Show jumping technique seriously letting me down - Help !!

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lexibell

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I have been jumping at 2ft-2ft3 competitively and confidently for a couple of months now and want to step it up a notch, in lessons I have managed to jump upto 2ft9 (only once, got scared and ran away very quickly afterwards!!) I really want to go to a show at the weekend with other girls from the yard but jumps start at 2ft 6, so i decided its only 3inches more, so set up some bigger jumps in the school last night and decided to go for it, heights ranging from 2ft to just under 3!!! we cleared all of them (eventually!! lol) but I found that once i got over 2ft6 I found the shape of harrys arc changed and instead of being smooth he was getting right under the jumps and going up really sharply. so eveytime I was losing my position and getting thrown in the air! Ive booked school again for tonight, and was wondering if anyone can give me ideas of how to improve my position? ideas for schooling exercises to improve his shape - i've never jumped at this height so i dont know if this is normal even?

whats going wrong and what can i do to put it right??

Sorry for the ramble, Im not the most concise person im afraid
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well done for getting this far!!
 
2-2ft3 is very easy for a horse to jump from a normal canter (if you know what i mean
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so because you've changed the height have you looked at your canter?

it sounds like your horse is not going forward enough with enough implusion and if you stepped the canter up a notch (not necessarily speed but energy) you would get a better take off and a better jump
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It sounds like he was getting a bit close, this can often happen when you start to jump a bit bigger than you are used too (it happened to me too). It often happens because subconsciously (or consciously) we don't put on as much leg as we would into a fence we are more comfortable with.

So my advice would be to make sure you are looking at something up ahead so you don't look down at the fence and just make sure you are going really positively into the fence.

From what you've said your boy sounds like he's quite honest and will look after you, so just focus on making sure you have enough impulsion, you can make it pretty once you've realised you can do it!

good luck
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p.s. you did better than me with a big fence the first time, it was 3'7 i was riding towards it and bottled it and circled away!

p.p.s clearly i ramble too!!!
 
firstly well done, secondly don't panic

Frank does this once he gets to 3ft (nearly as big as we go), if they are uprights he gets quite deep and goes up then down to get over them (look at the wall pic in my sig, that was 95cm, in comparison to the spread blue one which was 90cm) I can post bigger pics if you would like.

Were you jumping all uprights?
I would try a spread and see if it improves.
put a grid up with increasing heights/spreads towards the end, encouraging him to stretch more

He does sometimes do this worse when his back is bad.

As for position- when he does that I tend to stand up rather than fold, its not technically correct but works for us.
 
The posters above are right- you need to go forward a bit in your canter and then the right stride for take off will come more easily, your hrose won't need to 'chip in' - get in close to the fence and then make an unconfortable jump for both of you.
Try and visualise them all being 2'3!!!
 
Thanks guys - It was a plain rustic upright.

Hes quite a chunky cob and i find it hard to get the impulsion once I ask him to do something abit out of his comfort zone, you can almost hear him say oh do i have to it looks like a lot of effort! hes not unfit but lacks energy in the school.

Ester - I am going to try to build a spread tonight and will see if i can find enough poles for a grid.

So next question is anyone got any ideas on how to get the energy levels up??
 
lol, I could have preditcted he was a cob. It might be less of him lacking energy and more of him trying to work it out as it is new for him too and he can probably sense you are a bit unsure. Frank will zip round a 2'3 course but once we are at 2'9 and above he is very controllable, sometimes too much! but mostly because he has to pay more attention to it to get over it.

The only thing re the going forwards more is that they can then worry about it and put a short one in at the last minute. I would try and up the pace a bit but not hugely and keep a good rhythm. oh and don't look at the fence! - that makes frank more pokey.

If not a grid you could put a couple of canter poles and a placing pole before the jump. and def stick a spread on it.
 
Haha he was with a very good jumper! The one in my sig, Haven't jumped that big on anything else, was an amazing feeling tho, had a grin on my face for the rest of the day!

Unfortunately not my horse and he got sold to a local riding school
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just need to win the lottery now!
 
As no one else has said it - are your stirrups short enough? Having your stirrups the right length will really help you balance independently.
 
Hermangerman - I havent really had a go at XC - its on the list if I can find a reasonably priced centre, which i can get to and has jumps less than 3ft!! - When out hacking with friends I dont have the impulsion/speed problems (main problem is holding him back!!) so any other ideas on how I can channel this energy into schooling?
 
As I have just come back from a jumping lesson - we have silly spooking tendencies which means my horse can get close and lose momentum and in the worst case scenario will stop. My instructor is great though and funnily we didn't have any real problems tonight - he lacks confidence (although you wouldn't think it if you knew him!) so it takes a lot of work jumping a round!

I am jumping a bit bigger than you but the principle is the same esp with a horse who may refuse/get too close. I am hazarding a guess, being that your horse is of cob type he can be quote strong and gets his head low so, although he feels he is pulling to a fence, when he gets there the momentum goes and you are left with nothing so horse will either stop or do a silly leap over it.

I would suggest you do what I have been told - for starters hoik you stirrups up a bit if you think they may be a bit long. Get your legs on all the way to the fence and keep your reins short and sit up/back. DO NOT drop him at the fence - keep like this (holding the reins and legs on strong) all the way to the fence but make sure you have a forward going energetic canter (not so much speed just forward going and using his back end). If you think your legs aren't strong enough or he's not coming off your leg enough then beg, borrow or steal some spurs as this may help give him a bit more confidence in what you're asking for.

Give it a try - ride strongly and positively! Good luck!!!
 
i think its going wrong because you have out them up too quickly and you arent totally happy with it which is upsetting him and causing the funny jump
jump around 2ft6 get happy with that and then jump 2ft6-2ft9 and gradually build it up rather than whack it up and both of you will be much happier
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Thats for all the great advice guys, I tried a couple of things last night and fell off 3 times!! I am convinced this is a confidence or a lazy issue as i have checked everything else,will keep working on it and report back, if Im still alive to do soo!!....oh man I ache this morning!!
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