question about teaching youngsters to jump?

[georgiegirl2]

twiggy my 4yo tb is now going sweetly on the flat (canter is improving slowly) and we are now introducing jumping slowly. I've only ever produced a youngster once before which was george good few years back now! and he took to jumping like a duck to water.

The thing is even though we have kept everything so far to very small crosses no bigger than 2ft she is still very 'leggy' (hence the name twiggy)clumsy and all over the place. She just seems to strike me as a very slow learner! Im not wanting to rush her or anything dont get me wrong, Im more than happy for her to gain confidence playing over these tiny jumps for a while yet! I was just wondering if this is an indicator of what her future ability will possibly be when she gets older? Or is it simply time to work it all out and get stronger? It difficult to know how to assess her when george took to it all instantly!

 

[Starbucks]

Not had that much experience with tb's but from what I've gathered they can be a bit slow to catch on to stuff, so hopefully with time she will get the idea!

I suppose only time will tell.. good luck!

 

[Allykat]

Keep sessions short don't push it if its not working 4 is still very young and there is plenty of time. You will find things will eventually just click into place, they may just take a bit longer.

Pole work is really good. I use to just have single poles dotted randomly arond the school then walk, trot and canter over them as you feel. That will just help her "find" her feet but without anticipating where the poles are....another great TB trait!

With my TB I had to just keep my leg on and keep him moving forward then he would "tackle" the jump more. If he was more forward he seemed to be able to manage to get his legs out the way better. Mind you he is now 7 and still a bit clumsy

We did spend a fir bit of time going through poles rather than over them

Just be patient and allow for the "leg factor"

TB's certainly do have very long ones

 

[vicijp]

You dont say how big she is, but perhaps they are a bit small for her?
Some horses only pull themselves together when they have a bit more to look at.
Plenty of gridwork is good, as is jumping small solid things like tyres.

 

[seabiscuit]

Sounds as though she is just weak which is typical of many horses until they have built up strength and balance and muscle.
Until a horse has built up the correct muscles over its backend it wont have the right balance and therefore will find it difficult to know exactly where their legs are going a problem which will be highlighted when jumping.
Would reccomend lots of short lunging sessions over poles in a loose Pessoa, plus lots of long and low work where she is asked to stretch down over her back.
Loads of road work doing a good marching walk and walking up hills with them stretching down into the contact (nose out not in and nearly touching the floor) will be good got getting those back muscles built up then finally gridwork sessions with bounce fences and parralels.
This weakness/clumsiness is not an indicator of future ability its just a typical young weak horse.
Some horses will be naturally strong and athletic from day one others wont- it does not mean that they are no good!

 

[BethH]

Personally I wouldn't jump a 4year old, they aren't fully grown and you don't want to cause yourself future problems by putting stress on joints that can't cope, I would wait and do as suggested above lots of work on ground poles.

 

[georgiegirl2]

She is quite weak muscle wise, we bought her from a racing yard in november although she is now starting to get some top line and has put lots of weight on which is nice to see! Shes 16.1 / 16.2 and with me being 5'2 is taking us a while to get things together but as earlier, there is absolutely no rush to push her. We are still approaching everything from trot and she is now going through lines of trotting poles very nicely which is nice to see as when we first introduced those they were flying all over the place! She is very leggy and gangly so I think your right in saying its just possibly time to mature. This is twiggy (taken a couple months ago so she does have some more weight on her now and a bit more muscle on her back end.....hopefully my future event horse now george is having to be confined to the white boards of the dressage arena!

 

[Fiona]

She's gorgeous. Really pretty.
When my TB mare was 4 we did v little jumping with her, 1RC SJ show, 1 XC schooling and a couple of sessions at home, but I remember that she was much better in canter rather than trot. The increase in speed seemed to help her. She can do grids etc from trot now, but she has a lot more muscle etc.
Best of luck with her.
Fiona

 

[Bossanova]

The problem is that she wont improve technique wise over tiny jumps and they often get more clumsy over little things as there's not enough for them to jump.
Have you loose jumped her? It's a good way of developing technique if you dont want to jump bigger on her back.
I wouldnt jump less than 2'3 absolute minimum, you're best to go to 2'6 and play around with those sort of heights for a while. Also introduce fillers etc as these give them more to jump.

 

[coedcae]

My 4yr old mostly TB is exactly the same. She doesnt bat an eye at little jumps and infact mostly doesnt bother to take off as she can canter over them like they are trotting poles. But then we have only just mastered canter in a circle. I'm not going to do any jumping with her until she is stronger and then start over the odd log out hacking and that sort of thing. I'm hoping that everyone is right and it doesnt reflect overall ability

Her full brother is an advanced eventer, so she should be able to jump

 

[georgiegirl2]

These were my thoughts exactly although i think mum seems to think she should be doing these small fences absolutely perfectly before we progress to bigger ones with her as she doesnt want to frighten her. Gah, a mother and daughter combo with different opinions are often not best when it comes to schooling i think!

So you would advise testing her (without scaring her obviously) over something a little larger with more to look at? Do you think im still best jumping her from trot for a while? Our canter is still a little all over the place at the moment although i do let her canter away from her fences if she wants too.

 

[Bossanova]

[ QUOTE ]
These were my thoughts exactly although i think mum seems to think she should be doing these small fences absolutely perfectly before we progress to bigger ones with her as she doesnt want to frighten her. Gah, a mother and daughter combo with different opinions are often not best when it comes to schooling i think!

So you would advise testing her (without scaring her obviously) over something a little larger with more to look at? Do you think im still best jumping her from trot for a while? Our canter is still a little all over the place at the moment although i do let her canter away from her fences if she wants too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes definitely and certainly keep it at trot. Always land in canter and if you feel that you land in a good balanced canter then occaisionally you can keep that canter and pop the jump from a canter once.

 

[juliebrewer]

You could always lunge her over jumps, even tryying the bigger ones if she enjoys it. I always lunge mine and wait till they are coming 5 to start jumping when ridden. You want to build her confidence and make it fun.....