Refusing at a jump

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Tootsiepop

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Hi
Just wondering if anyone can give me some advise. I bought a horse to go showjump in the summer, he was 5 year old and had been to a few competitions. When we tried him he was great and when he came home he settled in very well to his new yard. However we have discovered that he has a stop when he jumps, I have fallen off 3 times now, he stops dead with no warning and the jumps are just knee high. I'm scared now that I'm going to get badly hurt and my mum wants me to sell him. There is no apparent reason for this stopping it just comes out of the blue. When we got him he passed a 5 stage vet, his teath are ok and his back has been done?

Could anyone suggest what I should do.

Has anyone ever had a horse with a really sharp stop that has come good?

Thanks
Toots
 
Have you had any lessons or has anybody else ridden him? It is very difficult to judge without seeing the problem but a local expert may be able to help you.

It could be a number of reasons such as pain, previous bad experiences such as being overfaced or he is trying it on. Do try and get a proffesional to give you a hand and tell you what they think.
 
He is still very young. Start from scratch again, lots of pole work, then raisd trotting poles, scatter poles around the arena so they are not a big deal. Sounds like he has lost his confidence slightly, so take things slowly, and perhaps have some lessons on experienced horse to keep your confidence up, and make your position more secure, cos otherwise you will be thinking of stopping, and he will! It will come, just take things slowly and build trust and confidence in each other. It is difficult, believe me, I have been on the floor more times than I can count, but take things slowly, and it will come right.
 
My horse has a really sharp stop, and to be honest it has never come good, I have just resigned myself to doing what is within his comfort zone (xc and novice Wh and SJ.)
The only thing that has ever helped him is hunting and only jumping every 2 or 3 months!

As Sarah_Jane says, get some professional help as they will be able to provide with an impartial view, and more importantly help you!
 
I get lessons and my instructors thinks he has been hit in the past because he is quite nervy and does not like me carrying a stick. She thinks that he should be sold because he does it without any warning. Maybe he just does not like jumping and I should satisfy myself that its not worth pursuing.
 
My horse doesn't like me carrying a whip either
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He's never been badly beaten with one as far as i know, but it just adversely affects him. Riding without one does help. As to the stopping, well, it would be good to get some help from someone a little more objective on the ground perhaps
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Many horses have a stop in them and it can be a sign of many things...a careful horse (doesn't want to hurt itself), a horse in pain or perhaps a horse lacking in confidence
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I don't know how experienced you are, but a change of trainer / change of environment might be all that it needs
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I dont think you should give up that easily, it may be a confidence thing? Could be a lot of things, he may even be getting the wrong kind of signals from you? Not sure without seeing, start again like katb said give him a chance hes only young. x
 
My mare used to jump fab then after we had a rearing session in the school which resulted in her going over she learnt to stop abruptly and run out. I decided she had seriously lost her nerve and took her right back to basics. This was the right thing to do she is still lacking confidence but trusts me now and will give the fences in question a go. I woould go back to ground work building each others confidence up and then introduce fences small and build up. This is going to a be a slow process and guess depends if you are prepared to wait?
 
I would go back to basics. Do lots of trotting / canter poles until he's happy, then raise them slightly (on bricks or something). Then Id pop up the odd tiny fence and come at them from a trot, so hopefully if he stops you wont fall off. If he does stop, do NOT turn away from the fence - Id keep him straight and make a horrible noise (growling works well!) rather than smacking him so hopefully he should pop over it from a stand still. Keep the fences very small and he'll easily be able to do them from a stand still no problem. I make sure babies I have never learn to turn away in the first place - if they ever stop, they WILL get over it (without turning away) no matter what!! When he jumps well its quite a nice idea to pull up after the fence and give him a treat, I always carry round a pocketful of cubes which I lean down and give to my horses if they've been good. It keeps them sweet! Also, I wouldnt jump too often, might be that he's gone stale if he's doing too much jumping especially at a young age.

It may be a confidence thing, it may be that he's got clever! But if you go back to basics as if your teaching him from stratch, he should improve.
 
my boy developed a stopping habit when he had enough of grade A stuff. He came to me with the habit, he had some time out and now does really tiny stuff, however, he still has days where he wont jump a stick, we go home and face another day and he will win a class.

However, at 5 I'd say its a bit young to be developing a "dirty stop" out of boredom, maybe you need to leave off the jumping totally for 6 months, do lots of fun stuff and come back to it in the summer and start from scratch?

A good instructor will be able to tell if it is through fear, lack of confidence or just dirty stopping.
 
Does he stop with everyone? Has your instructor ridden him & does he do it with him/her? I know I went through a phase of this with my boy & also know that a lot of it was down to me - if I wasn't convinced he wasn't jumping so sometimes it can be a self fulfilling prophesy, you're nervous because you are anticipating the problem & then the horse picks up on that.
Might just be worth trying him with another rider.....not saying you are making it happen but no point in walking away unnescessarily....
 
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