now what do i do???

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lisa_lou

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Wrote a post about 6 months ago asking for some advice about my mare. She gets extremely excited and fast jumping causing her to not listen to me at all and as soon as we have turned for a fence she sees it and just tanks - Often causing her to jump long and flat with no spring. I really want to bsja her this winter but need het to improve her pace into a fence and the quality of jump she gives.
Lots of people suggested gridwork which i have been doing lots of, Normally work with 4 in a row 1 stride fences and vary the heights to get her thinking. I have now slightly improved her pace into the fence and inbetween fences on a course, but she just gets faster and faster throughout the grid and just completley bashes the last 2 parts down most times and its all to do with the speed she builds up.
Is she ever going to listen to me, calm down and jump cleanly?? Advice please!
 
To be honest while grids can work with some horses, with others I find it makes them more exciteable.

With those types I set up a Y shaped fence at X that can be popped from both directions and just work around it for a few sessions. Once the thrill is gone about having a fence in the school then work school movements and put in the odd pop over the fence while still doing for eg a serpentine. If the exciteability returns then its back to school movements to switch off and get the horse listening again.
 
Do you have any idea why she is behaving like this?
How old is she? How much jumping has she done before?

You don't say when her saddle was last checked etc, so that, back and teeth would be advisable.
Otherwise without seeing her it's hard to know. I'd suggest having lots of lessons - the gridwork is very useful, but it sounds like you could do with a little more guidance on what you do with the grid. It might also be worth getting somebody who knows their onions to advise on a bit. Sometimes that can really help.

If it's any comfort my loan horse was exactly as you describe when I took her on. 6 months on she is much better, and would be ready to BS over the winter if I was so inclined. Her problem was just greenness - her coping mechanism when she's not sure is to take off and tank, so widening her comfort zone so she didn't have to panic and could turn to me for reassurance has solved the problem. I also have changed to a bit which is more comfortable for her, and which means she doesn't zone me out so much! Good luck! I'm sure you'll solve it with some help.
 
what bit are you using, I had a similar problem with my horse, goes in loose ring snaffle and didn't want to bit up but I put her in a hanging snaffle just for jumping and she is much better in that. Also don't be afraid to give him decent half halts in between fences to keep the rythem.
There are lots of flat work exercises to improve the rythem of the canter and get them listening to more to half halts. Developing a more rhythmical and balanced canter on the flat will help too.
 
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Agree the best thing you can do is to have lessons with a professional - always difficult to give advice without knowing you and your horse.
 
touchstone said:
To be honest while grids can work with some horses, with others I find it makes them more exciteable.

With those types I set up a Y shaped fence at X that can be popped from both directions and just work around it for a few sessions. Once the thrill is gone about having a fence in the school then work school movements and put in the odd pop over the fence while still doing for eg a serpentine. If the exciteability returns then its back to school movements to switch off and get the horse listening again.
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^^ this. Work on your flatwork to get her really listening to you and GRADUALLY introduce little jumpies or even just trotting poles to begin with.

The advice on checking back, teeth and saddle are all good thoughts though too.
 
All very good advice. Just to add my 2 cents, my old horse used to take off after jumps and my instructor had me walk around the corner, pick up a nice trot for 3 or 4 trot poles into a small jump, and then halt before turning the corner at the other end of the school. It obviously won't help you between the jumps, but it should get your horse listening to you and help with the tanking off before/after jumping.
 
All good advice - and I would throw in that when our WHP started to get very fast and flat, we took him hunting. It just made a change for him and he came back to jumping in the ring much more settled.
 
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