Jumping Dilemma

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pipingwidow

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Hi. I have a bit of a dilemma and I was wondering if anyone else has been here and what they did. My little, green welsh cob mare loves to jump. She is ridden by the yard owner once a week who has been schooling her over small poles and little cross poles. There is also a girl who rides her who did pony camp today and jumped her. By all accounts my mare loved it.
The problem is that for emotional and physical reasons I'm not really interested in jumping. I have done a bit in the past but when I bought my mare two years ago I decided dressage and endurance would be our thing. I've been unwell for the last while and we are only now getting back to schooling and starting to go out on pleasure rides. My mare seems to love these, but I wonder if I'm being fair with her if she truly loves to jump?
As I've just got my confidence back I think I'm probably over-facing myself and should just do what I enjoy and let her have the odd jump with someone else. Or should I start thinking about getting out the old GP, taking some lessons and jumping her myself?
Anyone had a horse who loved a discipline they hated????
 
I had a horse that was a fantasic jumper. But I'd really lost my bottle, so rarely jumped him. He couldn't have cared less.
 
You own the horse, not the other way round. My dog loves rolling in fox poo but I am not keen so he doesnt get to do it! Seriously, you must do what you feel comfortable and happy with. Why force yourself to go beyond that? My horse could and has gone novice british eventing but I am only happy at 90 so that is what we do. He doesnt seem to be too sad about it!
 
She'll be just fine doing whatever you want her to do. As long as there is grub, water and shelter at the end of it! Enjoy her. Don't put pressure on yourself.
 
There's always the option of loose jumping her semi-regularly to keep her exercise routine varied. Not that there's any need to, in my opinion. Some of mine would definitely rather eat grass competitively instead of dressaging / jumping for a living - but they aren't going to get to!
 
My mares happiest doing not a lot but she doesn't want for much so my demands of her time hacking and schooling etc aren't really negotiable! Horses don't have ambitions etc like people so whilst she may love it when she's doing it she won't miss it when she's not.
 
I can empathise as I have real jumping demons - I turn into a quivering mess. I'm trying to resolve this by having jumping lessons on a schoolmaster and I can safely say it's slowly coming back again. I used to love it and am getting that feeling back!

My pony still gets jumped by people who enjoy it and I loose jump on occasion. I decided to take a break from personally jumping him for a while, until I get myself sorted which I think is only fair on both him and me.
 
If she really loves to jump - and it doesn't razz her up too much - why not see if you can find someone who will jump her for you?

As long as you trust them, it seems a shame not to let her have some fun.

Also, being pessimistic, may be worth always being around just in case said jumping rider has ideas about trying 6ft fences!
 
The YO where we are has a horse that she competes at Dressage to quite a high level. Her horse's breeding has very nice jumpers in it & he does enjoy jumping, unfortunately she doesn't & is quite scared about jumping. My daughter who competes her horses at 1m15 & Fox takes him into the arena & jumps him every so often with the YO watching. Jumps are quite small but size of jump isn't important, the horse ha fun. My daughter also has fun & the YO loves to see her horse having some fun as well. There's nothing wrong about getting someone to do something with your horse that you don't feel comfortable with. :)
 
Do what makes you feel comfortable, and I'm sure the horse won't really miss it - I'm pretty sure mine would rather eat polos competitively (something they would excel greatly at) but they're not going to get to do that. If you can get someone to jump her occasionally then that would be good but the horse will be fine without it.
 
JFTD said:
TSome of mine would definitely rather eat grass competitively instead of dressaging / jumping for a living
Click to expand...

Ha ha - very true! OP my big horse competed at badminton a couple of years and has 400+ BE points - for me he's a happy hacker and the odd unaffiliated when I have my brave pants on (not for 2 years now!)
He would most certainly rather eat grass competitively than any other discipline!
The most annoying thing in the horse world is when people give up a horse because 'the horse needs to do more' very very few actually care !
 
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