How to calm a horse down when jumping?

[Casey76]

This is really a half and half problem.

Half of it is, I'm terrified of jumping as I have no confidence in my horse. The other half is that my horse has no manners at all when jumping.

And when I say "jumping" I'm talking about 30cm cavaletti.

The main issue is that Pinto enjoys jumping... really enjoys it; and the sharer I had a couple of years ago used to jump him all the time, but with little thought of finesse or control.

Consequently, now, raised trotting poles are to be negotiated as an 80cm vitesse class.

Trotting poles on the ground are OK as long as they are in a straight line; however if they are in between jump blocks or stands, or are in a pattern, then again, they must be leapt over and at top speed.

The last jumping lesson I had (I have a group lesson every week, and you never know what you're going to be doing), there were three cavaletti set out in a clover leaf pattern, and although I scrambled over the first one for the warm up, when it came to ride the pattern Pinto started to pull very strongly into the first jump, so I went to circle away to set him up again, except he towed me over the second of the cavaletti.

The best thing about the class I can say is that I didn't fall off... but my (very fragile) confidence was shattered yet again.

I'm honestly not sure what I can do now.

Oh, and my horse is not a lunatic youngester either, his is rising 19!

 

[showpony]

I feel your pain OP!

Im going through something similar with my youngster.. Now if there were red rosettes for Enthusiasm the wall would be packed with them

We are really focusing on the basics, poles on the ground, cavaletti, bounces , grids etc which really make her focus UNTIL we have a single fence...
So Ive one jump up in the arena - I do my flat work around it & when it comes to jumping it - I do tons of circles on front of the fence so she isn't anticipating the fence - & mix it up - 2 circles , pop over jump , circle at top end, back to trot, canter at next corner, 3 circles & pop over...
Its going to take weeks of this in order to establish jumping in a controlled fashion but if thats what it takes just going to nuckle down & do it.

Some people did tell me to canter into fence & pull up couple of strides out but I don't really want to try this approach at the moemnt

Oh & OP stick a neck strap on so you feel safe and have something to hold onto to make sure you don't chuck horse in the mouth & DONT grip with your knees as this will definately cause horse to speed up.

 

[JillA]

Teach them to wait for your cue to jump a jump. Do figure 8's, squares, serpentines around and in front of a jump at trot, each time they start to rush turn them away and only pop the jump when they are calm and settled. Then back to the figure 8s etc. Contrary to what people think this doesn't teach them to run out it teaches them to focus on what you are asking them to do, and is a really good exercise in engaging the hcks and steering.
Some horses rush because they are on their forehands, some because they are unhappy and want to get it over with, do the exercises time after time after time and you will end up with a responsive blanaced horse who jumps because you are asking him to not because he is panicking about it. Have fun!

 

[neweventer]

As everyone has already said.

Do all your flat work with a fence or two up in the school. When your horse is relaxed pop over the fence then carry on with your flat work. Some days you may not pop over the fence, some days just once or a dozen times. Just spend time getting them used to the fences.

When you do get into jumping start with (small) bounces and one strides down a grid.
keep it all short (and small) so they can't get away from you.

 

[FfionWinnie]

How about longlining him on a circle over them.

 

[Littlelegs]

I think you should tackle the two issues separately. Firstly your confidence problems, leave jumping yours & have lessons on a predictable schoolmaster. Meantime just work on flatwork, & maybe trot or canter poles with yours. Once you are jumping other horses confidently, & you can do trot & canter poles on yours well, you can start thinking about jumping yours again. And at least at first, have individual lessons, or a shared lesson with one other where you can be certain the exercise will be appropriate for your horse. As said the rushing can be any number of things, & to add to what's been mentioned if the horse is 19 & a reasonably experienced jumper, it could just be the work isn't stimulating enough. Mine is lovely if its big or complex, or even if someone is lacking confidence or is a novice when she'll nanny them sweetly round a tiny course. With me or anyone else who she doesn't feel needs nannying, unless its big or complex she has no respect for the jump & prats about, goes too fast, takes off too soon or late, jumps much bigger than is required etc. And its not impossible yours is doing the same. I'm not saying doing massive complex grids is a good plan if your confidence is low. But I'd certainly see if he was well behaved for another rider over jumps that gave him more to think about so you could discover easily if it is just that.

 

[kc100]

I'm having fairly similar issues with my 14 (nearly 15!) year old giant 17.3 ISH who loves to jump, but thinks that canter poles should all be jumped in one go and anything raised is there to be rushed over as fast as possible.

We do cavaletti in walk fairly frequently, and if he is picking his feet up well enough in walk I'll get him to trot over them. This is either done at the end of a schooling session, I'll hop off and lead him over. Or I'll take him with a headcollar and leadrope and start by leading him over, then if we are in the indoor (tiny indoor space with poles in basically!) then I'll let him do it loose - although he only walks over them if he's following me so I have to do the exercise too!

I have been doing a lot of research and reading around on jumping and cavaletti over the last couple of days, my boy is mainly a dressage horse so I wanted to know if it was worthwhile to jump him as I was worried he was getting bored of flatwork. The answer was a resounding yes! A lot of trainers and other riders recommend getting the horse almost 'bored' of poles and jumping.

This means at the end of every schooling session (without fail) pop him over a tiny cross pole. Do it a couple of times if possible if he is being sensible about it, or just do it once if he is being silly. I tried this for the first time with the silly giant on Tuesday and he actually responded far better than I expected, we remained in trot, I kept him very calm and ensured he was stretching down in trot (we dont use a martingale and I didnt want his head to come up), let him look up just before we got to the fence and we went over it neatly with no issues.

Have lots of poles (flat on the surface) around the school, get him used to just walking over them, trotting over them, cantering over them eventually. If he gets used to walking and trotting over them frequently he wont feel the need to jump everything he sees, he will learn they are just poles, they are there all the time and nothing to get excited about.

I'm never going to be able to do SJ with the giant horse, he wouldnt be able to sustain a sensible canter around a course and he's just too big and strong for me to even contemplate attempting it! Because we dont want to be showjumpers and just do a nice dressage test I dont see a problem with trotting over our fences for now, we will work up to cantering over some oneday but until I feel confident and he is calmer we are sticking with trot!

All I can say is give it a try, it might not be as bad as you think! My silly horse who jumped 3 canter poles in one go managed to jump a fence (albeit a very tiny one) in trot twice without being naughty, rushing and sticking his head in the air - so if he can do it I'm sure your boy can! Get him used to going over poles every schooling session, building up to doing a small jump at the end of every session and I'm sure you will see improvements.

 

[Casey76]

Thanks all

I should say, that I don't actually "jump" at all. I never got round to learning, as I've mainly ridden dressage since I started to learn (again) as an adult.

Five years ago I managed to smash my wrist pretty well coming off over one of these darned 30cm cavaletti, and my confidence has never been the same since.

While I look on these cavaletti with horror, Pinto is much happier tackling things like this:

Yes, I know it's loose, but he has jumped courses upto 1m10 with a confident teenager in the past. I don't think he'll ever get that high again as he has hock spavins now, but I'm fairly sure he would do well at club2 level (75cm) - with the right rider lol.

It's a good idea to have a small jump up while I'm doing my flatwork. I could do that - I may have to start very, very low, but no one says I have to be jumping Elite heights next week, right?

 

[kc100]

Often with some horses little jumps & cavaletti can cause more problems than larger ones, he clearly can jump and enjoys jumping so he will want to go bigger than a little cavaletti! So if you have never jumped before, and only have done cavaletti, I'd suggest staying away from cavaletti when mounted (lunge/loose/in hand is fine) and trying a small jump (still bigger than 30cms though!).

With cavaletti the idea is not to jump them and for the horse to pick his legs up higher than he normally would, however when going at more than a walk a horse like yours (and mine!) want to try and jump them because it is easier and more fun. As ours are both older it is perhaps a big ask to get them to retrain their minds so late in life and learn how to do cavaletti!

So I think you might find that when you are prepared for a proper jump, and allow him to jump it properly (i.e. going into a jumping position and giving with your hands to allow his neck to move) it will be a whole lot easier than attempting to sit in a normal 'dressage' seat over cavaletti when he wants to jump it.

Of course you dont have to be doing anything big, just a small crosspole in trot will suffice - but you will find that a whole lot easier. You might even find that as you feel more confident and start to put the fence up higher his jumping gets better and better, as I said before some horses respond better to bigger fences as they know exactly what they should be doing, instead of getting confused whether they should be jumping it or stepping over it.

Stay away from the cavaletti and try a real jump, I think you might just enjoy it!

 

[t411y]

My horse used to be exactly the same. I did most of the things the others have said like trotting over the fences and just popping a jumping in occassionally to make it not so much of an issue. You really have to be firm and consistent, if he's galloping off into it don't allow him to jump until he's settled, keep circling etc. Only when he's settled again allow him to jump. It takes a while but eventually they get it, mine now trots over jumps happily when before she'd just gallop over them and bolt off afterwards.
Having lessons on a confidence giver would probably help your confidence a lot too and would make things easier