Eventers/xc riders - horse going xc on adrenalin, pulling into fences?

kerilli

kerilli

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 April 2002
Messages
27,417
Location
Lovely Northamptonshire again!
Visit site
Okay, brief explanation - i don't really like my horses getting their blood up xc, i like them to go at exactly the pace i choose, and on the stride i choose, off the bridle between fences, and not fight me to a fence, as i think it takes their mind off the fence and tires them out, fighting the rider. my horses have always gone like this, and been brave enough to jump a big fence on my say-so, not pulling me into it, etc, but also to think on their feet and take the initiative when necessary.
however, new mare isn't really like this, she's very keen and strong, and a bit scooty - she just sticks the turbo on when she fancies, and we have to cope with the consequences! i'm still playing about with bits, not quite there yet i think, and have resigned myself to the fact that she really NEEDS a martingale - even though i absolutely detest them and have made a point of not using one, for years!
(i'm going to do a LOT of schooling over fences before we go competing... could be very dramatic and painful otherwise.)
so, question is:
do you like your horses to pull you into the fences and make a bid for them, or do you like push-button control? (people have told me i'm a bit weird liking them like this, and being happy to school over A fences in cold blood, etc)
thankyou!
 
Hmmm, having been bought up on a horse who went like a maniac and waited for no-one, I'm rather used to being towed.
Moon is far more civilised about the whole affair though but I like to feel that she's taking me, not having to be coaxed along. I like her to use her initiative and I'll let her run a bit bold into some fences when I feel it's safe to do so. She understands that she has to wait when told and slow when I ask for combinations etc and I'd rather waste time establishing full control at this stage in her career than go for the time and encourage a flatter jump/less controlled attitude.
 
Interesting POV ! But wouldnt the way your describing upset a horse's natural rythym on the XC? No, I wouldnt want a horse to pull me into a fence all guns blazing. But yes I would want them to get up some adrenaline- and for them to see a fence and to 'lock on' to it and always be on the bridle, especially for galloping straight forward fences. I would want them to jump out of a rythym at whatever pace I say; wether be it a fast canter, or a medium canter or a slow canter, but would let the horse choose its own stride when jumping out of that pace.

But then again I have not ridden at advanced level so perhaps I do things completly differently to how I should.
 
Well, personally speaking I don't like feeling like i'm not in control! Fortunately all my horses have just come into a fence and i've been able to half halt and use my body to slow up/get the stride right. I've always taught my horses to listen to my body, when I go galloping, if I sit up, I want my horse to think, "she's asking me to slow" and get that reaction each time.
Your mare went racing before you had her didn't she? Was it flat, hurdle or chasing?

My old boy had chased but he was very easy and I didn't need to use anything more than a cheeked snaffle (for steering) but I always use a martingale breastplate, no matter who i'm on, but that is what I was taught.

Sounds like it's lots of goundwork for her then
wink.gif
 
yes, wizoz, that's it - on all my others, i could just bring my shoulders back before a fence, and they'd rebalance under me, i didn't need to take a pull really.
this mare raced on the flat 3 times... but i wouldn't be surprised if she was schooled over hurdles!
yep, lots of groundwork. she wasn't scooty when i tried her, so i think all this comfort in her mouth and softness in her topline has gone to her head!
wink.gif
wink.gif

thanks everyone, very interesting to hear what others think, as ever!
 
I like to have the horse taking me to a fence, and usually if we are going then we never hit a wrong stride. however I like to be able to bring them back and collect them for skinnies and water jumps. but as long as the horse is happy and not pulling, I let him sort it out as this is what i have been taught to do.
At first i found my pony was very strong xc, but then i realised that was only because i was fighting him for control and wanted to place him all the time and was behind the stride with him. so then i stopped pulling all the time and kept with him and let him find his own natural pace (which turned out to be pretty fast!) and from then on our xc improved dramatically!

this could be the case for your mare, and she could be fighting as a dominance thing. i think that when she has realised that you are the boss then in xc she wont be fighting so much! just my opinion really:p
 
I think I am somewhere in the middle I hate pullers and will not tolerate them but I like them to lock onto the fence and concentrate. - I think hurdles are the worst thing a young horse can be taught over as it teaches them a terrible shape, no thought about the job and to rush. The chasers I have ridden have far more of a brain about it and seem to be a lot cleverer about it.
 
Part of the problem is, of course, that horses are individuals. You can no more say "all event horses should be X" than "all footballers should be X". Different competitors work most effectively in different ways - some need to be completely geed up, some are naturally very calm, some get overly wound up on their own and need to be consciously relaxed, some are very ritualistic, some are naturally very focused . . . etc. etc. etc. Some are simply temperamentally unsuited for the game, maybe some because they get too aggressive to the point of being dangerous, others because they can't get wound up enough.

Personally I think a horse has to stay ridable, especially with courses being as they are now. I had a very good horse that never pulled (partly because I didn't know enough to do much controlling
wink.gif
) but would start to leap about and buck if I went too slowly. He operated best at the "lick" (speed, rhythm etc.) that worked most efficiently for him and it was better for everyone if he was allowed to go that speed. I've ridden other horses that went the same speed but felt totally out of control and couldn't think as fast as their feet were moving.

I like my horses extremely "broke" - apparently far more than some people, judging by some of the hairraising performances I see in the ring! Schooling at home or at the basic levels I am not "okay" a horse that is hard in the hand, is uneven, kicks at my leg or otherwise displays schooling problems. I think it's unhealthy, unsafe and unnecessary. And very fixable. But for horses competing at higher levels where bravery is a significant component factor, I do try to be a bit flexible so long as the horse's job is not affected. (A jumper getting above the bit and missing or an even horse dragging the rider past the distance is obviously having its performance negatively affected.)

I think it's particularly hard for horses to make a change if their initial training and inclination goes against what's wanted later. As mentioned, a horse with hurdling experience has been taught the "wrong" things initially and thinks it's "right".
 
I'm with Wizoz on this one in that I like them on the ball, but not going ga-ga about it all; when you want to put the pressure on them it's like going up a gear, not like they're about to blow a gasket! (Bear in mind that all my horses have had a bit of Cleveland Bay in them, hence they're more likely to need kicking than most "normal" horses!)

I have ridden some buzzy ones for other people and all has been fine until you have to have some input, at which point you realise they're not really listening and are more likely to go past an arrowhead or a corner. Is she very unlike anything you've ever had before and if so, what was it made you buy her? Just curious really as I think I stick with a certain type of horse that suits my (riding) personality, and it sounds like you've gone for something quite different this time.
 
I like something brave and bold which locks onto the fence and takes me into it - I need to feel they will jump and want to jump. That said, I have to have control, and played with bitting until I could bring him back to trot from gallop before a fence if needs be.

So I suppose I am in the middle too.
 
Agreed, Nickym.
In answer to your question:
Well, i like mares, she'd done 3 pns (have watched the vids, she wasn't like a tanking nutter then), she's a lovely sort, she's got good style over a fence, she wasn't expensive, and i thought i could do something with the flatwork!
tbh, looking back, one of my others went through a very whizzy stage (at the end of Nov, when she was ready to go up to I, and thought she knew everything about xc), and i coped with it... just got to remember how! building bigger fences to back her off, iirc.
wink.gif

thanks for your input, everyone!
 
I didn't realise she had already competed....that's good then, cos she's just being Mrs "I know what I'm doing". I was going to suggest that you made stuff difficult for her to make her think, and now you say she's more experienced than I thought she was, that has to be the way to go. I would think the Lucy Henson clinic would be useful - I've always found her terribly practical and grounded, not at all dismissive or indifferent.
 
I like a horse to take me to a fence (know they are keen for it) But not the type you wonder whether you are going over or through it!
Also I hunted a lovely horse that would jump anything yet it just went along in a happy hack canter & you wondered if it was ever going to take off which he always did.
Which was a tad un nerveing to the opposite to being tanked into a fence. Which is a problem I have at the moment with a new horse.
It has evented very well before. Hacking & schooling it is fine but out hunting it is a tad un nerving for me, it's like a JA x polo x racing pony! But this is only out hunting. I just haven't the nerve to ride it at the moment & with only getting the chance to ride it when hunting I haven't got a feel for it yet & get my confidence on it.

So I like something that takes me but I'm still in charge or pretending to be at least!!
 
I like to be towed to a certain extent, nothing worse than a horse coming in with a horse at SJ speed or listening to you then them balking at a ditch/drop/unexpected. MAkes me feel they might actually jump when they get there!
 
For the first 3/4 jumps the boy and I are always fighting - he wants to go gung-ho but I know whats coming and if we need to keep fuel in the tank/have a sticky jump coming up. I don't pull hard but execute a few "XC half halts" (sit up and check LOL) until he twigs that he should be listening to me! After the first minute or so he slows down and gets in to a fast but consistent rythum....from then on I don't do anything other that stear and give him a pat at the end! Its his job to sort out striding not mine!

Its taken a while to get this and we've had some very hairy moments approaching things too fast and with poor concentration (taking flags with me over skinnies was a fave for a while) but unless I really need to interfere I let him dictate pace and striding now.
 
very interesting, thanks everyone.
btw, i think my dislike of being tanked with comes from hunting a friend's horse, which was the sort which absolutely locked on about 20 strides out, and the rider had no further say in the matter at all... and it did once with me to a fence with hounds all round it. even though i had both hands on one rein and its nose nearly on my knee, desperately trying to turn away and not risk killing hounds, the effing horse STILL jumped it, luckily clearing them all etc - but i was mortified, and very lucky not to get sent home.
frown.gif
frown.gif

hence the control-freakery!
 
I think old age kicks in, too!

When I was younger I always figured the horse knew what it was doing but experience suggests that isn't always so. Now I'm not so likely to bounce I like to have a little more say in the matter.
smile.gif
 
oh gosh yes, totally agree with that. i'm definitely a bit more circumspect than i was. still brave i hope, but a bit wiser perhaps!
i know someone who fell off twice going round Windsor as a Junior, and still made the time easily... that's youthful trust (read: lunacy) for you!
 
i like to have control...being out of control does scare-me especially the bolting kind of no control!
My last mare was very wiggly to start with xc ..then as she gre more confident she got much better...but the last half a season she started to get cocky xc and would not be out of control...or be dangerously fast and she doitn look it on video but she was just that little more lcoked on than i would like. I ended up having the fastest xc lear at MK which was her first xc for a few months which was great but i do remeber thinking at one point..im going to just fall off im tired!!
i think she needed to have some bigger fences to back her off..but with her dodgy striding thats why it would have come dangerous.

therefore it probably is just a confidence thing and once she gets going and has something bigger to make her back off im sure she will be fine
smile.gif
 
well i do have too rather different horses

Gogs is either all or nothing - absolutly no control at Bath and West resulting in running a few fence judges over :O and then at mount ballen slamming the brakes on but i put that down to open spaces and the fact he has raced a fair few times - 41 so im learning to go wit the flow with him

and then Song - i have done all but 3 times XC on him 2 in a comp and one schooling but he has got dtronger and stronger the more he does he started off eventing in a snaffle and is now in a 3 ring gag best brakes i have found for him but im now learining to go faster after he tipped up a few years ago so am now telling him what we are doing but it dosnt feel like that sometime but he is clever with it too!

But im sure the more she does she will improve only having run the 3 times!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top