Did everything right... it still went wrong!! BSJA today.

[catembi]

I took Adrian the 5 yo ISH to Manor Farm bsja on Sunday and this is what happened:

*tiny* bit of bucking in warmup arena (= improvement

)
ran off every time he was pointed at a jump in the warmup (= usual)
nearly jumped the post & rail out of the warmup (=

)
ran off in the BN & rolled 2 poles. The first one was cos he 'locked on' to the wrong jump & the 2nd was cos I was getting flustered, forgot where I was going & overshot a bit, hence poor line.

By 'ran off' I mean that he suddenly got so strong that I couldn't slow down at all. He's nowhere near as bad in lessons - it's just at comps.

So decided to book today off work, go back there & see if we could do it properly. Did the following:

rode for 45 mins fairly hard last night ie mostly trot & canter work, finishing around 8.45 pm.
rode for 30 mins fairly hard before we left this morning
had the warmup to ourselves at Manor Farm so I could circle away from the jump every time he got strong, check him back to walk/halt if he stopped listening, etc., which you can't do at busy w'end shows without causing a pileup. In the end he was jumping the 2 practise jumps quite nicely without pulling.

Got 2 CR tickets - course was at full BN height.

First round - a bit strong in places but not too bad & jumped clear

2nd round - brought him back to walk for a few minutes to chill & then went straight round again. Very, very strong indeed. One down.

Tried him in the BN & he jumped the 1st jump nicely, then was extremely strong & didn't really throttle back til the last jump.

One down - different one I think.

So our prep for this comp was 100% ideal ie worked to take the edge off, 3 rounds without too much hanging around, empty warmup... + he *still* behaves like he's a racehorse.

The only things I can think of to try next are 1) calmers & 2) get some jumps at home & leave them up in the school so I can incorporate them into flatwork sessions so he gets the idea that jumping isn't so very, very exciting...

Any other suggestions welcomed... I've tried various stronger bits but he either won't jump *at all* in them or goes round like a giraffe. And it's only at comps that he behaves as if his brain's been surgically removed...

Getting v frustrated cos I'm desperate to move on a bit & see what he can do but I'm absolutely not going to while he's still making a pig's ear of BN. Would not fancy trying to see an 'xc' stride at NC...

 

[madhector]

He sounds like J, we had a good day today, but you can never tell! Think you need to do the same as me, just keep going places till it is boring! Eventually he will settle, worked for mine

 

[ajf]

Get some jumps if possible and just ride poles or tiny jumps (ie under 1foot) and just get him working over them and around them until he calms and doesn't 'lock onto them'.
Also its just practice at taking him out and seeing things!!!!
Does he get excited as soon as he sees the box/knows he goin out or is it just when he jumps??

 

[catembi]

He gets excited when he gets there. He's nearly as bad BD. It goes from bad to worse when he sees jumps or white boards because he totally *loves* his jumping.

He's not naturally stressy tho. At home / hacking he's laid back to the point of being bone idle, & at shows once he's finished embarrassing me, he'll rest a back foot & have a doze.

 

[dianchi]

Hmm maybe something like cool calm and collected a try? Its not as much of a "calmer" but helps my nutty chestnut mare not think that white boards are jumps!

 

[kerilli]

i'm at a similar point with my mare at the moment, am trying Nupafeed and a new saddle, and outdoors sj... will report back. like you, don't fancy warp speed to larger fences.

 

[Starbucks]

My horse is pretty similar - if I took him round the same course 3 times he'd get stronger and clumsier.

Maybe if you took him in a bigger class it might back him off a bit?