Jumping exercises for rushy tense horse

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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I have a 9yo 15.1 Irish chap, he evented a couple of times last year at be80 successfully(placed) with a different rider, although sj was weakest phase - few poles down and was unrelaxed to watch.
Now I'm his sole rider, and I'm pretty rusty jumping! He's had 6 months off jumping over winter. Flatwork is good (competed at Nov dressage with good scores) although canter can be tense at times. Jumping he turns into a bit of a different horse. I think fundamentally he loves it, he's an XC machine, and happily pings 1.20 with ease in the school. But think the anticipation winds him up. E.g. Across country he is lovely and rhythmical, makes a nice shape over the fence, but showjumping competitions and training he gets wound up just warming up (trying to canter, very bunched up and tense), and that results in not basculing nicely over the fence, jumping more like a hurdler with head in the air. The result is its impossible not to hang onto his mouth (not just me, everyone who's ridden him) as the head is always above you! So that doesn't help with chilling him out. Again, not an issue XC.

When training, over grids for example, he is chilled as anything walking around on a long buckle between attempts, then the moment you pick him up he tenses up and tries to rush down the line. I think it's part anticipation, part excitement - he never stops or runs out, I genuinely think he enjoys the act of jumping just not the anticipation.

So I ask you - what exercises can we do to improve his state of mind and our technique? We of course will have lessons (I'm usually just dressage so struggling to find a jump instructor who can crack this) but I'm sure someone else out there has had a similar problem. I should add that he didn't have the best start in life and came to me 3 years ago unrideable, we've found that he adores eventing it's just the SJ we need to crack!
 
one of mine is similar jumping at events. he schools perfectly at home, but just knowing he is doing the xc makes him a lunatic at the showjumping. best advice i got was to get off his back, keep my hands low and pressed against withers and let him pull against himself. I never pull back, the pressure just stays constant. and to let him run on even if it feels a bit faster than it should. Just try and get the best rhythm we can. He is an older horse and set in his ways and goes clear, so just need to work with his quirks.

I've another horse here as well who rushes and giraffes her head over fences, and I just kept her in trot over fences and small courses till she settled a bit. The canter was still rushed so we schooled over poles and raised poles, non stop at home. If she rushed at all she was circled and didn't go forward till she settled. We had poles before and after jumps, and lines of canter poles into small crosspoles, anything that made her slow down and be forced into a rhythm. For the first shows we brought her back to trot at every corner.

With horses like that I prefer to work with the energy and on the flatwork canter - and build up their ability to take weight behind and do a compressed bouncy canter. The second horse is still excited and fiery jumping, but its contained by the seat into a bouncy canter. Once you start getting handsy on horses that rush you've lost them i think. The energy needs to be contained by the seat so they are pushing from behind. I don't care what their heads are doing i leave them alone with a soft contact, just get them uphill and controlled.
 
Thanks paddi22 this is really useful. Any tips on controlling with the seat? I understand the concept as my dressage horse collects beautifully from the seat but this guy doesn't listen so much to half halts subtle or not. Not good at changes within the pace, it's either go or on the spot.
What are your thoughts re bits? He's only in a lozenge egg butt - not super strong but can lock on and be hard to turn or flex. I wondered about a Waterford snaffle to prevent him being able to take a hold but not sure if that'd be too strong, as definitely don't want to over bit and end up bouncing on the spot..
 
Our first ISH was exactly the same. (actually many of them are!) We found the key was schooling - and more schooling. You have to teach them what the seat aids feel like. Some told me they break differently in Ireland - I don't know if that is true but Irish broke horses do often have similar quirks. They can also be very bright - which is to your advantage.

What we found worked was this.... yes school over poles. use place poles and grids. Usual stuff. But also teach them to work bareback and in a halter or side pull. You can feel them - and they you - far better. They learn what your seat aid feels like when there isn't a saddle in the way - and then you can translate that into work with a saddle on. We also teach - I'm not sure how to put it - noises? - that the rider can make with the mouth closed for dressage. Mmm and Rrr. An "emergency brake" to come to a full halt from a whistle alone - no reins. (Doesn't ways work but backs them off enough to get rein contact back) And we jump to music. It sounds really odd - but we started it to help my daughter monitor the rhythm of the canter. But if the horse knows that particular music means particular things you can use that in competition warm up just with mobile in your pocket. Not loud - you don't need to annoy everyone. But the horse can hear it even when a human might have to concentrate a bit.
 
for really bad rushers, a useful schooling thing i find is to canter the long side towards an arena wall, do a strong half halt with seat with supporting outside rein, if they don't respond i really push my heels forward and down three times, as if braking a car and really hold with seat three each time sitting deep and pull them up to a halt (the arena end will help). when you do it enough times they get the message and eventually as they respond better you can work backwards to getting them to respond to the first half halt and one 'heel brake'. the heel break thing i find really useful, it probably looks like clumsy messy riding, but i always find it works on rushing horses once you train them to it. if you do it in time to the rhythmn you want then i find they automatically go back on their hocks a bit and lighten in front.
 
you have an advantage that you have the dressage skills. i'd knock off jumping with him for a while and treat it like dressage over polework. then gradually raise the poles, and dont increase height till you have the half halts and gears in the canter. Its great that he loves jumping, you just need to get him to respect your aids. Theres a ton of good exercises you can do. anything that stops him thinking he can just rush the fences - useful ones for mine were having two jumps a good distance apart and halting between them, not letting him rush on. With horses like that sometimes the riding has to be ugly but effective!
 
For rushing i simple just do lots of pole work!! Really helps to get them balanced which is also important if they are rushing to establish the canter on the flat making sure it is balanced by doing lots of transitions etc, what really worked for my youngster was canter poles into a fence as that got him into a rhythm and you can also make the canter poles get closer and closer together which really engages them to jump well and pick up! :)
 
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