jumping exercises to encourage shape/muscle use

[MandyMoo]

Dani, as some of you know, has now started jumping again after a long time off for a ligament injury, and has been in work for a while now and has started jumping.

so far i have done 3 jumping sessions with him.....the first just literally a 1ft cross a couple of times with placing poles, the 2nd a cross with placing poles, and then a 60cm or so straight with placing poles. and then today i put up a 2 stride double of crosses with placing poles before, after and for each stride, and ended on straights of 70cm ish.

and i know it will take awhile for dani to build up his jumping muscles/build a good shape over a fence etc etc....but do you guys know any exercises that i can try (obviously over very small fences) and not too complicated at the moment for him...but do you know any ways i can encourage him to really use his muscles, (front end and back end) so they build up correctly?

iv never brought on a horse jumping from scratch before, and want to do it properly

xxx

 

[jumptoit]

I'm watching this with interest as I only have 4 and a half weeks till I jump mine again

.

 

[Sarah_Jane]

There is a few things such as raised canter poles into a jump or small bounce cross poles which really help the roundness of the canter and build up athletism. Raised canter poles on there own either in straight line or around part of a circle is a great idea on it own.

Whatever jumping you do make sure you get him straight and in to a nice take off spot slightly square jumping off both hind legs evenly. Don't get too far away as this allows a flatter jump by jumping from a deeper spot the horse has to use more alround muscle and technique to jump the jump.

V pole is also a useful exercise either on a single jump or part of a grid to help them make a shape over a fence.

 

[MandyMoo]

thanks SJ

will try those xx

 

[TarrSteps]

It's not really what you're asking, but your flat work will play into it a lot, too. I've certainly seen horses improve in their bascule with even relatively few sessions of targeted stretching and suppling.

Which is not necessarily related to how the horse should be ridden on the days you actually jump . . . be sure when you're schooling not to overtire his topline muscles before you even get to the jumping part. Just enough to have him loose, not enough to be getting into lactic acid build up territory.