mandwhy
Well-Known Member
I am trying to incorporate a bit of polework and small jumps with my horse's schooling as she is very easily bored and needs as much variety as possible! Her last owner said she likes jumping but I only saw video of teeny tiny crosspoles, but that's fine as I am not particularly keen on jumping.
She certainly gets switched on when I take her into an area with a few poles, so I guess she does find them interesting. We have done small crosspoles with another horse there too, but it was mostly stepping over.
Now I have tried with some big wooden poles, < eta on the ground first then a small jump>, she seems to not respect them at all, given the chance she will literally stop, paw down the jump or bash the pole, stomp over then try to reverse! I decided it would be better to do some in hand and we got her doing trotting poles quite well with the aid of a treat or two, and over a small straight (less than 1ft) where she did start to jump albeit with not much bother over where her hind legs end up (previously she would half jump with the front and smash through with the hinds).
I'm just wondering if anyone could give me some tips and any exercises that might help introduce her to this work? She is 6 by the way so I believe she is perfectly capable of what I am asking, if quite babyish in attitude at times.
She is a very stubborn mare and does not lunge very well (work in progress) so I don't think that would work at the moment. She seems to appreciate me being on the ground next to her when we do something new, but can do ridden as well (bearing in mind I have not jumped for a while and do not do great heights!).
I expect she would jump over more solid objects e.g. small barrels but I would worry she would hurt herself as she has already tripped and trodden on the poles several times!
Any tips welcome!
She certainly gets switched on when I take her into an area with a few poles, so I guess she does find them interesting. We have done small crosspoles with another horse there too, but it was mostly stepping over.
Now I have tried with some big wooden poles, < eta on the ground first then a small jump>, she seems to not respect them at all, given the chance she will literally stop, paw down the jump or bash the pole, stomp over then try to reverse! I decided it would be better to do some in hand and we got her doing trotting poles quite well with the aid of a treat or two, and over a small straight (less than 1ft) where she did start to jump albeit with not much bother over where her hind legs end up (previously she would half jump with the front and smash through with the hinds).
I'm just wondering if anyone could give me some tips and any exercises that might help introduce her to this work? She is 6 by the way so I believe she is perfectly capable of what I am asking, if quite babyish in attitude at times.
She is a very stubborn mare and does not lunge very well (work in progress) so I don't think that would work at the moment. She seems to appreciate me being on the ground next to her when we do something new, but can do ridden as well (bearing in mind I have not jumped for a while and do not do great heights!).
I expect she would jump over more solid objects e.g. small barrels but I would worry she would hurt herself as she has already tripped and trodden on the poles several times!
Any tips welcome!
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