Novice numpty jumping questions

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HaffiesRock

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Good morning all.

Hoping you can help me with my jumping. I have a 10 year old Haflinger who is not the best jumper in the world. He is honest and willing, but 9 times out of 10 will knock the pole with his back legs. I have been lunging/free schooling over jumps to add some variety to his fittening work and he seems to get in too close and rather than go up and over in an arch, kind of goes flat and forward leaving his back legs behind.

So I decided to try some ridden jumping last night (first time since i've owned him). My thinking was he may be more careful ridden. I had my flat work lesson so at the end my instructor was happy to put some jumps up for us. She isn't a jump instructor and told me she wasn't qualified to help with the pole knocking but could tell me what it looked like from the ground.

So we were jumping about 65cm. Hes a 13.2 Haffy, very keen and fit, but not jumped with me or for the last 2 years at least from what I know. The knocking happened whether we trotted, cantered or I "let him go". He seems to get really close to the jump. Now I haven't jumped for years either so I know I am not helping the situation at all.

The instructor set up a spread of 3 poles, 65cm, 30cm and a ground pole spread about 2 foot id guess. He cleared the highest, but knocked the middle pole with his back legs.

I am a happy hacker with no jumping aspirations other than for fun so don't want to splash out on jump lessons. So can anyone give me any exercises/tips or even types of jumps we can try to improve us?

Thanks in advance. x
 
Well I guess gridwork might be a good idea
Placing poles and bringing the ground line out a bit to encourage him to stand off a bit more.

All this may enocurage a better shape over the fence and taking off at a better point.

whatever you do i hope it works and you have fun :)
 
Have you tried placing poles infront of the fence to encourage him to take off from a good spot? Pole work and grids are excellent for this kind of issue.

Jumping is all about the canter. You need it to be forward so he can jump out of his stride. Don't 'let him go', especially if you're both inexperienced jumpers, sit up and leg on. Get him travelling and you'll find getting a nice stride much easier.
 
Gridwork, gridwork, gridwork. Gridwork is the answer to all evils :D I also like high x poles and v poles into the fence to get them to make a better shape. (Not true, I have psych issues with high x poles where I panic at the sight of them and ride like a tool, but they do work!).

Honestly, if you'd seen Fergs jump 2 years ago compared to how he jumps today... If he can learn, anything can!
 
For grid work, how far apart does each fence need to be? How many fences and what kind of height? Too small and he makes no effort at all.

Yeah we had a ground pole but it didn't seem to make much difference as he still dropped his back legs knocking it.

Thank you x
 
For a horse, I allow 2 human strides after a fence to land, 4 strides per horse canter stride then another 2 strides for take off.

You might want to make the distances shorter for your boy. You can do any combination of jumps and heights - I normally begin with a cross pole to an upright and then pop a spread at the end.
 
2 strides landing and 2 for take off, 4 strides per canter stride, give or take. As he's little, not whacking great strides though or he'll never make the distance. The best thing to do is have a go over very low fences (the sort he can step over!) to sort the distances, with someone on the ground to move them around / pick up knocked poles.

Start small, build up - bounces etc demand a degree of athleticism which makes the jump itself much harder, so no point puttniig them high till he's pro at it.

Or book yourself in for a little gridwork session with a jumping instructor, who can worry about grid distances etc for you!
 
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