help please (showjumping)?

BroadfordQueen

BroadfordQueen

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My new mare loves her jumping- anyone who see's her jump can't doubt that! However, she loves it a bit too much! When I point her at a fence, she locks to it, and goes. I cannot get her back to me for love nor money- she comes straight back after the fence, but once she is a few strides away from a jump she will lock, and go pretty damn fast, head up in the air, and takes a stride out everytime (although she hasnt touched a single fence yet, nor stopped, and we won the first comp we did!). It made my instructor gasp! She is very well schooled on the flat. What exercises can I do to bring her back to me so I'm the one who tells her what speed to go and when to jump? I dont want her to gallop at the fences, i want her to be collected, like a "spring". We have been doing grids with her in lessons which makes her think abit more, but she still does it. I have tried putting a canter pole two strides away (we tried one stride away first, but she jumped it..!), but she still rushes to it. Any tips please? She did it with her last owner when we went to see her too, so i dont think it is just me letting her do it
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? thanks for any tips, muchly appreciated
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How about canter poles set out before the jump, you can set them so she takes off when you want her to - be careful she doesnt take it as a challenge and spring off before them though!
also, how about just schooling round the fences for a few sessions so she gets used to working calmly round them. my mind has now gone blank but will let you know when the rest comes to me! - my mare used to be exactly the same!
 
sounds similar to Pidge. I only jump about 2' at home as am chicken s*** height wise. What I've done is plenty of courses and my favourite when he's keen is to put 4 jumps at 12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock on a 20 metre circle and just go round these several times. Does make them think what they are doing. Oh and plenty of schooling to try to get some brake
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if you get them to drop when put leg on its far better than sticking head in the air. There are far more experienced people than me on here who will give better advice but this has worked to a certian degree for me.
 
just do loads of polework first, the when she does that calmy raise the poles on one side slighty, so there like mini fences, then when she is doing that ok, put a little diddy cross up with 4 or 5 poles in front and trot into it.

Just take things really slowly. I rode a horse today that hasnt been jumped for 4 months and was doing the same thing, so i walked him over everything, the eventually after a while he did it really nicely in canter and was steady.

good luck!
xxx
 
Oakey used to do exactly the same!! what we did was put a small x-pole up, about 1'9. we put a placing pole about 1 canter stride away. We walked to the pole and then trotted to show that they could jump from just a steady trot. We raised the pole afew times until it reached about 2'3 just walking and trotting the last couple of strides. Then we raised it more, and trotted all the way into it, pole still there and if they broke into canter at the last mionute, they would mess up with their feet, and learn from nit and eventually oakey understood and we did a steady round at hartpury sjing without her charging at anything!
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Has she always been like this? I would be inclined to talk to her old owner and see whether she had a prob with this and what she did to counteract it TBH - could be she will settle once she and you have found each others buttons
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i think like you said you've been doing, grid work. vary them often so that she has to think alot. do bounces, add poles in between fences and before and after fences.

have you tried her xc yet?
 
There are 2 things you can try:
1. 5 canter poles in front of a jump and gradually reduce (demonstrated in Tim Stokdales dvd).

2. When she rushes pull up Straight in front of the jump and rein back - continue to do this until she starts to calm down.
 
I would tend to go with what Lil ponio has said about walking to the trotting pole and then popping over the x pole ... also Agree with Lark on her 2nd point about pull up in front of the jump and rein back ... I did both these things with my ish mare who used to do exactly the same thing , and it worked a treat, dont get me wrong she didnt change over night , she still likes to bounce into the fence but I could control her .


Good luck with it xx
 
When my rides rush into fences I put them onto a circle until they calm down, it could take hours, but she will get it eventually
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