Jumping exercises to engage hind quarters

[avthechav]

My lovely Ginger horse has ability in abundance but also lacks bravery when the chips are down (interestingly he is much braver xc but I am also much happier xc so I find it easier to help him along). He is 9 and until recently had done very little schooling however he has taken to it well and is really willing to learn. When jumping (and also on the flat) he gets strong and on the forehand and then I either end up wrestling his front end up killing the canter or we get faster and faster until he jacks it into the bottom of the fence (and I dont really blame him with his head down there!)

so....I have a theory that he doesnt really know how to engage his hind end properly and use his hocks, which is why he cant cope and rebalance once he is on his forehand. I am working on getting him off my leg so I can push him up out of his forehand and softening him so it becomes less of a wrestling match. The other day I set up a tiny jump and jumped it out of a walk and he was uber confused!! After getting his head round what he needed to do he was popping it beautifully from walk and really using his back end. I then extended this last night by setting up a teeny bounce on an actute angle so I could concentrate on accuracy and combine it with jumping one side on its own, poles on an angle straight through, both on an angle or any combo of the above. I varied what I jumped and the pace and he was 100x better than the previous day jumping all tiny fences from punchy paces at very odd angles....

....so to get to the point of my posting- what other interesting exercises would be really useful for me to try to really make him aware of the power he can get from getting his hocks underneath him and does anyone else have a horse with this problem? He will never be a horse that will dig me out of trouble but I hope to make him a bit more confident in his own ability.

(I have been competing at 90, schooling at 1.00 but am carrying out these exercises at literally 2ft)

 

[Horsemad12]

I would work on your canter on the flat first to get more sit.

Transitions, walk - canter - walk and within the pace. Canter leg yield and small zig zags and canter poles just off the track then leg yielding back to the track.

Also try a three poles on the centre line and doing a serpentine over them, asking for a change of leg.

From a jumping point of view a placing and landing pole either side of a decent ish fence (90cm plus) will make them work if you come in from a slow trot / almost jog (may be better with a neck strap for you).

While you are schooling if the canter gets really on the forehand, pop in a transition and then start again.

And finally it takes time to get them strong enough to be able to sit, esp. if like my mare they are naturally balanced with more weight at the front!