Friends young WB rubbish at jumping?

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Corona

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Sorry that's a really crude title, was unsure what else to put without rambling! my poor friend is feeling a little exasperated with her baby at the moment so wondered if anyone could offer advice! Her lovely young mare (was 4 in march) is well bred (eventers and dressage high placed on both sides), near perfect confirmation, excellent paces and good attitude. She's well schooled and going nicely, but just has what can only be described as a rubbish jump. I know she's young and has loyts of strengthening and developing to do, that's a given. But undersaddle or loose, she just shows zero scope, dangly legs and is not adverse to hitting every pole or nearly diving head first through them. For such a well bred, quality horse, it's just rotten luck!
Please don't get me wrong I know lots of horses take a good while to come into their own
n, but friend just can't see any tiny hint of promise with her. She's now considering sending her to produce with a dressage rider, as this she would excel in, and friend buying something just to scoot about on.
Friend ultimately bought her to jump, BYEH type classes etc, so is really disheartened, but doesn't want to feel like she's given up.
what do you think, any advice or tips? Just really feel for her, as mare is lovely too.
 
I take it she has been going at it for relatively short time? The mare might be a late developer and need more time to discover her jump. One of mine needed nearly 2 full seasons to start leaving them up.
 
How long has she been learning to jump for? I know a horse that was awful when he first started to jump, and everyone said he would never make a jumper, but he is fabulous at it now! So they don't always show their full potential from the start.
 
Maybe she just needs some time to develop her own style.

I can think of several top horses who do not jump in a conventional fashion - and if she bought her for eventing, tidiness is less of an issue really. A pole here and there is not a major issue in eventing, whereas its pretty much crucial is just showjumping.

Mine has always has a good shape over a fence, even from being really babyish and jumping from trot he would tuck his legs up - thats just luck though I think - certainly nothing I have done to develop him :)

I think grids can help a horses techinque, but I'm not sure if you can ever nuture a good style from a horse. If they don't care about knocking them down, I don't think they ever will do, sorry :)
 
How many times has she tried to jump her?

When I started jumping my horse aged 4 1/2 for the first couple of attempts he was proper rubbish! First time I tried a fence I put a placing pole in front of a tiny X and he literally tripped over the pole and bulldozed the X again and again and again lol. I thought this is it, he can't jump! I took the placing pole away and it still took several attempts to leave the 5inch cross up lol!

Over the next few sessions he gradully got a bit better but was still very clumsy. Untill one day we went in the school, warmed up over a tiny X and he just ballooned it! He nearly jumped me off! I was like woohoo he can jump!!!!

Since then he's got better and better, he's very very scopy and easily pops 1m now, he can do grids, bounces everything. Instructors have commented on how careful and athletic he is. I love jumping him, he's a pleasure and ready to BS now.

So point is, your friends mare might just need a bit more time to figure out what's going on and what to do with her legs? I would give her another 3 months jump training. If she still hasn't picked it up then maybe she is just not a natural jumper. She is so young though that I think it would be worth your friend sticking with it for now :)
 
mabey she just needs time??

my 4 year old warmblood x, is just lazy. She loves jumping with me on her but on the lunge she is just lazy.

Mabey give her a month or so with no jumping then try again?? Failing that - dressage horse or sell??

:)
 
I would give the mare a chance to develop over time. My boss backed a mare last year with brilliant Ben Faerie and connemara breeding. Boss is expecting her to become a good little eventer with time. At the moment she is very lazy with jumping and knocks pretty much everything down, she just doesn't pick her front legs up enough. We hope with time she will get better as she is only 4 years old at the moment.

It is the same with her schooling, when she was being broken in it was like riding a beach donkey, however over time she has become much more responsive and forward going and we hope this will be the case with her jumping.
 
That's a shame but if she's tried a few times and its still dangly then probably best to admit that its just not the job for the horse. Like humans they can't all be good at jumping and if they really don't mind hitting fences then I'm afraid that's unlikely to change. Provided she has done all of the above suggested by other posters.
 
My friends mare was bought to event. Backed at 3 and started proper work at 4. Dressage was a walk in the park, jumping she was a plank. Panic set it, horse was put up for sale and I started hacking her out in preparation for her new life as a happy hacker/non competitive home. One day out hacking I decided to try her over a little log, she popped it...then a ditch she FLEW it!!! Her owner (only 15 year old girl hence me hacking out a baby for her) was gob smacked!! So we continued me hacking her out and letting her enjoy beaches and fields and they restarted her work. Started off with poles and progressing upwards. First XC event...yeap she won out of 11 riders!!!!:D She happily and easily jumps 105cm now!
 
At 4 my horse was a rubbish jumper, he half hearted jumped with his front legs and demolished the jump with his hind legs. I didnt buy him to jump but he was so lazy I had hoped jumping would put a bit of enthusiasm into him, how wrong. So I pretty much forgot about jumping and a year or so later, lunged him over a couple of very small jumps ..... wow what a difference, he flew at them and cleared them by miles. Maybe he just has to mature a bit?
 
My 6yr old warm blood out of 4* eventing lines was the same as 4 and 5 year old, she was also very backwards off the leg as well. I took her to the beach for a good gallop which worked in getting her moving forward more then I took are to a little riding club xc training, contraversal at the time but after that I never had a problem with show jumping. There is hope.
 
Perhaps she'll have her day at jumping when she's good and ready.

Ok so you've said she's reasonable with her flat work so far and yes if they are going to have a talant they will usually show a glimmer of it at this age, I can understand what you are saying but sometimes you've just got a work with what you've got and be patient, WB's are slow at maturing anyway and a 4 yr is still a baby.

It's taken years for my lad to sort his trot out, I'll worry about his good his canter paces will be some time next year.
 
My big 4yr old could barely canter in the school at 4, let alone jump. He was 7 before he really came into his own. I feel like I always post the same thing on here, but... get some lessons with a decent instructor - perhaps a jumping one? I did this with my 4yr old, and they said do not push him much for another year. It doesn't matter if they don't get the stride/pick up right at that age - you want them to enjoy themselves and take you to the fence at that stage. So you don't make the BYEH classes as he is a late maturer. It doesn't matter - you can event him properly if you take your time and do the groundwork (and time) now... If she has got the money, and is thinking of sending him to a competition/prep yard, I would send him to an eventing yard, who will also work on the dressage at the same time.
 
Give the poor horse time. It hasn't finished growing yet (so maybe she isn't sure of how high she needs to lift her legs as their length is changing), let alone had time to develop the muscles to cope with her frame. If your friend wanted an early maturer to be out jumping on she should have gone tb, not wb. Take more time, have more fun & let her grow gently. Why is she trying to push her into full work (jumping or dressage) at such a young age?
 
Corona said:
Sorry that's a really crude title, was unsure what else to put without rambling! my poor friend is feeling a little exasperated with her baby at the moment so wondered if anyone could offer advice! Her lovely young mare (was 4 in march) is well bred (eventers and dressage high placed on both sides), near perfect confirmation, excellent paces and good attitude. She's well schooled and going nicely, but just has what can only be described as a rubbish jump. I know she's young and has loyts of strengthening and developing to do, that's a given. But undersaddle or loose, she just shows zero scope, dangly legs and is not adverse to hitting every pole or nearly diving head first through them. For such a well bred, quality horse, it's just rotten luck!
Please don't get me wrong I know lots of horses take a good while to come into their own
n, but friend just can't see any tiny hint of promise with her. She's now considering sending her to produce with a dressage rider, as this she would excel in, and friend buying something just to scoot about on.
Friend ultimately bought her to jump, BYEH type classes etc, so is really disheartened, but doesn't want to feel like she's given up.
what do you think, any advice or tips? Just really feel for her, as mare is lovely too.
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I agree with people that it can take time, and I had one who we used to call Demolition Dan at four who was a fabulous eventer at six. But they have to show some interest,which this mare sounds as if she lacks. If her paces on the flat are pretty established as you seem to be saying, then you would also expect to see some improvement in the jumping with experience no matter how young she is, but she is failing to improve loose or ridden. If the mare is working well on the flat but there is simply no improvement in the jumping and your friend is experienced enough to know an inexperienced young horse from one that just has no empathy with jumping, then this mare sounds like she simply isn't going to get it.

I had a warmblood the same. Bred and bought to jump/event. Useless. I waited a year from him to be strong enough to do the job before I trained him jumping. He failed to improve in weekly sessions for four or five months. Eventually he actually dived head first over a fence and fell on his face in the dirt. That was the last jump he ever did. I sold him for a lot of money to go and do dressage and he wins every time out. If I were to have the time again I'd let the horse go and buy one that wants to do the job. I waited two years for this horse because he was such a special animal and I did not want to let him go. At least a year of that was wasted. Life is too short.

For those who are saying that she is too young, on the continent many of the jumping bred horses are out competing as three year olds. I don't personally think that's right but I do think that there is nothing wrong with teaching an averagely matured four year old who is doing decent flat work how to jump and that a horse who is really going to enjoy the job will normally show it at that stage. There is a stud (can't remember what it's called) who loose jump their weanlings and then sell them as jumpers or dressage prospects depending on what talent they show that young.

To help your friend decide, can she contact owners of any siblings and see how they have turned out? My dressage horse is a terrible traveller and when I contacted the person who owns his full brother I found out that he is the same and it appears to be genetic, since they never travelled together.
 
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I wouldn't give up just yet, I expect the horse has not quite got the idea yet!

My friends warmblood had very good dressage and SJ lines but to begin with he was rubbish at jumping! Not got a clue. He would literally clamber over the fence and didn't take off at all! He went to an eventing yard in the end to be sold (for an entirely different reason) and they got him really forward and stuck a couple of fillers under the jump, put it up to the point where he had to make an effort and all of a sudden...click! Turns out he has a fab jump and no problem at all leaving the ground. He was just a bit slow getting the hang of it :-P
 
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