How much jumping is over 'jumping' in your opinion?

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tobysg

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I just sent my sharer a rather short message.

I own a horse who is ridden about 4 times a week and competes about twice a month, on average, in unaffiliated SJ, XC, DR, showing. Whatever is on really. So, she is by no means super fit and athletic.

She is a consistent, genuine and reliable jumper. I can take her showjumping after months of no jumping and she will go clear.

I don't really jump her much at home, as I never feel the need.

This horse was jumped by sharer last thursday, she went cross country schooling on sunday and was shattered by the end of it, evidently tired.

She has a competition (jumping) with me this Sunday and I want her to have a quiet week.

Despite this, Sharer has jumped her again today.

Do you think this is over doing it? I wonder if anyone else would be a little annoyed too?

I try and keep jumping at home to a minimum as I want her to be fresh and enthusiastic, not bored of it! I don't feel the need to go over the same jump again and again :S
 
So twice a week for a couple of weeks, one of which was xc? Nope not overdoing it at all.

But it's your horse so hey, who cares whether it's too much or not. If you said no, then no it is.
 
Not particularly, in summer mine will pony club on the Friday which will involve jumping of some sort and then compete or have a lesson at the weekend which also normally consists of some sort of jumping. If he is eventing on the Saturday then I won't do too much on the Friday but if its on a Sunday he jumps as normal at pc.

It's more concerning that she ignored your request for the horse to have quiet week.
 
tobysg said:
I told her i wanted her to have a quiet, easy week. word for word
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See, to me this is somewhat ambiguous and open to interpretation, maybe she saw this as more of a "reduced workload" thing rather than a "don't jump" him thing.

I think if you really want/don't want something done, you need to spell it out clear as day so that there can be no misunderstandings.

I don't think she necessarily went against your wishes, just maybe isn't seeing things on the same wavelength (half a jumping session instead of a full one, for instance, could be construed as a quiet week)
 
dafthoss said:
It's more concerning that she ignored your request for the horse to have quiet week.
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Unless the sharer is a teenager or somewhat hard of thinking and didn't understand what the OP meant by "quiet week". Certainly, popping a few fences mid week isn't my idea of a busy, or hard week - but F is fit enough for that, unlike the OP's horse by the sound of things... In which case the op may get the desired future response by being clearer and spelling it out for them. If the sharer is deliberately ignoring the requests - kick 'em out!
 
I wouldn't say it's too much but ultimately it's your horse so you're entitled to say whether you want it jumped or not.

Perhaps your sharer has different ideas as to what constitutes a quiet week?
 
I'd be annoyed. but i do think it depends on the horse as to how much is too much. For my loan mare, I'd jump her 1-2 times a week, that's including competing, so if i were out SJ on Sunday, i may pop a few fences on Wednesday, but leave it at that, or not even jump anything at home. If she was competing two Sundays in a row, I wouldn't jump in between. But then I used to know a horse that even everyday wasn't too much for him, he'd keep coming at them over and over and over. Even he wasn't jumped more than 3 times a week though.
If i were you OP, i'd just tell your sharer straight 'please do not jump the horse this week, not even over a little x, not at all please'. If you let her go over a little x, there is again room for misunderstanding as to what you think is 'little' and what she thinks is 'little'. So it'd just be easier to say no jumping at all :)
 
I wouldn't say it's over doing it, but as others have said - your horse, your rules!!

My friend loaned her horse and because he's old, she said not to rag him around and jump him all the time. So what did she do? Cantercantercantercanterjumpjumpjumpcantergallopjump...

And that is ALL she did. His schooling went down hill rapidly and he became naughty.

She eventually had to stop her loaning as even though she had promised she wouldn't jump or gallop, pictures on facebook said otherwise!

I'm sure your loaner won't be as silly and childish as my friends, but it might be worth clarifying a bit like PingPongPony said :)
 
tobysg said:
I try and keep jumping at home to a minimum as I want her to be fresh and enthusiastic, not bored of it! I don't feel the need to go over the same jump again and again :S
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I'm like you and rarely jump at home (when I do jump, right now I have 2 broken horses!) as I prefer my horses to stay fresh when out. I think as its your horse, simply tell your sharer when you don't want the horse jumped - you told her to take it easy but to her that might still have included some jumping. Just explain it to her :)
 
I wouldn't say that is over jumping either.

However I agree with the others that you need to be super clear about what you do and do not want done with your horse. When I shared, it was in my contract that I was not allowed to jump him more then twice a week, (not that I would have anyway). Anything they didn't want me to do was in the contract. Worked perfectly as they were reasonable and I was reasonable, and I always knew exactly where I stood.
 
JFTD said:
So twice a week for a couple of weeks, one of which was xc? Nope not overdoing it at all.

But it's your horse so hey, who cares whether it's too much or not. If you said no, then no it is.
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This. I wouldn't have said it was too much seeing as horse has had a good few days rest in between, but like JFTD says, if you told the sharer not to jump then it is unacceptable.
 
I would not say your horse has been over jumped.
The jumping muscles benefit from a little practise in between competions .
As long as your sharer was not jumping huge fences for a prolonged time and your horse is sound and healthy if the amount of jumping the horse has done is tiring it I would question whether it is fit enough I think you said it ridden four days a week ( forgive me if I am wrong ) that's not very much.
 
Twice a week sounds about what Al does with hers, obviously depending on what level of work they're in and what they can do. Quite often one session is jumping and one is polework building into what she'll be doing with the jumping. And a schooling session too. The other 3 times they're ridden it's hacking, one of those being a cantering hack and one being a chilling out hack. All 3 are fresh and happy to work- even Reg after 4 years of this regime ;)

She finds that if they don't jump at least once a week they either get fresh and a little too OTT about it all (Smokes!) or a bit backwards or careless (Tango/ Reg).
 
Ptolemy said:
I think if you really want/don't want something done, you need to spell it out clear as day so that there can be no misunderstandings.
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This.

IMO the two things people need in this world are common sense and communication.
Why are people so funny about talking nowadays!
Speak to her (nicely!) and voice your concerns - I would bet my life that all this is is a lack of communication.
 
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