Racing/point-to-point people, i need your help!!

faerie666

faerie666

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Right, my problem is with one of the horses that i ride and look after at work. He's an unraced 6yo that my boss bought from ireland a couple of months ago. He is generally very easy to do and ride, but his jumping is giving me real trouble, and i'm starting to think that he just doesn't want to be a pointer, he'd rather be a showjumper. He's supposedly been schooled over fences before he came to us, but I've schooled him several times now and can't seem to get him jumping fluently enough, he's too careful and always overjumps the fences, which means he spends to much time in the air, lands really steeply (scary over 4ft3in fences), and not really going forward after the fence. I've tried him on his own, in front, upsides and in behind other horses, makes no difference. I tried really stoking him up going into the fence to get him jumping more forward, but that just seems to make him jump even higher and slower. We also tried to get him jumping at speed over smaller jumps, which works ok if they're made of poles, but doesn't over hurdles. Oh, and he's put us through the wings twice now, just being plain naughty and ignorant (had a lead at the time, so no excuse really). Basically, at the moment i think it would be insane to even think about running him in a point.
I'm getting really frustrated about it, makes me feel like a crap rider, but i don't think i'm ready to give up just yet. Any of you have any tips on how to get his jumping up to scratch, or do i just tell my boss to get rid? Trouble is he's very likeable in every other way, so it would be hard to convince her.
Sorry i wrote so much,
any replies will be greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds to me like the horse has been badly frightened of jumping and may have taken a tumble. The racing yards can tend to rush the jumping and if he was prepared in Ireland, who knows how much work they have put in.

If you can, I would take him back to basics.
 
I did wonder about that too, thing is we did start pretty much from scratch with the jumping when he came to us, right from using poles on the floor (you never know what they've actually done, as opposed to what people say). He actually jumps showjumps really well, not overcareful or anything, it's just when the jumps are made from birch is when the problems start.
 
Ask vicijp, she's bound to know, or if that fails you could just give him to me to have a bash at eventing
smirk.gif
 
Hows the horse is his general work? Is he green? If so the jumping at speed will come. There is nothing wrong with having a few quiet runs and popping him round, he will soon cop on.
If hes not green then schooling and more schooling is the key. Last year I had a horse who sounds quite similar, he jumped 10 fences a day, every day - he jumped well on the track.
XC schooling will help him gain confidence to have a cut. Personally I wouldnt run him until hed bashed through a couple.
If all else fails put a pair of blinkers on and jump the fences backwards. Schooling downhill will also envourage him, if you can move the fences.
I presume he has been hunting? More of it would help.
 
He's not particularly green on a day to day basis, and he's been xc schooling a couple of times and jumped well, but he's not been hunting yet. Trouble is, my boss is a bit precious about him, so i don't know if she'd let me take him. I agree with you that he shouldn't run until he's learned that brushing through the top of the fences isn't going to kill him. As to jumping the fences downhill, our land is as flat as a pancake, so not going to happen.
I will try to persuade her to let me go hunting on him, as i agree that it would probably help. Thanks for your suggestions, it's good to be able to get some different ideas of different people.
 
Ww always took the youngsters hunting before they raced, teaches them to look after themselves and how to cope with different obstacles.

It sounds like he needs some schooling because if its not fear, and he has the ability, then he is just not listening.

Our horses were taught to be well behaved be it hacking, hunting, point to pointing, XC or schooling, they need to be listening to you whatever you are doing and variety is the key, if you keep jumping and jumping him, he could get stale.

Make it fun and interesting, do some XC, hunt, school etc.

he he she is precious of him? And she wants him to race in a p2p?
 
[ QUOTE ]
he he she is precious of him? And she wants him to race in a p2p?

[/ QUOTE ] I suppose she's worried that he'll hurt himself hunting and then won't be able to go pointing, but by rights he should hunt at least 4 times before going pointing anyway. He's very sensible generally so there's no excuse for not taking him.
[ QUOTE ]
It sounds like he needs some schooling because if its not fear, and he has the ability, then he is just not listening.

[/ QUOTE ] Do you mean flatwork schooling? If so he's currently being schooled once a week, and is actually one of the nicest horses i have sat on, could probably win a novice test tomorrow. As for jumping schooling, we try to do that at least twice a week, if the ground allows, on the arena if it's too wet, but to me he's just not showing much improvement. I do wonder if there is fear involved, (he does have a deformed cheekbone, you have to wonder how that happened, but the person who sold him said it's always been like it) but he's been given every chance to get over it really. The other option my boss talked about was to send him to a proper NH trainer for a couple of weeks, to get him schooled by more experienced people than me, but the person my boss has in mind doesn't have any space at the moment.
 
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