Horse has no confidence jumping?

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jennirosie

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Last Tuesday, I had a jumping lesson. My horse approached the 80cm upright fence completely fine but at the last minute she chipped in an extra stride which meant that she left one leg hanging down. She got this caught in the pole and thankfully managed to re gain her balance but she nearly fell down. I didn't think too much into it until I jumped again on Saturday and she was backing off cross poles and small jumps.
We had a show arranged for the Thursday afterwards anyway so I decided we may as well go and just do the 60cm class. She went through it extremely spooky and green despite competing there very often and competing there only a few weeks ago. I then decided just to pop her over one last fence in the warm up to get a confident jump to end our night on but last minute, she put on the brakes and refused which is very unlike her. She is the sort of horse that only refuses if she's really worried about a fence so I managed to get her over a cross pole with lots of encouragement but her confidence is absolutely shattered as well as mine.

Are there any exercises or things I could try with her to get her confidence back when it comes to jumping?

Thanks!
 
I'm not really sure that I can help, but my horse has lost confidence jumping for no reason at all. So at least you have a reason. I'd say maybe go back to basics to build her confidence
 
My youngster was quite cocky jumping till he fell (from being too cocky!) and lost his confidence so my instructor suggested we free school him to he got his confidence back, worked a treat. He didn't jump big but it allowed him the freedom to jump without me interfering. As a 6 year old he's back to being bold but very careful
 
Just go back a step or two, back to poles on the ground dotted about and canter poles.

Work your way up to small grids, set her up to succeed.

Also make sure you are confident for her, mares can be quite sensitive to your body position - so make sure that your body is saying "go" :)
 
My instructor has an exercise where you walk them over raised poles until they take themselves forward into trot or canter. Worked a treat with my friends mare who did exactly the same thing as yours
 
LJR said:
Just go back a step or two, back to poles on the ground dotted about and canter poles.

Work your way up to small grids, set her up to succeed.

Also make sure you are confident for her, mares can be quite sensitive to your body position - so make sure that your body is saying "go" :)
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Definitely this!
Basically, she was doing something she felt comfortable with and then (from her point of view) for no reason at all the jump 'bit her'. She now doesn't know whether the next jump she sees will also 'bite' and so her stopping was a case of 'well if I don't jump at all then I will be safe' (note the horse doesn't actually think this in terms of words, but this is just to describe the process that has happened). Horses have spent 50million or so years avoiding things that might be dangerous and (although some are braver than others) it is a survival instinct.
So, it needs to be back to the beginning with lots of poles then small jumps to show her that she won't get hurt again and that it really is fun after all. Of course you can't guarantee that she won't get hurt, but research has shown that the more 'good' experiences a horse has then the more it is 'immunised' against the bad experiences.
 
Might also be worth checking she hasn't pulled something in the stumble. Pain will only delay a return.
 
All the advice above plus you also might consider using a ground line rolled out so she gets marker where to jump. You could also use a placing pole to encourage the correct takeoff.

I think I'd start with canter poles though and when she is coming through them confidently, add a teeny cross pole to the end - small enough for her to walk over if needed.

It's hard when they lose confidence and for a while after you might find you have to ride her really forwards to the jump - hard if they are normally point and shoot :(
 
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