Getting a horse straight XC

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HammieHamlet

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Hello!!

Do any of you have any advice on exercises / training techniques I could use to keep my mare straight when riding XC?

I find her quite difficult to get round a course as she is quite nappy and is sometimes more nosey about the surroundings than the jumps! She also takes a hell of a lot of work to get going and doesnt really take me forward, I always come back from the XC feeling like im going to pass out from exhaustion! Towards the end of the season she was also getting very wary with the solid fences and seemed to want to stop at each one, come back to a SJ pace, have a very good look at the jump and pop the fence from what felt like standstill -- It then took us more energy to build up the momentum and get back into a faster rhythm.

Last season I did intros and PN's, and we had a couple of clears, but more runs with 20 faults - she would never refuse but run out through the shoulder, usually at the smallest jump on the course and on the last stride!! we also rarely made the time.

So....my plans for the winter are to hack her out more and get her doing more cantering in different places, focusing on keeping straight and off my leg, hopefully a bit of hunting.... any other ideas??

I think next season I will maybe try another 3/4 events and considering changing disciplines if she is still the same as eventing may not be her thing...its a shame though as she is very talented, does a lovely dressage and SJ (which incidently, she gets very excited about)...the XC is just a buggar.

Maybe ive been spoilt as my other horse is so easy XC - literally point and jump and he keeps a lovely forward rhythm all the way round.

How can I help her to enjoy it and take me forward more??

Any ideas greatly appreciated
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I have a mare that sounds exactly the same as yours, my last horse was very straight forward xc.

I can't say i have found the answer to the very interesting surroundings and nappy behaviour!!

I have only done one season of eventing, but found lots of vocal encouragement helped!!

My instructor has recently done lots of excercises (sp!) with me to get her off the leg, so when i ask for trot she does it immediately otherwise she will get a good tap behind the leg with the whip (which she doesn't like)

So hoepfully when i ask her each time to go forward a bit more she is now listening to the leg and knows that is what i want, sorry if i'm not of more help but like i say i haven't exactly found the answer just yet....but will be interested if other people do know!!
 
i think i'd try to take her to a hunter trial or two and go around the pairs with a good lead horse, try to get her blood up, or get a team together to go novice team chasing. hunting should really help too.
don't really know what else to suggest... except flatwork to make sure she's really in front of the leg for jumping. seems strange that she gets excited about sj and not xc. i'd also take her to some easy-peasy courses like UK chasers and whizz over small fences for fun, ones that aren't worrying and she can just bowl on over, try to convince her that every natural fence doesn't have a dragon lurking under it.
i watched Helen Bell warm up Troubleshooter once for xc... she made sure in warm-up that he shot forward from her leg the moment she put it on, no dwelling or being behind it. he was a big horse and she's quite little, but they were an awesome combination.
best of luck!
 
What's her history? Age, breed, what's she done in the past?

So though not knowing anything about her, I'd suggest taking her hunting to get her going more forward, to enjoy jumping fences at more speed than SJing as some horses need practice at that.

Also, does she 'feel' the ground as that can make a horse stuffy (usually if the ground is hard). If she's getting slower and slower at the fences maybe she's feeling her feet and knows that the landing over every jump will jar her up that bit more.

My girl was terribly nervous out on a XC course when she was young. Scared of spectators, people walking the course and fence judges and it used to be hard to get her concentrating.

Although she was hideous to hunt, it did seem to teach her that you do see people, dogs and other horses in the strangest of places and she eventually got the idea.
 
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What's her history? Age, breed, what's she done in the past?



Hello Jo, its Jenny (used to be HammieHamlet, cant remember my password to log in!!).

Horse (Kiri) is chesnut mare, 7yrs old, unknown breeding but probably warmblood x? So, she's done 3 intros last year with pro's (did very well with them, clear all 3 but interestingly on the last one she did 'run flat' with the rider and really slow down - got time faults).

I did take her to a HT at lockskinners recently which was about 2ft6, thinking i'll whizz round and give her a bit of fun - however she was looking at those tiny jumps with her eyes on stalks!!

Just dont think she's cottoned on yet to how fun XC is. Think she is a lazy mare who doesnt really want to excert herself and would happily show jump canter round the XC course. Would love to do some team chasing / pairs but need someone to give us a lead - no one at my yard will jump above 2ft!!
 
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i think i'd try to take her to a hunter trial or two and go around the pairs with a good lead horse, try to get her blood up, or get a team together to go novice team chasing. hunting should really help too.
don't really know what else to suggest... except flatwork to make sure she's really in front of the leg for jumping. seems strange that she gets excited about sj and not xc. i'd also take her to some easy-peasy courses like UK chasers and whizz over small fences for fun, ones that aren't worrying and she can just bowl on over, try to convince her that every natural fence doesn't have a dragon lurking under it.
i watched Helen Bell warm up Troubleshooter once for xc... she made sure in warm-up that he shot forward from her leg the moment she put it on, no dwelling or being behind it. he was a big horse and she's quite little, but they were an awesome combination.
best of luck!

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Thanks for your advice here - usually she is quite good in the warm up and will get excited about whizzing over the fences.....at munstead she was doing handstands after each practice fence i jumped - I was getting quite excited about the fact that she might want to take me round with a bit of 'zing'! However, as soon as we were out the start box and on our own, that 'zing' quickly disappeared and I had to do a lot of work!!
 
Sounds incredibly like my 9 year old TB... right down to the 'zing' in the warm-up arena petering away to nothing as soon as we came out of the start box. We didn't have the same issue at all in the SJ or dressage with forwardness/nappyness or straightness.

We climbed round Ascott-Under Wychwood at Intro as our first event of the season and then proceeded to get eliminated at the second fence at Milton Keynes. I worked at it by trying to insist on absolute sharpness off the leg hacking behind/in front/alone in as many different places as I could find, going round lots Pony Club pairs hunter trials at 2'6" with my sisters (letting them lead to start with) and generally trying to make it 'fun'. I also found that thinking of kicking on straight away after landing and making sure my reins didn't get too long (I ended up putting tape around them as markers!) helped. Generally the straightness follows the forwardness so work on that and you will probably find that the crookedness disappears once you have your horse truly forward in front of you leg
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. I will be interested to read the other advice you get in case we have a relapse next season!

PS. My boy, after a season of basically hunter-trialling, went out to Keysoe as his last event and won his PN section
smile.gif
 
another good tip (i think it was Lucinda Green who said this) is to ride every fence as if you've already had a stop at it... makes you very determined.
if she's happy jumping showjumps then i guess her back/teeth/saddle must be fine, although normally having those checked would be the first thing i'd recommend.
 
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Sounds incredibly like my 9 year old TB... right down to the 'zing' in the warm-up arena petering away to nothing as soon as we came out of the start box. We didn't have the same issue at all in the SJ or dressage with forwardness/nappyness or straightness.

We climbed round Ascott-Under Wychwood at Intro as our first event of the season and then proceeded to get eliminated at the second fence at Milton Keynes. I worked at it by trying to insist on absolute sharpness off the leg hacking behind/in front/alone in as many different places as I could find, going round lots Pony Club pairs hunter trials at 2'6" with my sisters (letting them lead to start with) and generally trying to make it 'fun'. I also found that thinking of kicking on straight away after landing and making sure my reins didn't get too long (I ended up putting tape around them as markers!) helped. Generally the straightness follows the forwardness so work on that and you will probably find that the crookedness disappears once you have your horse truly forward in front of you leg
smile.gif
. I will be interested to read the other advice you get in case we have a relapse next season!

PS. My boy, after a season of basically hunter-trialling, went out to Keysoe as his last event and won his PN section
smile.gif


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Glad to hear you may have got there - they do sound alike!! I worked with an event rider over the summer who said she had had a couple of horses that took a while to work out what its all about and turned out to be fabulous XC horses - Im just hoping she works it all out too eventually!!
 
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another good tip (i think it was Lucinda Green who said this) is to ride every fence as if you've already had a stop at it... makes you very determined.
if she's happy jumping showjumps then i guess her back/teeth/saddle must be fine, although normally having those checked would be the first thing i'd recommend.

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I do try and do that, but I must admit it does get very tiring doing it at every fence - I probably need to get myself in better shape to be able to ride like that and keep my strength up ...suppose I therefore may sit back and have a rest if she feels good for a brief moment - at the risk of becoming complacent!!
 
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