Heavy showjumping poles

also try jumping 'a' frames to help tidy him up and use his shoulder. other thing i did with mine was taking him back to jumping from trot, make him think bout what he was doing, i think he impressed himself tht he could jump 3ft frm a trot, no rushing neccesary! i also jump mine with placing poles all the time, i tried the thoery of using false ground lines but it just upset him.
 
Tried 'a' frames, he is fine the first time, then doesn't bother, lazy sod. He will quite happily jump a nice 4ft parallel once, then flatten it the next time.

Could try and fill plastic ones with sand, might work. I did see a showjumper at home once training over these tiny poles, looked really light wieght, till I had a proper look at them and they were square and wieghed a ton!
 
yes seen some teeny tiny poles myself tht were in fact well diguised scaffold poles, only problem with going down tht route is the chance of injury! looking at his pictures he looks like he prob knocks them with his toes so you need to try improve his technique, if he's flattening i assume hes taking off a bit early. try doin some small bouces, use poles to place him. its hard work though cos where some horses hate knocking a pole, it upsets them others just dont get rattled by it, they got to the other side safely so as far as they are concerned they are jolly clever!!aahh
 
Our yard went to a wood supplier who provided them with really heavy wooden poles, they arnt all the same length but were cheaper than normal. Pickle will always jump these while coloured poles he will just bash through
 
Can you get some from a wood business? My horse seems to derive pleasure from smacking the flimsy light plastic poles we have and making them bounce out of the cups, so I asked for some wooden ones and we got some seriously heavy and very thick wooden ones, they basically look like a tree chopped down with the branches cut off. He respects these and makes a decent effort. Have yet to see if this carries over to coloured wooden ones though...

Alternatively, sand-filled plastic ones should be pretty heavy (though they might sag?).
 
When he knocks them he really knocks them, front and behind, when he jumps them he has a lovely technique. We are focusing on gridwork with him, but our poles are quite lightweight wooden ones, and trainer suggested some really heavy wieght ones to teach him that he has to make an effort
 
jump4joy's professional ones are very heavy.
i know someone who had a v careless sjer who made a loose-jumping grid of fixed xc poles (telegraph poles etc) and worked the horse over them... he was a very much more careful horse after that.
edit: if he might be a bit dyspraxic, then tellington-jones hoof-tapping exercises (to teach him exactly where his feet are) can make a very big difference.
 
my plastic poles are filled with wood poles and are a decent weigh-heavier than a lot of normal ones, i do believe they are jump for joy.
 
He is a funny one, he is ultra careful over xc jumps, and the first time over big showjumps, but then he just doesnt bother after that. trainer jumped him last monday and we tried all sorts to get him to make an effort, everything worked first time, but then he got lazy. She thinks he is fixable though, as she said it is no different from how he is with everything else, you just have to make him make the effort.
 
i'll whisper it... you need a good sj trainer who knows how to chuck a pole at a horse. it's an art, and it needs perfect timing (my former trainer who did it for me had had her wrist broken twice, learning the timing), but it only needs doing once or twice to a casual horse, and they can be metamorphosised...
 
That wasnt very quiet
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Give Paul Spencer at Professional Jump Poles a call as he does the type of poles you are looking for. Dont have any myself but saw them on his stand, they look like ordinary jump for joy/plastic poles but you can hardly lift them! No idea what they cost though.

His contact info is: 01773 533377 Mobile: 07814 462250 email: info@professionaljumppoles.com or web. www.professionaljumppoles.com (not much if any info on this last time I looked)
 
If you find this costs too much, theres also a timber yard just outside Maldon, Essex that does all sorts of poles (wooden pressurized) and they are reasonably priced. If they haven't got them, they will get them - chap/owner has a horsey wife so he understands strange horse related requests.

Can't remember the name of the place but its on the road from Maldon to Wickham Bishops (heading towards Tiptree) They delivery all around the area as well - including Suffolk I think.
 
i heard scaffold poles are good as well, they were reccommended to me as well becasue my horse is the same (never got round to getting any tho) apparrently it is the noise they make when they hit them that they dont like as well

oh and what worked for my horse, take front boots off!!
 
Totally agree Freshman, but my real feeling is to ask why bother? If a horse is that disinclined to jump whacking it/rapping it. making it hurt itself with scaffolding poles defeats the whole object of jumping it to me.
Some horses seem to jump clean, others can be taught to, more still just haven't got that self preserving gene that makes a good jumper..
I'm afraid I would be looking for a horse that loves jumping without any malarky needed I think...
The only trick we do is remove the boots, if that doesn't work sell it as a dressage horse...
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I was thinking the exact same thing freshman!

To help with your comment though, we got some staked fencing poles (really thick ones) and just chopped the spiked end off. A little shorter than your average pole but then there is no harm in having a slightly shorter space to aim at!

Heavier poles I agree with, I asked for advice from someone (who showjumped to quite a decent level) once and they electrified their poles
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needless to say, my thoughts on their ideas were clearly voiced and we never broached the subject again!

I dont have any experience with them but possibly the weighted boots or hind extender boots could help? As I've said, I've never used them so it may be worth speaking to people who have?
 
Now if I wanted a showjumper then yes I agree with you, he really wouldnt make the grade, as it is he is an eventer, and is briliant xc, has a huge jump, and can jump beautifully over showjumps, I am going down the grid work route, as think this will help him to learn to be more careful, just me and trainer think some heavier poles might be better than the realy lightwieght ones I have at the moment ( which arnt helping the situation) I really dont think telling me to sell him as a dressage horse is helpful, he is just babyish and learning how to do it properly, I think it is worth putting in the effort to get him there

ETA: and this horse loves jumping, just still not sure how to o about it!
 
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Totally agree Freshman, but my real feeling is to ask why bother? If a horse is that disinclined to jump whacking it/rapping it. making it hurt itself with scaffolding poles defeats the whole object of jumping it to me.
Some horses seem to jump clean, others can be taught to, more still just haven't got that self preserving gene that makes a good jumper..
I'm afraid I would be looking for a horse that loves jumping without any malarky needed I think...
The only trick we do is remove the boots, if that doesn't work sell it as a dressage horse...
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Totally agree
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Are you using tendon boots instead of brushing boots? If you have no tendon boots, just take the front boots off for a couple of sessions, (once you have the heavier poles).

I would also use deep cups, but just make sure your wings are stable enough, so they dont fall over if he hits the fence.

Is he lazy in front at shows? If not, just don't do much jumping at home, so he is a bit more "spooky" at the fences at a show and gives them more effort.
 
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This is amazing. If a reasonably serious showjumper posted any of these comments they would get shot down in flames.
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I have been following this thread with interest because right from Kerilli's comment I thought the exact same thing! I have been waiting for the horrified responses!
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Totally agree Freshman, but my real feeling is to ask why bother? If a horse is that disinclined to jump whacking it/rapping it. making it hurt itself with scaffolding poles defeats the whole object of jumping it to me.

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You'd think, wouldn't you? And yet... some people persist and persist and persist. Someone here got banned (which takes a LOT of doing!) from competing for rapping so severely (rapping in general is considered acceptable)

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Some horses seem to jump clean, others can be taught to, more still just haven't got that self preserving gene that makes a good jumper..

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I know from a reliable source of a horse that had scope but really just couldn't be arsed. Rider somehow (the logisitics terrify me) sat him down in the middle of a fence and from then on he never touched a pole. I saw the horse in question jump and he was exceptional- I'll have to find out if the story is true! Have heard plenty of other horror stories though!
Sorry, rambling a bit
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Sorry the sell him as a dressage horse was a tongue in cheek comment..
I do think however it's one of the near impossible things to do, a horse is careful and hates touching poles or they don't..
Rather than using heavy poles I would make the fences much scarier with objects such as plastic bags stuffed with paper etc or a coloured object draped over the fence, as he needs to be slightly more worried if he whacks them with all feet.
The thing we use are four road barriers filled with water (no I didn't nick them they cost £160!!!) they stand around 3' tall and no horse hits them more than once as they don't tip over very easily.
I still think if you have a horse that is so clueless about picking it's feet up going XC is dicey, hitting a solid fence won't be much fun...why have you posted the original question if he is jumping beautifully over show jumps, it doesn't make sense?
I agree grid work can only benefit him as will loose schooling over more solid fillers, but honestly, starting with a horse who gives fences some space is an awful lot easier than what you're doing...
 
i think its worth persisting with. Millie was very lazy in front always was and probably will be for the rest of her life. I had perservered for 3 years really (the last year having lots of different trainers and really trying) Mind you she ould easily jump them and had the scope and was fantastic xc, and her body always cleared the fences by miles it was just dangly legs-although sometimes she would be fine....it was very hit and miss.

I saw Jerry jump on sunday and admittedly i wasnt really really watching as i was tryin to avpid other ponies and he definatly has the scope when he jumped that spread from a standstill he so gracefull just pinged over without hardly any effort at all. So i can understand where you are coming from regarding him being more than capable.
 
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