Jingleballs
Well-Known Member
*sigh* I'm coming to the conclusion that jumping will never be our thing - regardless of how much practice we put in!
Pony is very downhill when jumping and is "energy efficient" in that he will put the minimum effort required to clear the jump - as we're only doing about 65 cm regularly this means he never goes back on his hocks and pings the jump and prefers to just launch himself on the forehand over the jump!
We loose all impulsion over the jump which means when we land we're almost at a standstill so there is no flow over the fences.
His approach is also, erm, interesting at times - he likes to take strides out and add strides in willy nilly and I find it so hard to read him!
Yesterday was a perfect example - set out 3 scaryish jumps - nothing over 60 cm but some tarp, cones and tyre jumps. Trying to get him gee'd up at home can be hard but he gave me a good enough canter - and then dies at the last step, catleaps or throws himself over, lands in a heap and then I have to really work to pick him up again. He also drops his head when he lands so also pulls you out your seat a bit!
We got 2 good jumps, both on tricky angles which makes no sense as this should be harder for him!! He also ditched me over the tyre jump - cantered in, decided to go on a long one, then changed his mind and tried to put in another stride, changed his mind again and launched himself, dropped the shoulder and over I went!
I just don't know what to do - he's not a natural jumper for sure but what if anything can i do to improve things?
The more he jumps at home, the more bored he gets and he'll stop trying - you can only pop a fence a couple of times before he gets bored and starts messing it up so generally, if he jumps something nicely twice, we don't jump that fence again. He's also harder to gee up at home - at a competition he often wakes up and is really forward to the point that I have no brakes but at home or training he's so chilled that no amount of leg,whip or spur really works.
He does tend to go better over bigger fences but at the same time, when he goes on one of his funny strides he also makes more of a mess of it over the big fences and I'm more likely to come off!
So please, anyone with any tips on how to improve the jumping of a laid back, downhill horse please share them!!
I'm not going to let it stop us jumping but it would be nice to make some improvement!
Some pics to demonstrate!
Flat and long
And when he bothers to try!
Pony is very downhill when jumping and is "energy efficient" in that he will put the minimum effort required to clear the jump - as we're only doing about 65 cm regularly this means he never goes back on his hocks and pings the jump and prefers to just launch himself on the forehand over the jump!
We loose all impulsion over the jump which means when we land we're almost at a standstill so there is no flow over the fences.
His approach is also, erm, interesting at times - he likes to take strides out and add strides in willy nilly and I find it so hard to read him!
Yesterday was a perfect example - set out 3 scaryish jumps - nothing over 60 cm but some tarp, cones and tyre jumps. Trying to get him gee'd up at home can be hard but he gave me a good enough canter - and then dies at the last step, catleaps or throws himself over, lands in a heap and then I have to really work to pick him up again. He also drops his head when he lands so also pulls you out your seat a bit!
We got 2 good jumps, both on tricky angles which makes no sense as this should be harder for him!! He also ditched me over the tyre jump - cantered in, decided to go on a long one, then changed his mind and tried to put in another stride, changed his mind again and launched himself, dropped the shoulder and over I went!
I just don't know what to do - he's not a natural jumper for sure but what if anything can i do to improve things?
The more he jumps at home, the more bored he gets and he'll stop trying - you can only pop a fence a couple of times before he gets bored and starts messing it up so generally, if he jumps something nicely twice, we don't jump that fence again. He's also harder to gee up at home - at a competition he often wakes up and is really forward to the point that I have no brakes but at home or training he's so chilled that no amount of leg,whip or spur really works.
He does tend to go better over bigger fences but at the same time, when he goes on one of his funny strides he also makes more of a mess of it over the big fences and I'm more likely to come off!
So please, anyone with any tips on how to improve the jumping of a laid back, downhill horse please share them!!
I'm not going to let it stop us jumping but it would be nice to make some improvement!
Some pics to demonstrate!
Flat and long
And when he bothers to try!
get the odd dodgy stride it doesn't really do them any harm if they then learn from that.