Rebuilding a young horses conidence after a xc fall??

J

JJtheJetPlane

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Hi Guys
As per title really.. I could do with some advice /Tips for a friend of mine off you proffessional lot! We were out today doing a farm ride and her young horse totally mis judges a fence and fell over getting caugt on it . ( all fine no injuries)
When she was back to her feet she took it to the next smaller fence to re gain some confidence and the horse wouldnt jump walk or even be led over the fence by another horse. We gave up for today not wanting to make to much of an issue. It certainly cant be good for the horse to just keep stopping. So what do we do!! Advise needed please. Were back out next weekend to another venue with smaller more inviting fences at the begining and i could do with a few tricks up my sleeve to help her if possible

thanks
 
i'd go back to pole work in the school, then small showjumps, gradually build up her confidence, and i wouldn't even consider taking her xc again until she is happily and confidently (and safely) jumping showjumps of a decent size.
i just don't get this jumping fixed fences on youngsters who don't know enough about jumping yet. just because they're small fences doesn't mean they're easy...

btw, an absolutely top rider of yesteryear told a friend of mine that he never used to take a horse xc until he could happily and safely jump a 4' showjumping track...

sorry, i don't think there are any tricks to have up your sleeve other than time, patience, and gradually rebuilding her faith in her abilities and her rider's...
 
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btw, an absolutely top rider of yesteryear told a friend of mine that he never used to take a horse xc until he could happily and safely jump a 4' showjumping track...



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Blimey, I still wouldn't be anywhere near a fixed fence then and I've done 12 or so Novices!
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*wanders off wondering just how reckless I really am*
 
SC, me neither... i think that's extreme, but the thing is that there weren't tiny xc courses years ago, so nobody took a horse xc who didn't really know how to jump yet, imho, or more importantly how to get out of trouble etc!
i bet you made sure your horse knew a fair bit about jumping before you did fixed fences, didn't you?!
 
LOL, true!

Yes, I knew my horse could a)jump a course, b)jump a course bigger than the HT we were doing and c)cope with my idiot moments before we went XC....
 
This is really interesting, although I don't have any advice regarding rebuilding her confidence, I find what Kerilli was saying quite interesting, I seem to remember reading in someones autobiography (can't remember who's) that they used to take young, or relativley inexperienced horses eventing and start off at Novice! Back then no one thought anything of it because that was the starting level, Were the novice courses back then the same as they are now?

ETA: Sorry thread hijacking!
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feel free to ignore me
 
SC, that's exactly what i mean - common sense really!
i took 1 horse xc schooling (while young and particularly stupid) which couldn't jump an upright to save its life (it was a friend's point to pointer and the clumsiest most useless jumper ever) and sure enough we took something out by the roots and i got seriously concussed... lesson learnt.
CS, i started at Novice (there was nothing smaller then apart from novice hunter trial courses) but even those weren't really tiny - they were 2'6" to 3' ish. as far as i can remember we always made sure a horse knew quite a bit about jumping showjumps before taking it xc (above anecdote being the exception!)
 
I have to say (from what very little experience I have) that I do think there is a lot to be said about teaching a horse to jump showjumps properly first and then move onto jumping xc style fences in the school. For example I rode a little mare a couple years ago who had never really jumped and after teaching her to showjump (so she was happily popping round 3ft - 3ft 3 sj tracks) I decided (somewhat naivley) to enter her in a local 2ft 6 - 2ft 9 hunter trial. Although I had only ever popped her over a log out hacking I did work over xc style fences in the school, ie. making a point out of poles and a shavings bale, hanging a rug over an upright, threading tyres over a pole and so on, I have to say I really think this made a huge amount of difference when we did go to the hunter trial (She was 7th in a class of 28)
 
CS, yes, exactly that... that's what everyone used to do i think, and what sane people do now! but with some places offering tiny 'schooling courses' i think people think 'if it's that small it's safe and easy' but if the horse doesn't know enough about jumping yet to use itself to get out of trouble, it isn't necessarily, even if the jump's only a foot or two high. just mho, i'm sure i'll be shot down in flames and told that little xc jumps are as safe as houses now!
 
No I do agree, for example the first time I built a little mock 'ditch' (another pole and rug affair) in the school she came in at a lovely bouncy canter spotted the 'ditch' at the last minute and slid to a halt with her feet on the rug that was acting as the ditch once she'd had a sniff and a snort and decided that it was all ok she came around and popped it quite nicely, hence when she came across one out competing although she had a look a quick tap on the shoulder and she popped it very sweetly. Tbh I would much much rather a horse had a look at something like that in the school than out xc schooling, where, no matter how small the fences they could still get a foot caught (for example) and panic and frighten themselves.
 
You might be lucky in that given a few days the horse will have forgotten about the fall. One of mine fell over with me (slipped flat) when warming up at a BSJA comp, after that he refused point blank to jump the practice fence (the horse never refused) so I had to give up and go home. The next day I popped him over a small fence at home and he was absolutely fine and I never had any problems after that.
 
Ok thanks guys much appreciated we shall do some show jumps this weekend and hopefully all will be healed with time and some confidnce building in the school... The little jumps we were asking of her were literally small tyres and logs nothing to technical and she has always been so eager to jump them in the past nothing more techncal than a filler in the school. To be honest she is such a laid back horse she would make just as much of a mess out of a filler in the school if she was to fall over it She falls over her own feet if you let her! Fingers crossed she will regain her confidence and we can carry on having fun and put it down to experience
 
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