keeping horse straight

[cheeryplatypus]

any advice on keeping my horse straight? while hacking he drifts to the verge occasionally and this is fairly easily fixed with my leg, however in the school he has started trying to escape through his shoulder while coming into crosspoles so he ends up parallel to the jump! if i try to apply my leg to correct the shoulder he speeds up as he escapes!!
i have access to about six poles a cavaletti and two sets of jump wings.
any exercises to try would be appreciated
at the moment we are only working in walk and trot, the crosspoles are low. when a set of ground poles is set up he still drifts and 'escapes', if i get stronger with leg to straighten him he speeds and kicks the poles frightening himself!! i want to build his confidence but am finding this frustrating

 

[Judie]

How old is your horse? How much jumping has he already done?

This will make a difference to the advice.

 

[cheeryplatypus]

oh doh forgot
he's 8 yr old 15.2hh IDx
we were told he had hunted before and could jump 1.20 (came from dealer) but he's very green in the school, spent the first two months totally stressing and spooking. we think he may have been overschooled and/or beaten as he used to bolt off if he touched a pole.
he's more settled now and only runs on a bit, coming back with a quick rub to reassure him. we've built up his sessions from 5min to 30min in the school which is about his limit at the moment.
he struggles with rhythm and balance, i only added some poles to get his interest and stop him becoming stressed and bored with circles, spirals and serpentines
thanks

 

[Judie]

Maybe if he is still concerned about the whole school issue you could just introduce trotting poles to your schooling work or just leave single poles lying around the school and just walk or trot over them if they are in your way, without him actually have to 'jump' anything.

If he's 8 and has been hunting I would be inclined to introduce some canter work into your schooling, this will help with his balance and therefore his confidence.

It sounds to me that he is either not comfortable jumping for whatever reason or he is rude to your leg. You need to eliminate the latter and do lots of leg yeilding, turn on the forehand and make sure he is supple enough to cope with what you are asking, if there is still no improvement, then I suggest you need to look at his confidence and find the cause.

Is there anyone who can help you from the ground?

Will he go over a jump on the lunge?

 

[Jellicle]

I second what TOG says.
I would do some lateral work (leg yielding etc) to get him listening to your leg.

With the cross poles, I would make them really little, and if he tries to go sideways, make him stop and step over them, so that he is not successful in using the sideways thing as a way out. You need to keep this low stress though, so that he doesn't associate poles with anxiety. Does he do it if he is just going through an empty pair of jump wings, rather than over a pole?