Jumping Confidence

[ktj1891]

My boy jumping today with my friend. Her first time jumping him in years and jumping these heights herself in a long time.

[video]http://vid156.photobucket.com/albums/t17/kt-15/IMG_1123_zpsja1d0aj4.mp4[/video]

What exercises can I use to build my lads confidence as fences go bigger?I jumped him myself over the below combination last week and he jumped it fine the first two times but knocked the first part and sort of scooted through the the middle over the combination over the over, I think he scared himself. After that he ran out and started stopping and I had to drop it all down tiny before he would jump back through it.

A few days later i did another combination to get his confidence back and he jumped fine although ran out once over the first part when i first started to build it up but once he realised it wasn't too bad he jumped through it fine and finished on the below.

I don't think he has much strength and as they get bigger it shows as he seems to struggle and looses his canter/confidence (and then so do I) so he then starts to doubt himself and stop/run out. Are there any good exercises to build him up, make him enjoy his jumping and build his confidence when they get bigger? When i say bigger I mean between 90-1m, so nothing drastically huge but definitely big enough for him and me.

TIA

 

[be positive]

If they lack confidence then I would always make a grid ascending in height so they can get in easily and the stride is right so each fence can be slightly bigger, having the first part the same height can make it all look rather daunting and if they don't jump in really well you lose momentum which will destroy rather than build confidence, I would also always give them a true groundline, sometimes pulled out a fair way to get them looking down, the first on on the pink blocks doesn't have one and the first fence is the one that really needs it, the others he should jump out of the stride that is there.

He is not the neatest in front so has to jump a bit higher in order to clear them, I would work on improving his technique, so he makes more effort to snap up and so has to make slightly less effort to jump, use wider oxers so he is in the air longer, V poles to encourage him to use himself, bounces into a grid should help him be more snappy and will help with his strength generally, anything gymnastic is good, use your imagination and vary things as much as you can until you find what works best to improve his weaknesses, it does help if you have a willing helper as you may need to keep tweaking things to get the full benefit of gridwork.

 

[ktj1891]

If they lack confidence then I would always make a grid ascending in height so they can get in easily and the stride is right so each fence can be slightly bigger, having the first part the same height can make it all look rather daunting and if they don't jump in really well you lose momentum which will destroy rather than build confidence, I would also always give them a true groundline, sometimes pulled out a fair way to get them looking down, the first on on the pink blocks doesn't have one and the first fence is the one that really needs it, the others he should jump out of the stride that is there.

He is not the neatest in front so has to jump a bit higher in order to clear them, I would work on improving his technique, so he makes more effort to snap up and so has to make slightly less effort to jump, use wider oxers so he is in the air longer, V poles to encourage him to use himself, bounces into a grid should help him be more snappy and will help with his strength generally, anything gymnastic is good, use your imagination and vary things as much as you can until you find what works best to improve his weaknesses, it does help if you have a willing helper as you may need to keep tweaking things to get the full benefit of gridwork.

This is brilliant and makes sense, definitely looks daunting and felt it a bit as we started to loose momentum although surprisingly i was confident that day hence putting it up but didn't really realise how big it was. I will build them to ascend in height as that makes sense. Also was thinking of V poles my self, will try and incorporate all of that in and see how we get on. Definitely helps to have a kind helper on the ground but i struggle at times to find anyone to help me Thank you for the positive feedback hopefully i can keep building our confidence as last thing i want is to knock it!

 

[be positive]

With an ascending grid it is surprising how big you can make the final fence, once they start to take you in as they gain confidence you can really push when you feel ready, I often start with just a x pole and the final jump can be well over 1m with the horse making nothing of it.

 

[ktj1891]

With an ascending grid it is surprising how big you can make the final fence, once they start to take you in as they gain confidence you can really push when you feel ready, I often start with just a x pole and the final jump can be well over 1m with the horse making nothing of it.

Brilliant I will work on this with him and see if it builds his confidence up so that eventually he is confident jumping doubles at the same height. Will try the v poles too!

 

[PaddyMonty]

It's quite likely the reason you had an issue with the first combination was the way its built. Assuming you were jumping the blue wing fence first then you have a false ground line. The lower pole is behind the top pole which will cause the horse to get too deep to the fence. If jumping the other way then the lower pole of the oxer would be the back pole which again is not good.
Second combi the fences are correctly built but only for jumping from left to right.

 

[ktj1891]

It's quite likely the reason you had an issue with the first combination was the way its built. Assuming you were jumping the blue wing fence first then you have a false ground line. The lower pole is behind the top pole which will cause the horse to get too deep to the fence. If jumping the other way then the lower pole of the oxer would be the back pole which again is not good.
Second combi the fences are correctly built but only for jumping from left to right.

Ah okay I see. Just to mention though I put fence up like that quickly to take a pic of it when I was actually jumping it it has a block underneath as a filler and pole in front.

 

[wkiwi]

The grid-work advice above is excellent. make sure that you have the ideal distance for your horse (and then gradually change to distances that are more standard for an actual course).
Some other ideas@
do a lot of jumping of smaller fences from a trot (and build up). This takes away the worry for him of finding the correct take off, as well as developing the jumping muscles. Horses can readily jump 1m from a trot once their muscles are developed (or higher - there is a video of Mark Todd trotting into a downhill fence at a four-star years ago; may have been badminton or burghly)
Also make sure you jump at least 50% of jumps as oxers (with width at least the same amount as the height) even if you start with lower jjumps as this gives them a bigger jump without the visual effect of height.
Use placing poles to start with when jumping individual fences from canter, so the horse always meets them on a correct stride.
make sure your position is secure enough not to hook him accidently in the mouth wehn things go wrong, and add to his worries. lots of rising trot without stirrups, and trotting round in jumping position helps.
plus make sure he can adjust striding just between poles on the ground e.g. set up two poles 5 strides apart and practice getting even 5 strides, then shorten the canter and do in 6 strides, then extend on and do in 4 strides (not all in one day - this will take some time to develop); this will help him be able to adapt himself when he doesn't quite get his stride and pace right.
There are many good jumping books around with lots of other strenghtening/confidence ideas to.
have fun

 

[Deltic Blue]

I saw the video of Dawn jumping him and he looked really good, nice and forward too
I'm useless with jumping so I'm not going to comment there, but if you want someone on the ground, I'm happy to help. Izzy isn't doing much at all at the moment, so I'm around some weekday evenings or weekends if you want a hand, just send me a text and I'll see what I'm doing