HELP! My mare rushes at jumps..

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GeorginaBowes

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We bought my 15.2hh mare 8 months ago, where she was mainly used for hunting and XC. She was ridden in a dutch gag on the bottom ring, but we have put her in a kinder french-link hanging cheek. She has a gorgeous temperment when hacking and and is very affectionate, but she has a quite a few schooling issues. She rushes at the tiniest of fences, evades the bit, tilts her head at a funny inward angle, and sometimes approaches fences sideways. However, she doesn't do any of this whilst doing XC or jumping at a show, only schooling at home. We've had her teeth, neurological and general health checked, and she seems fine in that sense. Would going back to the dutch gag help (admittedly she did seem more controllable in it)? Can anyone give me any advise on how to get her schooling nicely at home? HELP! :(
 
I've tried circling her away from jumps when she attempts to rush, (I think this is how she developed the sideways jumping thing) and she's fine walking over jumps, and trotting over poles. It's just jumping at any pace above a walk.
 
Try going back to the gag but put it a hole up and go back to basics. Walk and then trot at a few strides out of the jumps to get her listening, dont canter until you can extend the calm trot to the jump.....when landing come straight back to walk four strides after, sit deep in the saddle while asking so she gets the idea to listen to you. It might take a few trys but it worked, a friends 17hh kept doing the same and she had a lesson with an eventer and he had them trotting into a 3'3 xpole one stride of canter then a 3'3 oxer 2'6 wide coming back to walk four strides after landing :D
 
She's pretty good at slowing down after a jump, but if I attempt the jump in trot, she goes at it sideways :/ and the last time I pushed her through it, I fell off and injured myself quite badly.
 
Personally I would put her back in the gag if she prefers it, remember that a bit is only as kind as the hands holding the reins. What I did with a horse that used to do that is put the jump up a bit off the track, only a small xpole. Then put a trotting pole each side alongside the jump so to create a line with one of the trotting poles on the track. Start trotting round in a 20m circle just on the track so at A you in over the pole. Then once she's listening and relaxed as you're going round the 20m circle just turn her off the track to head for the jump. If she starts rushing at it them just turn her onto either of the trotting poles instead of jumping the jump. the idea is to show them that if they rush they don't get to do the fun exciting jump but they do the boring trotting pole instead but the poles are there to still make them do something rather than teaching them to duck out. It worked on the mare I did it with. I also practiced trot to halt transitions and if she rushed I'd stop her but this may not work and may only teach her to stop so its really up to you as only you know what she's like and if this will teach her to listen or teach her to stop. Good luck :)
 
Thanks, I'll definitely give that a try! :D As for the gag, it was a snaffle mouthpiece, someone has advised a gag with a french-link mouthpiece to prevent the 'poking' action, so she can drop her head and also give her less to grab and run with. Would this help?
 
As you have stated that she has schooling issues, are there more issues than just the jumping ones?? IME if a horses rushes into a fence it is usually rushing in its other paces too, its just that people get used to the way a horse goes and then they dont even realise that the horse is above rhythm. To control the speed you need control of the hind legs, the engine of the horse.

TBH to go back in the gag is just like puting stronger brakes on, this doesnt solve the problem it just means you can stop/slow down if you pull hard enough. If this was my horse i would go back to basics and gain control of the hind legs to control your speed, when you can get correct rhythm in all paces then start working on the jumping as you will have a solid foundation from which to start. :)
 
Forgot to add, after stopping her I'd still ask her to trot on and do the jump, this used to make it harder for her and annoy her so she learnt not to rush so she could jump it straight away and comfortably. But again, please be carefull and make a judgement of whether or not your horse will learn to listen by doing that or learn to stop. I knew that horse well and I knew the pie will not want to stop therefore I could do that but every horse is different and yours may well decide that it would rather stop than listen.
 
I'd also be inclined to put her back in the bit she's used to.
One method we tried recently was to set up 3 trotting poles, but put the middle one as a smallish cross-pole. My mare learnt very quickly that if she tried to rush and jump the cross-pole that she'd get herself into a pickle.
Another method we tried was taking them into a jump normally then insisting that they halted 5 or 6 strides out, wait for them to stop fidgeting then trot them over. However I wouldn't advise that method if yours has been known to throw in a dirty stop as it might encourage them.
We also get her to halt in between a combination jump, which seems to really help her listening to what I said not just "JUMP!!!"
 
BellaBee said:
I'd also be inclined to put her back in the bit she's used to.
Another method we tried was taking them into a jump normally then insisting that they halted 5 or 6 strides out, wait for them to stop fidgeting then trot them over. However I wouldn't advise that method if yours has been known to throw in a dirty stop as it might encourage them.

This worked for our Connie, but he very rarely stops. He also goes well in the dutch gag, 2nd ring down with the French link, but schools in French link snaffle.
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I understand that one way of fixing this problem is to teach the horse to stop mid way over the pole, ie walk across halt and wait, even lots of lateral work sideways across pole on ground. The theory being that the horse is rushing for whatever reason to get over the pole, and the more the horse can relax, be comfortable at/on pole, then the less likely to rush across.

Further, when walking or trotting over pole, once completed disengage hind quarters, and bring the horse around back over the pole in the other direction. I use to do a lot of groundwork with my chap and often asked him to turn and rejump in back the other way. He never rushes over any jump. This exercise if repeated with a horse that is not thinking, tends to get them to start thinking, and stop running. It is one I would do on the ground rather than ridden first.

A lot of the cause of this is anxiety, it sounds like the horse has been taught to do this inadvertently by the rider, and it is something that needs to be untaught. A good NH instructor would be able to help you out with this. If you can change pattern or habit that has been taught it simply will not be an issue.
 
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