Reason why

[Alchemy]

Horse can be a little b***er when jumping, Thought it may be my lack of confidence after a few nasty falls as he can do some lovely dirty stops! but thinking about (while at work) it i wonder if he was in pain due to the screw in the top of his cannon bone?

Am i just making excuses? should i try some small jumping again or now i know about screw not jump at all? ( vet said i could carry on with what i have been doing with him, unless he is lame obviously)

 

[Floxie]

Well I certainly don't know any better than your vet about his physical issues, but WRT the stopping it's possible your own expectation of a stop is being communicated to your horse and telling him there is something to worry about after all. Certainly what happens to me - after pony tried it on as a teenager (having been a keen jumper before), I began to get tense about the possibility of him turning out and leaving me on the floor. So, as this makes me hold back (no matter how imperceptible I think it is!), he's getting the message 'there's something scary about this', and that's often enough for his confidence to fail and he'll dive out at the last minute.

Vicious circles (literally, in my case!)

 

[khalswitz]

Well I certainly don't know any better than your vet about his physical issues, but WRT the stopping it's possible your own expectation of a stop is being communicated to your horse and telling him there is something to worry about after all. Certainly what happens to me - after pony tried it on as a teenager (having been a keen jumper before), I began to get tense about the possibility of him turning out and leaving me on the floor. So, as this makes me hold back (no matter how imperceptible I think it is!), he's getting the message 'there's something scary about this', and that's often enough for his confidence to fail and he'll dive out at the last minute.

Vicious circles (literally, in my case!)

THIS. My horse is a dirty stopper, but is getting better and better as his confidence grows. When I push his limits, if I am not absolutely confident and calm he knows it and stops. He can be bad with new riders too - tests them by stopping at simple fences.

A friend rode him not long ago, who used to jump a lot but has had confidence issues. She struggled with him over a cross pole. I regularly jumping him 80cm out of a trot at home, and when coming on for a metre he gets unsure, but below that with me is pretty good now.