LONG! - Baby Showjumping - Who's right?

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Romansmum

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I have had my new mare since October straight off the track. She'll be 5 in April - She is so laid back she's unbelivable picked up going in an outline very quickly etc. WE've just started doing some showjumping courses at the local indoor arena just going in clear round and prenovice.

She's handling it very well hasn't gone mental hasn't gone backward, never refused etc. She had done some jumping over hurdles as a racer and she keeps having one fence down, just rolling the top pole off.

I think she'll get past this knocking poles off with practice, as she has a lot to think about over a full course including fillers and walls etc. It is never the same fence but she hasn't manged a full course.

My friend (who has a racer a full year older than mine who has just started too afetr having him for a year before starting any jumping but he'd never seen a fence before) says i shouldn't jump her anymore until next year as she's knocking poles off. And hers has managed 2 clear rounds this week.

We are only doing a little size course once a fortnight and she's really enjoying it i feel if we stop now we'll have to start again from the beginning.

what do you think? do i stop? or keep going? will she manage a clear eventually once she's got the idea?
 
Having a pole or 2 really wouldnt concern me with a baby horse- they cant meet every fence perfectly.
You jump whatever height you feel she's ready for- often they try far harder when the fences go up and you may find she puts in that little bit extra and jumps clears.
 
If she's happy and confident then dont worry about it and keep going. Sounds like she's enjoying her new regime
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Possibly try loose jumping down some small grids to teach to think for self and be little more careful.
 
thank you i feel better, she likes loose jumping as you can see by my avatar!! I will try a grid.

I just was wondring if i was expecting too much from her.

We are having a go at a clinic fo XC indoor this weekend in the indoor place where i show jump, I hope as much experiance as she can get over things inside may help!
 
Grrrrr seriously what is it with some people! I would think these CRs you are doing are 2ft6 and under? ANY horse can comfortably jump the height of its belly FACT, therefore I very much doubt this is a height issue LOL - I would actually be starting to stretch her - like others have said, gridwork is fantastic to get her pinging off the ground and honing her technique - little and often is the key and deffo no BIG questions, but I would certainly be continuing to take her out, seeing new things, etc - its fantastic that she is so brave and she isnt phased by fillers etc - and that can only be instilled by going out and doing it!
 
I think providing she is happy and not backing off then I would carry on. She is more likely to think its ok to knock the top rail if you stop her now. I would push her a bit more too. I started my TB from scratch and he would happily demolish entire fences, but he is now jumping much better at 2'9 and upwards.
 
Being mean - I would take her to a good baby cross country course and pop her over a few of those (ideally not exceeding 2ft6")

You don't want to put her off, but do want her to twig that some fences don't move.

I certainly wouldn't stop jumping, but keep it low and simple to build confidence
 
No problem jumping a horse of your's age at all. Don't over face her, do grid work which will get her to snap her feet up. Don't go camparing her performance with that of your friend's horse, so she jumped a couple of clears this week, so what. All horses progress at different rates. You just carry on schooling your's as you are & she'll get better. As I & other posters have said though don't over face her or ask big questions, just keep it fun for her.
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I think its absolutely fine to carry on with what you have been doing, if the horse is enjoying it and you're not asking too much where's the harm? Hopefully the clears will start to come as experience does and technique improves. I personally think its important to give young horses variety in their work
 
I second the comment about trying her over some solid fences - it worked with a baby of mine that was knocking poles down.

We have plastic poles at home, which is what I started him off with, but he just kept ploughing through them. So I took him out on the xc course and started off trotting over tiny logs and built up from there.

He seemed to know instantly that they were solid, and started to jump properly - an enormous bascule emerged as if by magic! Hurrah!

When we went back into the school a few weeks later, he was totally different (bascules galore) and now he's really careful.

I do make sure I built a nice, solid looking show jump for him though, with fillers, not too gappy.

(Incidentally - one down is nothing, especially for a baby, it's practically a clear round in my eyes.)

But if you did want to give her a little break from jumping just to give her brain/muscles a rest, then 4 -6 weeks isn't going to make that much difference, she won't forget how to jump! I'm not sure I would leave it longer than that though.
 
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