How do you tell a horse to "jump"?

WellyBaggins

WellyBaggins

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I won't bore you with the ins and outs of my problems, they are way to complicated ;)

Silly Q I know but do you have a signal for your horse to pick up?

Sometimes, my horse gets to the fence and just does not pick up, it is like he is waiting for something :confused: is it something I am not doing? I suspect when I am "wrong" I hesitate. He jumps beautifully most of the time but just occasionally he canters to the bottom of the fence and "forgets" to jump! When on a more experienced horse this does not seem to matter, the issue has not shown on any other horse I ride :o

A horse that we taught to jump you had to kick, how high he jumped depended on how hard you kicked but he grew out of this very quickly, it was just the signal he needed to begin with but I am stumped with this horse

Do you have any ideas?

I am sorry, I probably sound like a right wally, I have booked a session with a new jump trainer :o
 
My showjump trainer always said that you shouldn't have to "tell" a horse to jump - if you had to kick him to 2'9, then you'll struggle when you want to jump higher

When teaching a young horse to jump, I do a lot of pole work, then put a fence up on a related distance - I'll use my legs to encourage the horse towards the fence, but never to take off - they have to work that one out for themselves. I would never want the horse to rely on my aid for the take off - I can't guarantee to be right every time!

I did have one horse once who was not the sharpest knife in the box, and he would "forget" how to jump - if he didn't jump every 3/4 days, then he would happily canter towards a fence and then stop, as if to say "I can't - there's someting in front of my legs, stopping me cantering!" He turned into a very nice hack.......
 
Thank you for your reply :). The youngster I had to kick out grew that phase very quickly and turned out to be very useful, it worked for him but I agree 100% it is not the ideal method! The "problem" horse is very scopey and I am very excited about him but sometimes we seem to get our wires crossed (which I am sure is my problem) I was just wondering what ( if any) signals other people use in front of the fence :) I will definately go back to using poles :)

Thank you
 
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With a talented, scopy horse, it's very easy for the horse to lose his balance or nerve, particularly if he's overjumped the previous time and spooked himself.

I don't know the history of your horse but he sounds green..... I would keep it very quiet and easy while he gets established - don't be in a rush to put the fences up until you can get it right at the lower heights.

My trainer's favourite exercise (which works at all levels of training) is to set up a related distance of 5 canter strides, work over this with 4, 5 or 6 strides between the two poles. Make sure you have the canter set up well before the approach to the poles, so that the canter doesn't change over the poles. Put 2nd pole into a fence and then continue doing the same exercise - you can add a fence at the end, put in a jump in the middle, make it a double etc etc as you get the hang of maintaining the rhythm.

If the horse finds it easy to canter to the fence, then that's your job done! His job is to take off - your job is to get him there in the canter he can jump out of.

Sometimes it helps if you think of the jump itself as a raised canter stride, then you'll get the feel of keeping the horse in a good rhythm and balance, without thinking that you have to "do" anything in front of the fence.
 
Brilliant, thank you, we have done quite a lot of pole work, using the exercise you describe but I had never thought of changing it to include a jump :rolleyes: he enjoys that exercise and his canter has improved no end using that method so I will definately give that a whirl. :) I have rushed him, hindsight and all that :( I am aware of this and am now taking everything extremely slowly :)
 
i don't use a signal at all, i get a good canter and aim at the fence, and try to see a decent spot if it's biggish. if it's small, i just aim really, try to keep the canter good and bouncy, and leave the rest to the horse. it's the horse's job to judge the fence and work out how high to jump, the best rider in the world can't do that for it!
at the Hartpury conference, Eric Smiley was VERY hot on the rider getting the horse to think fast, to make a quick decision, not to dwell in front of the fence... so, he advocated a slap or a kick to say 'get on with it' as opposed to 'take off'.
 
Not a horse I would take eventing. Is he young? Have you tried lunging/loose jumping?
Best way is to have him really together, in a nice short bouncy canter so that you can then really focus him in on the jump.
 
emmyc, if you can, pls have a look at my write-up on EventingWorldWide about Eric Smiley's lect/demo at Hartpury (in XC Corner section), he emphasised that the rider shouldn't set the horse up and try to 'see a stride', that there should be a clear moment of passing over responsibility, that this is what makes horses safe xc etc. well worth a read imho, he has a really coherent message and it absolutely WORKS, and i think it's so much better than the rider trying to do too much for the horse...
 
Probably frowned on by the wise owls of HHO but if I come into a fence on a dodgey stride I will yell !HUP!
At the point I think take off would be wise, just to encourage Beau to take off, and not go for another stride or stop. Or if I think he is a bit unsure for added courage. Or if I'm hacking and jumping something slightly dodgey (e.g. fallen tree) and want him to land well clear.

ETS all the comments about the horse being meant to do that actual jumping and you just have to get them there in the right canter are 100% correct, the above is back-up.
 
kerilli said:
i don't use a signal at all, i get a good canter and aim at the fence, and try to see a decent spot if it's biggish. if it's small, i just aim really, try to keep the canter good and bouncy, and leave the rest to the horse. it's the horse's job to judge the fence and work out how high to jump, the best rider in the world can't do that for '.
Click to expand...

This! Well that's the aim. Sometimes I will perhaps look a little too much for the spot and encourage a shorter or longer take off but overall the jumping part gets left entirely to the horse!!
 
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