not get nearly enough jumping to really get their eye in let alone gain the experience to bring on a horse that is learning at the same time, even experienced riders soon become rusty if they are not jumping regularly, less than once a week is not enough although it is quality not quantity that is important when you do jump.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

I'm another who would definitely be jumping more often. If you have the facilities to do so, it can be helpful to leave a few small jumps up in the school and school around them most of the time, then just pop over one or two and go back to schooling, maybe pop another one maybe not. That way you don't turn jumping into a big thing, and it just becomes part of the routine, and also you can jump more often without putting too much strain on the horse. My instructor often tells me to just jump the jumps as if they're just in the way of what you were already doing. You're cantering a 20m circle? Great! Now you're cantering a 20m circle but there's a jump in the way, just carry on riding exactly the same way as you were before.

 

[JustMe22]

I would be doing it little and often, as I would with most young horses.

Alongside the bigger fences and courses, we always have between 1 and 3 very small exercises set up in the arena (zig zags, bounces, related distances etc). Literally none of them can be bigger than 60cm I wouldn't say, and some are smaller. We vary them every week. Last week there was a clover leaf/zig zag and a set of three bounces. Now there's a 7-stride related distance with an optional curve to an oxer. Next week there might be a line or two or three different gymnastics.

I take my new young horse through an exercise or two whenever I'm down in that arena, so twice or three times a week. We'll only jump it a couple of times and then we'll continue with whatever we were doing beforehand, or finish on that.

I'll pop a small log out on a hack if one presents itself as well. Not repeatedly, just once if we're trotting or cantering past and it happens to be there.

Admittedly, current horse is quite relaxed about jumping though very green but the previous one was also an ex-racer and used to do everything at breakneck speed and throw enormous jumps. It definitely helped him realise that jumping is just a normal part of life.