Careless over poles...

Sparkles

Sparkles

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My lad (ex racer) is just well...crap over poles lol.
Absolutely fine over solid/xc jumps but just seems to know poles just fall down if he hits them and is not bothered whatsoever.
We've tried a hell of a lot of things to get him to pick his feet up over poles (groundpoles and jumps) but he is just completely careless over them regardless.
We've made the fences so he has to backoff them abit (typical flat hurdler style jumping) by adding solid fillers, coats dangling off the pole, putting two poles in a V on the centre of the jump, weight boots...but still knocks them the majority of the time. Tried freejumping, gridwork, etc. I've debooted him too but he still doesnt care about hitting them even without leg protection and even made the jump consist of lots of poles etc so when it came down he'd pretty much take the lot down and hopefully give him the hint to pick his feet up next time....
but nothing made a difference really. He just has no respect for poles.

Dont' get me wrong he is improving, but just not a drastic amount.
He's never going to be grade A or have SJ as his best forte but if he could just be more careful he'd be perfect as he never cares what he's jumping, never looks at anything (done water trays, brushes, wall fillers, spreads etc) and is not phased by whatever height you put in front of him.

Just wondered if any of you guys had used any other methods or had any tips? He's careful as anything over solid fences,but normal show jumps it's just shocking lol haha bless him.

edited to add - no soundness issues,up to date with teeth,mctimoney, tack fitted, etc.
 
have you tried lunging him over raised trotting poles that are really close together to make him watch where he is putting his feet it builds up the muscles in their legs at the same time i do this once a week as part of a phsyio regime for my gelding and have noticed that his jumping has been recently improving as well as we used to always have a few poles down in every class but now we are lucky enough to have none unless its my fault
 
Yep tried polework/raised pole work lunging etc and still careless lol. His action is naturally a bit 'flicky footed' (to be technical lol!) and just doesn't quiiite get the whole picking feet up for things!
 
My ex-racer was just like this - we managed to rack up 32 faults in one competition!!

We had to have four months off jumping due to a tendon sheath injury and I did nothing but flatwork with him building up to lots of lateral work and then raised trotting poles. When we started jumping again he's giving the fences lots of air!! Have comcluded it could have been a balance, physical awareness or strength issue and frustrating though four months of nothing but flatwork was its worked wonders!!
 
If you can't fix the problem through flat work or anything else, could you build a SJ where he would have to really hit the pole to make it fall? i.e. not just tap.
If he thought that there was a possibilty that they might not all fall he may decide to pick up over them. I would suggest lunging him over it so that if he does hit it a) pain is not directly associated with you and jumping and b) if he gets into trouble probably easier to sort himself out with out your weight on board...

Never tried it, it is just an idea. Good luck.
 
Thanks guys
smile.gif
yeah we've been working on our flatwork mainly and he's getting there bless him, can do basic shoulder-in, leg yeild, etc and it is helping.
Jumped him an hour or so ago and he was brilliant (sods law lol!), we did knock some down but only had to get off him once to put it back up rather than everytime!
I took the pole down thats usually on top of the wall fillers we have so he was just jumping the solid wall filler with the poles on the ground either side in front of it.Took him over that and he jumped it carelessly one time and we had a bit of a scramble over it as it was more solid than a pole and really hit it...think that made him wake up a little bit as we jumped everything clear after that!

Any other ideas welcomed too!x
 
what about trying an upside down 'v' on the jump to encourage him to jump slightly higher and pick his feet up more? so you have a pole (dotted lines and two poles placed in upside down 'v' the slashes)

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