Jumping and cornering... HELP!

[Evil_Cookie]

I wonder if any of you guys have had a similar problem and possibly a solution? I own a tb mare, she's fine until we get to jumping, she'll jump fine but then goes into power mode. I'm hoping to do some sj and xc soon, but I'm really scared of how fast she wants to go. The speed would be ok, but when we have to corner she nearly falls over as she doesn't balance herself very well at canter. Sometimes she's fine and I can slow her with my seat but other times usually after a smaller jump rather than a bigger one, she just runs. She'll occasionally buck, or after one of her dodgy corners, when we try to go straight again she'll evade by throwing her quarters to the side and in doing so we end up facing in the wrong direction. I don't want to pull on the reins constantly as she isn't hard to stop usually but it does take us a little longer when she's so wound up. I'm planning on trying some grid work this afternoon to see if it'll help. I'm not hoping for miracles, I just don't want her to hurt herslef.

She has a history of back problems, but is seen by a chiropracter regularly. I don't think its an evasion through remembered pain, more that she knew I used to get of when she did this as I didn't want to hurt her. She's quite happy to jump on line with out bombing of. I don't want to jump much bigger than 2'3 at the moment but she is better at the higher jumps because she doesn't seem to race over them so much... (in bigger I mean 2'6 to 2'9 not massive or anything...)

Is there anything I can do to encourage her to slow down? She's never raced.
Any help greatly apreciated. I don't really know what to do...


EC

 

[spotty_pony]

hi, I suggest you take her back to basics and work on her transitions.

You could also maybe school her around fences sometimes without jumping just so that everytime she sees a fence she learns not to get too excited.

Then, set up a small jump on the track and walk to the corner of the school, get your line and then go quietly into trot a few strides away and pop the jump. If she gets excited after the jump, allow her to canter for a few strides and then bring her back to walk.

Another useful exercise could be to get her going over a small grid of canter poles so that she can get into a nice rhythm and also this should stop her rushing.

Hope this helps x

 

[Woody&Rockie]

Hi.. Is she throwing her head into the air to evade the bit - if so could you look at putting a running martingale on to help?
Also lots of practice at home jumping over a cross and then turning and bringing her back to trot - plenty of transitions and small jumps of a circle should help.

 

[Evil_Cookie]

Thanks...
We don't have an arena, we're just lucky we have sandy soil, so I'm riding round jumps quite a lot as they're always left out. She's fine with that, it's always after the jump she goes boom! Though I'll definatly incorporate more transitions, because she takes a long time to calm down after canter or jumping anyway, jogging etc... it's hard to get a walk after we've cantered. I assume she's used to finishing after canter work.
I don't ride her in a bit at the moment, just a rope hackamore, this is fine as she isn't a strong horse when she's in the right frame of mind. I may try a bit on sunday, and just see if theres a difference. I doubt it though, she's about the same control wise and I'm not sure the problem is with her head, more that she stops thinking straight and loses all contact with her feet when she gets like this.
I'll have a go with the cross pole too... and I'm going to experiment with different heights to see which suits her best at the moment.

Thanks for your advice.... will definatly give it a try... anymore suggestions much appreciated...

I didn't end up doing gridwork this afternoon, just a hack... think she deserved it after yesterdays madness...

EC