Hmmm, grid/pole work ideas please! Rushing horse....

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KatB

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Right you knowledgeable lot!!

My darling mare has decided that poles are THE most exciting thing in the world, and as a result is doing everything at 900mph.

I did lots of canter poles yesterday, which she was doing beautifully but getting higher and higher over each pole
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I then changed it to a pole to a X pole to a pole, where she promptly cleared the lot in one leap (from trot, scopey?!!) and then scared herself a bit (and me if I'm honest!) so either wanted to launch at everything or bounce lots.
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SO, any ideas of pole work/ little grids etc I can do to stop her rushing, but that make her think a bit?!! I was going to do the 4 poles on a circle trick to just relax her a bit and get over the "YEEHAAA POLES" attitude? She can shorten and lengthen well and was doing the 4/5 stride exercise between poles nicely before the enforced break.

Did also think about doing S_J's exercise that she showed us yesterday, but just over poles?

Any ideas would be very much appreciated!!
 
Here are a few suggestions:

The Harvey Smith pole layout, where poles placed in a line making triangles but with different angles, no set striding so it realy gets the horse thinking (only to be done in trot). Not sure if that description makes sense, but basically a zig zag pattern but with different sized zig zags.

Maybe have the canter strided poles slightly raised at alternate ends, and then build up to small crosses so they are bounces.

Once a pony i was riding decided the poles were actually a spread and cleared them all, so i moved them out quite a bit and thought surely now he will realise he is to bounce, ermmmm nope! Scope indeed but not a good feeling for the rider.
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How about the 4/5 bounce one I did the other day?... Soap is also keen on getting faster the further down a grid he gets but this seemed to put him in his place, and establish a good rhythm. Only reservation I might have is if she is bouncing stuff that should be bounced this might encourage it, not sure....

You could adapt it a bit to go up 5 bounces then down canter poles, so she is almost in a grid on both long sides if you see what I mean, if you have enough poles and space that it!
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4/5 bounce exercise with video
 
She isn't bouncing it Chloe, she took off in front of the placing pole and landed after the landing placing pole!! No bounce there
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Though she has been known to bounce 8yrd distances to a 1.05m oxer...

Will try the bounce grid. She pretty much does that over poles anyway, but as you say with lots of repetition she may settle. I think she just needs boring tbh!! Thank you
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Yikes!

maybe you are right then little and often will take the edge off for her so you can keep the excitement to a minimum and get her concentrating, v impressive scope though I like it!
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Just random poles laid out around the arena and school around/ randomly over them. Same with x-poles- all very boring and normal.
 
Yep excitement to a minimum is the way forward I think... little and often! She hasn't done many bounce exercises really, so it should make her concentrate a bit more.

Horseywelsh, thank you, thats sounds really interesting. So presumably it encourages the horse to slow down and look where its putting its feet?
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yes that's what it is intended to do - it's supposed to make them think for themsleves and work out/look where they should be putting there feet, rather than anticipating or flying through. They can't anticipate what to do as there is no set striding. I've tried it with a few, it's got them all thinking, the "cocky" sort have been in a twist the first time through, as it's just not possible to rush, but it realy made them think and the following times were alot better. It's not something i do often, but just throw it in known again to get them thinking.
 
not grid work, but something i was adviced to try which has worked on a couple ive ridden who just ADORE JUMPING and therefore have to really zoom towards...

I was told to ignore the fences...

Basically i ride towards a jump but look left or right... so i dont "make eye contact" with the fence until about 2/3strides out...

Ignoring the fence seams to confuse the horse a little into thinking that i might actually decide to circle rather than jump... stops the horse prempting the jump... keeps them listening to you alot more... and stops an uncontious release from me before im ready aswell...

Hope that makes sense!

Good luck with your excited horse... at least you know she loves her work! xxx
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i'd probably put the fences up a bit and give her something to really think about, work on single fences for a while, circling away if she accelerated and made a bid for the fence, circling after the fence if she's still zoomy.
 
Thanks kerilli. Yeah I probably will next time I jump her, she is less likely to get herself in a flap with single fences! We tried the stopping after fences, but she just demonstrated what beautiful leaps she could do from halt straight into canter afterwards
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Just a thought, but maybe she is just fresh?

Lilly who does not really rush was a looney yesterday, it was so exciting that EVERY jump had to be followed by a buck and she was very very strong!

I am expecting that next time we jump we will be back to normal. So if she has had time off I would not worry too much and do what you were doing before if that was working. (Not that the suggestions / exercises are not good of course).
 
Yeah that would have been a big part, but she had started to rush a bit before hand too... everything with L has got to be about keeping it slow and not tearing off!!
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She would like to be a P2Per i think secretly
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Lol at Lilly! Bless her.
 
I spent a long time with Daisy (whose jumping technique when I bought her was shut your eyes, charge, leap and hope) having one canter pole at either end of the school and one cross pole on each long side, cantering in lots of circles over the canter pole until she was doing it properly and was relaxed, then coming down over the cross pole and resuming the circling at the other end. Eventually I could do with it loose reins and at that point we started making things trickier and she was fine with it. In the meantime, she had been out competing and by the end of this work had dropped the flash noseband and the martingale and was rideable in the arena. Boring, boring, boring, worked.
 
I might be inclined to take her out competing if she's that enthusiastic, though I do things a bit differently to many people.
I would want to keep that enthusiasm and just start channelling it into proper work. So long as she is safe, some courses at new venue will get her thinking and after a couple of months of work she will have settled down.
 
Thanks SM, she has been out competing a bit before Xmas, but obviously with the weather, it hasn't been possible since. We will be back competing/lessoning etc in the next couple of weeks... but need to have some semblance of control first i think
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FWIW I would be a tad careful right now. I would be stopping to think carefully about whether she's rushing through over-enthusiasm, freshness, over-confidence or worry. They all have slightly different cures so you need to be clear in your mind what you think is going on (although of course it may be a combo). She's bound to be fresh, they all are atm, so I wouldn't be expecting total and instant obedience. However, I wouldn't be rushing to change the game plan either until she's doing stuff that she used to do well properly again - stopping after a fence JP/Kenneth style, then calmly turning away in walk being one example. I find the anecdote you told us quite scary and I, for one, wouldn't want to be rushing to do a lot more until the basics are re-established, which probably won't take any time at all. However, if you try to move forward without re-establishing the basics I think it could get messier rather than better. I agree with those who say lots of pole work, random poles etc but my advice would be to stay off the 4 poles on 20m circle for the minute as it makes them buzzier than ever IME! When's your next JP session?
 
Completely agree Tabledancer, which is why I emphasised Pole work/grid work.

She needs to go back to doing things where she has to think so she can process what she is doing and relax around poles a bit more, without hurrying through/over them. The jumping the whole thing was purely freshness, she had got herself so buzzed up when she saw the poles she just couldnt get there quick enough.

My reasoning behind thinking of doing the 4 poles is the fact I can do alot with them in walk/trot, with spiralling in and out inbetween them to get her relaxing, accepting my aids in a quiet, soft manner, whilst building on what JP and Baydale had us doing on the flat which was accepting the leg to go other directions other than forwards and doing lots of repetetive quiet work to get her listening and softening.

She is always the paragon of virtue in front of JP and is a lovely soft relaxed pony, which is why I think it is freshness more than anything, as she has been a touch wild in all her work all week
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I am in no hurry to "skip" the basics, as I know as well as anyone from having a horse before who was lacking in them how hard it is to repair, so have learnt from past experience.
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JP lesson is on the 30th, but I want her to have done some poles etc before then to take away the silliness whether it be down to confidence etc to make sure she is back to being happy/confident/sensible before jumping properly again
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Put some draw reins on and make her wait, obviously not tight all the tme but when she tries to run tighten them.

Just have a small course, with only single fences and make her do as you say and wait to the bottom of the fence.

I find it works a treat
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Sorry haven't read all replies, so may have been suggested by anyway:
When i first got my horse, he galloped at every fence and yes he cleared them with ease, but it wasn't nice to ride...
my instructor would set up fences close together, randomly, where ever she felt like putting them, but cclose together.
i would then jump and turn and jump and turn and just jump whatever i felt like jumping, he didn't lknow where we were going and so started listening to me and since then he has been a dream, he always takes me to the fence, but doesn't rush as he has learnt to listen to me
yes its not the most complex grid but it really works, you can also add poles... the other thing is i would just school round the fences- not jump them, just school as he gets mega excited at the sight of a fence!
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really has helped us both!
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also as soon as he started rushing i would bring him back to trot and school him in and around the fences, lots of tight circles.
you can vary it a lot aswell and not only makes the horse think- makes you think aswell!
 
You can put a jump about 6 strides away from a corner of the school, so you jump it and head straight for the corner, where the plan is she grinds to a halt without you having to fight to halt her yourself - the wall does the work for you. Then walk away calmly. I find this works better than making her halt yourself as she will learn to anticipate you yanking on the reins as she lands and could create its own problems. My SJ trainer and eventer friend use this method and it works great IF you have v high fences round school, or school is indoors. However be v careful in low fenced outdoor arenas - I was helping eventer with fences for his baby who was being a bit cocky outdoors, he asked me to sit on corner of arena as a distraction and he jumped horse towards me, hoping that me being there would stop him from leaping out of school - however horse chose this moment to let is know how brave and clever he was and locked on and cleared the fence about 3 inches away from me! The fence in question was about 4'9!!!
 
Thankyou for posting this thread. There are some very interesting ideas to try. I have to agree with the looking away from a fence. At one point, whilst my instructor and I were brainstorming, seeing what worked and what didn't, she had me closing my eyes and talking about random rubbish going on in my life and I was very surprised at the difference it made.
The trick to William is to be there but do nothing (does that make sense??) and it is really really hard to do. Hence the shut my eyes and jabber
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