jumping opinions and advice required

T

the watcher

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I have had Mole, on and off, for 3 years or so. He went away on loan for a year and has back with me for a few months while we try to determine what his job should be!

Having three I rely on friends to help exercise the nags, and everybody always want to jump (unlike me, I would be happy to never jump anything again, ever) so Mole's current rider is keen to eventually do a one day event. Flatwork is coming along beautifully but boy oh boy is he in a hurry to get over things..he approaches them like a steeplechase, locks on, hollows, and flings himself at jumps, often a stride early. The only good news it that he has now learned to slow down after the jump (before he would just charge off, flat out)

I am pretty confident he has no back or teeth issues, although they are coming up for checking, and I know his tack fits...a few pics and a short vid..suggestions welcome.

BTW..he may look like a pony..but he is in fact 16hh - his rider is very tall!

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and a very quick video.....

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When a horse tanks into fences it is often through fear believe it or not! Go right back to basics. Grid work etc in trot and then canter. Dont go for higher jumps until horse canters calmly down a grid of smaller ones and at any stage if horse starts rushing go back to lower, easier things again. It is also really important that whoever is riding him does not interfere with the horses head either before, during or after the jump.

I always think a happy jumper is a calm jumper!
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I only know this through my own experience!!!
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(I hope Im not out of line as I cant watch the vids as it messes up my computer)
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I had the same problem with Wolfie
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And its not nice being taken into a fence at 100mph
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When I had lessons with Jo Aston, she used to put a pole slightly off the floor with a placing pole in front, then walk over the pole, stop and let me reins go and jump the small fence from a stand still.
Then over the other side, STOP turn him round straight away and do the same the other side..
It gets very boring but it does slow them down.

Another thing that helps, is having poles on a circle and cantering over the poles on a circle.

O and another thing!! Canter into the fence and turn a circle just before you arrive at the fence, so then he thinks every time he comes into a fence he is not going to jump.

Placing poles really help and Grid work...

Hope this helps, but the 1st one I said about really does help.. Its great.
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Grid work is scary! He steams through it..in fact he rushes anything that is too small and only seems to steady up for the bigger jumps..this is a horse that will ping out of his field over a 5 bar gate from a virtual standstill.

There are some good ideas here, we have tried circling away..but as soon as you turn him towards the jump..even 2 strides out..he locks on to it. There is no danger of him EVER refusing.
 
I agree with dozziesmummy - rushing is usually derived from fear or simple excitement and as long as the rider is patient most of the horses would be possible to retrain. My way is always down to the beginning and gridwork (and I have just sorted the next rushy boy so it definitely works for me). I first use canter poles with no jumps and aim to establish a consistent, bouncy rhythmical canter over them without the horsey loosing its head. The current boy I am schooling would just plough through the poles a couple of months ago. I needed someone on the ground all the time because he would just destroy all the distances between poles.
After a couple of weeks we managed to canter around the arena over 5 poles on one side and 5 on the other (all 3m apart) and his canter now is so much better that his owner is over the moon.
After cantering is established I raise one pole (usually the middle one) off the ground (not much, maybe up to 2"3) and everything all over again until there is no change in rhythm. There are masses of patience required but it worked every time for me.
I then add fences on the track but still keep the poles on the ground.
There is something in the old saying that if 'you sort the canter the jumps will sort themselves out'.
Apologise if similar things are said above - I got sidelined while writing this so took me a while.
 
sapphire_girl that sounds like a good exercise and we will definitely try that one. His canter (when he isn't hollowed and rushing at a jump) is lovely, he is very light in his contact and springing off his hocks. I have to say I personally wouldn't bother with the jumping..his flatwork is good enough to compete as a dressage horse..but it seems everybody wants to jump so we need to resolve this.
 
Hope you will get it sorted
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If his flatwork is decent then you are half way there. Some horses just seem to have this 'madness button' in their head that gets pressed when they see anything jumpable but, at least from my own experience and from what I have seen, it is almost always down to the rider (not necessairly the present one). If the rider shows no agression, anxiety, nervousness but just stays there in a light position, quiet yet firm, making sure his/her body position doesn't ask for more impulsion (for example by leaning back) over and over again most horses come to their senses and just want to cooperate.
Keep us posted
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Thank you. The present rider isn't the problem (she has evented and is very confident) but he had a chequered past, frightened his previous novice owner, and was turned out with the cows on a farm for years. He came to me as a bit of a rescue. He is about 12 now, but has never really done anything other than hacking, he has never competed.

I firmly believe that horses do better when they have a 'job' and regular work, we just have to get him used to the idea!
 
I do a similar thing to DQ to help with my horse that rushes. For a simple pole on the ground she used to simply launch at it 100mph and leap a mile in the air over it!
I found a brilliant instructor (BSJA accredited) and we started with an exercise where I had to walk to the pole and halt in front of it and then walk on and over the pole and then walk to the end of the school, halt and then turn and repeat in the opposite direction. At first my instructor had to stand precariously in front of the pole to stop Jen rushing into it - I was always worried I'd mow her down but she always got out the way in time - LOL.
Anyway once she was doing this calmly in walk we would progress to trot but ask for a walk transition in front of the pole, walk over it and halt and so on. Eventually we could trot over it no problem without dropping to walk and so then it was raised into a little crosspole and so on. It has taken ages to drum this into my mare but we can now canter over calmly and are even now doing small courses in a calm fashion and I never thought this was possible - LOL. If she ever start rushing or bucking (her other trick) I go back a step and trot approach and halt afterwards and she then seems to remember - Oh yes I'm not supposed to do that!
I also have found with Jen that riding a very deep corner before turning into the fence very important - even leg yielding into the corner before the jump and after to insist on correct bend as she used to try to fall in round the corner and then set her neck and be off! If I let her get away with it even once then it takes a lot of halting and transitions etc to get her back again.
Anyway your little horse (gorgeous BTW) doesn't look as bad as Jen whose behaviour was very ingrained but I really found this approach the key to sorting her out. Hope it might be some help to you.
 
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