First jumping lesson on my ex-racer....

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Having bought my ex-racing pony Frodo at the beginning of May I've had a few teething problems - he wrenched a knee in the field at the beginning of June and had 4 weeks off, has lost 3 shoes in 3 weeks due to his rubbish feet, but now finally we are getting somewhere.....

I had my first jumping lesson today and it can only be described as an experience :) In typical ex-racer style he found it all HUGELY exciting, and the most we achieved today was Frodo launching himself over a 12" fence with huge enthusiasm but no steering and brakes :D Even a row of trotting poles was enough to invoke an attempt at a flat-out gallop, so we stayed in walk and tried trot on a few limited occasions in a failed attempt to keep things calm.

I can see that slow, steady calm repetition will be the way ahead, if anyone has any suggestions for exercises we could do that would be great :) And if anyone has experience of ex-racers, reassurance that we WILL get there would be gratefully received - I have abandoned any thoughts of eventing this season of course, but it would be nice to do some BE80s and maybe even some 90s next season :)

The positives are that he was really bold and didn't spook at any fillers, which is absolutely wonderful after my last little TB who backed off any fence, and he has clearly jumped before so it is all there waiting to come out...
 
Just about all my eventers have been ex-racers; one was an ex-steeplechase (he took me to my first 3-day event).
They make very bold jumpers but yes they do take time sometimes .
You are doing the right thing starting with poles; put single poles everywhere (including gateways) and just lead and walk over until they are routine, then do trot.
Lots and lots of walk and trot poles until it is routine and not exciting, include circleing round and over.
Introduce a row of trot poles by walking the first then trotting out, but only once he is calm over single poles.
then do small trot cross at end of poles but never allow to speed up.
Don't increase the complexity or the height until calm and steady doing the previous stage.
Keep doing small things at trot until you are jumping 70cm of all sorts calmly. Only then would i introduce canter and only in the grid.
I would also trot round courses on the first few outings, usually trying to find practice days rather than competitions so that not holding anyone up.
I usually plan on 12 weeks to the first 80cm event, but this is based on them not jumping before. It depends on horse and some take longer, some less - I am guessing because yours already finds jumping exciting that it will take longer to have a calm horse. They have excellent memories for remembering any exciting associations with jumping, but starting very steadily means you have a sensible horse for its whole competition career.
Good luck.
 
Thank you Wkiwi that is very helpful - I really appreciate you taking the time to type out such a comprehensive reply :) I took him back to the same venue this morning (a livery yard 5 mins ride from where I keep him) and spent an hour walking around their flat work school trying to get a calm 20 metre walk circle on both reins - no poles in sight to get him excited - suffice to say I think lateral work will be his forte :D

I will persevere :)
 
No worries.
You might find lots of smaller circles at the walk and trot also help - I usually do reasonably small circles until they walk on a long rein, then ditto with trot (much smaller than 20m though, so they find it reasonably hard work). Keep checking then releasing until they get the message (as if you were teaching a dog not to pull on the lead - very important to release too though, and not just check and hold).
Perseverence is definitely the key, but they can get the message surprisingly quickly even if they seem to be completely ruined by racing.
Feel free to pm me if you have any questions, as i used to reschool exracehorses all the time.
 
Ah thanks Wkiwi, on reflection I wasn't giving him nearly enough to think about - the circles were too big (although I was doing lots of transitions) and I wasn't keeping my leg on enough... it is so easy when I think about it afterwards! I'll try not to bombard you with PMs.... :)
 
Just to add I also think a lot of horses (especially speedy ones!) find lines of poles rather overwhelming to work out what to do with them and it can encourage rushing and leaping. It took about 8 weeks of really focused work to get my eventer confident to use placing poles or even single poles on the ground (bearing in mind she could jump round a pre-novice no problem at that point!), and even now she needs building up to doing normal single spaced trotting poles. We think they're simple but actually for something that's used to running in a straight line, having to get complex with their feet can be quite a challenge!
 
Lots and lots of single pole work moving on to trotting poles lots of transitions in between the single poles going trot walk but sometimes going just to the point of walking but then riding back to the bigger trot .
Lots of canter poles as well when the time is right .
Put jump stands by some of the poles so they think they don't always mean jump in the figure .
Have fun I love this type of work.
 
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