HELP New horse on trial getting over excited when jumping

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kittyb

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So my new neddy is as good as gold with his schooling and hacking etc and an absolute angel to handle but he gets very over excited when jumping

He starts bucking and can try to run off a bit with his rider

There doesn't seem to be any fear involved and I don't think he necessary knows he is misbehaving...he seems to just be having fun

Any advice as to how to get him to calm down and act like his usual level headed self or if he will always be like this when jumping?

He is on the second week of his two week trial and he has been so well behaved with everything else - I am quite a nervous rider and he seems so perfect for me in all other ways!! Advice please
 
its hard to tell without seeing the horse as different things work for different horses. What I did was put up a x pole, then either side of the x jus put slightly raised trotting poles, like this all in a line: _x_
so then whenever she'd get too excited, i'd go over the trotting pole instead of the jump, so it would start getting boring for her and she'd cotton on that to get to jump the fun stuff, she needs to keep calm. One other thing I do with her is set up a small jump, that you can do from trot, start trotting up to it and stop 3 strides out, then ask to trot on and jump, this teaches her to think and listen to me before tanking off towards the jump. BUT both of these may not work on your horse, as one may teach him to duck out and one may teach him to stop, so it is really up to you to judge whether your horse will understand the exercise and learn what you want it to learn or not understand it and think you want it to duck or stop. But that's the only 2 things I can suggest, good luck! :)
 
If you a nervous rider keep in mind that it is quite a big ask for the new horse to be perfectly behaved hacking, schooling and jumping all within a week of a new partnership. Presumably the bucks are small and he hasn't had you off? I'd be tempted to say no horse is perfect.

What does your instructor say? He/she is the best person to assess the horse.

What does your vet say? If he finds any soreness in the back or hind limb lameness then I would re-think the whole purchase.
 
The vet says there is nothing physically wrong and has checked his back in teeth but also said that its worth having his saddle checked as its a new saddle - I have a visit in the diary for the saddler to come back!

I also have a visit from the dentist in the diary just in case

The bucks are relatively small but not inconsequential and he hasn't had me off at all. I am more worried about the attempts at running off

My instructor is coming with me today to see him jump and give me some tips as to how to calm him down with the jumps. Hopefully she'll find some exercises that work for us or be able to see if there is something causing it

He had a fair amount of treats at the rear end of last week as he was being such a good little laddie so I am wondering if those could still be in his system as well? He had the treats Thursday and Friday (plus a couple of apples on Saturday) and it was yesterday we jumped him for the first time
 
Try schooling around and between jumps. Start with just one in the school then add more. start by jumping nothing at all, just have the jumps around you. then jump the odd one but not a course. I had a Welsh cob like this and I would ask for canter going in to the straight, come slightly off line and pop a small jump then keep on schooling him around like nothing had happened

Basically as PPP says above make it a little dull for them and they will start to accept it as standard

If you gear up for a 'jump session' I think thats when a horse starts to anticipate that fun is coming his way!
 
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