pics, advice and potential? baby tb jumping - if your'e not bored yet!

[cobface]

Jumped my mare again yesterday, mainly to see if she was any more controllable in a hanging cheek snaffle. She was a little better but still strong. I have hunter trials on Sunday and am just hoping i will be able to control her and get her focused. At the moment shes like zebedee on approach to jumps and goes sideways at times to, then she jumps and just locks onto the next one and thats when the brakes fail I have been doing grids with her to get her thinking and plenty of winde down time when she gets excited. She seems to respect bigger fences, the small ones she jumps really flat and tends to knock them down.
Had a friend help out yesterday so better pics and a video - video is still uploading so will post as soon as its done for cc - it demonstrates perfectly what shes like
I would really like to take her further with her jumping career as i think she has potential? i could be wrong but hoping for opinions
Background info - 5yr TB mare, started jumping earlier this year for the first time. She is still green and sometimes still a little dangly legged at the front, she tends to have smaller ones down, anything over 2"6 she gives plenty of clearance.
Here are some pics, cc welcome

I got left behind on the previous jump (double) she took off really early then had to act quick on the approach to this one! (below)

also in new lounge

 

[letrec_fan]

Not a jumping expert by any means but it sounds like she is perhaps just a bit unbalanced and doesn't have enough strength hence the sideways/zebedee approach if she is only 5 years old.

My ex racer TB had the lock on and running into fences issue because he was used to galloping at hurdles. It took a long time but just before he passed away I had started to really feel safe jumping him. He always knew what to do - he almost knew his job too well and it was trying to re work his brain!

Poles are good to get her picking up her feet and then perhaps you can work on smaller fences to improve her technique. I should think the bigger you go, the more she will hurl herself at them.

Also work around the jumps when schooling etc and as a 'treat' at the end, pop over a small fence. I found this really helped my boy because he got used to the jumps and by the time I had schooled he was more responsive and also tired so he popped it wonderfully! Then I would just build on that over time.

You say you are doing grids, so perhaps try some other jumping exercises working on the turns to keep her listening - a row of jumps may just encourage the behaviour because she can lock onto 4 or so jumps in a row and just run at them!

One more thing - hacking is excellent for building up their strength and there is usually little logs you can pop over - and she cannot knock those down either.

I always took my boy in a french link snaffle so try not to get tempted by changing her bit to control her. It sounds mainly like a balance etc issue. She looks like she loves her jumping so I am sure she will have potential.

Hope this helps.

 

[Katd66]

Trot/Canter poles coming up to the jumps may her get into a better rhythm, steady her and get her to think about what she is doing, rather than charging towards the jump.

As she is young make sure you get someone experienced/knowledgeable(if thats you then bonus - but would be helpful to have someone on the ground who also knows so they can adjust if she knocks them) with placing poles and trot/canter pole distances as you dont want to get it wrong and knock her confidence by her struggling with the distances.

 

[LizzyandToddy]

have you tried placing ground poles before / between fences. In some cases it can just give the young horse a little more to think about, and make them slow up abit to concentrate! x
out of curiosity, where are you hunter trials tomorrow? x -It's just i'm doing one tomorrow ha! x