Re-introducing jumping

[steph91]

On this boring sunday night I planning things for my horses, things to do and things they need and things i want
I've decided I'd like to start jumping my main horse (15hh, irish cob, MARE, very strong ex hunt horse) again.
Our flatwork is pretty good, can get different length canter strides and can judge her stride really well so I know exactly when she will take off for a jump, but the main problem is she rushes into the jump (old hunting horse habit i think). We have a lovely bouncy collected canter into the jump but as soon as she's lined up and about 5+ strides away head goes up and she takes the reins from my hands and just speeds into the jump. She always clears (haven't jump big just incase we do mess up striding) and doesn't refuse so i know she's keen. But I really want to get this sorted, as I'm worried about jumping any bigger or on any varying surface incase something does go wrong. (YES i am a nervous person)
SO this is a chance for you all forum uses that love to give training tips. I am willing to try anything, just want to get this sorted.
And please no gadget advice (unless necessary) as I'm trying to keep things uncomplicated and in a snaffle.
Thank you very any help

 

[Steorra]

I read your post earlier and had hoped that someone with more jumping expertise than me would answer, because I was interested to hear how they would deal with this issue. But I'll bump your thread and get the ball rolling...

You could start with poles on the ground - is she calm over these, or are they exciting too? If she will trot calmly over a line of poles then you could raise the last one slightly to make it a teeny tiny jump, nothing to get excited about, just something she has to pick her feet up a little bit more over. This can be easilt built up into a little grid (over several sessions) without them really noticing. So you could start with: pole, pole, pole, pole, raised pole. But aim for: placing pole, raised pole, pole, raised pole, pole.

However, sometimes even raised poles are just too exciting. And you don't want her hurtling through a line of poles in case she trips. Soooo....this is how I eventually got my horse to jump calmly.

I put up a fence in the arena every time I rode in the school for about two weeks. In that time I didn't even think about going over the fence, or making any move to approach it. We circled around it, we used it as a marker for lateral work, put it on the track and shallow looped around it, put it in the middle and spiralled in towards it then leg yielded away...but we certainly didn't jump it.

Then, when he had firmly accepted its presence and deemed it irrelevant, we started popping over it every so often, then continuing with whatever we were doing.
I always made the fence a small one (that he could easily jump from a standstill if necessary) and only gave three or four strides approach. I made going over the jump part of an exercise every time, often quite a complex one with lateral work to keep him occupied with other things. I never did jumping sessions with him, but every flat session I would jump maybe two or three times.

When he was completely calm with one fence I put up a double, but with plenty of space only jump the first fence or the second if I chose. Over time jumping became not boring but normal, part of our routine, not something to get overexcited about. Obviously I didn't continue indefinitely with jumping every time I schooled, but I did it enough for him to chill out and calm down.

With some horses I would worry about it spoiling their enthusiasm, so you would have to read your horse carefully if you decide to try this out. But mine never lost his enjoyment - only his slightly manic excitement.

And it certainly worked! Our party piece was jumping traffic cones, or those little blocks you can use instead of wings. He would also canter along next to a jumping horse and 'jump' over nothing each time the horse took off So he was always a bit *special* but I did manage to channel it in a positive way.

 

[letrec_fan]

Having had an ex racer I am very familiar with rushing into fences.

Over almost 2 years, (through various techniques I must add!) me and my boy managed to reach 3'3 (a first for me) and he barely ever rushed.

Most of this is just things I have found worked so by all means give it a go but not saying it will work - just trying to pass on what I have found out!

Much of this carries on from the post above - about almost de-sensitising them to jumps by having them around.

Try lots of exercises with poles. By doing this, you can practise the approach. I found it helped to make sure the approach was clean and neat and he knew he was going into a jump - no fluffy lines! This way, she will know you mean business. If you put out a line of poles, put out a cone that she must go on the outside of into the poles if that makes sense. This way it gives you a visual marker to make a straight line and makes her think more. (Like the cones you put in the school corners to make sure you use your corners type thing!)

I schooled around them a lot - another tip is to, after a few weeks of this, start to pop the fence after schooling. This way, they are focused, listening and also fairly tired so should hopefully give you a good, unrushed jump to end the session. Carry on doing this for a few weeks - if she still rushes them at the end, I would go back to just schooling around them.

I found it was really important to establish a good forward trot and always approach a jump in this. Do not allow her to canter into them at first. Make her trot into them and bring her back to trot as soon as possible after the fence. This way she has to put her power and energy into jumping the fence, rather than just racing into them and knocking everything flying/possibly injuring herself.

Another thing to try, to make sure she is listening, rather than just going by her own judgement, is trotting her into a fence and then halting before take off, just before the fence. (Not sure if this is a traditionally correct training technique but it worked for us! ) Circle her away from the fence and mix, pushing her on over the fence and halting and turning away. This way she has little idea what you are going to ask and will wait and listen to you, thereby (hopefully!) not rushing. Obviously you don't want to encourage refusal but I found my boy was so keen this did not enforce this anyway and using it was successful providing I didn't overdo it.

If you have a really brave person, you could get them to walk in front of the jump on your approach, like my instructor! This really confused my boy and made him slow right down! Obviously person moves out of the way at appropriate moment!

One more thing, keep hands etc still and do not interfere - being an ex hunter she will know how to jump which is why she is probably over confident. If you interfere she may well mess up the approach/take off and end up worse off. Providing you keep the jumps small you should just be able to sit it out if she decides to leap it once in a while!

Generally, mix everything up, keep the routine varied. Start small and work up, which it sounds like you will anyway. Test her and challenge her - that doesn't mean huge jumps, just things like the above that will query her confidence and make her think twice before pounding into the fence!

Like I said above, I am certainly no expert, just trying to pass on advice I found works! I always end up writing huge posts - I don't mean to! Hopefully some of this will help!

Good luck and keep us updated!

letrec_fan.

ETA: I always worked my boy in a french link snaffle - the softest type you can get! He was in this for everything and we never changed so no gadgets here - not a big fan myself -I think you get a better result in the long run without. I always felt I was useless if I put gadgets on - by not using them, I feel I learnt a heck of a lot more - even though we probably made more mistakes!

 

[steph91]

Thank you both so much for your tips.
We do lots of pole work at the moment trying to lengthen her trot and canter stride, so will definitely start putting up tiny tiny jumps and see how she behaves.
I really like the idea of keeping a jump just so it doesn't suddenly appear out of nowhere when i do eventually jump her. Making things seem less exciting.
So many useful tips, will try them all and see what works, but no doubt we will have a few manic first approaches.

letrec_fan, my mare is also in a french link snaffle, only think she likes

 

[Apercrumbie]

Agree with all of the above so I will add:

Circle in front of the jump a lot, she will rush at first but then realise that she's doing a circle and not actually approaching the jump. When she is calm, allow her to jump the fence and then circle in front again. Another useful excercise, although only good if you have a very balanced horse, is to jump a fence, immediately circle as tight as you can to the same fence and keep going over it over and over again. Like I said, this is dangerous if your horse isn't very well balanced and manoeuvreable (sp) so don't try it if she isn't!

 

[letrec_fan]

Thank you both so much for your tips.
We do lots of pole work at the moment trying to lengthen her trot and canter stride, so will definitely start putting up tiny tiny jumps and see how she behaves.
I really like the idea of keeping a jump just so it doesn't suddenly appear out of nowhere when i do eventually jump her. Making things seem less exciting.
So many useful tips, will try them all and see what works, but no doubt we will have a few manic first approaches.

letrec_fan, my mare is also in a french link snaffle, only think she likes

Glad to help (hopefully!) Let us know how you get on - would love to hear.

 

[letrec_fan]

Any progress steph91?

 

[steph91]

No progress as yet, just coming back into ridden work after having some time off over the winter, very much on her toes today! Will start to proceed with getting back into jumping with the month hopefully. Thought I'd start with just some schooling around the fences first, then poles, then tiny jumps and so on. If all goes well I'll be at the hickstead derby this year...