Jingleballs
Well-Known Member
Well my reluctance to jump anything bigger than a small cross pole is now being challenged by my horse who has decided than anything under 2ft is now not worth his attention!
He's always been a little bit like this but we'd put it down to our poles being made of lightweight plastic and therefore it was too easy for him just to clip them but when he performed so well on the clear round at last weeks show I though it was just a case of me getting him gee'd up enought to do it - I was sooo wrong!!
On Saturday we did some flat work and then I set up 3 jumps so we could do as small course - on small cross (about 40cm) one small straight (about 30 cm) and a larger cross (about 50-55cms)
He was absolutlely fine with the larger cross but despite around 10 attempts he failed to clear either the small cross or small straight even though the poles were wooden and the ones on the larger jump were plastic.
Sooo, I decided to be very brave and put the small cross up to a straight giving me a jump of just over 2ft - I can handle that as a cross but for some reason straights terrify me! And the little bugger cleared it every single time!!! I did come off on the first attempt as he tried to canter over it, misjudged the stride and launched himself leaving me on his neck. He also ran out a couple of times but that was my fault - if he can sense my reluctance he just run out.
So do I just have to accept the fact that he'll not jump the small jumps that I want to do or is there anything I can do to get him over the smaller ones??
For info, here's an older picture of him jumping the smaller cross which he now refuses to jump (as you can see, I am no where near ready to do bigger jumps!)
And a picture of my friend jumping the "big one" which, although you will all think is tiny but absolutely terrifies me!! He clears this one every time!
He's always been a little bit like this but we'd put it down to our poles being made of lightweight plastic and therefore it was too easy for him just to clip them but when he performed so well on the clear round at last weeks show I though it was just a case of me getting him gee'd up enought to do it - I was sooo wrong!!
On Saturday we did some flat work and then I set up 3 jumps so we could do as small course - on small cross (about 40cm) one small straight (about 30 cm) and a larger cross (about 50-55cms)
He was absolutlely fine with the larger cross but despite around 10 attempts he failed to clear either the small cross or small straight even though the poles were wooden and the ones on the larger jump were plastic.
Sooo, I decided to be very brave and put the small cross up to a straight giving me a jump of just over 2ft - I can handle that as a cross but for some reason straights terrify me! And the little bugger cleared it every single time!!! I did come off on the first attempt as he tried to canter over it, misjudged the stride and launched himself leaving me on his neck. He also ran out a couple of times but that was my fault - if he can sense my reluctance he just run out.
So do I just have to accept the fact that he'll not jump the small jumps that I want to do or is there anything I can do to get him over the smaller ones??
For info, here's an older picture of him jumping the smaller cross which he now refuses to jump (as you can see, I am no where near ready to do bigger jumps!)
And a picture of my friend jumping the "big one" which, although you will all think is tiny but absolutely terrifies me!! He clears this one every time!
