Exercises for getting back into jumping

[bluemoon123]

Ideas please on exercises for getting my rather uninspired ponio back into jumping. He's rising 6 and did his first league (just once per week over a track of xpoles for 5 weeks) last Nov. Since then, he's had a nice winter break and has just come back into work in the last few weeks. We're taking it slowly but his reaction to being jumped for the first time this evening was less than impressed with a massive runout when first asked at a fence. I'm the first to admit that I'm useless but he was being quite naughty as the 'jump' was literally tiny and he's more than capable of tiny xpoles. Kept very patient and did more flatwork to get him thinking again, and he popped over it so we ended on a good note. But what other exercises can we do to make sure his reintroduction to jumping remains positive? We are already doing lots of trotting poles. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[DuckToller]

How about canter poles? Good way to get his legs working in the correct sequence, as a jump is just a big canter stride, effectively. Or just lay out poles round the arena and practise first trotting then cantering over them randomly, so they are no big deal.

I particularly like grid work for youngsters - I would start with a line of 3 canter poles, then add a few more, with wings either side of a few so he gets used to seeing the wings, and then use the last two poles to make a cross pole jump.

Did you use proper wings for the cross poles today, or just blocks? Best to use wings if you have them, as it helps to guide the horse through.

Just a few ideas!