Problems jumping my young horse

DappleGreyDaydreamer

DappleGreyDaydreamer

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My Connemara is approaching 6, and I started jumping him about 5 months ago. He'd done quite a bit of hunting before he came over from Ireland, but his technique was messy and a bit dangerous so I started right from scratch with polework and small cross rails. Now we're jumping up to 70/80cm once a week, and he's incredibly enthusiastic about jumping and clearly loves it, but I think sometimes too much haha! Even with tiny fences like these, I've found that as soon as we approach them he becomes very strong and won't listen to my aids, then always takes off a stride early which throws me off balance. We've had a couple falls and brought the height down so I can sit it better when he does a cat-leap over them, but I was wondering if anyone had some tips for training him to ride a better distance? I tried using a canter pole one stride in front of the jump, but would you believe he took off AT the canter pole and smashed right through the fence so I don't fancy trying that again in a hurry!

We had a jumping lesson last weekend which went really well. I've been told to only approach in trot, and when we do this he does take off at a much better distance from the jump, but bolts off like a maniac right afterwards. I'm not sure if I should go right back to basics again with him because I'm not a strong enough jumper to stay on him when he makes a mistake, as his jump is so powerful it just throws me right off if I'm not expecting it.

Thanks for any advice :)
 
Trot him or even walk him into them. Keep them really small. Make it so that jumping isn't the most exciting thing ever, any horse can step over a 1ft jump but don't put them up to the current height until he's doing little ones properly. Height isn't everything.
 
tiny jumps and trot or walk as poster above says. i'd circle before the jump until i was happy he was in balance and calm.. i keep with the poles before and after to keep him thinking. and circle after jumps if he gets strong ever time.
 
Can you try some grids? And a placing pole in between, or just ride over trotting poles or cavalleti (does anyone use those any more?). Sounds like he just needs some basic schooling, on the flat mostly.
 
Is he genuinely taking off a stride too early or do you naturally see the short stride? My friend complained about her horse jumping too soon and spent lots of effort adjusting his distances, but as the fences went up she realised he was too deep to get his front end up in time and started knocking them. Then she had to retrain him to jump from the longer stride.

Measure out a placing pole for the correct distance and video where he is taking off from just to check he really is taking off too soon.
 
Are you only jumping once a week? With these types we would jump them every other day over small fences, until it becomes more routine to them.
Canter poles are quite good for this. Start with them on the ground at least 4, but more if you have room, no less or he might jump the whole lot. You can then raise opposite ends. Once he is cantering through quietly (this may take a while) then make the second to last pole a tiny fence and build up slowly.
You can also put them on a curve which I quite like doing.
If he tries takes off with you on landing then make him halt, if you struggle put the jump on the track and turn him into the wall/fence if you have to before you get to the end of the arena.
Once you have this established you can build 2 fences 3 strides apart (again keep them small) and halt in-between the fences.
Walking into fences can be good, but some just get wound up by it. If walking I allow a stride of trot in front of the fence, so just relax your hands a stride out. If he is calm enough and you are brave enough you can do this to quite big fences, but it is scary walking to 1.10+, again no bogging off after.
Another idea is to put a couple of small fences in the school and do flat work around them, but ignoring the fence. If he is calm them you can occasionally pop one, then go back to flat work.
Sorry this got quite long, can you guess I have had a few of these ;)
They are all different so try lots of different things until something works.
 
I'm jumping my Connie around 70cm who also likes to take off a bit after jumps. In our lesson today my instructor had us halting after every fence and it really made a massive difference. We then jumped without the halting and he was a lot more respectful and quick to listen.

Can't help with anything else as I am useless with jumping!!!
 
DappleGreyDaydreamer said:
My Connemara is approaching 6, and I started jumping him about 5 months ago. He'd done quite a bit of hunting before he came over from Ireland, but his technique was messy and a bit dangerous so I started right from scratch with polework and small cross rails. Now we're jumping up to 70/80cm once a week, and he's incredibly enthusiastic about jumping and clearly loves it, but I think sometimes too much haha! Even with tiny fences like these, I've found that as soon as we approach them he becomes very strong and won't listen to my aids, then always takes off a stride early which throws me off balance. We've had a couple falls and brought the height down so I can sit it better when he does a cat-leap over them, but I was wondering if anyone had some tips for training him to ride a better distance? I tried using a canter pole one stride in front of the jump, but would you believe he took off AT the canter pole and smashed right through the fence so I don't fancy trying that again in a hurry!

We had a jumping lesson last weekend which went really well. I've been told to only approach in trot, and when we do this he does take off at a much better distance from the jump, but bolts off like a maniac right afterwards. I'm not sure if I should go right back to basics again with him because I'm not a strong enough jumper to stay on him when he makes a mistake, as his jump is so powerful it just throws me right off if I'm not expecting it.

Thanks for any advice :)
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I suggest you ask your trainer to give you some home work to work on and spend more time doing trot poles then trot poles into the jump,

This is what I teach when giving a lesson

if her rushes on the approach turn him away before the jump and do this every time he rushes, even if it mean you just keep repeating this exercise as you want to start how you mean to go on and end up with a balanced clear headed athletic jumper.
Don't do single jumps do poles then a jump btu ask your trainer to help you match the strides to your horses ability
 
We have a youngster from Ireland, who sounds as though he's had the same experience. He's also 6 this time. He was very unbalanced when rode in the schooled, so if you put him to a jump he would have to rush to get over it, resulting in quite awkward jumps. After lots of lessons he's really improved.

We concentrated on getting his canter stronger, and more balanced, that way it's easier to understand your horses stride and put them in e right place. We also found that putting a pole in front of the jump, to highlight where you need to take off helps. The pole between jumps confused him at first. His walk and trot is now gorgeous, and ready for an intro test, but his canter is still work in progress. On his left rein his almost there, but right a bit more work. If your canter isn't right, your jump won't be.
Enjoy your boy, and take it slowly, with a good instructor you will get there

Also, our boy had limited experience with coloured poles, ok over xc fences, but was a little nervous of colors at first. Yours could be frightening himself, hence running off after the jump. I would stick to trotting over them until he's bored of the colours.
 
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EQUIDAE said:
Is he genuinely taking off a stride too early or do you naturally see the short stride? My friend complained about her horse jumping too soon and spent lots of effort adjusting his distances, but as the fences went up she realised he was too deep to get his front end up in time and started knocking them. Then she had to retrain him to jump from the longer stride.

Measure out a placing pole for the correct distance and video where he is taking off from just to check he really is taking off too soon.
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That's a good point actually, something to think about... my childhood pony always got very deep into the jump, no matter what the height was, and I had her for almost 6 years, so maybe I'm just really used to a short stride. I'll get some video next time we jump; our arena froze over last night and doesn't look like it'll thaw until next weekend, so we're limited to hacking as long as the roads don't get bad.
 
Michen said:
I'm jumping my Connie around 70cm who also likes to take off a bit after jumps. In our lesson today my instructor had us halting after every fence and it really made a massive difference. We then jumped without the halting and he was a lot more respectful and quick to listen.

Can't help with anything else as I am useless with jumping!!!
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I'm going to try doing that when we next jump, as well as doing a circle or two before heading for the jump. I'd book another lesson, but our arena is currently like rock solid ice so there's nobody allowed in there!
 
Asha said:
Also, our boy had limited experience with coloured poles, ok over xc fences, but was a little nervous of colors at first. Yours could be frightening himself, hence running off after the jump. I would stick to trotting over them until he's bored of the colours.
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That's a good possibility actually. I don't think he gets scared by the colours of the jump, but if I put up a slightly weird looking one - like a cross fence with a ground rail, for example - he'll often refuse or spook at it a few times before he'll jump it, so sometimes it can be that he's worried about the jump.
 
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