Horse lost confidence/unwilling to jump not sure why, any advice?

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nonfoxx

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i have had my 14.2hh pony for around 3-4 years, i competed the first year i got him then took 2 years out from serious competition and riding, had him leased out for that time. i am now back competing and the start of the season went great, was competing in the 90-1m05 classes and was showing much potential, but lately he has beginning to slack, not being so keen to jump and generally backing off them a bit, he has been like this for 3 weeks, had a practice in the showground we usually compete in and took him 3 rounds of a course to get himself going. he is not in any pain or have any problems, in the last show we did he knocked 3 poles for no reason. now you may think ahh it's only 3 poles, but he rarely knocks, especially 3 poles in 1 round. has anyone had experiences with horses that seem less willing to jump mid-season? if so, is there anything that can be done?
 
Don't know what surface you are jumping on but if it's grass it may be the ground. If the ground is too hard some horses who love jumping may not want to do it. It hurts. Also how much jumping have you been doing? It's best not to jump more than twice a week so they don't get fed up with it. One quick schooling session at home a couple of days before the show and then at the show in the class (after a pop or 3 in the practice ring). A week or three without jumping anything always helps too. That way it's "ah great...exciting jumping" as opposed to..."oh God...not jumping AGAIN!" Best of luck!
 
You say he's not in pain - have you had him checked over? I'd trot him up for someone with an experienced eye and get his back looked at as first port of call.

Other than that, Business' advice is good. Maybe also go for a jumping lesson or clinic and see if an instructor can spot anything in how he's going, or if you're unconsciously blocking him somewhere.
 
check back, saddle, teeth etc i had one that kept stopping and got a new saddle and stops stopped!
 
Assuming you had all the normal checks done (back etc), I would look at the ground to see if that is causing him to back off. Also, even if you had all the checks done - what sort of fitness level was he at when he came back to you? if you have really worked him up, he could well have changed shape again.
 
hiii
i found with my horse that went off jumping in mid season it helped her to mainly do seious jumping at shows and to go back to basics when we weren't. i focused on alot of grid work and flat work with her just to build our team up again because i found when it started to go wrong we didnt seem to be in time together. Has he done anything to knock his confidence?? if so if you know of a competition place you know he likes i would take him there just to show him its ok.
 
yeah. we have taken him off his crazy horse because he is generally a very exciteable pony, just had a lesson yesterday and he seemed great. was extremerly eager to jump from a ~1.05 spread to a ~1.20 upright which usually he would be a bot nervous of. he generally gets nervous in the ring and i think he just need a bit more encouragement. thx for all replies, and on a side note he did have a back problem last year, but replaced the saddle and it hasnt been back since
 
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