Help seem to have lost my confidence a little

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Lill

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My old nutty horse Alfie came to visit us last night with his new owner, watching her jump round a small course of 3ft6 fences on him me made me realise i've lost my confidence slightly as i probably would not do that on Blue now.
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We have only done 1 Trailblazers in the past 6 months but finished the Winter season in April doing the .95m Trailblazers and the BN and considering the 1.05m Trailblazers (usually ran a bit too late though.)

I think its probably just because i haven't done much jumping all Summer and because the last show we did in April didn't finish on a good note.
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I put Blue in the .95m came about 9th and then they ran the .95m again but over a different course so put him in that and he wasn't having it and wasn't going well at about fence 5 he stopped and i went crashing through the fence. He never stops so this shook me somewhat.
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We're going to a Trailblazers on Sunday and i want to put him in the .85m and would like to put him in the .95m but i am worried about this possibly happening again
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should i just get on with it and stop worrying?! Also he is getting faster round the course again not sure whether i should keep trying to slow him down or just let him jump at that pace?
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PS It was LOVELY to see Alfie he looks like he is doing really well
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i don't quite see how you can say she jumped round "a small course of 3ft6 fences" and then worry about doing the .95m class! 3ft6 is a fairly decent course really, i think.
concentrate on getting a good rhythm that suits his jumping style and keeps you both confident... you prob need someone good on the floor to tell you what looks best and suits him mentally and physically. i'd do that before going to a show, tbh. i wouldn't worry about what happened last time, you said he wasn't going well at the time. as long as he feels right this time, just concentrate on your rhythm and lines and you should be fine over the .85m, and if he's great in that, do the next class up.
 
Ooops i meant 'small course' as in only 4 or 5 fences so i guess 'short' would have been a better word!
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Well i think i will go even if i just do the .85m, am going to put jumps about that height tonight and see how he goes. I think its all in my head more than anything
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and because of what happened at the show in April it made me lose a little confidence in him too. Also where i haven't seen a course of jumps for a while the .95m classes look quite big whereas in April to me they looked small!
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I get like that to when i haven’t done anything for while and when u feel rusty! mayb u should just concentrate on having fun for your first time out in a while, mayb stick to the small classes for experience and confidence for both of u, then the next time ur out do a bigger class, if that doesn’t go well then go back and jump a small class. if you do this you will build so when things do go wrong its not to bad. don’t stress abt heights just go and fun that’s why we do it!!
 
oh right, got it. definitely have a good play at home or in a lesson if you can, to get your confidence up first. one exercise i love is to put up a small xpole to a related distance to a double, say, and then gradually build those 2 fences up and up. you can get to very decent sized fences safe in the knowledge that the distance is there (poles on the floor to keep the canter if the horse starts rushing and altering the stride etc), and get your confidence up over much bigger fences. good luck!
 
Is the related distance 7 human strides for a double right?

Could really do with a helper to do poles for that, will be on my own tonight unfortunately
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okay, how big is your horse? allow 1 1/2 to 2 paces for each take-off and landing, and then about 4 paces per horse stride.
so, 1 stride double, is 7-8 paces (yards). shorter distance for small fences up to 2 foot, 2 foot 6 ish, longer for bigger fences, really.
i would do a xpole, then say 15-16 paces (3 horse canter strides + room for takeoff and landing) to an upright, then 7 1/2 to 8 paces (1 horse canter stride) to a spread. when you're happy with the distances, put the last 2 fences up, or just the last one. having someone on the floor is vital, for safety and cos we all ride differently if we know we've got to get off and put the poles back up ourselves, and it's not the way to ride to improve your horse's jumping!
use a yard stick if your pace length varies, this is honestly vital, i have seen horses put on the floor by wrong distances etc.
 
He's 16hh. Have always done 7 paces for one stride double up to now and this seems to suit him fine.

Thanks for that
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although i may have to do xpole, one stride to straight and one stride to spread as our arena is only 45 x 25
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I could put the straight and spread fairly small .85m ish and just leave them at that height for today and put a couple of others up, that way i hopefully won't have to get off!
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my horse is 17 hh he doesnt jump as hes been a carriage horse all his life so hes just for hacking !!!!
would love to jump again though,my old horse was 14.3 but i was only 14 at the time lol !!! so like i said its been a while lol
i would do 5 big strides as in as far forward as my leg could reach before falling over !!! so the strides would be rite
 
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