So how to stop T-bone-ing XC fences (pics to illustrate!)

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flyingfeet

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12 year old homebred, taken XC for first time 4 weeks ago, visited 4 different courses thus far (5 goes away from home).
He is perfect in a group with long rests, terrible on his own, doesn't want to go forward and cannot understand cantering for long distances (he's never hunted).

I am pushing him far more than I would a baby, as he's 12, but he's never seen this kind of thing.

So latest problem - stopping too late, bashing into the fence and knocking over 2 portable fences in 2 days :mad: I'm calling this T-Boneing, but well aware more velocity might mean a rather squished CotswoldSJ.

Any suggestions as this would seem to be bloomin dangerous from where I was sitting, well gripping on for dear life....

Here are the elegant photographic examples

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Note the foot in the jump and where the back legs are!!
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On the plus side I think the water demons are gone!

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If he was mine I would be treating him like a green horse over xc fences. I would be giving him an easy time over fences small enough he can step over with the aim of keeping a forward canter. Once that is established do the same with slightly bigger fences.
 
Eeeek at the pics.

My instinct would be very baby fences - so that you can keep the canter going forwards without thinking about the fences. Once he's got the hang of that then gradually increase the height....I'd imagine at the moment you run the risk of him associating you pushing his forwards with crashing and that'll obviously have the opposite effect to one you want.

Bloomin' well sat btw!!!!
 
It doesn't matter what age he is, if he is green he should be treated like a baby, to some extent. I had a 10yr old horse in loan who refused everything, so we went back to basics and started again. He now happily competes at 3ft3.

I would try doing fun XC jumps untill your horse has more confidence, then slowly build it up.

Also, well sat!
 
1. It doesn't look like you've got studs in? To me those moments happen when they go to stop/take off and they slip into the base of the fence - he's probably taking beans out of the confidence jar waaay faster than you can put them in if that's happening, so I wouldn't go without studs in again (if you did).

2. Find a venue which fixes its portables properly, that looks tremendously dangerous to me and I would not be very happy about jumping portables which a horse can knock over like that - portable means you *can* move them, not that they shouldn't be fixed properly - what if he'd left a hind leg over one of them? It could have rolled and caused a horrible, horrible accident. The FEI Risk Management Seminar in Malmo in January this year actually mentions fatalities caused by portables shifting and says all portables must be fixed, preferably using spiral fixing.

I reckon with studs in he'd have felt more confident about his 'push' on take off and that probably wouldn't have happened.
 
Well, I have an 11 year old 'baby' who had only done dressage until quite recently. He wouldn't even go over a pole on the ground but is now happy and confident to jump 3' SJ and XC. The secret? Lots and lots and lots and lots of baby high jumps (I mean quite often they were only 9inches high) until he was relaxed and confident and even bored with it. And every schooling session now ends with him being asked to jump over something/anything I can find that might be different or spooky - not high, just different - until he is willing to trust me.

Oh, and the other lesson is for him to know that stopping isn't an option but I find that a bit more scary for me 'cos he jumps 8 feet in the air if you hit him!!
 
How was the ground? It looks to me like he slipped with his back feet first. My horse has done this once or twice show jumping last week, the ground was a bit wet and as he put more pressure on his hind legs to lift up the front ones they slid towards the fence before he could get the front ones up in the air.

Perhaps you could try some studs?
 
SpottedCat said:
1. It doesn't look like you've got studs in? To me those moments happen when they go to stop/take off and they slip into the base of the fence - he's probably taking beans out of the confidence jar waaay faster than you can put them in if that's happening, so I wouldn't go without studs in again (if you did).

2. Find a venue which fixes its portables properly, that looks tremendously dangerous to me and I would not be very happy about jumping portables which a horse can knock over like that - portable means you *can* move them, not that they shouldn't be fixed properly - what if he'd left a hind leg over one of them? It could have rolled and caused a horrible, horrible accident. The FEI Risk Management Seminar in Malmo in January this year actually mentions fatalities caused by portables shifting and says all portables must be fixed, preferably using spiral fixing.

I reckon with studs in he'd have felt more confident about his 'push' on take off and that probably wouldn't have happened.
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Oh, yes, meant to mention both of those points as well. Those portables look dangerous and the lack of studs will take a lot of confidence away from the horse.
 
Yes ground was slippy, as sandy soil with no cut in it. I should have had studs in, and didn't, why I guess is why the back legs are totally underneath him.

Not particularly well sat, if he stuck his head down I would have been a goner!

I was quite surprised that portables didn't have to be pegged down, I am hoping they will be in competitions?
 
CotswoldSJ said:
Yes ground was slippy, as sandy soil with no cut in it. I should have had studs in, and didn't, why I guess is why the back legs are totally underneath him.
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Think that's probably your answer right there then!!

I'd stick studs in and see what happens. Sure start off small and see how he is, but it's not like you were tackling intermediate fences, those portables were a perfectly reasonable size to be trying on a horse at its 5th time of XC schooling.

I personally would not be happy jumping a portable like that which was not fixed down, but maybe I am just cautious. At BE events they will be fixed, at unaff, you pays your money, you takes your chances ;)

Unaff round BE courses *should* be fixed....
 
Looks like he lost confidence at the last moment - quite a big jump for a novice. Get him going over really little things so he learns to enjoy it and learns that it is easy, then gradually get the height up.

I always think that they should be able to jump a good 6" higher at home over a show jump (that will fall down) than you will be asking to jump a cross country fence. The idea being that the xc fence will look small to the horse and allow for the difference in terrain, and for any other hidden surprises.
 
ditto about the portables, jeeezus christ, that is SOOO dangerous. portable = moveable, but fixed down when set out for jumping. where was that please, so i can be sure to never go there xc schooling! it t doesn't do him any good at all to learn that the bloody things move either, cos they usually don't...
i'd stud him up. approach from trot until he wants to canter to fences. small fences only until he is gaily whizzing over them all. treat him like a 4 yr old because that's all the experience he has xc (i.e. none), the only diff is that once he gets the hang of it you can possibly/probably accelerate his learning curve because presumably he already knows a fair bit about jumping sjs (up to a decent height?)
but xc is a whole new game, with demons under every log and in every ditch perhaps, and i think you have to take him at baby-steps pace until he says "yeah mum, COME ON, let's get on with it, bring it on..."
 
I was thinking it was a bit dangerous, but I don't do XC so assumed it was normal (happened at 2 different venues too!)

He's done a lot of showjumping to discovery, but he likes jumping by braile, so isn't the worlds best showjumper!
peerfinal.jpg
 
9tails - In the show jumping pic, using normal bent leg and in the XC country pics they are K'vall sitrrups.

They shouldn't look like that in the crashing pic, but was being flung backwards!!:o

Dad also confirmed without the K'vall I would have been decked twice yesterday and once would have been in water...
 
I had a fab clinic with Lucinda Green a couple of weeks ago - she was talking about horses like yours, and had some brilliant advice for everyone.

Might be worth watching her clinics on Horse & Country TV's website, and getting some schooling/training ideas.
 
CotswoldSJ said:
9tails - In the show jumping pic, using normal bent leg and in the XC country pics they are K'vall sitrrups.

They shouldn't look like that in the crashing pic, but was being flung backwards!!:o

Dad also confirmed without the K'vall I would have been decked twice yesterday and once would have been in water...
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I imagine you would have gone tumbling 30 feet over his head! They look like the old fashioned roller skates that were tied to your shoes. Minus wheels of course.

The moving house gave me the heebies, if his leg had been caught God only knows what could have happened. No wonder he's not particularly enjoying the experience.

My horse has upped the game herself, while we were gaily leaping over twigs a foot tall she is now trotting/cantering over them making it very clear that they're not worth the effort anymore.
 
OMG! that picture is so scary :eek:
when horses have done things like that with me its been for 2 reasons- one they have slipped going in - studs will stop that- or lack of confidence at the last minute. to improve that i would treat him like a much younger horse and go back to smaller fences til he is happily popping them- a lot of horses don't like those pheasant feeder type fences with gaps underneath... not sure why? trolls or something i presume :rolleyes::rolleyes::p
 
Ditto all the others, and especially MillbrookSong - Leyland Court really is super, and their water jump/complex is really good.

If it's any consolation that's what my mare would do to showjumps when her confidence deserted her on the last stride and I failed to kick. By going back to basics and building confidence it's stopped now, phew... it's not a nice feeling!
 
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