My horse HATES ditches!

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Zena2004

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Hey,
I have a young horse (6yrs) who is very inexperienced at cross country (I have taken her xc schooling 3 times but that's it). She's quite bold most of the time and a happy jumper, but really hates ditches. She won't even walk near them a lot of the time. Having another horse leading doesn't particularly help - she just gets there and slams the brakes on. She doesn't seem very stressed about it, but she is incredibly stubborn! Does anyone have any tips about getting her to confidently jump ditches?
Thank you!
 
How about making fake ditches at home in an arena using 2 poles and black bin sacks? Get her used to that and confident. If you can dig yourself a tiny trench in her field? Some times it works wonders!!
 
As the others have said black bag and poles in the school re-created my ditchy boy's reaction to a ditch.

Also its sounds really daft but make sure you are looking up and not into the ditch this makes a huge difference for us :)
 
If she's only seem them during XC schooling and if it's something she's got a real hang up about then you need to not really make an issue out of it, the more you push, the more she'll back off and say no specially if she doesn't seek comfort in a lead horse.

Spend a bit of time at home getting her used to them, even if it's just letting her graze in hand near one, so she can soak the whole idea of a ditch up without the issue of having to jumping one, obviously it depends if you have any small ditches nearby that you can safely stand near or pop her over on a long rein but you get the idea, some fields have very small narrow ditches that well lets face it, there not really ditches are they, more of dip between adjoining fields but the dip is easier to pop over rather than walk down and into, if you can find a few of these that she can jump from stand still she'll soon get the idea even if it means following you over it on foot.

Dig out your arena (if it's easily put back that is, we have a wood chip arena and it would be quite easy to dig a small ditch and put it all back again without causing too much damage) and line it with some blue tarpaulin with a pole at either side, doesn't have to be deep so long as she understands that she can jump with width of something (with something in it) without having to have the height there (requiring something solid to jump).
 
I have a very similar situation with my 6 yr old... Only his fear suddenly appeared, to start with he'd jump ditches quite happily but by the end of last year wouldn't go any where near them. Over the winter have walked him in puddles and popped him over little dips while out hacking. couldn't try to black bag and poles trick as couldn't ride on my field and dont have an arena. Also helped that my mums partener is a farmer and he has very kindly dug me a ditch recently with his tractor (thank you mr a) so actually have one to practice with now!! yippee

heres monty after only 2 sessions with the new ditch but lots of hacking and popping over the winter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPIeJX8RXSM

Love him.

good luck.. it does take patience.
xx
 
SamandMonty said:
I have a very similar situation with my 6 yr old... Only his fear suddenly appeared, to start with he'd jump ditches quite happily but by the end of last year wouldn't go any where near them. Over the winter have walked him in puddles and popped him over little dips while out hacking. couldn't try to black bag and poles trick as couldn't ride on my field and dont have an arena. Also helped that my mums partener is a farmer and he has very kindly dug me a ditch recently with his tractor (thank you mr a) so actually have one to practice with now!! yippee

heres monty after only 2 sessions with the new ditch but lots of hacking and popping over the winter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPIeJX8RXSM

Love him.

good luck.. it does take patience.
xx
Click to expand...

ooh thats what I need! I can get mine over natural ones just not the man made ones on a xc course!
 
Thank you for the tips! I am going to try to get an instructor out for an xc schooling session somewhere at some point, and in the meantime I will definitely try the black bags & poles trick. She is a very stubborn mare so patience is key with her - I'll keep trying! And will be sure to look up over the ditches!
 
Many moons ago, a well-known trainer in these parts dug a substantial ditch in his youngstock field. All 2/3 year olds had to jump it to reach hay/feed/water.

He swore by it and swore he never had a ditchy horse as a result.

Probably doesn't help you much! Think the black bags are a great idea, hope you crack it :)
 
Get Mark Smith (MSJump - on web) to help - he is brilliant! My five year old shut down after messing up jumping a big ditch. She refused to go anywhere near it let alone jump over it - he got her over without a raised voice - she now jumps them. All the best
 
I'm not sure where you are based but I would recommend a Nick Turner cross country clinic. Let the organiser know in advance that you want to work on ditches. Nick is great. He keeps everything very quiet and calm and I you can bet he has seen this problem before and knows exactly how to tackle it.

Here is a link to his website.
http://ntsporthorses.com/
 
Remember to look up and not down when jumping ditches! Richard Maxwell did an article in Your Horse where he used his rope training halter to get horse over ditch.
My daughter's mare didn't like ditches but all of a sudden yesterday when x country schooling started to go over them fine - Silly chesnut mare!
 
Have you thought of going hunting? Just a suggestion, but it really makes them "think" forwards - if you get to a ditch they tend to follow the rest of the gang, and once they've jumped a few then they stop thinking about them.

Autumn hunting starts at the end of August/beginning of Sept depending on where you are, it's usually very slow and steady with optional jumps. You can find more details on the MFHA website.

Hope you get over the problem!
 
I recently did a xcountry schooling course with Lucinda Green and the horse I was on wasn't my own so wasnt sure what he liked or disliked, we had a major problem with ditches and no matter how much I tried getting him over or how many times someone tried to give us a lead he would not jump it or go near it. Lucinda allowed me to get off and walk him over it, he soon calmed down and just followed me happily over it so I walked it a few times and then got back on and then he did it perfectly every time.
 
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