Couple of questions from a new member

[Faithside]

Hello, today was my first proper mini ode at our yard.. However we had an rather intresting dressage an iffy show jumping and us having to retire from the cross country

Bit of background: horse is an older been there done that kind .With other owners she has hunted and competed successful in all aspect. At one point she was jumping 1m15.

The dressage was a basic walk trot test, however she decided it would be much better if we cantered all around the arena and leave it at a speedy canter! When she finally settled, we did the whole test either jogging or trying not to canter would this have just been caused by the atmosphere? As she is normally a plod when schooling?

On to the showjumping: we were at a disadvantage from the start. Course was built for ponies and we are standing roughly at 17hh. Lots of tight turn were needed even when taking longer routes. The other problem is she wont jump anything from trot, as she has no respect and walks through them. Height was never going to be a problem as it was only 2ft6. However when having to go round in canter, she gets long and fast and unresponsive. Do we go for a stronger bit? She can't take all the blame as I have a bad habit of going round the course leaning so far forward that I'm basically in my jumping position how do i improve this? As i know i need to sit up?

Finally the cross country and this was ridiculous! Not a bad course, no tricky questions. We set off over the first jump cleared that, then we were fly up the hill at a gallop, this is probably when we started to lose control. We managed to refuse the double twice so thought missing that was the best option managed to jump the next one which was down a hill, came flying down their when we were aiming for a controled canter. Went flying round the corner and ran out at the next two jumps. Again its was a lack of brakes and just going to fast. Managed to gain some control back to a respectable canter, coming back round to the starting area she took off at full pelt gallop and we had a fight on our hands trying to get the control back. At one point I though we were going to leave the field!

Sorry it's so long but has anyone got any tips on how to improve? Definitely need to get more practice in though

 

[9tails]

Plenty of flatwork working on a bouncy canter, take her out to shows but not to compete just for the atmosphere. What bit are you using? Is she taking hold and tanking? You may need something stronger depending on what you're currently using.

 

[Faithside]

Will definitely try that the next time im out. Not disagreeing but with her being to plently of shows before, you would think she would be settled with the atmosphere? She's just in a simple snaffle, as normally breaks are not an issue even when we are out in open fields. She just set her neck and kept going and no amount of half halts where working, you also lose the steering, so trying to circle was impossibe

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would recommend lessons with a good instructor.

 

[Faithside]

Will definitely be looking it to them. However we have no school and we just have fields to school in. Would instructors be willing to come out with the lack of facilities?

 

[texel]

I school in the field and have had lessons too.

I bought 10 white electric fence posts and marked out an area to use, one post for each corner and the rest to mark middle points between the corners. You can use flower pots for the letter markers. Worked a treat.

You can also move it to another spot and make the area larger or smaller as you need to

 

[hnmisty]

I only ever had a field to ride on.
It sounds like she is the type that you really need to take hold of...and be determined you want to go over the jumps, especially in XC. My old girl was a "been there done it" type. She loved XC...because she could go fast! If you didn't take hold and ride very determimdly then she just set her jaw and ran out at everything.

How much schooling have you done with her? My neighbour always used to say that there's a world of difference between jumping X jheight at home and at a competition.