Jumping issues

[SophW1898]

Hi! Just looking for some help. I have a 7yo Connie. Unfortunately at our yard we don’t have an arena so all we have done for the past 18 months is hack, we can only jump every 6 weeks in lessons we travel to. The past couple of times we’ve had a lesson he’ll be brilliant on the flat but as soon as the jumps come out he starts leaping off all 4 fours everywhere. Could this be excitement/and or confusion? as he rarely gets schooled and on hacks if we canter it’s only at a fast pace (my fault I know) so I’m worried he’s maybe lacking the discipline with not having an arena and I need to think about my options…

 

[View]

You don’t need an arena to school. While hacking you can make sure he‘s ridden into a contact and working through, transitions, shoulder fore, shoulder in, leg yield around manhole covers and parked cars etc, turn on the forehand to open gates. On and back in all paces, Rein back when appropriate, change it up between medium/working/extended in all paces. Haunches in/out.

You get the picture. Hacking is only relaxing for him if you decide it is - other days it is work

This should get him better at listening to what you are asking whatever the situation.

 

[SophW1898]

You don’t need an arena to school. While hacking you can make sure he‘s ridden into a contact and working through, transitions, shoulder fore, shoulder in, leg yield around manhole covers and parked cars etc, turn on the forehand to open gates. On and back in all paces, Rein back when appropriate, change it up between medium/working/extended in all paces. Haunches in/out.

You get the picture. Hacking is only relaxing for him if you decide it is - other days it is work

This should get him better at listening to what you are asking whatever the situation.

thank you - yes I think it’s mostly my fault as I’ve never really done this out hacking, it’s very relaxing… so he’s possibly getting confused as to why then all of a sudden after 6 weeks of not having to work properly I’m trying to get him to do as I’m told, that couple with being physically mature now he’s probably resting me a bit ?

 

[SophW1898]

thank you - yes I think it’s mostly my fault as I’ve never really done this out hacking, it’s very relaxing… so he’s possibly getting confused as to why then all of a sudden after 6 weeks of not having to work properly I’m trying to get him to do as he’s told and isn’t happy about it, and he’s probably testing me a bit ?

 

[View]

You can do as much and as little schooling on a hack as you want. Sometimes it was a concentrated 40 minutes after he had warmed up, other days it was 10 minutes work, 30 minutes relaxing march, 5 minutes work, 20 minutes fun etc. it’s brilliant in that you can end the schooling session on a good note anywhere around the route, and reward with something easier.

Just remember that you are asking different muscles to work when schooling, so keep your sessions brief to begin with and build up to longer ones.

Good luck, and come back with an update after your next arena session.

 

[SophW1898]

Thank you! i think it’s put it into perspective that going from hacking and jumping over logs here and there to asking him to school nicely and go over show jumps in an arena once every 2 months is completely different and he needs more of a routine so the latter isn’t so exciting?

 

[Wishfilly]

I know lessons are expensive, especially if you have to get to them too, but I would guess it's just too overwhelming/exciting if he's not doing it very frequently. Is there any chance of arena hires, or taking him out to clear round jumping, or anything like that locally. Or are there any flat areas at the yard where you could potentially build a few jumps or at least put out some poles?

 

[SophW1898]

Thank you! We are hopefully getting in the arena in the coming months and will have weekly lessons then, I just wanted to make sure I’m doing things properly as he’s my first young horse that I’ve produced. I really don’t think he’s being nasty as it’s only when we start jumping. I took him to a hunter trial a month or so ago and I’m wondering as to whether that blew his brain a bit as it’s the 2 lessons I’ve had since then where he’s it’s like his poor brain has exploded seeing jumps? he’s always been hot and sensitive but more so now after he’s experienced the XC buzz! Possibly was the wrong move taking him but hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose!

 

[Wishfilly]

Thank you! We are hopefully getting in the arena in the coming months and will have weekly lessons then, I just wanted to make sure I’m doing things properly as he’s my first young horse that I’ve produced. I really don’t think he’s being nasty as it’s only when we start jumping. I took him to a hunter trial a month or so ago and I’m wondering as to whether that blew his brain a bit as it’s the 2 lessons I’ve had since then where he’s it’s like his poor brain has exploded seeing jumps? he’s always been hot and sensitive but more so now after he’s experienced the XC buzz! Possibly was the wrong move taking him but hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose!

My take on this would be that doing the hunter trial got his adrenaline up, and now every time he sees jumps, his adrenaline is increasing, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. I wouldn't consider that nastiness either, just a young horse who is boiling over, as it were. I'd hope the more he does (especially in different environments) the more he will settle. More frequent repetition will hopefully help.

I know it's really hard when you don't have an arena, because ideally I'd want to be taking him into an arena with jumps up etc, and just working him around them until he relaxes, and other similar things.

Is there anything else he finds exciting, and could you work on finding ways to relax him around that that might translate over to jumping too? (I'm not sure if that makes sense). When I first got my pony he'd had quite limited life experiences (due to lockdown and other factors prior to that). He's naturally quite a busy pony- if you drop your reins and do nothing, he will actively choose to walk around the arena! And this very easily turns into boiling over and getting very overexcited by changes in routine! I've spent time trying to basically teach him to relax (which works better some times than others!)- but definitely the more he does (of anything), the better he is.

 

[SophW1898]

My take on this would be that doing the hunter trial got his adrenaline up, and now every time he sees jumps, his adrenaline is increasing, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. I wouldn't consider that nastiness either, just a young horse who is boiling over, as it were. I'd hope the more he does (especially in different environments) the more he will settle. More frequent repetition will hopefully help.

I know it's really hard when you don't have an arena, because ideally I'd want to be taking him into an arena with jumps up etc, and just working him around them until he relaxes, and other similar things.

Is there anything else he finds exciting, and could you work on finding ways to relax him around that that might translate over to jumping too? (I'm not sure if that makes sense). When I first got my pony he'd had quite limited life experiences (due to lockdown and other factors prior to that). He's naturally quite a busy pony- if you drop your reins and do nothing, he will actively choose to walk around the arena! And this very easily turns into boiling over and getting very overexcited by changes in routine! I've spent time trying to basically teach him to relax (which works better some times than others!)- but definitely the more he does (of anything), the better he is.

Thanks so much for your help. He gets gets quite excited when going for a gallop out hacking, and I will admit I let him dictate the pace most of the time too.. I’m going to try and incorporate more schooling into my hacking whilst I wait for an arena as at the minute it’s very much relaxed and not proper ‘work’ and I think he’s now at the age he needs proper work. We have a lot of poles/cavelletis in our lunge arena so Im thinking of making those a regular thing in his routine too so he doesn’t just see coloured poles every 4-6 weeks in our lessons when jumping.
Thank you for your opinion it’s really appreciated, I had a bit of a meltdown over it as my only other horse was my first pony who was just so easy (and slow) and going from that to a young, competition type Connemara I’ve never experienced this sort of thing and thought it was the end of the world! But really maybe he just needs a more consistent routine especially when it comes to poles/jumping?

 

[Wishfilly]

Thanks so much for your help. He gets gets quite excited when going for a gallop out hacking, and I will admit I let him dictate the pace most of the time too.. I’m going to try and incorporate more schooling into my hacking whilst I wait for an arena as at the minute it’s very much relaxed and not proper ‘work’ and I think he’s now at the age he needs proper work. We have a lot of poles/cavelletis in our lunge arena so Im thinking of making those a regular thing in his routine too so he doesn’t just see coloured poles every 4-6 weeks in our lessons when jumping.
Thank you for your opinion it’s really appreciated, I had a bit of a meltdown over it as my only other horse was my first pony who was just so easy (and slow) and going from that to a young, competition type Connemara I’ve never experienced this sort of thing and thought it was the end of the world! But really maybe he just needs a more consistent routine especially when it comes to poles/jumping?

If you've got a lunge arena where you can add in poles, I think that would be great- if he's seeing them regularly, I'd expect them to become more boring. You can do some in hand work over/round the poles as well as lunging him if you want to mix it up!

Lots of horses and ponies find jumps exciting, and would even more so if they were only seeing them in occasional lessons. I don't think this is the end of the world at all!

Out hacking, I'd also consider trying to work on things like him being adjustable within paces, if you can- e.g. can he do a slow rhythmic trot, and then a faster one? What about in canter? This will hopefully translate to him being more adjustable in the arena, and really listening.