Scared To Jump

[sasquatch]

To give a bit of background, I have a 15yo cobby thing who loves to jump and genuinely seems to enjoy it. He started to lose confidence/interest around August (I have 2 sharers, who I think were maybe jumping him too often/just putting fences up to see how high he would go) and ultimately I had a fall where he refused last second, sent me through the wing of the jump and I was stood on and was unable to get back on - which I know doesn't help.
Sharers were told to give him a break from jumping, which they have done, and then they said they didn't think he was sound. He lost a bit of weight, has put weight back on, has had back checked, saddle fit checked etc. and is perfectly sound, if not a little bit stiff in cold weather so no physical reasons right now for refusals. He has been coming back into work and whilst he isn't very fit, he seems to be a bit more sensible and working in a much nicer way (most of the time)

I have found that I am terrified by the thought of jumping, of riding him when jumps are up, of having to ride him around jumps. I was jumping 80cm courses confidently with him, and about 90/1m fences with confidence before I fell. He can get very excited and turns into turbo-horse when jumps are up who thinks he is a fancy warmblood and has a real spring in his step, but is still as responsive to your aids.

I was riding tonight with 2 other liveries, both were jumping in the indoor as a course was up from last wednesday's competition (I may be wrong on this) and one had tiny fences as she has a tiny pony. I was fine to trot over these, and to canter a few of them. B was really up for jumping, and the livery not on tiny pony was riding a horse who is a very good jumper, for her owner who can't ride atm.

I ended up jumping B over about 70/80cm. I felt it looked about 80cm, but it could well have been 70cm. It was one of those 'I know I should do it' moments, and honestly B did nothing wrong, seemed to be back to his normal self as he's not a horse who would often refuse a fence. He cantered in as normal, lovely canter, I gave him a half halt then felt I froze and didn't put my leg on enough, looked at the bottom of the jump, anticipated falling off and a stop and I'm fairly sure he felt that too and decided against it, but I had set him up a bit wrong and he jumped a bit flat. He is quite fast and odd, but generally needs a check and lots of leg into a fence and you just have to accept the speed because he jumps better if he doesn't come in and have a look, and his canter is less of a flat shuffle when you can get a slightly faster canter from him.

I can't fault him, as he was so up for it and was enjoying it and didn't even have a look at the fence and he set himself up well enough for it so he didn't come in so flat he took a massive one from a stride out, and he didn't race at it either. I probably shouldn't have half halted him as his canter was fine, but I think that comes as a reaction of nerves rather than anything else.

I am completely fine to jump on and school him, just not to jump. He really does enjoy jumping, as much as people say not to apply human emotions to horses, you can really tell he does and I think having a break from jumping for 3 months has done him good, just not me

 

[Mule]

The best thing might to set any jumps that are in the arena as ground poles when you are riding there. ( so you won't have to worry that your horse will try to jump them)

You could put a few ground poles around the arena and trot over them every now and again. I would keep doing this until you are bored with ground poles.

When you feel more confident put the poles up a small bit but keep them at that height until you get bored again. I would do this really gradually until you feel comfortable with the increased height . This should also help your jumping position which will help your confidence.

Even if you think you should be doing 80cm don't rush things. I think getting back into it slow and steady is the best way to go about it.

I've had phases of being frightened to jump aswell and this has been what's worked for me.
Don't let anyone pressurise you into jumping before you're ready. Good luck. I know you'll be fine.

 

[Lissie2]

As above. Back to basics. Do it alone - just you and your horse- no commentators and no one watching. Take your time. Build up slowly- not too much pressure. Get that security back. This happened to me and I 'pottered' over jumps in private for quite a while until I was back to wear o began x

 

[Myloubylou]

I think NLP might help here, I used to be afraid of jumping or more accurately crashing off through the poles. Did a short course & thought well that was tosh but then next time came to jump was ok about it. Still only jump 70-80cm but enjoy rather doing it because thought I should. Your brain is a powerful thing and of course you run the what ifs with the worst possible outcome. NLP uses all the postitive experiences to help you diminish the negative.

 

[sasquatch]

I think NLP might help here, I used to be afraid of jumping or more accurately crashing off through the poles. Did a short course & thought well that was tosh but then next time came to jump was ok about it. Still only jump 70-80cm but enjoy rather doing it because thought I should. Your brain is a powerful thing and of course you run the what ifs with the worst possible outcome. NLP uses all the postitive experiences to help you diminish the negative.

what is NLP?

I only jump 70/80cm competitively, but would be confident to try and do bigger at home but I had a fall a few years ago and broke my wrist which put me off jumping my horse and jumping bigger fences for a long time - I was fine to jump other horses and went to Castle Leslie for a riding holiday where I was fine and happy to ride and jump their holidays a few months after I'd healed, and went back about 3 years ago and ended up jumping 1m10-ish on one of their horses (I don't think I've jumped bigger and this was the highest I've jumped) and was popping round a mini-course of between 70cm-1m10-ish in the lesson I had there.

I am fine to trot and canter over poles on the ground, as well as jump small jumps. It's once they go up a bit I get worried. As B has not jumped much, I don't think it's an issue of him not wanting too as he is really enjoying it and keen - he normally needs a bit of setting up or he jumps quite flat or can take a bit of a look, but yesterday with the bigger fence he would have jumped it as long as I didn't drop him on his nose and kept my leg on. I was probably wrong to half halt him on approach, but it's like I am anticipating a stop and nearly sub-consciously trying to slow it down.

The fence he refused and sent me through the side of was a spread and coming into it, I had a feeling he would refuse so I put my leg on as he was starting to back off. I'm not sure if he didn't like the poles as they were quite a bright white with black, or what, but he came in at a fast canter that's usually the best/easiest to get him to jump nicely from, I felt him go 'up' as if to jump then he spun out rather than jumping at the last second. I don't know if putting my leg on was wrong, or how much was my error, but he came into the fence committed, at a good canter, on a good stride and then just didn't jump. We'd had refusals early on at another spread, which he jumped once the back pole was down and then he'd jumped the second time without issue, and he'd jumped all other spreads and fences in the course fine. Those who watched said they thought he was jumping, and was committed.

I think that's the problem, any other refusals and falls I've had, I know why and where the issue is, this one I have had no idea what caused it.