jumping doubles oxer in - help!

[Laramy80]

I am having a bit of a confidence crisis with doubles but only when it's oxers going in. I've never really liked them but as Miss R has moved up this season and out of BN to Disco and 95 opens I have been burrowing her in too deep to the oxer and she is having to twist/add an extra stride to get out. Bless her she is honest and tries her best not to touch them. Then about 3 weeks ago at a competition I took down the second element with my foot which has spooked us both. Dropped her down today to jump the BN as a sweetner and had a stop at the double as I dropped/threw my reins her about 3 strides out and froze...re-presented and jumped fine.

My question is any advice on how to get over this? Any exercises besides jumping doubles til I'm blue in the face?!?!? Don't want to wreck her as she is such an honest young mare who loves her jumping.

Glass of white wine on offer

 

[Squiggles on Paper]

no idea for any exercises but what I do when I worry about a fence is the minute im lined up with the fence, I just sit and ride the canter and look up - dont even think about the fence find something in the distance (usually outside the arena i.e. a tree or a house or something) and look at it, dont change anything about your canter or your hands etc just sit and ride normally - imagining its a jump which you find easy (i.e. a cross pole or maybe a small oxer) just dont change anything and most importantly breath

 

[ann-jen]

What about setting up a grid of very small cross pole to an oxer to an upright so the cross places you in the right place for the oxer and then when you are jumping sweetly through it remove the cross pole but leave the wings in position to help you still approach it in the same way?

 

[LeannePip]

im no expert but i sort of know how you feel, im not a fan of doubles but if i was in your situation it would just be practice practice practice! have a tiny oxer going in to a normal up right out and go over and over and over again and build it up to a 'normal' height, sounds like its more of building up confidence to these sorts of fences

 

[loobylu]

Might also help to keep in mind that building doubles this way round is actually intended to be kinder- it's easier to get out over an upright if wrong, than an oxer.

 

[showjumpingfilly]

I used to be useless at riding combinations that were oxer in - just used to fire at them or sit and do nothing.

Gridwork was the key for me! And canter poles before an oxer in double or combination.

 

[applecart14]

I am having a bit of a confidence crisis with doubles but only when it's oxers going in. I've never really liked them but as Miss R has moved up this season and out of BN to Disco and 95 opens I have been burrowing her in too deep to the oxer and she is having to twist/add an extra stride to get out. Bless her she is honest and tries her best not to touch them. Then about 3 weeks ago at a competition I took down the second element with my foot which has spooked us both. Dropped her down today to jump the BN as a sweetner and had a stop at the double as I dropped/threw my reins her about 3 strides out and froze...re-presented and jumped fine.

My question is any advice on how to get over this? Any exercises besides jumping doubles til I'm blue in the face?!?!? Don't want to wreck her as she is such an honest young mare who loves her jumping.

Glass of white wine on offer

I know the distances between an oxer to an upright is different to an upright to an oxer, I think the first type is shorter, something to do with the parabola (the way the horses motion over teh jump is shaped as its differently shaped over an oxer). I only know this because O/H is a course builder and I have heard him say this.

Sorry not explaining myself very well. Like someone else suggested, do lots of grid work, altering the distances between the fences as you go along.