Exercises to make horse neater in front?

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Horse has an interesting jumping technique which involves jumping higher than needed to clear fences because he doesn't tuck up his front legs. It also means if he's feeling lazy he doesn't jump as high and he will belt out a fence in front even if put on the perfect stride. In this case he doesn't just rub them, he gives them a whopping clout with a front foot to the point his hooves are stained with the paint from the poles afterwards!

What would be good exercises to work on at home to try and improve this? I dont have a regular jumping trainer (although would love one if I could find someone decent!) so relying on your help!

Thanks

 

[HLOEquestrian]

Lots and lots of gridwork, involving really high cross poles and v-poles

 

[SpottedCat]

It's probably worth taking a look at the quality of your canter, rather than specific 'neatening' exercises. It's interesting to note that most of the exercises which are always given as 'neatening' exercises also have the effect of improving the quality of the canter (like grids ). I know I only have poles down when I don't have a good enough quality of canter, particularly round the turns, and especially on the right rein

 

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well fence one down today was a dogleg to the right and fence 2 was on the left rein. i dont think he dangles his legs more on one rein than the other. his canter is a work in progress and I spend a lot of time schooling the canter, working on getting him to sit behind, move on, come back etc. it is improving but if we could have some jumping exercises to help as well that would be good.

 

[TarrSteps]

There are general exercises - V poles, placing poles etc. - but it does help if the person advising you can see the situation. I gave a very good jumper rider (also a small person on a large horse, so not the sort of situation you'd expect the rider to be a huge influence) a hand with a horse that was hanging in front a bit recently, and it was a more a combination of how she was riding the horse off the ground and the distance she was trying to get to, than the horse just being lazy/careless. So she fixed those two things, we set up some very simple exercises and the horse improved immensely. It's not only getting the right exercise to teach the horse how to improve it's form but then giving it enough consistent practice to make it a habit.

(At least some of the exercises "big names" like are for horses that can jump well but get a bit blase - that's quite a different scenario from working with a horse that needs to work out and practice a different technique.)

Also, "catching a rub" can make some horses more careful but, especially done too often, it makes others care less and less.

Do you have help on the ground? I find it very difficult to work on "carefulness" - whatever the source of the problem - alone because you have to keep getting off to put the rail back up which a) gives the horse too long a gap b) makes any rider, even unconsciously, ride to leave it up rather than let the horse learn from having the rail and c) makes it impossible to change the exercise quickly, which can be a very helpful piece of the puzzle.

If you do, even a simple grid, such as an "X oxer X" can help get the horse neater. Bounces can be useful, especially if you can start with one jump and a rail then build to a line of jumps. A grid on one side with a single fence with V poles can also be helpful, thinking of riding the single just like the last fence of the grid.

Do you work with canter poles? They're good for working on your own as don't need adjusting and they give you an objective check on the quality of the canter. You can set up a small "course" going back to the poles between fences to make sure your canter doesn't change after you've jumped a fence or two.

Even something as simple as rolling the ground rail out to get the horse "up in the air", or playing with raising/lowering one end of the rail can be very helpful - you don't want to be trapping a horse until you've improved the form a bit, or he just ends up frustrated and worried because he doesn't know what change to make. So improve the form, then speed up, snug up the distances etc. to make the improvements more ingrained under different circumstances.

I would also say, to help form, you're better to jump a small number of fences but fairly often, making each fence/grid really count. Since it's a physical skill, not just a mental one, the horse (and you, if there's something you can do to help) will need to practice.


Sorry, that's not very helpful! If you can get a session with someone, even once, they can probably send you away with very specific homework.

 

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thanks - that is helpful. i am limited in what i can do at home by size of school - it is barely 20x40 so no room for long grids or poles and courses all at once. I can persuade people to help put jumps up sometimes but it's not easy. Not got anyone knowledgable on the ground though. I hadn't jumped him between last event 2wks ago and today as just not had the chance and also didn't want to be overjumping him as he'd just done 2 events 2wks running. Have had some lessons with Richard Waygood which were good but been a while now!