Jumping Help

[jomax]

Hi. My mare is a 15H section D welsh cob. She is about 10 years old (actual age unknown).

My problem is jumping. She hates it!! I dont know her past history with jumping, dont know what, if any, she has done. But i have started her off from the very beginning, with a pole on the floor, she will do anything but go near it, i have tried walking over it, and she either stands firm in front of it and then does a lovely reinback extremely quickly or dips out at the last minute either to the right or left, pretty random on that one. So i thought i would try coming in from the trot, that ends up the same as the walk in approach only slightly more hairy as its from the trot. After that thought that it was worth a try just going for it, that was slightly more successful in that she canters to it and then does jump it, like its 3 foot in height!

But she does have the most enormous jump in her with a really big back end 'punch'. I have even had a good friend of mine who competes in 3 day eventing with the now semi retired Primitive Control, try her out and suprisingly for her and me my mare unseated her over a jump!

So my question is this, could anyone give me any advice on how to start off teaching a horse to not be afraid of the pole?

Oh and i have also tried walking along side her and leading her over the pole....it just never happened, there was no way i could lead her over it!!!

 

[Hollie15]

How weird, never had this problem but how about placing poles sneakily in places she normally happily goes? But obviosuly safe so if she does jump it she won't injure herself....have you got a wide gateway into field? Or into a place where she can have her feed. How about just out in the field so she can explore them on her own? x

 

[LouS]

Start taking her over poles in hand in walk, then put them all over the school while you are schooling until she takes no notice and just goes over them. I wouldn't jump her until she is fine with this otherwise you're going to end up with a very anxious horse who will probably end up stopping.

Once she was good with the poles all the time I would introduce a line of canter poles and add a little cross pole on the end and build up from there with very simple grids on the correct stride to build her confidence.

 

[jomax]

Thats the start of the problem, i cannt even get her to walk over the poles in hand. She just stops dead about 3 - 4 feet in front of them and no amount of coaxing can get her to step over them or to move any further forward. So we have to walk off to the side and then move forward passing the pole a good distance away

 

[Business]

How weird, never had this problem but how about placing poles sneakily in places she normally happily goes? But obviosuly safe so if she does jump it she won't injure herself....have you got a wide gateway into field? Or into a place where she can have her feed. How about just out in the field so she can explore them on her own? x

Yep, agree but don't put the poles between her and water!


Go with the feed idea....put the bucket with carotts in as near to the pole as she will go the first night. Day two move it a tad closer, day three closer and so on till the bucket is next to the pole. Then put the bucket on the other side of the pole with a square of poles on the floor. So she has to put her head over the pole to get the carotts, then move the bucket slightly deeper in the square. Chock the poles so they will not roll and scare her. keep moving it till she has to step over the pole to get the food. She will learn to associate the poles with food....good and not fear......I have not done this btw...but given your predicament it's what I would try. Either that or chasing her down a jumping lane over a single pole several times daily till it ceases to be a source of fear for her. Or lead her into a jumping lane and block both ends with a pole on the floor. Or how about following another pony over the pole? It is just a pole after all.

Best of luck.

 

[Wheels]

I taught my yearling to go walk over poles on the ground by putting 2 poles out end to end but with a large gap in the middle. Once he was happy walking through the gap then I moved them closer together 6 inches at a time until eventually he was happy to walk over them when they were touching. He'll now walk forwards over a pole any pole or branch.