Help how do I stop my horse from breaking into trot before a fence

[AbiH]

My horse is 17.2 and I’m have a slight struggle at the moment, my trainer tells me to half halt and give him some small pulls up to the jump but he keeps breaking into trot. But it I don’t he gallops at the jump full speed and lands even faster. How do I stop this it’s usually 3-4 strides before the jump or on the turn to the jump. I’m worried if I don’t hold him enough he will gallop/run off to the jump but if I put my leg on he will do the same. But if I hold him and push him (when I say push I mean a click or a small squeeze) will that not confuse him I feel like it always goes one way or the other he either breaks into trot or goes way to fast I’m feeling so dishartened after yesterday’s ride we only jump a max of 75 at the minute aswell so I don’t know what to do?‍

 

[windand rain]

You are not getting the half halt right you need to get him between hand and leg and bouncy rather that slowing him down. Might be worth trying on the flat to get the aids right. more leg than hand, sit tall and hold the forward movement

 

[Ambers Echo]

It's hard to get this so don't get disheartened! You need to use both hand and leg at the same time - half halt to rebalance/ gte his attebtion but leg on to keep the canter. And exactly the right amount of each so that you are not either killing the canter with the half halt and breaking into trot, or getting too much canter with the leg! Think of it like driving a ferrari - easy to stall and easy to go too fast. It takes practice and I would do this over a 'course' of poles or on the flat until you can canter round the poles maintaining an even rhythm before you complicate life with jumps.

 

[Michen]

A great trainer once said to me “the most important part of a half half is the release”. I have found this really useful.

 

[tristar]

if you improved the canter so you have more control, and balance you would not need to upset the flow of the canter, perhaps it is partly the style of this horse to go on a bit and take you into the jump

 

[Equi]

Work on your canter paces a lot more before putting a jump in, practice without anything then with a pole etc then a tteeeeennnnyyy crosspole.

 

[Ossy2]

You need to be able to manipulate the canter on the flat first, we forget jumping is like 90% flat work, sounds like you are pulling back with no leg behind it rather than half halting with your leg there. I used to do this a bit when I was practicing medium canter into collected canter mine used to drop me at the point of collection as I had no leg behind the hand and seat aid.
Work on being able to do on and backs in the canter and then lengthening and shortening. Then reintroduce the jump, try placing poles to help with the length of canter you want on approach and after the fence.
Your trainer really should be picking on why your horse is dropping you like that and helping fix, maybe think if they are right trainer for the job, they should inspire and give confidence not leave you feeling disheartened.

 

[Mule]

Agree with what everyone has said about the half halt. My horse also likes to rush his fences. He enjoys jumping, but he gets very excited. When he got very strong I would use poles on the ground to simulate jumps. He had to learn to approach them calmly in trot and then in canter before we put up jumps.

I then used ground poles before the jumps. He had to pay attention to his strides and jump like a civilised horse! It works well because they have to concentrate. When the horse is calmer you can start to remove them. Then if he rushed to the fence I would circle him away from it rather than let him jump.

I haven't jumped properly in ages so I've started doing this again as we are getting back in to it. It really works well.

 

[J&S]

I agree that you need to work on the canter with out jumps. Also, you can still jump a big strong horse like yours from a trot. The big old horse I ride really carted his ( 14 yr old PC) rider around to start with but they began by riding XC courses in trot and then when he had learned he did not need to gallop at them he was allowed to canter on. It really worked, I rode him round a XC course a few years ago when I was in early 70's and he was a complete gentleman.

 

[neddy man]

All excellent advice above. Surely your trainer should be giving you the above advice and getting this correct on the ground before jumping continues.