Is he the wrong horse......?

hihosilver

hihosilver

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My beautiful talented 7 year old has had a great BE season finishing in the top 10 in the B80 in all his events and double clear in 2 B90. The problem is this has all been with an experienced event rider. Now I have a niece who adores him and has worked incredibly hard with her riding, She has regular lesson on schoolmasters and also on my horse, He goes well for her generally, he is a nice person but also a clever one! I said she could have him to do a bit on him over the winter. First event 80 cm SJ a lovely clear round. We then jumped him in the school and he suddenly took a dislike to a filler! he has been regularly jumping 90cm previously. He was stopping a mile away so I took top rail off and we got him going over, Today not thinking any more of it we attempted a clear round, he just got worse and worse over fillers. We called it a day. I'm just thinking now he my just be not established for her, She of course is gutted. Any thoughts? I guess we will be going back to drawing board.
 
A couple of points to think about

Could she have a lesson with the ride who's been riding him

Is he sound? Stopping can be a sign that everything not ok

If she started off ok I wouldn't give up yet but explore other methods and take it very slowly with no pressure.
 
It is very different for a young horse to go from being ridden by a really experienced rider to one who sounds novicey, I agree with getting his normal rider to give a few lessons, she will have far more idea of how to ride him and build his confidence than you probably will, unless you also ride him competitively, which may be contributing to this if you do, as 3 different riders will be a lot to contend with.

The first outing was a step down from 90, he was still confident from being ridden by the experienced rider so probably took her round with little real help, this probably left him a bit less confident, the issue in the school compounded it and now he has lost trust so needs to go back to gridwork, building him back up slowly and getting the partnership established, there is no reason to think it won't work but it needs to be built up at a pace within the comfort zone of the partnership, if they have a good autumn and winter they should be more than ready to go out at 80 by next spring.
 
I don't think it's his age or experience it's the difference between a pro and an amateur. I have the same problem with my very very experienced formerly top class SJer. I can make him stop at a tiny filler. With my coach who is a pro he never looks at anything. One thing which is helping me is my coach riding him for half the lesson then I get on when he's already jumped everything and has the right canter.

It's quite extraordinary - if I am left to my own devices with him we go around in 4th gear looking ok to the bystander, but he's looking at every fence for monsters. If my coach rides him first when I get on he is then in 5/6th gear and he's looking at every fence and saying shall I jump it boss, and he looks amazing.

When my coach first got on him the last time he rode him at a fence like I do - he stopped. He then sorted him out in a way I couldn't do (because I'm a nervous wreck!) and the horse was once more flying.

So my new plan is my coach to ride him like I ride and to teach the horse that he's still to jump the fence regardless of what he thinks I might be telling him to do meanwhile working on getting the right canter and positivity blah blah when I ride him myself.

So as others have said you'll need the pro who has been riding him to help your neice get the best from the horse. Good luck.
 
Thanks for comments, she does have lessons with the pro as much as possible distance is an issue. We are going to take a break from competitions and continue with lessons and see how he goes.
 
Remember is can take 6 months or more for horse and rider to get used to each other. Yes top riders can get on a horse and pop round a grand prix show jumping but most of us can't!
You are right to just give it time... take a step back from competitions and in the long term it will make your niece a better rider for it.
Sounds like it could be a great horse in time and you have a very lucky niece to be given such an opportunity. Tell her good luck and to enjoy the journey!
 
FfionWinnie said:
I don't think it's his age or experience it's the difference between a pro and an amateur. I have the same problem with my very very experienced formerly top class SJer. I can make him stop at a tiny filler. With my coach who is a pro he never looks at anything. One thing which is helping me is my coach riding him for half the lesson then I get on when he's already jumped everything and has the right canter.

It's quite extraordinary - if I am left to my own devices with him we go around in 4th gear looking ok to the bystander, but he's looking at every fence for monsters. If my coach rides him first when I get on he is then in 5/6th gear and he's looking at every fence and saying shall I jump it boss, and he looks amazing.

When my coach first got on him the last time he rode him at a fence like I do - he stopped. He then sorted him out in a way I couldn't do (because I'm a nervous wreck!) and the horse was once more flying.

So my new plan is my coach to ride him like I ride and to teach the horse that he's still to jump the fence regardless of what he thinks I might be telling him to do meanwhile working on getting the right canter and positivity blah blah when I ride him myself.

So as others have said you'll need the pro who has been riding him to help your neice get the best from the horse. Good luck.
Click to expand...

This is really interesting. I have a similar issue with my horse.Frustrating isn't it?

OP, I think it will work out. They need lots of lessons together and a target for next season so they can spend the winter focused on achieving it.
 
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