Horse gets very strong jumping!

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squidsin

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Has anyone got advice for exercises/bits/anything that might help with my mare getting very strong jumping? She loves jumping and will jump anything off any stride and rarely has a pole down but i took her to do sj at the weekend and ended up doing some 'bonus' jumps as I couldn't stop her! She gets progressively faster and stronger and once she's locked on there's no stopping her. In contrast, she isn't really interested in dressage and I've had to work hard to get her in front of the leg. I ride her in a snaffle and that's fine for hacking and schooling but feel I probably need more brakes for jumping. We do grid work and poles and that's ok in our own school but the full sj course obviously blew both our minds! Would welcome any suggestions! She is 14 and has BSJA points with a previous owner but I am fairly new to jumping, having come to riding as an adult - she is my first horse and I've had her a year. Thanks!
 
Poles are probably a good place to start. I rode a horse for a friend who had become unpredictable to jump (we think he had been rapped by the previous owners before he was imported from Ireland). I spent hours just making him work over and around poles on the floor. They could be trotting poles, canter poles or just placed in a 'course' and we did this until he could keep calm and to the point it was almost boring. If he went to rush I would ask him to halt and start again. He was not allowed to 'jump' anything unless he was calm.
Then we started raising them off the ground to make raised poles that he could walk over and then gradually built the height up, again not letting him jump anything unless he was calm. After two weeks of training in jumping, flatwork and hacking to let him chill out, he could jump a small course in the same calm, consistent rhythm.
We had a few arguments and it wasn't always pretty as this particular horse didn't like being told no but he got there in the end.
Bit wise I would look at maybe trying a Myler combination bit. I use the long shank version on my competition mare and she responds well to it when previously I would need an anchor to curb her enthusiasm! It does look severe but is actually only a snaffle but works by spreading the pressure evenly over the poll, mouth, chin and nose instead of just pulling at their mouths.
Good luck :) It will take some time but it will all be worth it!
 
Great advice from Llee94 - I too would start with poles on the ground in a "course".

With a horse that is highly motivated you want to make things a bit more boring, so if she is seeing and cantering over poles every day she will eventually (hopefully) begin to accept it is not all about belting around.

My best advice would be to find the best showjumping instructor you can find, a good instructor will be able to assess your issues very quickly and suggest how to deal with it.

Often the more they have to think for themselves, ie through a grid, will make them take more responsibility and stop them rushing. Though I realise that you have said that you have done a fair bit of this.

There is nothing wrong with having a play around with different bits/nosebands. Often it comes down to learning how to ride that particular horse and the smallest things can make a huge difference.

Like I say to my daughter constantly - if it was easy, everyone would be doing it :)
 
LJR said:
Great advice from Llee94 - I too would start with poles on the ground in a "course".

With a horse that is highly motivated you want to make things a bit more boring, so if she is seeing and cantering over poles every day she will eventually (hopefully) begin to accept it is not all about belting around.

My best advice would be to find the best showjumping instructor you can find, a good instructor will be able to assess your issues very quickly and suggest how to deal with it.

Often the more they have to think for themselves, ie through a grid, will make them take more responsibility and stop them rushing. Though I realise that you have said that you have done a fair bit of this.

There is nothing wrong with having a play around with different bits/nosebands. Often it comes down to learning how to ride that particular horse and the smallest things can make a huge difference.

Like I say to my daughter constantly - if it was easy, everyone would be doing it :)
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Thanks - and to Llee94! I am booking a good local trainer to come jumping with us at an arena with an SJ course, and have explained my issues. She knows me and my horse but although I've had jumping lessons in my yard's school, this hasn't really come up as I'd not done a whole course so didn't realise I'd be sitting on a pocket rocket! My horse (a chestnut mare) is pretty clever and maybe too good at thinking for herself! I definitely think making it more boring is the way forward, as while 'whoopee, I am going to jump everything in this international-sized arena, whether you ask me to or not' is a commendably enthusiastic attitude, that enthusiasm does need to be dialled down quite a lot. Perhaps once we've done a bit more jumping, too, she'll be a bit less blown away by the sight of jumps. She came from a very serious dressage home before I got her, and is obviously bored with dressage, so perhaps that too is contributing factor to the massive jumping enthusiasm.
 
LJR said:
That's great - hope you find some techniques that work.

Embrace the enthusiasm, she sounds super :)
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Oh, she is! She is teaching me so much, and will go on to teach my kids too (I am hoping she might have slowed down a bit by then...although I somehow doubt it!)
 
If you are looking at a myler combination, I have a 5 1/2 inch one that I don't need any more - it's only been used once
 
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