Jumping to one side- thoughts?

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KatB

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Any idea how to solve this? We have progressively got worse at jumping to the left. She is worse when she is being wild or silly, but it is something that started about 3 months ago and has stayed!

I am really strict about going straight after a fence, and have had it drummed into me about making sure I am 90 degree to the front rail of the fence, but it is something that still happens on occasion! If she does go wildly left, I do make sure she moves away from my left leg on landing to be straight again. I think she does it to make herself space in front of the fence (she is quite long striding, and I notice it more in combo's) but would like ideas that won't effect her jump but can help break the habit :D I have tried opening my right hand a bit, which does help, but I do have to be careful not to interfere with her too much. I guess high X's etc may help?

Many thanks :D
 
I know it's a daft question, but are you using a girth with elastic at 1 end only? Because this can cause diving to 1 side (as the elastic gives in mid-air and the saddle sort of jack-knifes along the spine, is how it was explained to me by Kay Humphries). Someone I teach had a horse whose horse dived to 1 side every time and since I mentioned this and she switched to a wintec girth with elastic/give the whole way along, not just on 1 end, he's been straight as a die...
if not, x pole grids, definitely. not an easy one to fix though.
 
I agree with Kerilli, also are you straight in the air over the fence, if you tend to have a small lean then the horse will move to compensate, it does sound like she is trying to give herself more room though, you could put up grids and then have 'V' poles - not too close to start with up the left side to keep her going straight - i have found this helps but usually once the poles are gone, they revert back to the old ways!

Good luck
 
That's interesting Kerilli and makes perfect sense, but I only use girths with elastic on both ends :) I may try jumping her in her "usual" girth instead of her stud girth to see if that makes a difference, but I don't think it will be that... I am going to get myself straightened out too to make sure I'm not wonky ;)

It's not effecting her jump, and she doesn;t do it all the time, I just want to make sure we stay correct as we progress :D She is straight as a die in comparison to a lot I see out jumping! :D
 
Agree with other thoughts;


Could also be a sign of slight one sided weakness, appears mostly in younger horses. if one hamstring is slightly stronger or one is a little tighter then they can go to one side.

One exercise you could try is the "train track" exercise. Using half round poles, so they dont roll if she stands on them, or planks, place them about 2m wide on take off and landing side of the fence about 2m away from the actual fence. This will direct her into the fence and away.

If she struggles with doubles/combi's they can used right through and away from a grid. If she still wobbles a little you can bring them right in so they are about 1m wide.

I have found this works really well, especially when used in conjuction with a grid of X poles.
 
My mare started jumping drastically to one side one day and we couldn't work out what it was. We had the horse dentist out that week. He said that her bit had severly rubbed the bars of one side of her mouth, so she was pulling away from it.
We caught it quick and would never of thought to look in her mouth.
May be worth a look, however over 3 months is a while.
If not agree with the other poster "v" poles and high x poles.
 
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Lovely, thanks mb. My instructor put a rail on the left side of landing about 2m away from the fence to encourage her right, so I think I will have to be stricter about doing that more often! We do think it's a weakness thing, as she is more flexible to the right than the left, so can kind of fall out of her left shoulder, if that makes sense?!
 
agree with the above and also add, sometimes horses run down a fence to give themselves more room and give the impression of jumping left or right whichever side/ way they prefer!
 
If it's adjustability and/or strength then you've got your answer, obviously. ;)

Does she do it in the last stride or only in the air. A lot of canny horses will take a "diagonal" stride in a short related distance to give themselves more room off the ground, although you tend to see that more in older horses.

Does she do it with another jockey? Does she give you an consistent feel in the hand off the ground and in the air or is she more or less in one hand?
 
KatB said:
We do think it's a weakness thing, as she is more flexible to the right than the left, so can kind of fall out of her left shoulder, if that makes sense?!
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Sounds like you've answered your own question Kat!!

Making her stronger and equally supple will help drastically. The issue is to correct it now before it becomes habit. The train tracks are a brill exercise and one, personally in this case, I think I would use every time I schooled over fences for the forseeable future. You can use them even with canter poles on the floor over imaginary grids.


But the answer is........... more flatwork!!
 
It could also be maybe a weakness in the leg, my mare started jumping to the left and there was nothing i could do to get her to go straight week or two later her right tendon had a strain. just a thought tho :) oblivously schooling on the flat can also help and teeth and back and checking that you yourself are riding straight as many times its the riders weight balance causes the horse to go to one side.
 
And following on from Weezy's post, is it my imagination or in the outside pics on your sig do you have your head (and possibly your shoulders) positioned to the left, it's not a lot but it could well affect her, especially if she is now assuming you want her to go where your weight is directed.
 
To add, I hadn't looked at the pics Weezy linked to. Sorry, I do think it's you. She's a lovely girl, reminds me of my big girl. I must get brave and jump her:-(
 
jemima_too said:
And following on from Weezy's post, is it my imagination or in the outside pics on your sig do you have your head (and possibly your shoulders) positioned to the left, it's not a lot but it could well affect her, especially if she is now assuming you want her to go where your weight is directed.
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That is why I went looking for recent piccies as I thought Kat had straightened her head/shoulders up :)
 
i'm a jumping to the right type of person because i'm much stronger on my right- plus i have a wonky back. my trainer does horrid things to me like putting poles in the way on the landing side, sitting on the fence etc etc... it does help but its something i need to keep working on :)
 
Would be inclined to have her back checked bu chiro - being out of alignment can cause them to jump to one side.

Usefull exercise is to place to poles in a V shape with the point of the V on top of the jump so it encourages her into the centre.

Check saddle fit and that you are not using one leg stronger than the other unintentionaly pushing her over. Also check that you are sitting square over the jump. A tendancy to look down to one side can cause the horse to move it's body under the centre of your weight. (Prime example horses that fall in when rider leans in on a circle)
 
Thanks guys some very ineteresting points.

Evelyn, she has her back checked regularly. Am also no a fan on V poles for straightness, as clever ponies (and L is very clever!) will jump "out" to the side to avoid the highest point ;)

Weezy, thanks, I have worked on making myself straighter, but you have a very good point re. the right leg. I will be conscious of keeping it "off" and see if that makes a difference. I need to ride shorter for a while again too I think to get my knee of the saddle. I hadn't noticed that at all before, so thank you :D

Tarrsteps, she is a bit canny and will make herself space given the oppurtunity too as she is still weak infront, but is careful enough not to want to hit it. She will be heavier in the left hand given half a chance on the flat anyway, and when she is wild to a fence will take hold on that side a bit more. We are working hard on it on the flat (thanks MB!) and don't jump that often :)
 
what helped henry was similar to train track thing, but put poles right on outside of jumps (on floor), then gradually bring the ends to a narrow point so horse has to go through it.

Worked in a couple of sessions.
 
One in a million, my trainer did that last time with just a pole on the left, and it does help me more than anything to make sure I am straight. Not sure how much it helps her though ;)

Thanks jemima too, she is a lovely girl ;) I am conscious of being straight, but I think the leg is probably the key!

Inky and Sunny, thanks, do try and do that a bit, but want to stick to being quare as much as possible to make sure she is taking weight evenly from both hinds and so has to be equal infront. I do try to think slightly left to right though :)
 
How are your leg yields? Aside from the obvious, they're a very good exercise to check if you're sitting evenly (as I was reminded of today . . . :rollseyes: ).

I made up (really :) ) an exercise for a horse that used to get very crooked to his fences, despite being good on the flat. (I suspect he'd been "taught" it by his last rider.) As we came out of the corner and he started to get crooked I halted and did a turn on the forehand (could do one on the haunches, depending on how, exactly the horse is getting crooked) just enough to get him straight, then trotted quietly to the jump. Then I progressed to moving him over in walk, then without coming out of trot, then did the same in canter, starting back at halting and working up again. It was like the penny dropped after a couple of sessions, although the actual work probably helped too. I find if you can break things down into steps, then you can identify exactly when it's going off the rails, which makes it much easier to fix the problem, rather than just doing more in some way to mitigate the effect.

Have you been trying to get her to very deep distances to sharpen her up in front? Perhaps she's just the sort of horse - what American hunter people call "slow in front" - that needs a bit more room? I know common wisdom says the deeper the better but some horses need to do that a bit more gradually or they end up not learning the right lessons in an attempt to get the job done any way they can.
 
Thanks Tarrsteps. Our leg yields are good, and I have been doing them to the right after the fence to make sure she isn't "running" through my left leg, and actually I need to think about that a bit more so I release my right leg a bit I think :)

That's very interesting re. the exercise, I will try that, although tbh she is straight right up until the last 2 strides...

In regards to the slow in front, she is weak infront, and I have been told not to overwork her front end, as she is careful enough and she will get stronger and better in technique as she strengthens up. She is very "Bum heavy" at the moment, and all her power is behind the saddle, and she is slightly bum high too! We work with poles on the floor, but give her plenty of space infront of the fence to get her front end out the way :) I think with combinations, because she is quite long striding and forward, she makes up the distance easily and then drifts to make herself the space. I think I need to work on not letting her run down the distance to give herself space by having a slightly shorter canter, instead of getting to the fence and having to do what she can to keep it up... does that make sense?!
 
KatB said:
I think with combinations, because she is quite long striding and forward, she makes up the distance easily and then drifts to make herself the space. I think I need to work on not letting her run down the distance to give herself space by having a slightly shorter canter, instead of getting to the fence and having to do what she can to keep it up... does that make sense?!
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Yes, very much. That tends to go together with the horse getting a bit flat in the back/losing longitudinal suppleness so they can't use their shoulders as well and end up jumping across rather than around the fence. The shorter canter should keep her back softer and more able to make the right shape when she gets there, along with hopefully getting you to a slightly easier spot. (The first pic on your sig shows this tendency a bit - she's past her arc but since the fence is small she's just jumped across it. If it was bigger and she left from the same distance she'd have to do something more extreme to get the job done.)
 
TarrSteps said:
Yes, very much. That tends to go together with the horse getting a bit flat in the back/losing longitudinal suppleness so they can't use their shoulders as well and end up jumping across rather than around the fence. The shorter canter should keep her back softer and more able to make the right shape when she gets there, along with hopefully getting you to a slightly easier spot. (The first pic on your sig shows this tendency a bit - she's past her arc but since the fence is small she's just jumped across it. If it was bigger and she left from the same distance she'd have to do something more extreme to get the job done.)
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Yeah that first pic is from an extremely dody distance that was a hugely long 3 or a short 4 (was done on pony/horse striding, badly!) You can guess which we did it on! We are getting better at getting a good spot as opposed to having flyers to everything, and her canter generally feels good, she is just so keen to get the job done we can run on a bit, and I have to be braver at keeping it together down distances, as I am still not 100% used to having something you have to go "woah" with instead of kicking like hell ;) :p

Thanks again :)
 
:Dget teeth checked!! ... and saddle looked at etc.. this is what happened with my boy, cant remember if it was his wolf tooth or saddle not fitting well
but he jumped better after his MOT!, :D
 
thanks woodland. She has a saddle which was fitted to her not long ago, has her teeth and back regularly checked :) I think it is just a young weak thing :)
 
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