Ditch phobic?

TiaPony

TiaPony

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Tia is awesome XC with everything - bar ditches. She'll jump into and out of water, skinnies, combinations etc, you name it but she does just seem to think ditches will eat her. Anything I can do to help her out a bit? Thanks
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Just keep doing them.

My friends horse would not go anywhere near them, so she built her own which she went over everytime she went to the field......started by just removing the turf and then dug it slightly deeper every week. Hard work, but paid off in the end.
 
We had this problem with our coloured homebred horse, we went on one training clinic and the FBHS trainer said we would never get him jumping them.
We then went to Nigel Taylor on a 2 day course and he started us over a small well built ditch and said he would bring my lunch, dinner and tomorrows breakfast but the only direction we were going was over the ditch.Half an hour later he jumped it, and again and again and back again and again and again then a slightly wider one and againand again, this ditch got wider slowly so we had to keep moving along it until it was a BIG ditch.
Never looked back ,next day it took a few minutes in the morning and straight over in the afternoon.
He went on within a year to come 6th in the intro championship and clear at Gatcombe Novice. Go to Nigel for a few days
 
I had a similar nightmare of a problem with a problem horse! We concluded that it was a genuine fear of jumping over a 'black hole' - eg not knowing what was in the ditch/thinking it went on for ever!

A solution you HAVE to try because its a complete cure (!) is to go out and buy some of the black tarpauline - the type that is used for gardening and put in the bottom of soil. It comes in long strips, and I spent hours walking this horse over it (I spent bloody ages getting it anywhere near in the first place,) as it emulated this fear of a never-ending hole!

I then rode over it, and folded it up into a ditch that had to be jumped. Continued to build it up with poles over the top (sj) etc etc over the weeks, and then went back for xc schooling.

We didnt have any issues. Its a long process but a miracle cure!! Good luck!!
 
i echo what other people have said. it's just a case of finding or making a tiny ditch, going over/through it as many times as necessary until the fear has absolutely gone, then a slightly bigger one, etc etc. time = confidence to a horse, and that's all it takes tbh. i had a very wimpy mare at pn/n who got superbrave and never even looked at intermediate ditches (which can be pretty big). good luck!
 
Lucky old me has a (proper XC) ditch in her fields!! She has got alot better and obviously practise is the name of the game. Might just take her over the field one in hand as she seeks alot of confidence from me on the ground which might help. Thanks guys
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Lunge her over your ditch if you can.

I made fake ditches with plastic and poles, then dug one out at home for a bit and lunged her over it, so she could do horrible huge leaping without me to worry about.

Found that the faster I rode towards a ditch the harder she stopped which is why I ended up in many!

I can only now say after approx 8yrs of trying that Rosie is fine with ditches. In her 'dodgy, might do it, might not period' I took her to my Club XC course and spent all day jumping backwards and forwards over their open ditch and mini trakehner until she stopped hesitating.

That seemed to sort it as she's been brill ever since!
 
Lunging is a good idea. My mare was a complete wimp with ditches initially; I took her home one day and my dad and I lunged her over an enormous dry natural ditch on the farm until she was popping over happily. She is perfect with them now - touch wood!!
 
My mare still is a complete wimp but getting better, i find if i ride her positively and do not even look at the ditch whilst going up to it tht made a huge difference.
She was saying 'Look mum, a ditch' and cause i didn't acknowledge it just kept riding basically with my head in the air looking anywhere but down, she was like 'ok, i'm imagining things then!!'

It really made me laugh cause she is so scared of them, but without me acknowledgeing its there and riding normally up to the jump she does them now!!
 
We hunt over ditches we find standing there with another horse right next to you really helpful when the other horse pops over from a stand still it can give confidence to the other one.
Lunging is also beneficial and practice. Our homebred would lie down rather than jump a ditch but lunging sorted her out and in the end was fantastic popping main rhynes out hunting.
What you must do though is never give in. Stay there as they have to give in first.
 
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