MissSBird
Well-Known Member
Hi guys
Looking for a bit of advice there. For those who don't know, I have a connemara pony who's about to turn 5. He is my first youngster.
When I first went to see him, my sister 'tried him' (popped over the tiniest x pole) jumping as I was petrified of jumping. He's turned out to be so honest that he's built my confidence up and I'm much better now. Because I don't want to make him worry if I'm nervous, however, we've only really been jumping up to about 75cm. Any bigger than that and I start getting worried.
He seems to be a confident jumper, and I think he enjoys it. He is confident and forward into the fences, without rushing. On the rare occasions he does stop, he does it a mile out and it's usually if there's a filler/something strange. Once he's had a look he'll pop over ok.
We took part in my riding clubs showjumping night on Wednesday. As I bought him primarily to show, I only really took him out to showing classes last year. So this was only his third showjumping competition. He did really well, and actually came 6th in the novice with 4 faults.
In that novice class, it was the first he knocked with his back feet. After that, he started giving the jumps what felt like an extra 2ft in order to clear them. This is something he does fairly regularly.
I've been under the impression that this is fairly normal behaviour for young horses, but I could well be mistaken. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Should I be looking to do exercises, or just let him work it out for himself?
This is from last year, but gives an impression of the sort of overjump we're talking about...
Sorry for the essay, and thanks for all advice!
Looking for a bit of advice there. For those who don't know, I have a connemara pony who's about to turn 5. He is my first youngster.
When I first went to see him, my sister 'tried him' (popped over the tiniest x pole) jumping as I was petrified of jumping. He's turned out to be so honest that he's built my confidence up and I'm much better now. Because I don't want to make him worry if I'm nervous, however, we've only really been jumping up to about 75cm. Any bigger than that and I start getting worried.
He seems to be a confident jumper, and I think he enjoys it. He is confident and forward into the fences, without rushing. On the rare occasions he does stop, he does it a mile out and it's usually if there's a filler/something strange. Once he's had a look he'll pop over ok.
We took part in my riding clubs showjumping night on Wednesday. As I bought him primarily to show, I only really took him out to showing classes last year. So this was only his third showjumping competition. He did really well, and actually came 6th in the novice with 4 faults.
In that novice class, it was the first he knocked with his back feet. After that, he started giving the jumps what felt like an extra 2ft in order to clear them. This is something he does fairly regularly.
I've been under the impression that this is fairly normal behaviour for young horses, but I could well be mistaken. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Should I be looking to do exercises, or just let him work it out for himself?
This is from last year, but gives an impression of the sort of overjump we're talking about...
Sorry for the essay, and thanks for all advice!
