How do you make a horse careful

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Daytona

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As the title says.??

My 6 year old although he has lots of scope sometimes he blooters poles and does not seem to care one little bit. In my lesson last night the teacher said I was placing him perfectly but he was just not picking his feet up enough

Now not always of course, but more so where no filler under fence.

Can you improve on a horses neatness and make it careful or are some careful and others don't care if they wear the fence.

He even put out one if those pro jump poles the hexagonal ones, still never bothered if he blootered it.

He has only been jumping a few months, will he improve as he gets older or is this just him, can I help him improve.

Last night we were doing a 3 jump bounce to a short 1 stride upright then round the school to the double,

Where there is fillers he makes a big effort, jumps lovely over them.
 
Just a thought, but is he strong enough to be doing 3 x bounces and short striding grids? If he has only been jumping a few months he will still probably be a bit weak.

From memory, I think your boy is quite big?
Vinnie is super careful but is still weak and really struggles in short striding distances to get his front end up quickly enough and out of the way so has poles in front- sometimes with alarming regularity!

He is jumped with V-poles and placing poles, groundlines are always pulled out for him etc and the rest is just time and waiting for him to strengthen up and learn to really sit back on his hocks and shorten his frame.
In his flatwork there is a lot of work on shortening and lengthening the canter while staying soft in his neck and in front of the leg.

If your boy is already strong enough and is simply not careful, it's much trickier to 'fix' imo :)

A few tricks I have known work; have a parallel and then rest another pole diagonally across the top of the fence which seems to really make them pick up.
Another that gets them in the air is to have a swedish oxer or a double crosspole oxer.
Not sure any of these will help when you are jumping a vertical with no filler though but might help get him out of the habit of hitting fences.
 
I'm not sure if he strong enough or not TBH I relie completely on my instructors to guide us, I assume he thinks he is if he built it

It was low though the 3 bounces about 60cm to the 1 stride about 80cm

Double was a Oxer in about 80/90 to a upright maybe around 1m

Last night the poles he was having was the upright in double and the middle jump in bonce

To be fair on him 1st time he ever done a bounce and took him a wee min to work it out.

Yes your right he is a very big gangly lad, in fact vet did his teeth at weekend and I asked him his view on weight muscle etc, as to me he looks a little thin/ lacking muscle but vet said stop worrying he like a gangly teenager and will come into his own over next two years.

He is ridden lots in school in the flat mixed with jumping what he lacks is lots of long slow hacking, just not been able to get away from yard, weather shocking here this winter so I'm hoping soon I can get him out and build him up slowly with hacking, so you could be right.

When he jumps nice he puts in effort and makes a lovely shape when not he tends to just leave a front leg dangling.

Maybe I'm worrying over nothing do you think..??? He has not been jumping that long and is learning, he never stops so that's a good thing, always try's for me.
 
From what I've seen I'd say it's the canter that is probably the cause. He still gets quite strung out and unbalanced especially round a course which is just because he's big and still quite weak with a lot more filling out to do. I'd do as above and work on the canter on the flat as he needs to be more together and have more bounce in order to get his hocks under him. I'm no expert (as you know) but I'd say once you have his canter more adjustable and together, he'll improve. He has plenty of scope :)
 
Ludoctro said:
I'm not sure if he strong enough or not TBH I relie completely on my instructors to guide us, I assume he thinks he is if he built it

It was low though the 3 bounces about 60cm to the 1 stride about 80cm

Double was a Oxer in about 80/90 to a upright maybe around 1m

Last night the poles he was having was the upright in double and the middle jump in bonce

To be fair on him 1st time he ever done a bounce and took him a wee min to work it out.

Yes your right he is a very big gangly lad, in fact vet did his teeth at weekend and I asked him his view on weight muscle etc, as to me he looks a little thin/ lacking muscle but vet said stop worrying he like a gangly teenager and will come into his own over next two years.

He is ridden lots in school in the flat mixed with jumping what he lacks is lots of long slow hacking, just not been able to get away from yard, weather shocking here this winter so I'm hoping soon I can get him out and build him up slowly with hacking, so you could be right.

When he jumps nice he puts in effort and makes a lovely shape when not he tends to just leave a front leg dangling.

Maybe I'm worrying over nothing do you think..??? He has not been jumping that long and is learning, he never stops so that's a good thing, always try's for me.
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Sounds like a strength issue to me tbh, rather than him being careless.

I would work on the canter to really get him shortening but keeping the 'bounce' and energy up and staying soft over his back.

Bounces are pretty intense work, even if they are low fences, and I know Vinnie would really struggle with 3 x bounces then a short stride to another fence; particularly if they are big, weak horses it is quite a big ask.

I think at this stage you need to make sure you keep his confidence up and make exercises easy for him- so he is still learning and strengthening but not getting into the habit of knocking poles out as it can become a hard habit to break!
 
My mare crashed through things regularly and my instructor actually said oh she doesn't care if she hits one but a few months on she is much more careful and if she even rattles a pole she picks her feet up a lot better next time. She is younger than him but about half his size and quite mature I think so I bet he will alter a lot too as he matures.
 
Yeah ilovefoals has watched us, the canter does need alot of work still, I will work on it.

Ok I'm not gonna let us do grids etc till he stronger

Here is a clip of him going down the grid thing

I know my balance is not great but believe me I do try my best.

http://youtu.be/29QVnJEGCt8
 
I hope so FW, he will be 6 next month but he is a late starter not sat on till 4 then off after our accident and only worked slowly last year on and off with thouse Pro's with quite a bit of time off in between.

He has really only been in proper full work since start of this year. Consistent anyway.

I think he has a lot if growing to do, sometimes I look at him and think he looks terrible then a bit later think oh he looks better, he over 17h but his bum is all hip bones etc.

I really want to spend this summer hacking him lots, but will also work on the canter too.
 
I'd still do grids but maybe just make the distances a bit kinder to him and keep everything short and sweet.

eta- just seen the clip and he looks fine in it and like he is coping with the distances ok?

Perhaps instead of verticals, high crosspoles would work better for getting him sharper in front when going through the bounces?
The stride to the vertical doesn't look that short to me but if you felt he flattened a bit and struggled to get off the floor, a pole on the floor in between the last bounce and the vertical could help.
You could also try a pole on the ground in the double too if he was knocking out the second part or put V poles on it.
 
MT I'm sure the Instructor said he was going to make the 1 stride short but I could be wrong, things sometimes go in 1 ear and out the other with me.

I never jump by myself only ever in a lesson, too worried if it goes wrong I won't know if I'm at fault or Ludo is, or how to sort it. So would only work with what they put up I guess.

Does not help I think our poles are those plastic things, my instructor hates them he favours wooden ones.

I think I need to maybe give poor Ludo a break bless him, he a good lad, I think perhaps I'm expecting too much too soon. The couple of shows I've been to he has been very careful but then it's all new scary fillers so he is like wooooo mum I'm nae touching that. Lol
 
I agree with MT - initially I would say that seeing as he has only been jumping a few months, he will still be a bit weak (and bounces are A LOT of work, even if small...as they have to fully use their front end to take off from, without using momentum from their hocks, and so creating a jump from their front end requires a huge effort - especially for a young and weak horse).

I would suggest not shortening strides/making grids to complex; he is still young and learning after all (and still gaining confidence) - looked great down the grid in the video, but as MT said, maybe replace the verticals with VERY high crosses to encourage him to snap up in front, and then maybe use 'v' poles on the last vertical or place a pole diagonally across the top of an oxer - really makes then snap up then.

Your plastic poles also might not be helping - do you not have any wooden ones at all? If not, no worries, I am sure his careful-ness will improve as he gets more confident/stronger, however I would advise keeping up the gridwork :)

Looks a lovely horse in the video - best of luck with him!
 
You're doing a great job mrs. You're taking your time and doing it right. He just needs to mature a little more. Don't be too hard on yourself!!
 
Ok will keep grids easy with v poles etc

Yes he wears veredus tendon boots and fetlock boots but not brushing, I think I might be too paranoid to remove them though, just incase he caught himself with rear foot, he does sometime get his legs in a tangle.

No wooden poles but I am going to buy some for the yard

Thanks ILovefoals you always have nice things to say :D
 
I have one with a similar attitude, and it's very much due to him being big, young, and not that strong. As soon as the canter gets strung out and sloppy the poles come down. I don't bother practicing with plastic at home as he has little respect for them. The more he does the more careful he is....
 
I wouldn't worry too much as he looks careful minded in the video. As others have said its probably just his age and size and he will improve. I have a similarly big, gangly 6 year old and she has improved massively in the past year, but still doesn't quite know how to prop and pick her front end up when she gets a bit close. Doing loads of work on making her sit in the canter really helps. My only advice would be to really think of your body position and try not to throw your body over the fence - i am terrible at this unless i really think about it, but it does make a big difference to the way they use their front end.

Good luck - you sound like you're doing a great job!
 
Lots of good advice on here from Millitiger, I agree with her analysis and suggestions. He looks really smart, but those bounces are big enough for a gangly youngster!
 
I won't say that we used to use telegraph poles on jumps cups.........and wear no boots...because some on here would not approve. However, fences were not high my boys respected them and very rarely touched a pole.

I do think that the very light plastic poles in use today do not encourage careful jumping.
 
I'm off to buy 6x 3.5m wooden ones at weekend :D

Even if I use the plastic down the jump and a wooden one on top, maybe get a few More in a wee while too , if I buy heaps my hubby will kill me lol

That's guys all great advice and all taken on board.

Be interesting to see what he is like in a year, he defo needs to strengthen up and fill out.

Hoping some nice long slow summer hacks will do wonders for his mind and body :D
 
Make sure he is strong enough, when he is then grids are good for them. Make sure you always use ground poles as he may just not be able to see where he's taking off from. He should improve with experience and once he's gained more muscle. Hope this helps :)
 
I have to say i agree we used solid poles and solid fences is we had one who wasn careful, After rapping a solid fence a few times they learned to pick up their legs.

With some horses is laziness and you need to try other things to sort it and with others they get better with time :)
 
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