Do you test your horses ability?

BroadfordQueen

BroadfordQueen

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When jumping your horse at home, do you test your horse to see how big he/she can jump by gradually making a fence higher/wider untill he/she refuses or repeatedly knocks it down?
 
no i dont..i dont think its really necessary to see how far you can push them.
i mean obviously you want to progress but i only really start putting fences up when i know that she can jump a good few fences or a course at that height.
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Never, I'm of the opinion that you should never risk over-facing a horse, can ruin them within such a short space of time if so.
Boss never jumped bigger than 1.40, no need to, no point. Dont doubt he could have if he wanted to!
Moon jumps bigger fairly regularly because its all so easy for her. At this stage I wouldnt push her beyond what she's jumping regularly now (1.35-1.40) as again, no need and no point.
 
I only jump something that Castle is happy with jumping, if he feels a bit iffy I'd stop and leave it for the day, I'd never over do things.
 
thanks for the opinions.
I don't jump much bigger than i plan to compete at home- if i have a 3"6ft comp coming up, i will pop them over a course of 3"6ft fences at home a couple of days before the comp. I would never push my horses after pony club camp last year, we did "chase me charlie" bareback, and my friend wrecked her horse totally by overfacing her, she doesnt jump any bigger than 2ft now, and was jumping 3"3ft before she was totally overfaced.
 
No. I wouldn't want to teach a horse to stop or over face them. If they are happy jumping a certain height then why test them and potentially ruin them.
 
barely jump at home at all, and if i do it would be over small grids. Never put anything up at the moment over 1.10m and that is very rare anyway. I know that Hattie can jump a 5 bar gate and 1.20 electric fence from trot fully rugged so i havent really needed to test her ability
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- and i dont think id like to try she'd probably pop us out over the sand school fence if we jumped as high as she could jump
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I did once and got to 4ft2 before I chickened out. But its not something I'd do with a horse I wanted to jump properly, it was more of a "there's no way Chex could jump that jump". I think its a bit mean to keep pushing and pushing when they're clearly at the edge of their ability. On the other hand, its just like a Chase-me-Charlie (or puissance), and many people do them happily.
 
No. I don't really jump if it's not at a comp or out hunting, unless I'm having a lesson.

I don't really see why anyone would do that anyway. It wouldn't benifit the horse at all. The only reason I can think of is so that they could say "my horse can jump X high" which is a bit silly.
 
Kinda, I wouldn't do it as a regular thing or to really strain the horse, but I have done chase me charlie competition's before. I don't think there's any harm in that personally.
 
No I would not ever do that as a test until they fail. I would normally train and progressively ask for a little bit more.

Otherwise what you are doing is going to knock the horses confidence and then they wont become as good as they might be.

So with say, Piaffe, I would ride a few steps a few times a week until Dutch was strong enough to do more steps and less forward and gradually progress to being able to take a step of passage out of it etc.
 
THB i did used to do this a bit on my pony when i was younger but not to the point where she would stop.

Now i firmly believe the horses confidence is the most important thing. I will jump quite a bit bigger at home than at a competition but that is more to keep my eye in and to keep myself happy jumping bigger, i know my horse is bold and has a huge jump. He was bred to SJ and if he was more careful i think a pro would have snapped him up years ago!
 
i only ever put the jumps up gradually and stop before we have any fences down or refusals. always end on a good note.
 
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Well as the last few horses I had abilty far exceeded my bravery was never an issue.

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Yes that's a very true statement for me, but I convince myself that I don't want to bore my horse.
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I'm hoping my daughter will match his jumping ability, 2nd lesson tomorrow.
 
The only thing that finding out how high a horse can jump teaches it is how high it CAN'T jump. Competition/hunting can be a bit of a different situation because everyone's blood is up but even then I think pushing the envelope until the horse is struggling usually ends badly. I'd much rather my horses keep thinking they can jump anything I point them at.

As everyone has said confidence it such a precious thing and almost impossible to regain once it's lost.
 
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