Problems with my mare and jumping?

Elsiecat

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Ive had her now 4 weeks (and a day :D) and on Thursday I decided it was time to take the plunge and have a jump on her. At first there was NO getting her over the jump, she'd run straight past either side. After a bit of coaxing I got a tiny jump off her.
I then put it onto a still extremely small jump, probably just up to my thigh (shes 16.2) and she clipped it and knocked it over. So we tried again and she just kept on doing it.
She wasn't naughty (aside from the time we landed from a nice little jump and she proceeded to gallop up the field with my clinging on for dear life.)

I saw her jumped when we viewed her and she popped a good sized jump easy.
Obviously its been a month, but its not that long, is it?

Yesterday I decided to include a bit of jumping in her lunging time, the first few times she point blank refused, so I put the pole near enough on the floor and coaxed her over with the help of polos. After that she jumped a small jump on the lunge a few times. Although I had to let the lunge line go and go and catch her twice and she had refused and I'd gone over to her and as I had she decided to re-try the jump (somehow resulting in the lunge line nearly wrapping round the jump posts).

Can someone give me some tips for getting her back into it?
Or is it literally practice between us? Starting tiny and going up from that?
(I am by no means a pro jumper, as you can all probably tell :D)
 
Hmmm, a few things come to mind that I'd be looking at.
1. Did you jump her before you bought her
2. Did you have a 5 stage vetting done
3. Are you a Confident jumper
4. How does she feel to ride on the flat, is she nice and supple is there any stiffness?
5. When she jumps, is she tense, awkward at all, does she bascule nicely over the jump?
6. Have you tried simple trotting poles, does she duck out of these?
7. Are they poly jumps or wooden poles, if she was jumping over wood and u have poly jumps, then she may not be as respectful, similarly if the reverse is true, it may have shocked her clouting wood and she may be a bit wary.
8. I would place the smallest x pole up with 2 poles as wings to begin with, keep reins short and leg on, crop in hand if you need to, have someone take video of her going over the jump and give her the world of praise. Even if the jump looks like mini stake height, just get her going over it and clearing it, I wouldn't say that 4 weeks is too early at all, but perhaps she needs to take a lot of confidence from her rider, i find mares often do, and she needs to learn to have confidence in you, also remember to give with the reins if you are keeping them extra short to avoid run outs you will need to remember not to catch her in the mouth.

9. Have her tack checked, she may be uncomfortable in it.
 
Also, have you changed anything tack wise, bit/ saddle?
Finally you could give the old owner a bell and chat this through with them, they may well have experienced exactly the same in the past and be able to tell you how they fixed it, could well be that she is just testing you.
 
Going to say the obvious (sorry)!! Could be worth getting a vet/physio round just to check she's not hurting anywhere so that you can rule that out. Possible that she may have slipped in the field and done something? Another obvious - is all tack ok?

How high did you jump her when you tried her compared to now? If you're jumping a fair bit smaller now than you did then it could be possible that she's the type that only jumps if she feels it's worth doing! When I first tried my new mare I jumped her at about 3'6" - but when I got her home i focused purely on flatwork for the first few months as she seemed completely clueless and it was as if she'd reverted back to being a baby. Only recently started jumping her so started small as I didn't want to pressure her but she couldn't be bothered - she was keen but didn't bother to actually jump them, just ran over them and sent them flying everywhere.
When I raised them to around the 3' mark she started actually jumping and now has no intention of knocking anything and leaves plenty of space! Could be that your horse only starts to get interested when they get bigger? Not ideal of course if you're wanting to start small yourself to get used to each other.

Do you have another horse you could ride round with and use as a lead so that your horse can follow it over the jump? May help?

Could be that she's taking the pee / testing you but if she's been keen to jump in her old home then i wouldn't want to assume that at first.

What's her attitude towards them? Does she seem interested / not bothered? Does she worry when she knocks them or not put in the effort?

Could also be worth loose schooling her over jumps rather than lunging as they find it easier and you can see what she's like from the ground that way x
 
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It sounds like you're not ready to be jumping this horse on your own - on or off the lunge... You need to find a good instructor to help you build up to jumping. It doesn't sound as though you have any relationship with the horse yet, or that she trusts/respects you.. If you just carry on doing what you're doing she will develop some proper jumping evasions/bad habits...

Sorry if that sounded too harsh. I'm sure that you will get there, but you need some help with it.
 
1. No I didn't but the woman seemed to have no problems so I took that at face value
2. Nope :rolleyes:
3. No I can't say I am :o
4. None at all, nice flowing paces
5. When I've watched the videos back, its a perfect seeming jump (if the jump was 10 inches shorter)
6. Yes, and shes fine on them
7. Poly jumps but the previous owner used wooden poles
8. That's a point, I may have had her head a little too much as I was concentrating primarily on us aiming for the jump and her not running out. You may also be right about her getting confidence in me, at first she was a different horse to who she is now, everyday she's getting better towards me..
9. All seems fine but I may as well get it checked as that may be the case..

Thanks youve given me quite a bit to consider, I was a bit lost for thoughts :D
 
It sounds like you're not ready to be jumping this horse on your own - on or off the lunge... You need to find a good instructor to help you build up to jumping. It doesn't sound as though you have any relationship with the horse yet, or that she trusts/respects you.. If you just carry on doing what you're doing she will develop some proper jumping evasions/bad habits...

Sorry if that sounded too harsh. I'm sure that you will get there, but you need some help with it.

No it doesn't sound harsh, it sounds honest. I contemplated that it was that I don't have a great deal in jumping but my sister in law whos been riding/jumping for 15 years also had exactly the same experience on her on Thursday, actually she was slightly easier for me to do. Which makes me think it could be a relationship/trust thing now? Like she is taking the biscuit a bit. (She's done a lot of this so far.)

But I'm not going to rule out an instructor, by no means
 
personally i think if you are trying to jump her on your first session with her, then you will have to expect resistance, she has got to get to know you. She isnt a machine, she needs to get a bond with you.

You maybe able to jump straight on a gelding and jump, but with mares you have to earn their respect and ask them not tell them.

I have one jumping mare who had no respect for anything less than 4ft, the bigger they got the better she jumped.

Try a crossbar to gain confidence, move on to straight bar with two poles in middle about 1 ft apart on a 45 degree angle guides the horse to centre and allows horse to focus. Basic stuff i know but it sounds like basics are needed to help you reach higher success.
 
Could be that your horse only starts to get interested when they get bigger? Not ideal of course if you're wanting to start small yourself to get used to each other.
The jump she jumped with her owner was MUCH bigger and she flew over it, with ease, so this could be a factor. Shes a thoroughbred that loves a bit of action.

Do you have another horse you could ride round with and use as a lead so that your horse can follow it over the jump? May help?
Only other one is a 13h pony that can't jump due to old ligament damage, so there goes that :(

Could be that she's taking the pee / testing you but if she's been keen to jump in her old home then i wouldn't want to assume that at first.
She has taken the piss a lot since I got her, but we're improving every day with that. Don't know why I just thought of this but the old owner jumped her with a whip (WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THIS??)
 
personally i think if you are trying to jump her on your first session with her, then you will have to expect resistance, she has got to get to know you. She isnt a machine, she needs to get a bond with you.

You maybe able to jump straight on a gelding and jump, but with mares you have to earn their respect and ask them not tell them.

I have one jumping mare who had no respect for anything less than 4ft, the bigger they got the better she jumped.

Try a crossbar to gain confidence, move on to straight bar with two poles in middle about 1 ft apart on a 45 degree angle guides the horse to centre and allows horse to focus. Basic stuff i know but it sounds like basics are needed to help you reach higher success.


I'm starting to think the height of the jump as well as the trust/bond may both be a factor in her behaviour.

So glad I've posted this as I was at a bit of a loss before hand :D
 
How helpful/approachable do you think the seller would be op, do you feel you could give them a call and chat about it? Also if you don't know of a good instructor post your location on here I'm sure someone would be able to reccomend someone.
 
I'm starting to think the height of the jump as well as the trust/bond may both be a factor in her behaviour.

So glad I've posted this as I was at a bit of a loss before hand :D

Try putting the height up If you feel confident, I love mares but i find they bond tightly to one human, so it may take a little longer to build the bond. Good luck xx
 
How helpful/approachable do you think the seller would be op, do you feel you could give them a call and chat about it? Also if you don't know of a good instructor post your location on here I'm sure someone would be able to reccomend someone.

He was an old man with a farm where one of his daughters had moved away and he'd been saddled with her horse, it was his other daughter that jumped it infront of us.
I think he'd be approachable and as helpful as he could be, but not very useful :o
 
Try putting the height up If you feel confident, I love mares but i find they bond tightly to one human, so it may take a little longer to build the bond. Good luck xx

I'm really starting to think this is it. Foxys a lovely horse, she really is, she just takes time I've found so far. Thinking about how much worse she was for my very experienced sister in law who she barely knows makes it make sense..

I also think the size of the jump might be a factor, when she jumped the bigger jump at the old owners house, she was literally itching to get going over it, she literally flew at it and cleared it easily.
Thanks for your help x
 
Sorry if this has already been said but sounds to me like your horse is lacking in confidence and maybe needs a stronger more confident/experienced rider.

I would invest in a good instructor.
 
I know what you're all saying about getting in an instructor for the jumping, but the idea of getting my sister in law down for the first jumps was for this, and it was even worse with her trying to jump her. She was practically a breeze for me compared to her. My sister in law managed one small jump, where as I got 4/5. Which really now makes me feel its a bit of a trust thing. I'd be saying exactly the same as all you are, but I just don't feel its right. Not going to shut that idea off though, just going to try and pursue it a little longer with the other ideas onboard :rolleyes:

Going to have another shot tomorrow and if not I'm going to ring the owner and speak to his daughter. But I'll be trying the jump with a whip like she did (I'm usually a no-whip rider!)
 
An instructor will be able to help you build that bond, if your not an experienced confident jumper, creating that bond for jumping is going to be very hard without someone there to help you develop it. Perhaps get your sister in law to give you a few
Lessons if you trust her judgement, what you need is a good person on the ground who can give you exercises designed to develop confidence for both you and your horse, an instructor will know when the relationship is ready to be built on and taken to the next level, where the problem is and how to address it, a couple of lessons with a good instructor and you can progress further than you would in a year on your own. If its a height thing, then whack the jumps up, problem solved, although I reckon it's more than that and if it's either confidence or boundary testing and you are a self professed ' not confident' jumper, I'd be ringing an instructor. The problem is that what is going on if not addressed and squished quickly will become evasion and habit and then you will have a spoilt horse that will take a lot more work to fix. Just my opinion, and I'm just going from what I've read, but I'd be calling an instructor
 
I'd be wary of the putting the jumps up option given your self confessed lack of confidence. If it goes wrong it cld go more wrong the bigger they are. Get your technique right over smaller ones & grids. Id also echo queenbee re instructor. Your sis in law may be v experienced but not have seen this scenario b4. The fact she also had probs suggests to me she sn't really going to be the person to help you get through it. Sorry not being mean just not many people have empathy / experience with every type of horse. Good luck. x
 
Another vote here for getting a GOOD instructor. Certainly Don't be trying to jump bigger if you are not managing smaller fences well. It could really harm both of your confidence and one of you could get physically hurt.

You say the horse was quick into the fence when the owner jumped her, sounds like the rider was making fully sure the horse would jump which says to me there was already a problem.
 
I agree, do not put the jump up.

Do get some lessons on her as soon as possible. No need for the instructor to ride her, they are there to instruct you on how to ride her.

Good luck.
 
Going to stick to ground work for a few days until I've got the money for an instructor and also so we can work together a bit more, thanks for all your help x
 
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