Sheepskin cheek pieces for a spooky SJer?

[CrazyHippo1]

My little mare is very spooky with her SJ, if she's straight and going to the fence she'll jump it. But she looses concentration quickly and spooks at everything else in the ring, this often leads to us having stops as she's not focusing and locking onto fences.

She's not like this to jump at home, so someone suggested cheek pieces for shows? Anyone had success with them? Worth a shot I suppose..

I know there are rules on the thickness of them and so on so can anyone point me in the direction of some good ones?

Thanks

 

[Nailed]

they work supposedly on the same principles as blinker.. and yes i have seen them work!

;Lou x

 

[lucretia]

they are a complete craze at the moment and loads of places sell them usually you have to trim them down a bit and then pat them down with a damp sponge to get to the right size (5 cm's maybe cant remember off hand).
if you think about a horse field of vision these strips will only prevent the horse seeing what is coming up from behind him. there are some hoods for race horses where the blinker bit covers most of the horses side view and all of the rear one so he only sees directly in front but those are not alowed in eventing. sheepskin cheek pieces obviously dont restrict the vision as much. Some might say they work by distracting the horse from spooky as he will keep catching sight of them out the corner of his eyes.
some horses appear to go better in them but it might just be that they give the rider more confidence, they certainly dont stop the horse seeing most scary stuff!

 

[Bubblegum]

Our horse is very spooky in his show jumping phase. We have lessons with a great instructor and she advised using sheepskin cheeks as she said she had used them with good results.... So we did ... and they do work.
Not sure about any rules regarding their use in competitions, as have only used them unaffliated as horse now out of action, so can't help with that... but our instructor does ride for GB so does know what she's talking about.
Give them a try.. it has helped us no end.
Good Luck.

 

[CrazyHippo1]

Thanks all

I'll definitely give them a go, I've found a spare sheepskin noseband upstairs which I think I might just cut in half to trial this idea. How long should the cheek pieces ideally be? Just as if I cut this noseband in half, each cheek piece will be about 12cm...is that long enough? (sorry slightly silly question!)

 

[DiamondClover]

I've got the same problem with my daughter's horse.... he will even spook in a dressage arena with the horse next door...... not good in a competition...... would we be able to use these in unaffiliated Dressage and showjumping???

 

[Gucci_b]

I used them a few years ago for B.E, you can't use them now for B.E, you can use them for bsja at a certain thickness and lenth but not r.c events. I got a noseband and cut it into two and put them on the cheek pieces, they helped my mare alot to focus and not be silly in the ring, and i did use them for hacking also.