Making a horse neater infront over fences?

[MeganMarie]

Hello, so I'm going to try this horse out next Sunday. He's a ShowJumper 10yo(just turned) im looking for something to give me the experience 1m20+ and I think this horse could be it. This horse looks lovely (from the video)! He has a lot of scope (well more than what I'm used to anyway) and hardly touches a pole from what the owner said, but his front legs are just a little dangly, he does tuck them up but sometimes one might hang down a little more, hes not obsessively dangly but he's not really neat and doesn't tuck them all the way up all the time (he does sometimes though) not that even when they are dangly they caused him to have a pole and he's a far way over the fence. He has a super hind end so I wouldn't be concerned with him touching a pole with those, and I know people say it's easier to neaten up a horses front end than their hind. Would V poles/gridwork help neaten up his front? Or other exercises? Not that I'm overly concerned with them, he has all the scope there and currently jumping 1m15 at competitions with scope to go further and schooled round 1m40 courses at home. I think im more or less just being picky, but I want to find the right horse. Anyway might not even end up getting the horse, but if I do any tips to neaten a horses front end would be helpful, if you can thanks & sorry or the massive para im new here haha

 

[Mike007]

I would think that to neaten up the front end you need to be a pretty neat rider with an accurate eye. Trailing tha back end is far harder to cure . I would suggest that if you do acquire this paragon of equine virtue, dont try to march in where he left off with his previous rider. The pair of you will need to learn about each other and there is an awful lot more room to adjust at 1 metre than 1.20.There is nothing worse than consistently misplacing a good horse at a fence he cannot get out of . I dont know anything of your capabilities ,but I have put up practice fences for one or two of the best riders in the world . And the thing I have learned is that everything you do on a horse should make that horse a better horse next time you ride.

 

[Nightmare before Christmas]

Depending on hoe accurate you can ride you can sharpen a horse up to be more careful in front using v poles, and various exercises with heavy poles and grids. Trick one too many times you risk it being over careful and stopping if you can't ride it in that mind frame

 

[Shay]

Mike makes a good point - don't plan to take up where the other rider leaves off - step down one or two classes and get some lessons until the partnership is established. Good horses can be easily put off. But in answer to your original Q we use very high cross poles to encourage a neater straighter frame. So the cross pole but with the poles at the top of the wing and the wings relatively close together. It makes a narrow X shape and encourages a careful horse to pick up; but the overall heigh isn't much more than about 2'6 so you don't over stress the jump. But do be careful there is enough space - especially for an SJ'er. Eventers are a bit more used to jumping into narrow gaps so you can push the point a bit more. In my experience SJ'ers need a bit more space until they figure out the exercise. But once they do they have to keep everything tucked in neatly to avoid the poles.

If you want to encourage the horse to tuck his forelegs up make sure you have a stud girth on whether you stud or not. There is nothing more off putting to him than whacking himself in the front.

 

[ellie_e]

V poles, high x poles, grid, bounces etc will help neaten up the front end, but agree with others about getting some lessons and getting used to the horse first.