My Jumping Pony hates 2 jump Fillers

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19 January 2013
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Each time I take him to the same competition at the same place he refuses the same 2 jumps over and over again. One is the Brazilian Jump at summerhouse and The other is The bubble jump also at summerhouse, they are the only 2 jumps he doesn't like and will soar over the rest. I have tried going over them lots of times and have even fallen of trying to get hi over ( fun) So I was wandering if there was anything I was doing wrong or need to do, as they are at a competition I can't just take him and keep riding him at it until he goes over. ;)
 
He'll get used to them eventually but I'd imagine a lot of it is him feeling you're nervous (especially after falling off) go down a couple of heights to something that is very easy for the both of you to make you less tense. Or you could try hiring it out, I know on a Wednesday you can hire the arena so you can just keep jumping the two fillers until they're boring. Bring an instructor with you if you do it so she can see where you're going wrong and also help adjust fences.

I'd imagine what you're doing is dropping him infront of the fence so you've been holding his hand the whole way round then at the particular fences you drop your reins and make him do it which is also a shock for him. Hard to tell without video though. Good luck and hope you get through it. :)
 
Dolly does this! She is a super jumping pony but doesn't like fillers! A good proportion of the problem, sadly, is you! As above, you may be dropping the reins but what my daughter does is expects pony to stop at certain fences. She doesn't kick her on enough as if she holds her back a bit, when Dolly does stop, she's got a better chance of staying on!

Weve done two things.

Got a really good jumping instructor! Who works on the nasty jumps over and over!

Hired the arena out and concentrated on the nasty jumps! As above poster said, go it to make them jump them so often they are boring!

Daughters instructor said don't forget pony can jump these jumps easily, she's just choosing not to! So needs your encouragement! He makes daughter trot them for a while and turn very quickly back to jump if pony ducks out!

Good luck, we know how frustrating this is!!!!

Xxx
 
As Redmone says. It could be, esp as you fell off, that you're anticipating the problem and your horse feels your anticipation. If you watch unaff showjumping classes a lot, you can always tell before they do which horses will refuse as the rider backs off just a tad on the approach - it's the rider not the horse. Horses are pack animas and need a leader to say it's safe. So I'd hire the arena, dose yourself with rescue remedy, pop a competent rider on who knows those jumps and get him flowing over those jumps a few times. Then get on yourself and fly over them too - it'll be far easier once you know he can.

My daughter was the same a few years ago, she'd walk the course and say 'he won't like that jump he'll refuse - and he did. We used to dose her up on rescue rememdy which helped a bit but had major breakthrough the day she said 'I don't like the look of No3 but he'll jump it anyway' - she came 5th out of a class of 48. No stopping her now, they rarely don't get a double clear, such a shame her legs are getting a bit too long.

I'd lend you daughter to do it but we're a bit far away (she often is borrowed to send a naughty little pony round a course of jumps when they've got in the habit of refusing)
 
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