help please - stumbling

[Benefice1]

Hi everyone,

Last night i rode my boy in the indoor school, he was working lovely and quietly but every so often it felt like he tripped, it felt as though he wasnt tracking up properly so i kicked him on and he was fine.

To finish i popped over a couple of jumps (they were small max 2'6) he is a very eager jumper and i am working on keeping him slow afterwards as he has a tendancy to zoom off round the corners. Anyway last night after the jumps he kept stumbling sometimes quite badly so i stopped and walked him round. he was absolutely fine, got off and felt his legs - nothing

Anyone got any idea as to what could have happened or do you think he just wasnt concentrating so got his legs in a pickle?!

Any advice would be great, thanks x

 

[Christmas_Kate]

sounds like he was just being lazy. Without enough impulsion alot of horses stumble. How many of us have been quietly ambling along on a hck and nearly ended up on the road as we're going TOO sedately?

I wouldnt worry about it.

 

[Benefice1]

but i think it might be the opposite problem, he is too fast and has too much impulsion, he has never had a lazy day (wish he would!!

) if that makes any sense!!

 

[AmyMay]

When I first started riding loan horse she was/is very forward going but quite unbalanced. This was particularly obvious when we did some showing over the summer - her legs were all over the place in the ring.

We have had to slow things down considerably, asking for a much more sedate, rhythmic pace.

Perhaps this could be part of your boy's problem - too forward and unbalanced and tripping over himself???

 

[Benefice1]

thank you, yeah i think it prob is this, but he has never done it before so seemed odd for him to suddenly start. He really has calmed down and will work nice and quietly and in a good rhythm but its just when we start jumping all this goes out the window.

Am thinking perhaps some grid work might help him??

 

[Troy1999]

Hi, I had this experience in the past with a horse, who wasn't lazy.
Firstly I suggest having a look at his feet/ farrier work, my horse required natural balance shoes to take into account his confirmation faults, vet and farrier worked together to sort this out.
This was a horse who went down quite dramatically on the flat in an arena in trot, it turned out the old farrier was just standard shoeing her without taking into account her conformation, she was long in cannon and over at knee, plus slightly odd shaped hoof o/s.
This was like wearing a flip flop and a big workers boot at the front!!!!!
She never did it for months when I first got her then it came out of nowhere and is not funny.
I suggest getting someone to have a look at feet.
It may not be this but it's best to work through and eliminate things!!!
She went on to be a very happy and showjumper

 

[spooks]

my daughters horse used to trip/stumble to the point where it was annoying! i started using a new farrier who rectified the problem and he rarely trips now.