Charging into fences!

Traks

Traks

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 September 2021
Messages
3,236
Visit site
Hi just wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom about very keen horses jumping?

My daughters pony loves jumping, she typically will be steady going into the fences in trot or a steady canter for about the first 8-10 jumps she does…but after that she just gets faster and faster. She becomes your typical point and shoot pony…never refuses either. When doing flatwork/hacking she’s a definite kick along 😀

Now obviously a lot of kids would enjoy this but not my daughter 😆 she’s had a bad experience in the past with a bolting pony (not jumping she would just take off in the arena for no obvious reason) so usually she just sort of tolerates it for a while..but when she goes to zoom mode she gets really wound up and stressed by it. This has been the situation with the pony for the past year since we have had her, she just seems to get so excited the more she jumps. In lessons they do work on trotting into fences, and try to get back to trot between fences to have more control…circles etc…which does usually work…but she’d love to be able to do more courses and do the whole course in canter really…she just gets so fast it’s almost gallop between fences and then she struggles to turn her. They haven’t competed much jumping because it just stresses my daughter out, particularly if the warm up jumps are super busy with lots of kids racing around!

She rides her in a snaffle but when she jumps she uses a 2 ring gag. She recently had everything checked and has a new saddle, physio and hock injections as she has hock arthritis. Teeth are due this month but she’s always done it so I doubt this is the cause.

We are trying to go out and compete more this year as they are both more than capable, it’s just the excitement of the jumping that seems to hit her after a warm up and first few fences. And it’s not helping my daughter’s confidence which was very low when we got her. It is a lot better now thankfully. Her instructor says she just needs to learn to trust her and she will get stronger in time (she’s 10) so hopefully will learn to manage it…but it’s quite difficult to watch in full zoom mode! 🫣

Any suggestions on how to get her to be more woah than go when she is jumping??
 
Bob notacob said:
How old is the pony? Have you tried skipping the warmup fences(just do flatwork instead)
Click to expand...
She’s 14! Yes we do as little warmup as we can at events! She does it at home too though, if we are just having a pop at home over 4 or 5 fences…after the 3rd or so round of them she’s off! Pony club is tricky as they have to to one or two jumps then stop, wait for the other kids to do it and go again…she gets more excited the more times she does it and my daughter gets more annoyed 😂
 
Bob notacob says how very dare you ! LOL Bob has exactly the OP,s ponys problem .If I check him ,he just turns and canters sideways into the jump ,spinning on takeoff to straighten out.He is now 21 and has done this since he was 6 . He has that "hunted in Ireland "brain and nothing can change it. (though he does feel slightly guilty about the month in hospital he gave me early on)
 
A friend of mine used to have an ex BSJA showjumper who used to teleport into fences (he went that fast it was literally a blink and you miss it thing!) and what worked for him was getting him to calm down after the fence, and also the use of poles before and after a fence. She didn't jump a course or do a few jumps in a row until she could jump nicely out of trot and canter and pull up a stride or two afterwards. After a while, the horse caught on that if he tried mimicking the enterprise from Star Trek and yeeting himself plus rider into fences, that he would be made to pull up straight after the fence and wait. She only has to do this as a reminder here and there for him, and if someone new is riding him as he does like to see if he can go back to full on teleportation mode when jumping.

I noticed that you are already using the come back to trot and circle method which is a handy place to start - does this work or does your daughter have the issue of the pony getting excited still? Could she possibly try mixing things up - so jump a fence and come back to trot, circle and then proceed as normal, but the second time round pull up straight after the fence? That way it could stop the pony from anticipating what is going to happen.

Don't know if the above would work for your daughter but it might be worth a go x

Also this might be controversial - but perhaps a bit of calming paste before jumping to take the edge of the excitement for the pony - both of them could then relax and focus on jumping steadily, and as your daughter becomes more confident, you can reduce the use of the calming paste until you don't need it anymore? I knew someone who used to do this for their young child and excitable pony - it worked fab and by the time the calming paste was no longer needed, the young rider had oodles of confidence and everyone was happier :) The young rider also had a bad experience with a pony bolting with them, so they'd naturally get quite upset when their pony started zooming around with a lack of control x
 
GypsGal1718 said:
I know everyone will yell at me but try to see the logic:
Does she really ‘Love’ jumping?
If you just left her in the arena she probably wouldn’t go around and jump everything!
So I don’t think she ‘loves’ it
Click to expand...
Oh I don't know I had a mare that loved jumping and done exactly that ...the 1st day out recovering from a tendon injury ..
Was stood with the vet the time we let her go... Cringing 😂
 
jhoward said:
Oh I don't know I had a mare that loved jumping and done exactly that ...the 1st day out recovering from a tendon injury ..
Was stood with the vet the time we let her go... Cringing 😂
Click to expand...

My rising 2 year old's sire goes round happily jumping anything left out in the arena if given half the chance 🤣
 
It is still (always) worth having a think if "excitement" is actually tension bubbling over. Pony obviously knows her job and isn't refusing but she is still communicating something with rushing.

Maybe she does genuinely love her job! But it is still worth considering that she is finding it a bit stressful, particularly if her rider is also finding it stressful.

I had a big WELL ACTUALLY moment with my own mare recently with some groundwork stuff. I was assuming excitement but our instructor was able to show me that it was actually just stress. She seemed genuinely eager, engaged, and willing but the change in her since we focused on doing everything while relaxed has proven that to be a false assumption 😬
 
I don't jump but I thought the fix for this one was jumping a fence getting some straigh strides after leanding then halting and waiting for relaxation. Then repeat, repeat, repeat. Happy to be corrected.
 
My old Sec D would jump any jump we left out in the field by himself but agree it's always worth erring on the side of caution.

OP - could you jump a few jumps and before pony gets too whizzy immediately do some very boring flat schooling for 10 minutes then repeat, hopefully achieving more jumps before the whizziness starts again. If this has an impact you could then try some local school hire and do the same or a local clear round that would let you maybe go last and take a little bit longer in there?

The thing that worked well with my strong horse was to put a jump on the centre line just after the E-B line. Jump it and stop in a straight line as soon as possible after the jump (you can even add a corridor made of poles a few strides after and try to stop in it). You then choose which way to turn at random and come again. After a few goes, the pony should be waiting and listening for next instruction as they don't quite know what to do so it prevents them taking over the decision making. Soon you can decide whether to stop or keep going if the horse is calm and awaiting orders.

Another good exercise (it's hard to explain but I'll try) is to have two jumps, one at E and one at B. You then have 2 corridors of poles going across the centre line so at a distance so that if you come straight out of the corridor and turn to the jump you have 2 strides to the fence. You then have a set of 3 canter poles at A and C. Jump one jump and stop in the corridor immediately afterwards. Then walk on, turning away from the jumps and go over the poles at A or C in trot or canter, whatever's necessary to keep calm. Back to the corridor and stop, then out of the corridor, pick up trot or canter and go over the other jump. Halt in the next corridor, then turn away and do the poles at the opposite end and repeat. The turning should mean you've never got a huge run up to the jump so the pony can't get too fast and the stopping in the corridor and turning alternate ways should keep them guessing as to what's coming next. If they get too whizzy you turn away and do the poles again (or even go past them).
 
GypsGal1718 said:
I know everyone will yell at me but try to see the logic:
Does she really ‘Love’ jumping?
If you just left her in the arena she probably wouldn’t go around and jump everything!
So I don’t think she ‘loves’ it
Click to expand...
I knew someone would make this comment...what is it then? Actively running towards a fence rather than stopping, refusing or running the opposite direction? And no my daughter is not kicking or doing anything other than sitting quietly...

Genuinely interested in the cause then?
 
smolmaus said:
It is still (always) worth having a think if "excitement" is actually tension bubbling over. Pony obviously knows her job and isn't refusing but she is still communicating something with rushing.

Maybe she does genuinely love her job! But it is still worth considering that she is finding it a bit stressful, particularly if her rider is also finding it stressful.

I had a big WELL ACTUALLY moment with my own mare recently with some groundwork stuff. I was assuming excitement but our instructor was able to show me that it was actually just stress. She seemed genuinely eager, engaged, and willing but the change in her since we focused on doing everything while relaxed has proven that to be a false assumption 😬
Click to expand...
How do you determine this? How did your instructor show you? I am just trying to understand and yes I have considered it is tension etc, would love to know how to tell!

As it happens after a number of jumps in a session I did wonder if shes becoming more sore?? But would this make her go faster rather than stop? I guess they are flight animals...
 
Bobthecob15 said:
How do you determine this? How did your instructor show you? I am just trying to understand and yes I have considered it is tension etc, would love to know how to tell!

As it happens after a number of jumps in a session I did wonder if shes becoming more sore?? But would this make her go faster rather than stop? I guess they are flight animals...
Click to expand...
For us the link I saw most easily was the "excitement" also causing her to be more reactive to the environment, spookier, less regulated. The equine brain (and the human brain too) struggles to tell the difference between excitement and stress. So we don't actually really want excitement at all. Everything she was asked to do was done at light speed and she was getting frustrated and offering her own behaviours when asked to just chill and stand. Neck was quite up and tense, eye was a little bit tense, just too full of energy really, but it presented as being too eager to find something to do, rather than not wanting to do what she was asked, hence the confusion on my end.

Pain in the hocks could absolutely make her go faster. She is obviously a great little pony and knows what she is supposed to do, so she does it. We have just done a course of Cartrophen for stifle and potentially hocks, and seeing a lot less of the reactivity now, so there was likely a discomfort element for us as well.
 
Ok thanks for explaining! She’s had Arthramid injections 2 months ago in both hocks, still early days I guess x
 
Bobthecob15 said:
I knew someone would make this comment...what is it then? Actively running towards a fence rather than stopping, refusing or running the opposite direction? And no my daughter is not kicking or doing anything other than sitting quietly...

Genuinely interested in the cause then?
Click to expand...
What do horses in the wild do when they are stressed?
 
Are they getting into a bit of a fight as they go round and winding each other up? I have one who is like this to jump, except he is 16.3hh so a lot of horse for me to hold together when he gets strong! He gets progressively stronger and faster, I would be trying to hold him more between each fences, which made him pull more, and we'd basically get into a battle of strength which ultimately he would win! He loves jumping but he is an adrenaline junkie and I think every fence he jumps he just gets more and more carried away, the way my trainer explained it to me is that he "just needs to take a breath and collect his thoughts". What has worked somewhat for us is trying not to get into a fight between fences, with a strong horse I think the inclination is to grab them as soon as you land and try and get some control back but I actually drop the contact for a few strides, give him a scratch on the neck and praise him with my voice and then I sit up and collect him for the next turn or fence. I also work a lot at home on jumping on fence in a straight line and pulling up to a halt after it, not aggressively, I just sit back and ask him to woah with my voice and seat, if it takes me a while to stop the first time that's fine, once he stops he gets a scratch and a reward. We repeat until he pulls up easily a few strides out from the fence, doing this regularly seems to re-programme his brain a bit to slow down and think after the fence rather than just charging off to the next one. The final thing which might just be a learning curve for your daughter is to try and resist the urge to pull back all the time and get into a tug of war, instead you should be giving little checks to steady but giving the contact and then bringing back. I'm not sure if I've explaining it very well but there was a great video posted by a top showjumper in slow-mo recently that showed a rider jumping a horse through a combination and the split second give and retake she did with the contact to steady the horse between the fences, I found it really educational (if I can find it I will share) - basically if you are saying "woah" round the whole course the horse just learns to ignore you, there needs to be a clear differentiation between when you are checking them and when you are allowing them to travel.
 
Some ponies are just like that. I’ve had a few who I’ve just had to accept were speed demons and learn to ride them. I get that that’s difficult if it’s affecting your daughter’s confidence.
 
Bobthecob15 said:
Hi just wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom about very keen horses jumping?

My daughters pony loves jumping, she typically will be steady going into the fences in trot or a steady canter for about the first 8-10 jumps she does…but after that she just gets faster and faster. She becomes your typical point and shoot pony…never refuses either. When doing flatwork/hacking she’s a definite kick along 😀

Now obviously a lot of kids would enjoy this but not my daughter 😆 she’s had a bad experience in the past with a bolting pony (not jumping she would just take off in the arena for no obvious reason) so usually she just sort of tolerates it for a while..but when she goes to zoom mode she gets really wound up and stressed by it. This has been the situation with the pony for the past year since we have had her, she just seems to get so excited the more she jumps. In lessons they do work on trotting into fences, and try to get back to trot between fences to have more control…circles etc…which does usually work…but she’d love to be able to do more courses and do the whole course in canter really…she just gets so fast it’s almost gallop between fences and then she struggles to turn her. They haven’t competed much jumping because it just stresses my daughter out, particularly if the warm up jumps are super busy with lots of kids racing around!

She rides her in a snaffle but when she jumps she uses a 2 ring gag. She recently had everything checked and has a new saddle, physio and hock injections as she has hock arthritis. Teeth are due this month but she’s always done it so I doubt this is the cause.

We are trying to go out and compete more this year as they are both more than capable, it’s just the excitement of the jumping that seems to hit her after a warm up and first few fences. And it’s not helping my daughter’s confidence which was very low when we got her. It is a lot better now thankfully. Her instructor says she just needs to learn to trust her and she will get stronger in time (she’s 10) so hopefully will learn to manage it…but it’s quite difficult to watch in full zoom mode! 🫣

Any suggestions on how to get her to be more woah than go when she is jumping??
Click to expand...
How old and experienced is the pony? how long have you had the pony? How fit is the pony?
I really don't mean this to be rude.... how experienced is your daughter? Can she see and set the pony up for a stride? Can she lenghten and shorten strides on the flat?
Is she an effective rider or an eager passenger?

Have you had anyone else on the pony to jump a course? If so how was the pony with them?

Bobthecob15 said:
I knew someone would make this comment...what is it then? Actively running towards a fence rather than stopping, refusing or running the opposite direction? And no my daughter is not kicking or doing anything other than sitting quietly...

Genuinely interested in the cause then?
Click to expand...
It can be lots of things. Just off the top of my head it could be;
Unbalanced rider
Unbalanced pony
Lack of stamina, which leads to tiredness
Not muscled correctly
Rider becoming more and more anxious as the round goes on
Ill fitting tack that causes pain
Injury/ illness that causes pain
Bad teeth
 
Is pony big enough for the instructor to get on and work with her? It is easier for an adult to feel what is going on and to try out different techniques.

I had one who would get excited and rush everything, just locking on to anything in sight. I fixed it…then she had a sharer who messed it all up again…then I had to fix it again! She was of the ‘will jump the single block left in the middle of the arena repeatedly if turned out in there’ mindset. So jumping was her world and I had to do what everyone says NOT to do - which is pull her out of the jump the second she started rushing. The only way she got to go over was if she was being sensible and not rushing. I was confident doing that because I had sat on the pony and could feel what was happening beneath me. It worked, but I knew her and her history and she was younger with good joints.

You can also have pain involved - they want to jump but after a certain number of jumps it starts to hurt so they throw themselves at the jump to keep the ‘fun’ but use the momentum to get over it rather than having to push properly with the hocks.
 
Thanks all, pony is 14 and pretty experienced, I had considered pain yes…everything has been checked recently bar teeth which are due but she hasn’t really changed the last year we’ve had her. I do wonder about discomfort in the hocks… it’s a known area as she does have hock arthritis but is now medicated.

Will try some of these exercises they sound really good, thank you! And yes will get her instructor to have a ride and see what she thinks and if she can shed any light.

Thanks all!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top