Green horse destroys coloured fences?

[as2164]

Hi all,
Recently a project has come into my hands- it’s about 16 hands and 10, quite a chunky type and smart- although was broken in late and has never really done much under saddle.
Videos from its previous home in wales show it jumping a tiger trap well although I was aware it had a problem over showjumps which I have now seen:
At least 2 out of 3 times it jumps it will completely destroy the fence, I’m not sure if it’s tripping over or being lazy or doesn’t care about poles hitting it’s legs, or perhaps it’s something I’m doing as a rider.
I’ve jumped it over small logs and hunt post and rails and it does pop them nicely so isn’t a question of its ability.
Also like I say, 1 in 3 times he will jump nicely and clear the fence.
Does anyone have any advice?
What exercises could I do to improve his jump? I have only attempted ip to about 70cm including heavy poles and planks and anything that can be knocked down will be
I am well aware it could be me so I have approached an instructor, i would just like to know if anyone’s had the same problem.
And if so, has any ideas on schooling exercises I could try.
Thanks very much

 

[LEC]

I suspect you will be trying to teach a pig to sing. It’s a waste of your time and annoys the pig.

It’s 10 and clearly can jump and knows that show jumps fall down. You might get a small improvement but I suspect not much. Even a horse with the worst canter in the world should be able to navigate a showjump of 70cm out of trot or canter cleanly.

 

[PurBee]

Aside from training methods, and whether the horse likes to jump or not - all i can think of that may cause a failure with fences is the horses vision.
Horse eye colour cones are different to ours, and they dont see colour in the same way. If a horse has a eye condition affecting colour cones, then its colour vision could be affected, which would explain why certain coloured fences he’s really rubbish with, and others jumps fine.
So worth getting his eyes checked-out to rule out that aspect.

Another vision aspect is the horses head position when approaching a jump, due to the angle they are /are not able to see what is in front of them. If we clamp down their necks with tack/or heavy hands so their eyes are lowered, they cant see what’s infront of them and will see the jump at the very last mili-second, so will likely plough through jumps.
You see horses in SJ all the time fighting with the rider lining up to jumps of trying to raise their heads, and the riders fighting with the reins to get their heads lower - all the horse is trying to do is bring their field of vision closer so they’ll see whats infront of them better.
This vid explains it better than my attempt!

They have blurred vision of the fence when right close to it anyway, so if his head is forced low and he’s got to jump a blurry thing he didnt know was there until the last second, he’s likely to plough.
Maybe the jumps he does clear are when he successfully fights with you to raise his head on approach?
This isnt criticism, it was years before i knew horses vision/colour was completely different to ours, but when it comes to jumping, knowing how they see, helps us to ride better, and will help them to see the jump if you give them their head/neck to do with as needed to see the jump on approach.