Should I Ditch The Dream?

J_sarahd

J_sarahd

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My goal with my pony is to take him to a few unaff ODEs, nothing crazy. He is amazing at dressage and show jumping (after months of hard work), but our issue is cross country. I'm guessing on the course he'll be speedy and strong, but I'm not even thinking that far ahead yet because I can't seem to get him to somewhat behave at xc hires.

We've only been to a few since I started riding him a year ago as it took us so long to get flatwork and normal show jumping established. But we have just got back from Field Farm horse holidays and whenever we went on the cross country course he was a nightmare. He was so strong to the point where I could only trot him over the tiny jumps and even then, he'd tank off. All his friends did the ditch into the next field and he galloped off, leaping around and nearly running several people and ponies over. And one time we were just hacking round the course with some friends and a little pony galloped towards us and it really unsettled him.

Other times we've been haven't been AS extreme but still not perfect. Field Farm XC in Leicestershire - took ages to settle him down and we ended up only trotting over the jumps. Newbold Verdon - he was great for the first half and cantered over a little course I made up but two jumps we did later he just tanked towards. (His friend was stood beside us so perhaps that was why?) We've spent a lot of time trotting into cross country fences with perhaps only a little control, which obviously isn't exactly right.

Do I give up on my dream of doing a couple of small ODEs, or do I persevere and perhaps even push my goal date back? If the latter, does anybody have any tips/tricks/words of wisdom for a now-slightly-nervous and quite disheartened rider?
 
Def don't give up the dream, its very achieveable. Most horses would get extremely geared up like loons in a big group cantering around. I have one eventer that I can't take out in a group because it blows his mind, but at an event hes perfect. Just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean your pony can't do it.
It is really frustrating with fizzy xc ponies at times, but you need to break it down into steps. With fizzy ones I like to
- Start with a one to one lesson with a good xc instructor. A set of eyes on the ground picking out your mistakes is always invaluable. They can also advise if your bitting/tack could be improved to help you. With one-to-one in a controlled environment, you can perfect your canter and control issues.
- Once you feel ready to move on go to a clinic with more horses on the lesson, get the pony used to not tanking around, and starting and standing, and its a great way to get it used to other horses cantering around him
- Then go into a field with one experienced horse and practice doing lengths where you overtake eachother and come back.

Most xc group nightmare experiences are because
-horses aren't on jumped/galloped on grass enough
- aren't used to groups enough
- maybe aren't ever suited to group galloping situations
- haven't been schooled to have xc manners properly

Its all fixable tho!
 
paddi22 said:
Def don't give up the dream, its very achieveable. Most horses would get extremely geared up like loons in a big group cantering around. I have one eventer that I can't take out in a group because it blows his mind, but at an event hes perfect. Just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean your pony can't do it.
It is really frustrating with fizzy xc ponies at times, but you need to break it down into steps. With fizzy ones I like to
- Start with a one to one lesson with a good xc instructor. A set of eyes on the ground picking out your mistakes is always invaluable. They can also advise if your bitting/tack could be improved to help you. With one-to-one in a controlled environment, you can perfect your canter and control issues.
- Once you feel ready to move on go to a clinic with more horses on the lesson, get the pony used to not tanking around, and starting and standing, and its a great way to get it used to other horses cantering around him
- Then go into a field with one experienced horse and practice doing lengths where you overtake eachother and come back.

Most xc group nightmare experiences are because
-horses aren't on jumped/galloped on grass enough
- aren't used to groups enough
- maybe aren't ever suited to group galloping situations
- haven't been schooled to have xc manners properly

Its all fixable tho!
Click to expand...

Thank you for this - it has really helped. My instructor is an eventer and at her yard there's a miniture cross country course, so I might ask her if we can go out onto it one day (there's like 5 jumps and they're all lower than 50cm) just to see what he does.

But breaking it down is actually a really good tip! So thank you! :) Also, in terms of why they are a nightmare, I think Max sees group galloping situations as if he's going hunting. Apparently, he went a few times and it was a disaster but ever since then he finds it overwhelming to be around more than one horse that he knows.
 
yeah one of mine is the same. Sometimes you just never get that out of them. But eventing they can be fine!
 
Dreams are what keep me going. Some dreams you want enough, others you don't.

You know what you want to achieve. (Your destination.)
Now you need a realistic appraisal of where you are starting from. (Your departure point.)

Then you need a realistic JOURNEY to map the travel from your departure point to your destination................this needs to be broken down into bite size pieces that are achievable in 'comfortable' timescales.

Input from third parties (instructors, employers, OHs, bank managers etc) I have found to be pertinent in the past.

Often, you need to re-evaluate and change the goals (short-term) dependent on the various influencers in your life.

This was all 'philosophised' (not a word, I know!) in the days/years prior to SATNAV! :)

Best of luck and keep dreaming!
 
Shay said:
Try for a good trainer. If you are anywhere within his reach try Mark Smith http://www.msjump.co/ He has a fantastic approach for dealing with strong horses XC.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I've only just seen this one! He sounds absolutely perfect but unfortunately we're just a bit out of his reach I think. So if anyone knows of any similar instructors near Leicestershire that'd be grand!
 
Personally Id enter the horse in a hunter pace (or small hunter trial) and see how he reacts as he sounds like he might be ok once he just gets going. Ive had 2 horses who were dreadfully behaved in XC training, they just hated stop starting for some reason. They were far far better when they were allowed to just go, yeah he might tank on over the first few but hopefully he'll find his rhythm and improve naturally. Has he done XC prior to you having him?
 
I've got one I can't take on fun rides because it would blow her mind. On her own xc she is fine, but if she hasn't done it for a while she gets very excited. At the start she will go from trot to gallop in two strides, but then settles down. I would echo others advice to take him xc schooling on his own until it isn't exciting any more. You may always struggle with doing xc in company, but a solo competition is very different. Good luck!
 
MagicMelon said:
Personally Id enter the horse in a hunter pace (or small hunter trial) and see how he reacts as he sounds like he might be ok once he just gets going. Ive had 2 horses who were dreadfully behaved in XC training, they just hated stop starting for some reason. They were far far better when they were allowed to just go, yeah he might tank on over the first few but hopefully he'll find his rhythm and improve naturally. Has he done XC prior to you having him?
Click to expand...

He's been to a few xc hires where apparently he was okay and "normal", but this was when he was tanking at jumps at home in the menage and even canter poles were taken at 5000 mph. He has also apparently done one ODE and he was strong. I think the whole stop starting is another reason Max dislikes xc training, he likes to get into his flow. The one time we managed to canter a teeny course whilst training, he was much more well behaved than any other time, it's just getting to the point where he's settled enough to canter without ending up 3 fields away in the blink of an eye!
 
The best advice a trainer ever gave me was 'never let the horse pick the speed into a jump'. I've had a few in who are tankers, and you just have to either circle until they come to the speed you want, or pull them up into a halt if they get strong. An easy exercise is just to stick up a jump and make sure they pull up to halt in a straight line before the end of the arena. Or use canter poles and a grid to settle the canter rhythm.
 
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